I so enjoy oral history. Studs Turkell, Barry Broadfoot, and this, The Story of Jazz. I mean the Story of Jazz by the people who lived it. Who else to tell it but the people who made it happen. Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Bunk Johnson, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Clarence Williams, Jo Jones, Jelly Roll Morton, Mezz Mezzrow, Billy Holiday. Lots more to, such great names and such great stories. To read Mezz Mezzrow's account of how Bessie Smith died. It makes you cry. This book will make you cry and laugh and just wish you coulda been in Chicago after the great war to witness it all.
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