Benny Goodman and the Swing Era

by James Lincoln Collier

Overview

In this major work about jazz and one of its most significant figures, James Lincoln Collier brilliantly recreates the colorful popular music world of the 1920s and 1930s, when the music industry was just expanding, radio was the great source of musical entertainment, and swing bands that had emerged out of the growth of jazz in the 1920s were first finding national audiences. He chronicles the rise and success of Goodman and his band against the social milieu and popular music of the time, and perceptively analyzes dozens of Goodman's significant recordings, making the reader hear them afresh. Through this intriguing study, it becomes clear that Benny Goodman was a brilliant musician but an enigmatic man. Collier's biography captures this elusive personality with great insight and understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195052787
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/26/1989
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	9.58(w) x 6.41(h) x 1.48(d)

About the Author

About the Author:
James Lincoln Collier is the author of over forty books, which have been published in twelve languages, including Russian: he is the only American writer on jazz to have official acceptance in the U.S.S.R. His books on music include biographies of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, The Making of Jazz and Practical Music Theory, used in many schools. His articles on music have also appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Village Voice, Wall Street Journal, and many others. He contributed major articles to the New Grove Dictionary of American Music and to Grove's Dictionary of Jazz. Collier has worked as a jazz musician around New York for many years, and has played with groups in a dozen nations around the world.