Narrating this deeply researched account of early-twentieth-century musicians and organized crime, JD Jackson’s engagement gives his performance a “you-are-there” quality that is absolutely infectious. The swagger in his masculine voice sounds at home in the nightclubs and vice districts the author describes, but it’s an understated swagger that doesn’t seek attention as much as it respects the author’s excellent work. Jackson empathizes with early jazz musicians like Fats Waller and many others who suffered bellicose club owners and violent crime bosses to express their art. These musicians feared mobsters like Al Capone, who the author says acted like plantation owners. It’s a story not widely told but worth knowing about pop music culture, mobsters, and the resilience of Black artists. T.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld
Narrated by JD Jackson
T. J. EnglishUnabridged — 15 hours, 9 minutes
Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld
Narrated by JD Jackson
T. J. EnglishUnabridged — 15 hours, 9 minutes
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Overview
If you want the lowdown on the mob, organized crime, criminal justice, or the underworld — look no further than T. J. English. His deep research through unturned stones in historical true crime keep us riveted.
From T. J. English, the*New York Times*bestselling author of*Havana Nocturne, comes the epic, scintillating narrative of the interconnected worlds of jazz and organized crime in 20th*century America.
""[A] brilliant and courageous book."" -Dr. Cornel West
Dangerous Rhythms*tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: a relationship fostered in some of 20th century America's most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership. By offering artists like Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald a stage, the mob, including major players Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, provided opportunities that would not otherwise have existed.
Even so, at the heart of this relationship was a festering racial inequity. The musicians were mostly African American, and the clubs and means of production were owned by white men. It was a glorified plantation system that, over time, would find itself out of tune with an emerging Civil Rights movement. Some artists, including Louis Armstrong, believed they were safer and more likely to be paid fairly if they worked in “protected” joints. Others believed that playing in venues outside mob rule would make it easier to have control over their careers.
Through English's voluminous research and keen narrative skills,*Dangerous Rhythms*reveals this deeply fascinating slice of American history in all its sordid glory.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Editorial Reviews
Persuasive. ... [A] nuanced account of how…the development of jazz was facilitated by some of the most notorious criminals of the 20th century.” — The Economist
“This brilliant and courageous book lays bare an underside of our great American classical music—jazz—we must reckon with. Don’t miss it!” — Dr. Cornel West
"With Dangerous Rhythms, T.J. English once again demonstrates that he is not only our premier chronicler of modern criminal organizations in the U.S.A, and beyond, but also a seductive storyteller, masterfully folding memorable anecdote after anecdote into this diligently researched account of the intersection of jazz and the mob over the last century." — Richard Price, New York Times bestselling author of The Whites
"One of the best books on jazz history yet written." — Ishamel Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo
"T.J. English is arguably the most astute and versatile chronicler of 20th century American crime.” — Houston Press
"Adroitly chronicles jazz music's iron-clad, often-unspoken ties to the mob." — Library Journal
“A whiz-bang account of the Mafia’s short-lived romp through 1950s Cuba.” — New York Times Book Review on Havana Nocturne
“A tight storyteller, English provides a juicy mix of true crime and political intrigue, all set against the sexy sizzle of Havana nightlife.” — San Francisco Chronicle on Havana Nocturne
“While Havana Nocturne makes you glad that Batista and his gangster pals ultimately got what they deserved, it also makes you regret never having gotten the chance to soak up a few mojitos while catching the floor show at the old Tropicana.” — Village Voice
“Excellent.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.” — Washington Post
“A mob saga that has it all—brotherhood and betrayal, swaggering power and glittering success, and a Godfather whose reach seems utterly unrivaled. What a relentless, irresistible read.” — Don Winslow on The Corporation
“English has scored gold again… Riveting nonfiction worthy of the best creative storyteller… A first-rate saga of crime and corruption that is further testament to the author’s reputation among the nation’s most accomplished writers.” — Library Journal (starred review) on The Corporation
“It’s a gripping, blood-soaked story, rich in drama and suspense; if it were a novel, you might expect to see Don Winslow’s name attached to it. Fans of true crime, especially those with a hankering for epic-sized stories, should flock to this book.” — Booklist on The Corporation
“A Mario Puzo-worthy epic story… And it really is a story, as much as it’s a history, in that it has characters we come to know intimately and a narrative arc… It builds to great, Godfather-like dramatic heights.” — Sullivan Co. Democrat on The Corporation
“This corporation is the Cuban exile version of the Mafia, and its adventures and misadventures might make Don Corleone blanch.… Battle … might have made a good study for Scarface…. English capably covers half a century of criminal enterprise, avoiding the clichés of the true-crime genre while stocking his narrative with familiar players: the capos and goons, the cops and informants, a mistress or two, and John F. Kennedy…. Fascinating reading.” — Kirkus Reviews on The Corporation
“An admirable counterweight to the bullet-splattered romances of Mafia Lit. . . . Very entertaining.” — Chicago Sun-Times on Paddy Whacked
“The American mob has long been seen as run by Italians and their henchmen. Edgar-nominee English sets the record straight, emphasizing that Irish ingenuity first established the mob in the U.S. . . . an intense, erudite yet sometimes horrifying account of violent Celtic criminals who make the Dead End Kids look like choirboys.” — Publishers Weekly on Paddy Whacked
It’s a gripping, blood-soaked story, rich in drama and suspense; if it were a novel, you might expect to see Don Winslow’s name attached to it. Fans of true crime, especially those with a hankering for epic-sized stories, should flock to this book.
While Havana Nocturne makes you glad that Batista and his gangster pals ultimately got what they deserved, it also makes you regret never having gotten the chance to soak up a few mojitos while catching the floor show at the old Tropicana.
A mob saga that has it all—brotherhood and betrayal, swaggering power and glittering success, and a Godfather whose reach seems utterly unrivaled. What a relentless, irresistible read.
A whiz-bang account of the Mafia’s short-lived romp through 1950s Cuba.
Excellent.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.
This brilliant and courageous book lays bare an underside of our great American classical music—jazz—we must reckon with. Don’t miss it!
A tight storyteller, English provides a juicy mix of true crime and political intrigue, all set against the sexy sizzle of Havana nightlife.
"One of the best books on jazz history yet written."
"With Dangerous Rhythms, T.J. English once again demonstrates that he is not only our premier chronicler of modern criminal organizations in the U.S.A, and beyond, but also a seductive storyteller, masterfully folding memorable anecdote after anecdote into this diligently researched account of the intersection of jazz and the mob over the last century."
A Mario Puzo-worthy epic story… And it really is a story, as much as it’s a history, in that it has characters we come to know intimately and a narrative arc… It builds to great, Godfather-like dramatic heights.
An admirable counterweight to the bullet-splattered romances of Mafia Lit. . . . Very entertaining.
Excellent.… [English] provides a detailed account of the personalities and elements that made up Cuban life. His well-researched descriptions of how business, gambling, politics, revolution, music and religion all played off each other give Havana Nocturne a broad context and a knowledgeable edge.
08/01/2022
English (Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba) expertly explores the connection between organized crime and jazz from its inception to 1980. Relying mostly on secondary sources, he initially links the growth of jazz during the 1920s and '30s to mob-owned clubs and corrupt political bosses. He demonstrates how Louis Armstrong first became popular through Al Capone-operated night spots in Chicago and through management from Capone lackey Joe Glaser. English outlines the direct relationship between the meteoric rise of Duke Ellington and gangster Owney Madden who owned the Cotton Club. He moves to Kansas City, where the crooked political machine of Tom Pendergast and mobster John Lazia fostered the growth of booze-drenched venues that nurtured the Kansas City sound of Bennie Moten and Count Basie. English continues with Frank Sinatra's association with the underworld from his early friendship with gangster Willie Moretti to his Vegas days with Sam Giancana, and chronicles the rise and fall of Morris Levy, owner of Manhattan's nightspot Birdland and Roulette Records. VERDICT Though sometimes touching on non-jazz artists (like Bobby Darin) and violence unrelated to the mob (e.g., a beating of Miles Davis), English's book adroitly chronicles jazz music's iron-clad, often-unspoken ties to the mob.—Dr. Dave Szatmary
Narrating this deeply researched account of early-twentieth-century musicians and organized crime, JD Jackson’s engagement gives his performance a “you-are-there” quality that is absolutely infectious. The swagger in his masculine voice sounds at home in the nightclubs and vice districts the author describes, but it’s an understated swagger that doesn’t seek attention as much as it respects the author’s excellent work. Jackson empathizes with early jazz musicians like Fats Waller and many others who suffered bellicose club owners and violent crime bosses to express their art. These musicians feared mobsters like Al Capone, who the author says acted like plantation owners. It’s a story not widely told but worth knowing about pop music culture, mobsters, and the resilience of Black artists. T.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2022-05-28
A swinging, blood-drenched history about the symbiotic relationship between jazz and organized crime through much of the 20th century.
In this steamy, noirish account of the Jazz Age and beyond, similar in spirit to English’s Havana Nocturne and other books, the author takes readers from the bordellos of New Orleans and the speak-easies of Chicago to the tropical clubs of Havana and the desert empire of Vegas. The music provides the soundtrack to a wide range of illicit activity, which generated revenues that allowed the mob to flourish and to launder money from less legitimate endeavors. Within the strictures of so-called respectable society, both the Black musicians who developed jazz and the immigrants who built an empire on vice were outsiders. The musicians often felt that they had a better shot at success and protection by aligning their professional lives with the underworld rather than with the police and authorities of the straight world. Yet as nightclubs with names such as the Cotton Club and the Plantation indicate, there was plenty of racism, as well. Black musicians were often restricted to the stage, and the audience and management of the clubs were almost entirely White. English splits the narrative into two halves: In the first, the author focuses on Louis Armstrong; in the second, Frank Sinatra, both of whom had connections with organized crime throughout their careers. By the end of the century, both jazz and organized crime had changed, with the former declining in popularity and the latter in power. The civil rights and Black Power movements, as well as the progression of the music from the dance floor to the conservatory, contributed to the severing of a relationship that had allowed both to flourish through the eras of red-light districts, Prohibition, and corrupt city bosses. Much of this story has been told elsewhere, but English capably brings it back to life.
Despite few groundbreaking insights, this is entertaining, vivid cultural history.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940176129106 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 08/02/2022 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,017,327 |
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