Magic City : How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of America.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mathews, Burgin.

Series:

American Music: New Roots Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jazz--Alabama--Birmingham--History and criticism.

Jazz.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (353 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2023.

Summary:

Magic City is the story of one of American music's essential unsung places: Birmingham, Alabama, birthplace of a distinctive and influential jazz heritage. In a telling replete with colorful characters, iconic artists, and unheralded masters, Burgin Mathews reveals how Birmingham was the cradle and training ground for such luminaries as big band leader Erskine Hawkins, cosmic outsider Sun Ra, and a long list of sidemen, soloists, and arrangers. He also celebrates the contributions of local educators, club owners, and civic leaders who nurtured a vital culture of Black expression in one of the country's most notoriously segregated cities. In Birmingham, jazz was more than entertainment: long before the city emerged as a focal point in the national civil rights movement, its homegrown jazz heroes helped set the stage, crafting a unique tradition of independence, innovation, achievement, and empowerment. Blending deep archival research and original interviews with living elders of the Birmingham scene, Mathews elevates the stories of figures like John T. Fess Whatley, the pioneering teacher-bandleader who emphasized instrumental training as a means of upward mobility and community pride. Along the way, he takes readers into the high school band rooms, fraternal ballrooms, vaudeville houses, and circus tent shows that shaped a musical movement, revealing a community of players whose influence spread throughout the world.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Illustration

Introduction

Part I

1. Beginnings

2. An Industrial Education

3. Maker of Musicians

4. Smithfield

5. Fourth Avenue Stomp

6. Famous Rhythm

7. A City Apart

8. The Great Wide World

9. Erskine

10. Collegians

11. Efflorescence

12. The Magic Citizen

Part II

13. Arrival

14. Up from Down South

15. Blue Rhythm Fantasy

16. Dance the Night Away

17. The Road

18. War

19. Teddy's Hill, Billie's Guy

20. If It's in You

21. Swing on Trial

Part III

22. Down South in Birmingham

23. Heritage and Home

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

979-88-908627-9-2

1-4696-7690-7

OCLC:

1409031344