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This book is one of the most improtant works ever written on Jazz music. It is a virtual manifesto agains the ghettoization and the racist pigeonholing thast has afflicted the public's appreciation of this great music since its beginnings as ragtime a century ago. It exposes the lies and misconceptions that have surrounded this music, the attempts-made anew, it seems, each decade-to deny that jazz is one of the leading artistic forces of our time. It does this by convincing its readers of the special beauty of this great music of the Afro-American people
About the author
Sidney Finkelstein, (1909-1974) With degrees from CUNY, NYU and Columbia University, Finkelstein's studies ranged broadly into literature and the graphic and plastic arts, as well as music. International Publishers has new editions of his major works on music, JAZZ: A People's Music (1949), and COMPOSER AND NATION (1960), both of which received wide and deserved acclaim, and translation into several other languages. Contemporary, thoughtful commentary update these editions for a new generation of readers, be they students of music or simply lovers of music. In this book, Finkelstein's work provides new insights into both popular and classical music, to the relationships between music and society, and the influence of folk music upon the whole of our musical heritage.
