Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles (Roth Family Foundation Book in American Music) (Paperback)

by Clora Bryant (Editor), Buddy Collette (Editor), William Green (Editor), Steve Isoardi (Editor), Marl Young (Editor) "With the onset of the Great Depression, many whites along Central Avenue were willing to sell property to blacks and other ethnic groups; thus racism..." (more)
Key Phrases: black musicians union, first big band, jazz journal, Los Angeles, New York, Buddy Collette (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From The Washington Post
"A vital mosaic of Jazz in Los Angeles." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Almost every major American city had its Central Avenue. Washington, D.C., had U Street. Chicago had "Bronzeville." Just like Central Avenue, the old commercial district running through the Watts neighborhood in the South Central section of Los Angeles, all were thriving cultural centers for black America in mid-century, and all are gone or on the verge of extinction, many burned to the ground or abandoned in the mid-1960s. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Central was home to local jazz clubs that launched the careers of international jazz stars who hailed from L.A.: Buddy Collette, Sonny Criss, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, and many others. It was L.A.'s Harlem, with blacks and whites flocking to see the best local and international jazz musicians. Very few archival records of the neighborhood remain, so the UCLA Oral History Project tracked down surviving musicians from the era and recorded their memories. Unfortunately, too many stars passed before they could be interviewed, but the stories collected here are lively, informative, and entertaining. Both sweet and sad, the interviews describe the formation of black neighborhoods in L.A., the impact of segregation, economic prosperity during the 1940s, and the gradual decline and demise beginning in the 1950s. This is an invaluable history of the formation of L.A., not to mention a first-rate monograph on the history of jazz in America. Ted Leventhal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 470 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (August 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520220986
• ISBN-13: 978-0520220980
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #244,121 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It made me wish for a time machine..., December 12, 2007

By	Stephen Wandzura (Agoura Hills, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

so I could go back and hang out some on Central Avenue. Fortunately white people were much better tolerated there than black people were in most of the rest of the city. But there is a more important story here than the history of racism in SoCal: it is how music transcended racism. Even as an L.A. boy who was lucky enough to be a student of Bill Green and a fan of Gerald Wilson while in high school, I didn't realize how much important jazz history took place here. Many of the great jazz musicians appear in the stories in this book. I found it about as easy to put down as a Clancy novel.