A Trumpet around the Corner: The Story of New Orleans Jazz

by Samuel Charters

Samuel Charters has been studying and writing about New Orleans music for more than fifty years. A Trumpet around the The Story of New Orleans Jazz is the first book to tell the entire story of a century of jazz in New Orleans. Although there is still controversy over the racial origins and cultural sources of New Orleans jazz, Charters provides a balanced assessment of the role played by all three of the city's musical lineages--African American, white, and Creole--in jazz's formative years. Charters also maps the inroads blazed by the city's Italian immigrant musicians, who left their own imprint on the emerging styles. The study is based on the author's own interviews, begun in the 1950s, on the extensive material gathered by the Oral History Project in New Orleans, on the recent scholarship of a new generation of writers, and on an exhaustive examination of related newspaper files from the jazz era. The book extends the study area of his earlier book New Orleans, 1885-1957 , and breaks new ground with its in-depth discussion of the earliest New Orleans recordings. A Trumpet around the Corner for the first time brings the story up to the present, describing the worldwide interest in the New Orleans jazz revival of the 1950s and 1960s, and the exciting resurgence of the brass bands of the last decades. The book discusses the renewed concern over New Orleans's musical heritage, which is at great risk after the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History

380 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Samuel Charters was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet.

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, filled with tons of quality information. Not highly recommended for anyone who isn't already pretty knowledgeable about early jazz history. The book gives incredible amounts of information about who was playing in this recording session, who was in this ephemeral lineup of this band, the arrangements of instruments around the studio microphone, etc., but there aren't very many stories that illustrate all of this fine detail.

Additionally, with as much fantastic information as he gives about the recordings, it can be quite difficult to actually track down the recordings he references. That's definitely not any fault of the author's, but it was frustrating at times when he would describe something that sounded so interesting, which would lead me to spend way too much time searching streaming sites for that particular recording.

I went into it with a decent amount of familiarity about this period of jazz and a strong background in New Orleans history, and for most of the book I felt like I was reading Tolstoy or even Game of Thrones. Not because of the scenes or stories, but because of the dozens and dozens and dozens of names that were flying around. It doesn't help that most of the bands' names were pretty similar.

I definitely don't want to dissuade anyone from reading this book. I enjoyed it. But if you're new to early jazz, I might recommend starting with something a little more narrative-based, so you get a feel for the flavor of the scene.

[Dustin Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fun to read. It’s a mix of New Orleans history with jazz history. I learned a ton about jazz musicians I had never heard of and had a chance to immerse myself in the music of New Orleans.

[Karys · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extensive history of jazz in New Orleans.

[Vinny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tbh a 2 in terms of my enJoyment. Took me a very very long time to finish. Got it ahead of a trip to New Orleans with my parents. I can really truly appreciate the thoroughness and think it is a valuable piece of history … and acknowledge my only-passing-interest. Def interesting to learn about the Italian and Italian-American contributions, would not have guessed. Also fascinating to think about how history is preserved and maintained. Esp a contentious, racialized history. Who writes history matters so much.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an academic history book. Author seeks to reinsert white musicians and composers into the narrative of the origins and evolution of jazz. Great stories. Busts some myths.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me ages to finish. I wanted to love it, but I found myself zoning out. I try to rate books, not so much on my personal opinion, but rather on how good they are for what they are. So I’m giving it a 3.5, because it was full of lots of great information.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate to find this book in a 2nd hand bookstore in the French Quarter of NOLA. I had been wanting to read a book about the origins of jazz especially the New Orleans variety and Samuerl Charters book seemed to have fit the bill. The author has been writing about jazz for over 50 years. This book seemed to strike a balance between the white and black musicians developing the music an sometimes getting ideas from each other thru the ability of very light skinned blacks passing as whites, which was called passing. The book starts with ragtime in the 1890's and moves thru pre-WWI evolution and thru the war as the musicians moved from NOLA to Chicago, NYC and the west coast and taking their roots with and planting them in these other diverse areas. The book helped me get a better understanding of how the music developed and how even the word jazz evolved.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Streever's objective in writing Green Seduction is to dispel the notion that environmentalists fit a one-size-fits-all template. They have different views about valuation, technology, business models, and the sanctity of nature, as his interviews with various consultants, professors, and entrepreneurs across the US illustrate. The book suffers from Streever belaboring many of his insights which are commonplace to most, if not all, in the field, and his writing style leaves the reader with a jerky sensation of awkward prose and sometime unclear messaging. Perhaps his intended audience is of green neophytes, who have yet to be convinced of triple bottom line alignment, in which case I'd heartily recommend reading Hawken, Rifkin, or Lovins instead.

[Wayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive and exhaustive. I could have used less inventory of players and more narrative, but this certainly helped me put 100+ years of NOLA music into context.

[Harold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference book. If New Orleans Music is in your realm of interests this is a book that you can return to often.

[Chadwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perennial. This is a book to return to again and again.