Book Review

Jazz on the Road: Don Albert°s Musical Life. By Christopher Wilkinson. Berkeley: University of California Press; Chicago: Center for Black Music Research, 2001. ISBN 0¬520¬22983¬5 (pbk.). Pp. xvi, 290.

What Is This Thing Called Jazz?: African American Musicians as Artists, Critics, and Activists. By Eric Porter. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. ISBN 0¬520¬23296¬8 (pbk.). Pp. xxi, 404.

In many ways, the study of jazz history is still in its infancy. A few of the major figures have been the subject of excellent monographs that have imbedded their biography within a discussion of musical contribution (for example, Mark Tucker°s Ellington: The Early Years [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991]). Some studies of the sociology and philosophy of this music have appeared, such as Peretti°s examination of the interplay between New Orleans society and its music (The Creation of Jazz: Music, Race, and Culture in Urban America [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992]), and Henessey°s discussion of music and politics in Chicago (From Jazz to Swing: African-American Jazz Musicians and Their Music, 1890¬1935 [Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994]). The new offerings by Wilkinson and Porter greatly contribute to these two areas and at the same time demonstrate what is possible, and what still needs to be accomplished, in the study of jazz history.