The Encyclopedia Yearbooks of Jazz

Combining "The Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz" (1956) and "The New Yearbook of Jazz" (1958) to form a single-volume source of information, photographs and opinion, this book includes over 600 biographies of musicians and features such sections as "What's Happening in Jazz" and "Meet the Critics".

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This volume combines "The Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz" (1956) and "The New Yearbook of Jazz" (1958) to form a single-volume source of information, photographs and opinion. Originally conceived as companion volumes to Leonard Feather's "The Encyclopedia of Jazz" and, therefore, including over 600 biographies of musicians, these yearbooks also feature material such as: a "What's Happening in Jazz" section; a "Musician's Musicians" poll, where jazz greats from Louis Armstrong to Lester Young vote on their favourites; hundreds of photographs; a poll of jazz fans (78.6% disliked rock 'n' roll in 1956); "Favourite Versions of Favourite Tunes", where 25 favourite songs are listed along with their best interpretations; contributions written by Benny Goodman, John Hammond and Martin Williams; "Meet the Critics" - short biographies of 30 of the greatest jazz critics of the time; articles on jazz and classical music, jazz and the other arts, and jazz and the phonograph; and "The Best of the Blindfold Test, 1951-1958". This book should provide an excellent source of information for anyone who wants to know about the state of jazz in the turbulent musical decade of the 1950s.
Leonard Feather's other books include "The Encyclopedia of Jazz" and "The Jazz Years - Eyewitness to an Era".