Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties by Robert Nippoldt, Hans-Juergen Schaal (2013)

This fine cooperation of writer Hans-Juergen Schaal and illustrator Robert Nippoldt is devoted to the beginnings of Jazz in the city, with emphasis on New Orleans, Chicago and as the title already suggests, New York City.
When the book first was published in 2007 in its original German language version it received lots of praise; this new English language edition makes the texts by Schaal available to a bigger readership.

Schaal, jazz journalist and author of other titles on jazz, here recounts some anecdotes, some facts and some recording information on 24 jazz innovators such as Morton, Ellington, Hawkins, Webb, Henderson and Ethel Waters; he also gives short biographical sketches on the minor characters like Goldkette, Whiteman and a few others.

Illustrator Nippoldt – who already did a good job illustrating a book about 1930s Hollywood – obviously put much love into the details of each of his seemingly countless and very tiny drawings that are reproduced here on heavy paper.

The style, however, is not of the technical kind or that of the distant study artist, but reminds me a lot of the variety used in graphic novels.

Now, this is a book about early jazz, mind you.

If you are looking for new insights concerning this era, new conclusions or new information about the artists of the teens and 1920s… this book is not for you.
Neither will you find new theories from the field of jazz studies nor new facts liable to change the overall impression of this stage in the development of the music.

Nevertheless, if both New York in the 20s, the roots of jazz and the artistic improvisation of an illustrator who imagines some of the jazz innovators and some of the important venues catch your attention … then you will be satisfied with what you find.

And that a book like this should materialize from Germany is another unique detail.

Furthermore, the book comes with a 20-track CD, featuring the songs highlighted in the text.
So in case you don’t already own a copy of those songs you will then have Jelly Roll Morton’s “Freakish,” James P. Johnson’s “The Harlem Strut,” the so-called first ever recorded jazz tune “Livery Stable Blues” by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band from 1917, the great Bessie Smith and Armstrong with their version of “Saint Louis Blues” and other important tracks, while Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” closes the show.

Review by Dr. A. Ebert (c) 2013

Robert Nippoldt, Hans-Jürgen Schaal. Jazz. New York in the Roaring Twenties. (Hardcover + CD), Taschen Verlag, 2013, 144 pages, ISBN 9783836545013.