O boy, what a beautiful reading... I know the book is quite old now, but such a loving and (IMHO) subtle and intelligent
writing on Henry Red Allen, Bunk Johnson, Sidney Bechet or Zutty Singleton is very much appreciated by this jazz fan... I know enough about the New Orleans jazz tradition to appreciate this book, but I've learned a lot here:
- Did you know why the drummers of New Orleans jazz have always been underrecorded? Did you know that Orson Welles was a big New Orleans jazz fan who even had a hand in the birth of dixieland revival? Did you know how misunderstud Bunk Johnson was even among those who idolised him (maybe even ESPECIALLY among them)? Did you know what was Sidney Bechet's approach to collective and individual jazz/music improvisation and arrangement?

Students of more general (American, African-American, musical) history might also find this book very much intriguing.

Untill you hear otherwise from someone more informed, this is a classic in my book. Jazz book.
BTW,
more recent Martin Williams books might contain this same material, but I wouldn't know that, this is his first work that dropped in my lap. - from Amzon