Floyd Levin, an award-winning jazz writer, has personally known many of the jazz greats who contributed to the music's colorful history. In this collection of his articles, published mostly in jazz magazines over a fifty-year period, Levin takes us into the nightclubs, the recording studios, the record companies, and, most compellingly, into the lives of the musicians who made the great moments of the traditional jazz and swing eras. Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians is a treasury of information on a rich segment of American popular music.

Conveying the passion and soul of the musicians and the music, this collection of articles begin's with Levin's first published piece and includes several new articles that were inspired by his work on this compilation. The articles are organized thematically, beginning with a piece on Kid Ory's early recordings and ending with a newly written article about the campaign to put up a monument to Louis Armstrong in New Orleans. Along the way, Levin gives indepth profiles of many well-known jazz legends, such as Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong, and of many lesser-known figures who contributed greatly to the development of jazz.

Among the fascinating anecdotes described here are Levin's personal account of the famous Palomar Ballroom fire, his description of Eubie Blake's favorite meal (a half-dozen donuts and a bottle of 7-Up), the touching story of James P. Johnson performing at the anniversary party of Levin's grandparents, and much more.

Extensively illustrated with previously unpublished photographs from Levin's personal collection, this wonderfully readable and extremely personal book is full of information that is not available elsewhere. Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians will be celebrated by Jazz scholars and fans everywhere for the overview it provides of the music's evolution and for the love of jazz it inspires on every page.

About the Author:
Floyd Levin has been published in many magazines, including Down Beat, Jazz Journal International, and American Rag. He has received several awards for his work, most recently the Leonard Feather Communicator Award, given anually by the Los Angeles Jazz Society, and he was voted Number One Jazz Journalist in a recent readers' poll in the Mississippi Rag.