Combo: USA;: Eight lives in jazz

by Rudi Blesh

Combo means only one a combination of musical instruments put together to play an American music, jazz, says Rudi Blesh in the introduction to his improvised combo of eight jazz greats. Although these artists never actually jammed together, each contributed his genius and his dreams to the combo of early jazz. As they solo here, you'll come to know them, not just as musicians, but as Louis Armstrong, the trumpet player who could "swing like a garden gate"; Sidney Bechet, the fiery-tempered Creole who, as a child, his under the back porch to play his brother's clarinet; Jack Teagarden, the Texas trombonist whose first music teacher gave up on him after three months; Lester Young, "the Prez" of the saxophone who found his only happiness in music; the beautiful Billie Holiday whose bitter blues became her life; drummer Gene Krupa who rose to fame with Benny Goodman; Charlie Christian who pioneered the electric guitar before his death at 23; and little Eubie Blake who first played his famous ragtime piano in a Baltimore bawdyhouse. Through these individual portraits, Blesh presents a collage of how it was for the early jazzmen. He writes with candor and affection for the artists in his combo, of whom he says, "They made America rich, even if America did not always do the same for them."

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1979