JAZZ IN PERSPECTIVE: THE BACKGROUND OF THE BLUES (Jazz Book Club edition in near fine dustwrapper)

First printing of the Jazz Book Club edition - No. 8 in the series of volumes on jazz. The book was originally published by Hutchinson in 1945. Illustrated with black and white photographs. ***Near fine in pale blue cloth-covered boards with red titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked, having been protected by the dustwrapper - just a small crease to the top edge of the front board. Page block edges clean with no foxing. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. One lower corner of a page creased. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Pages clean. One lower page corner creased (p.77/8). ***In a near fine colour illustrated dustwrapper, which is exceptionally clean and unmarked. Despite being printed on very thin paper, there are no areas of loss and no serious creasing - just some light rubbing and creasing to the edges of the back panel. There is also a light patch of fading at the top of the front panel near the spine where a label has been removed. The dustwrapper is otherwise unblemished. The spine is unfaded and unbrowned. Dustwrapper bright. ***148 pages including a detailed Index at the back of the book. 192mm x 128mm. ***'Jazz has become, within a single generation, an inescapable element in modern living. Here is its history, told in terms of the men and women who have created it. The tempestuous, gaudy life of the old French Quarter of New Orleans, the Mississippi levees and showboats, Chicago's South Side in the lurid Gangster Era, the Black Belts of St. Louis and Kansas City and the teeming streets and dives of Harlem furnish a setting for a picturesque procession of famous, notorious or obscure music-makers. Iain Lang's studies of the origins of Jazz have aroused lively enthusiasm and provoked equally lively controversy, both in this country and in the United States. "Jazz in Perspective" carries this exploration wider and deeper, while still stressing th human basis of musical technicalities. An important feature of the book is an anthology of Blues, with sixty examples of these terse, salty, wistful, satirical or dramatic songs of the people. A brisk running commentary interprets the Background of the Blues.' (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper of the true first edition, which we also have listed on ABE) ***A first printing of the Jazz Book Club edition in near fine condition, in a near fine dustwrapper. Uncommon thus. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…