Dangerous Rhythms
Jazz and the Underworld
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4.1 • 15 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From T. J. English, the New York Times bestselling author of Havana Nocturne, comes the epic, scintillating narrative of the interconnected worlds of jazz and organized crime in 20th century America.
"[A] brilliant and courageous book." —Dr. Cornel West
Dangerous Rhythms tells the symbiotic story of jazz and the underworld: a relationship fostered in some of 20th century America’s most notorious vice districts. For the first half of the century mobsters and musicians enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership. By offering artists like Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, and Ella Fitzgerald a stage, the mob, including major players Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, provided opportunities that would not otherwise have existed.
Even so, at the heart of this relationship was a festering racial inequity. The musicians were mostly African American, and the clubs and means of production were owned by white men. It was a glorified plantation system that, over time, would find itself out of tune with an emerging Civil Rights movement. Some artists, including Louis Armstrong, believed they were safer and more likely to be paid fairly if they worked in “protected” joints. Others believed that playing in venues outside mob rule would make it easier to have control over their careers.
Through English’s voluminous research and keen narrative skills, Dangerous Rhythms reveals this deeply fascinating slice of American history in all its sordid glory.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
There have been great histories of jazz and great histories of organized crime. True-crime journalist T. J. English gives us both. He starts in New Orleans at the dawn of the 20th century, when teenage prodigy Louis Armstrong was the talk of Storyville, the city’s mob-controlled bars-and-bordellos district. English then takes us from Kansas City and Chicago to New York and Vegas, showing how the music—and its underworld links—changed with the times, moving from a marriage of convenience to a dark blend of drugs, violence, and economic slavery. English centers his story on Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, but he weaves in all kinds of other amazing stories too, like the amusing way Manhattan mob bosses helped the U.S. Navy during World War II and the dark tale of rising jazz star Joe E. Lewis. Dangerous Rhythms is a fast, compelling history that will interest jazz heads and true-crime fanatics.
