Up until 1955, modern jazz was largely a punchline. The music wasn't easy to understand by those who grew up listening to big bands and other forms of pop and dance music, and many post-war jazz musicians seemed silly in their cool extreme—people with names like Dizzy, Monk, Chubby, Hawk, Shorty and Bird who recorded for equally quirky jazz labels. Jazz…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JazzWax to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.