Overview: Early Jazz: A Concise Introduction, from Its Beginnings through 1929 by author Fumi Tomita, is an overview of the beginnings of jazz from its nineteenth-century roots through 1929, when elements of the Swing Era began to emerge. It is the first book on early jazz history in over fifty years and fills a compelling need for an update that reflects recent research.

Verdict: With a broad definition of jazz that encompasses the artistic and the commercial, the book’s inclusive tone allows for a wide spectrum of musicians, including not only pioneering African American and white musicians but also those who are commonly skipped or skimmed over in jazz history textbooks -- lesser-known sidemen, prominent instrumentalists, entertainers or novelty performers, women, vocalists, and American jazz musicians who introduced jazz on their travels around the world.

Twenty songs are analyzed in depth, but no musical knowledge is required to understand or to read Early Jazz. The book is written as an introduction for fans, students, musicians, historians, scholars, and anyone who is interested in this fascinating era of jazz history.

Here in this rather wondrous new book, the Associate Professor of Jazz Pedagogy and Performance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Fumi Tomita brings forth an informatively impassioned deep dive into one of the most fascinating, and yet highly unobserved prose wise, eras of jazz history.

Now, admittedly, Tomita considers this new book to be an updated version of Gunther Schuller’s own text re: Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, his book having provided the basis for his own, and has freely divulged that he has also drawn on more recent books and articles that explore this music, but let that not take away from the fact that this prose might well be nearly as old as Schuller’s book, the research has always been professional, written by authoritative figures in their respective fields, and in many cases, still relevant today.

Hence why the book is enthralling and genuinely mesmerizing with regard its exploration on the studies of the early jazz that not only shaped the world we now know and love, but this book also, of course.

Citing other early jazz artists that helped create this book, such as Richard Sudhalter, the Thomas Brothers, Court Carney, Thomas Hennessey, and even Brian Harker’s study of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Seven, what we get here swerves the usual jazz history that we have all now grown accustomed to reading, and instead chooses to focus on an individual jazz era.

Hence we are graced with Early Jazz – A Concise Introduction, From Its Beginnings Through 1929, where Tomita studies some really early, but nonetheless influential jazz, whilst recognizing the musical significance of lesser-known players who just didn’t seem to get the fully deserved recognition that they oh-so fully deserved.

During the early 1900s, jazz was mostly performed in African-American and mulatto communities due to segregation laws. Storyville brought jazz to a wider audience through tourists who visited the port city of New Orleans. Many jazz musicians from African-American communities were hired to perform in bars and brothels.

However, jazz didn’t really come into its own until the mid-1920s. Indeed, many consider the 1920s the start of the jazz age since that’s when it first became broadly popular in the US and Europe.

Furthermore, it was the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald who termed the 1920s The Jazz Age. With its earthy rhythms, fast beat, and improvisational style, jazz symbolized the decade’s spirit of liberation. At the same time, new dance styles arose, involving spontaneous bodily movements and closer physical contact between partners.

In this new book, the first couple of chapters outline these very same musical roots and beginnings of jazz, whilst the third chapter focuses on the development of jazz in New Orleans through the first recorded white bands from the late-1910’s and the early-1920’s.

Chapter four then centers on King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, African-American New Orleans musicians in Chicago. Chapters five through seven focuses on different aspects of jazz in New York, including the white studio jazz scene, stride piano, and an overview of important dance bands.

Chapters on Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke (eight and nine, respectively) cover two of the most important soloists in the history of jazz and chapter ten acknowledges those who are pioneers and leaders on their individual instruments, whilst chapter eleven broadens the scope of early jazz beyond New Orleans, Chicago and New York with an overview of territory bands, particularly those in the Southwest.

Chapters twelve and thirteen focus on those traditionally neglected groups within jazz history including vocalists and pioneers around the world. This thirteenth, and final chapter focusing more on pioneering American musicians whose travels around the world helped introduce and popularize jazz.

About the Author - Bassist, composer, and educator Fumi Tomita was active in the New York jazz scene for over fifteen years, having performed with Sheila Jordan, Steve Davis, Christian Sands, Luis Perdomo, Dave Liebman, Jeff Coffin, Steve Wilson, Felipe Salles, and others.

He has recorded two CDs under his name, “Untold”, a set of original compositions, and “Impromptu”, a piano trio set performing standards. His newest recording, “The Elephant Vanishes: Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruki Murakami”, was released by Origin Records in 2019.

As a researcher, he has presented his work at the Jazz Education Network, BassEurope, Massachusetts Music Educators Association and the National Association for Music Education. His article on bassist Charlie Haden, “As Long As There’s Music: Spirituality in Charlie Haden’s Performancle and Solo on ‘Irene’”, was published in Jazz Perspectives.

His book “The Jazz Rhythm Section” was published by NAfME in conjunction with Rowman & Littlefield and was released in 2019. His other research interests include musical instrument technology and the history of jazz, early jazz bass history, and the music of Doug Hammond. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Jazz at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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