This book is the definitive history of the origins, progress, influence and decline of the big jazz bands in the United States with a sideglance at their history in other parts of the world. It mentions well over 550 bands, dealing critically as well as historically and biographically with the famous and prolific. Examples are taken from recorded material, particularly from items which are widely available. The book also looks at minor and little-recorded orchestras, many of them discussed for the first time. Here the author draws on large quantities of unpublished material: interviews and correspondence which he has conducted with musicians over two decades, private recordings and airshots, as well as facts unearthed from the little-studied Negro newspapers of the 'twenties, 'thirties and 'forties. This book also discusses the entertainment industry in general: radio, the dancehall network, the recording business. It describes the complex relationship of the black musicians to their white counterparts and to white audiences. Beginning before World War I, this book moves through 'twenties Chicago and New York. It describes the development of jazz arranging and the early orchestras which pioneered it--Fletcher Henderson, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, etc. It pays greatly overdue attention to the territory bands which worked throughout the South, the East and West coasts, and the mid-West. All the great names of the Swing era are here, including Basie, Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Herman, Lunceford and Shaw. So, too, are the early white bands which performed in a jazz manner--Goldkette, Pollack, Whiteman, and others--as well as the almost totally neglected expatriate bands which worked in Europe, China, Egypt, India and South America. The achievements and failures of European big band jazz are discussed. An entire chapter is devoted to Duke Ellington as master of the genre, and the book concludes with an outline of the complex factors that led to the decline of the big bands. This historical treatment is backed up with an exhaustive documentation which lists the personnel of literally hundreds of lesser-known bands for the first time and incidentally throws light on the early careers of musicians who later became famous. --Jacket.