This guide covers the whole history of jazz, from its early balancing of African and European influences, through the formative years in New Orleans and Chicago, the rise of the big bands in New York, to be-bop, the post-war proliferation of styles from a new generation - hard bop, West Coast, cool, free jazz, modal jazz, fusion and crossover - and today's acceptance of jazz as a music that uniquely defies conventional categories like high and low. Setting jazz in its social and political context, against a background of constant racial tension, the author looks at the individual talents who shaped this remarkable music, personalities as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.