Los Angeles's Central Avenue Jazz (Images of America)

About the Author Musician, writer, tour guide, and historian Sean J. O’Connell has pieced together the swinging history of Los Angeles’s Central Avenue through extensive photograph archives such as the Los Angeles Public Libraries’ Shades of LA as well as the firsthand accounts of those who walked, played, and listened amid the vibrant sidewalks of mid-century South Central Los Angeles.

LA History. This is a nice compliment to the Central Avenue Sounds book. It's pictures are related to the LA Jazz scene. So now you can fit Faces to Names. I'm not a Jazz affectionado but it's good to see LA history. Good book.. "Great collection of artifacts from an important and underrated golden" according to Jon Armstrong. Great collection of artifacts from an important and underrated golden age of jazz history. The book deftly illuminates the day to day experience of Central Avenue through the years through pictures, artifacts and flyers. The vast majority is pictures, the only words are short introduct. Straycats"A major disappointment. There were dozens of jazz clubs in and" according to Straycats2. A major disappointment. There were dozens of jazz clubs in and around Central Avenue. Aside from an interior photo of the Club Alabam, there are NO photographs of any clubs that were historically significant - the Finale, the Downbeat, Elks Hall. Not even a photo of an insignificant cl. said A major disappointment. There were dozens of jazz clubs in and. A major disappointment. There were dozens of jazz clubs in and around Central Avenue. Aside from an interior photo of the Club Alabam, there are NO photographs of any clubs that were historically significant - the Finale, the Downbeat, Elks Hall. Not even a photo of an insignificant cl

From the late 1910s until the early 1950s, a series of aggressive segregation policies toward Los Angeles’s rapidly expanding African American community inadvertently led to one of the most culturally rich avenues in the United States. From Downtown Los Angeles to the largely undeveloped city of Watts to the south, Central Avenue became the center of the West Coast jazz scene, nurturing homegrown talents like Charles Mingus, Dexter Gordon, and Buddy Collette while also hosting countless touring jazz legends such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday. Twenty-four hours a day, the sound of live jazz wafted out of nightclubs, restaurants, hotel lobbies, music schools, and anywhere else a jazz combo could squeeze in its instruments for nearly 50 years, helping to advance and define the sound of America’s greatest musical contribution.

O’Connell has pieced together the swinging history of Los Angeles’s Central Avenue through extensive photograph archives such as the Los Angeles Public Libraries’ Shades of LA as well as the firsthand accounts of those who walked, played, and listened amid the vibrant sidewalks of mid-century South Central Los Ang