"Every live performance of a jazz work is new, exciting, and challenging, and the classic recorded performances can help us develop discriminating taste and increase our enjoyment through informed, repeated, attentive listening. This book is intended to serve as a guide to the music and as an interpretation of the historical interaction that has taken place among jazz musicians, the music, and society. It is a survey of the historical development of this music from its African precursors to its current living components. To profit from this book, the reader must become a serious listener and pay careful attention to the music."--Xvii (Preface).