Jazzmen
''Jazzmen'' is a book on the history of jazz. It was edited by Frederic Ramsey, Jr. and Charles Edward Smith, and was published by Harcourt, Brace & Company in 1939. It was the first jazz history book published in the United States, and helped ...
'' (1939), an early landmark of jazz scholarship particularly noted for its treatment of the life of King Oliver. After receiving
Guggenheim fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
s, he visited the
American South
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
in the middle of the 1950s to make field recordings and do interviews with rural musicians, some of which were used in releases by
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
and in a 1957 documentary, ''Music of the South''. He also curated an
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
*'' Jazzmen: The Story of Hot Jazz Told in the Lives of the Men Who Created It'' (1939)
*''The Jazz Record Book'' (1942)
*''Chicago Documentary: Portrait of a Jazz Era'' (1944)
*''A Guide to Longplay Jazz Records'' (1954)
*''Been Here and Gone'' (1960)
*''Where the Music Started: A Photographic Essay'' (1970)