This book is an enigma. It begins as an examination of the
famous New Orleans Ax Man Murders of the early 20th Century and just
when you are settling in nicely with that gruesome crime, the book becomes a
history of jazz and after that morphs into a collective biography of some of
the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived.
So, just what is this book? Well, I’ll tell you; honestly
this is one of the most invigorating and engaging books on serial killers and
jazz musicians which I have ever read. The big difference in the two subjects
is that, of course, while the Jazzmen chronicled here may have slayed their audiences
night after night with the new sound called “jazz”, the Ax Man murderer was
slaying his audiences permanently in private performances all over New Orleans
for several years. His crimes are still listed as one of the most puzzling of
all serial killers, including the infamous Jack the Ripper.
Mr. Krist is an accomplished author, and it was his name
which drew me to the book, the complicated title notwithstanding. Just how he
wound up juxtaposing the history of what was happening in New Orleans at the
time of the murders with the history of jazz is somewhat of a mystery to me,
but the justification for doing so becomes apparent as you read the book.
New Orleans was a wide open Southern city; if you could call
it a truly Southern city at all. There was no real segregation and racial
intermarriage was quite common before the early part of the 20th
Century. Gambling and prostitution were openly practiced, if not celebrated.
And the Port of New Orleans brought together sailors from all over the
Caribbean, Europe and Africa; not to mention an influx of Asians and South
Americans. And in the days of Reconstruction all of these different people
lived together in relative harmony.
At the close of the 19th Century there was an
influx of European immigrants; notably Irish, Italian, German and Jewish. Each
group had their own customs; and music. The first race riots in the city were
not; as one would expect; between blacks and whites. Rather they were between
the whites and the Italians. The Italians had become known as a “mafia” like
organization. They were involved in kidnappings and extortion. They also strong
armed their own neighborhood grocery stores, and in some cases murdered the
owners. But when a group of these men kidnapped a young child and killed him,
the city exploded in the violence of revenge.
Against the backdrop of those events in 1890 the author
traces the history of crime in New Orleans through to the end of the 1920
election and the advent of Prohibition. As I said earlier, had he only
concentrated on this aspect of New Orleans at the time this would have been a
great book. However, by choosing to combine and compare the history of crime in
New Orleans with the creation of jazz, he has created a fantastic and lively portrait
of one of America’s most beloved and eclectic cities.
The book sparkles with the names of the musical legends that
gave birth to a new art form. The stories of these men; with names like Jelly
Roll Morton; Sidney Bechet; Freddie Keppard; Buddy Bolden; Louis Armstrong and George
Baquet; are the history of what became the modern day New Orleans of legend,
but also of Storyville itself; that quarter where these men first blew the
notes which would come to define an era, and a genre.
Here is a link to the Library of Congress recording of
Alabama Bound by Jelly Roll Morton. This is the type of music I was listening
to while reading this book. Listening to the music of the time while reading
the book enriched the whole experience and made for a delightful reading of
this wonderful book by Mr. Krist.
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