Scarecrow Press
Pages: 408
•
Trim: 8¾ x 11¼
978-0-8108-5416-1 • Hardback • January 2006 • $119.00 • (£92.00)
Ken Vail retired from the graphic design business in 1996 to indulge his life-long interest in jazz. He self-published the critically acclaimed Jazz Milestones, and created several Jazz Diaries and Jazz Itineraries on greats such as Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ella Fitzgerald (published by Scarecrow Press). This scrapbook, based on the teenage diaries of his friend, Bob Inman, is Vail's tenth book.
Jazz expert and historian Ken Vail draws upon his considerable expertise in compiling the materials that have become published as the Swing Era Scrapbook: The Teenage Diaries and Radio Logs of Bob Inman, 1936-1938. The Swing Era Scrapbook is not a standard narrative text, but rather devoted to listing logs of the tunes played by bands on thousands of radio broadcasts and recording sessions. The entries are organized by date, and most consist simply of lists of the jazz songs broadcasted on the radio for a given day, along with who was playing the music when on what station. Occasional entries center upon the author's personal testimony of visiting swing sessions, collecting autographs, and experiencing jazz and its memorable players to the fullest. Black-and-white photographs round out this incredibly detailed chronicle by a true jazz enthusiast.
— Library Bookwatch
This book transcribes the daily log kept by big band jazz fan Bob Inman of the songs played during thousands of live events and radio broadcasts in New York City between 1936 and 1938. He often notes how he and his teenage friends got into the performance, whom he met, and the members of the band on that day. B&w white photographs, posters, tickets, letters, and autographs are included....
— Reference and Research Book News
...one fascinating volume, an absolute treat for anyone who ever fantasized about what it was like to walk around New York in the late 1930s when the Swing bands, small and large, were in their ascendancy....this is a book for those who were teenagers during the Swing Era and those who wish they had been.
— The Mississippi Rag, May 2006
...this substantial volume is a treasure-trove of swing-era arcania.
— Jazz Uk
...an invaluable resource for students and researchers...
— The Jazz Rag
When young Bob Inman turned 15 in 1935 and was living outside New York City, he got his first radio. Each night he'd tune into the live 'remotes' broadcast at midnight from all around the country as well as hotels in New York. He was hooked! Hooked enough to start compiling a radio log of these nightly shows as he listened and adding comments on the performers and songs. Soon he started writing to the musicians asking for autographs and photos and adding these to his 'scrapbook.' With his high school friends Inman would take the train into New York to attend many of these broadcasts and meet his idols. To describe him as a 'fan' is almost an understatement. He added to these scrapbooks until he graduated from high school in 1938. They form probably the best record of who appeared where and when in New York during the period. Graphic designer Ken Vail, has taken Inman's teenage diaries and radio logs and produced the mammoth 400-page Swing Era Scrapbook, adding info on recording sessions for each day along with personnel....There are copies of lots of swing band ephemera and copies of the replies Inman got to his letters. For those into the big bands, this will bring back lots of memories!
— Steve Ramm; In The Groove
This book transcribes the daily log kept by big band jazz fan Bob Inman of the songs played during thousands of live events and radio broadcasts in New York City between 1936 and 1938. He often notes how he and his teenage friends got into the performance, whom he met, and the members of the band on that day. B&w white photographs, posters, tickets, letters, and autographs are included.
— Reference and Research Book News
...fascinating...This book is a gem and will certainly appeal to jazz students and historians. It provides such a fulsome coverage of this extraordinary period in the development of the swing bands and jazz in general. Ken Vail has done a splendid job in bringing it all together in such an attractive format.
— Crescendo & Jazz Music