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The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles.

Article Excerpt
The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles. By Steven L. Isoardi. With an Appendix by Roberto Miranda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. [xxi, 356 p. ISBN 0-520-24591-1. $34.95.] Illustrations, index, bibliography, appendix, notes, compact disc.

The history of jazz on the West Coast is gradually coming into focus after years of neglect and misunderstanding by historians, critics, and jazz listeners alike. Los Angeles has for too long been characterized variously as a second-rate New York City, a haven for the "cool" sounds of Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan, or a place where slick, superficial studio productions were cranked out under the commercial shadow of the Hollywood film industry. At best, knowledgeable jazz listeners knew about the Central Avenue scene and could rattle off a list of relevant names: Art Pepper, Gerald Wilson, Hampton Hawes, or Shorty Rogers. What happened to jazz in Los Angeles after the 1950s? What role did avant-garde jazz styles play on the West Coast? How did jazz fit into the social upheavals in Los Angeles from the Watts riots in 1965 to the Rodney King verdict in 1992 and beyond?

Isoardi sets out to answer such questions. As his book clearly demonstrates, Los Angeles has long been the home of an incredibly diverse, vibrant jazz scene that...

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