Description: In charting the life and times of Gordon Stretton, this text makes a major contribution to both jazz and popular music studies. By asking historians to re-evaluate the contributions made to the development of jazz by those "other than" African Americans, it proposes new jazz h...
Review Quotes:
"A Liverpudlian of mixed Jamaican and Irish ancestry born in 1887, William Masters, who adopted the stage name Gordon Stretton in tribute to an Edwardian music-hall artist, provides a fascinating study of a member of the African diaspora seeking and finding an artistic identity. After working in a troupe of Lancashire clog-dancers as a child, and then connecting with his Jamaican heritage through membership of a touring choir, he learnt to be a jazz drummer under the tutelage of visiting African American musician Billy Dorsey. His career as a drummer and bandleader subsequently took him first to France and then to South America, where he settled in Argentina. He exemplifies the manner in which members of the African diaspora of very varied backgrounds were sucked into currently prestigious North American idioms and used them to develop their own individual modes of expression. Jeff Daniels is Gordon Stretton's great-nephew. His mother Veronica was the fourth daughter of Gordon's brother Henry and Helen née Clemence. He has for many years been collecting information on Gordon from family and contemporary sources in an effort to restore Gordon to his rightful place in the history of Liverpool's multi-cultural melting pot." --Howard Rye, co-author of "Black Europe"
"By virtue of this publication, jazz pioneer Gordon Stretton's important role in the internationalization of jazz music is finally coming to the attention of music historians around the world." --Lynn Abbott, Tulane University "This book about the musician Gordon Stretton reveals the story of one of the pioneers responsible for the internationalization of Jazz in the transatlantic cultural scene that occurred in South America in the early 1920s. Gordon Stretton performed in cities such as Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rio de Janeiro, formed partnerships with Brazilian musicians, singers, and dancers, and promoted events and inaugurations. The Gordon Stretton Jazz Band unveiled unprecedented sonic and aesthetic perspectives in popular music from the places where they passed" --Marilia Giller, Paraná State University