Jazz: An American Journey places jazz music within its rich historical and cultural context. The book explains how and why jazz evolved as it did, as it emphasizes chronology, historical cause and effect, and the interactions between music and American history and culture. Presented from the point of view of the original participants (musicians, critics and audiences), the book focuses on the music with fifty-five recorded examples that are accompanied by a listening chart, commentary and analysis, all to provide a more vivid setting for jazz grounded in the time, place and worldview of its creators.