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All That Jazz
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Jazz, that unique, buoyant mix of classicism and improvisation,
is America's richest musical art form.
Although African-Americans and Creoles are rightly attributed as its founders,
Americans of Italian heritage have had a long and steady creative influence
on jazz from its very beginning.
As the late scholar Joachim Ernst-Berendt noted,
"No other European country has produced such a significant number
of American jazz musicians as Italy."
Note: In New York in 1936,
clarinetist Joe Marsala, a Chicago native,
formed one of the first integrated jazz bands in America.
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Gallery of Jazz Greats
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A History of Italian Americans in Jazz
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Buddy DeFranco, jazz player
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