The Jazz Crusade: The Inside Story of the Great New Orleans Jazz Revival of the 1960'S/Includes Compact Disk

After a brief resurgence of interest in the original New Orleans style of jazz generated in the 1940s by the discovery of trumpeter Willie "Bunk" Johnson living in New Ibersville, Louisiana, the music quickly slipped back into obscurity after his death in the late 1940s. During the 1950s, only the George Lewis and the Paul Barbarin bands did any serious touring or received wide recognition. In 1962 a young fellow named Grayson Mills went to New Orleans and opened the first jazz kitty hall. Local jazzmen came to play in return for kitty donations paid by passersby who dropped in to hear the music. Mills named the place "Preservation Hall." Around the same time a half-dozen aficionados independently started up small record labels specifically to record the old-time black jazz players of the city. The stage was set for the most incredible comeback of a music style of the century.

Among the young people starting these new record labels was Bill Bissonnette. His book, "The Jazz Crusade" is the seminal written history of this intriguing period. Through his playing with, and recording, these great jazz musicians long forgotten, he learned to first understand and then love them. He was there in New Orleans when the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law and the racial barriers crumbled. One day he could not sit and have a beer with his idols in the local pubs; the next day all doors were open to them. But the local gentry didn't quietly accept the change in the status quo and the taunt of "nigger lover" followed them through the streets of New Orleans. But nothing could stop the "Great New Orleans Jazz Revival" once it started to roll across the nation and the world.

"The Jazz Crusade" is the amazing story of this decade of musical renewal and the finest description of the personalities who played the music and made it happen. The book comes with a compact disc which features 15 tracks of the finest recordings made by these musicians during the decade on "The Jazz Crusade" label. Also featured are three photo sections by the top jazz photographers of the era, lots of memorabilia in the form of newspaper articles, posters, etc. and a complete discography of the recordings made by Big Bill Bissonnette on his record label.