Esquire's Jazz Book
- Place of Publication: Chicago, IL
- Language: English
- Date of Publication: 1947
- Periodicity: 4 nos., annually
- Editors: Ernest Anderson & Paul Eduard Miller
- Publishers: Esquire, Inc.
- Type: Full Text
Esquire’s Jazz Book was an annual review-compendium-reference guide published by Esquire Magazine from 1944 to 1947. Each year discusses music of the previous year, such that the dates discussed are 1943 to 1946. An important period in jazz history, the Jazz Book attempts to survey the whole territory, from hot jazz to swing to early bebop and many things in between and around. The first three issues are edited by Paul Eduard Miller, with introductions by Arnold Gingrich, editor of Esquire. The final issue was edited by Ernest Anderson with executive editor Frederic A. Birmingham. E. Simms Campbell contributed artistic marginalia.
Esquire was, and is, a men’s magazine established in 1933. As Gingrich notes in the introduction to the first Jazz Book, Esquire magazine had published writing on jazz since its founding, and given the growth of jazz as a cultural phenomenon-artform-commercial product, an annual volume devoted to jazz was appropriate. Gingrich also takes a bibliographic approach in his introduction, noting the impressive volume of jazz publications – journals, books, trade publications – in 1943. Miller, in his introduction, addresses the timeless questions of “What is jazz?”, “Is jazz music?”, and “Is jazz art?” while noting that range of styles and wide influence of jazz speak to its great cultural importance. A series of articles previously published in Esquire follows to demonstrate the jazz’s decadal transformation.
The central portion of each Jazz Book is dedicated to the Esquire’s All-American Band, a big band selected by a “board of experts,” a wide ranging sample of jazz critics and journalists. Each expert presents a chosen list with justification. Volume 2 provides photographs of the All-American Band in performance and volume 3 also includes a New Stars Band, chosen by a “board of musicians.” In volumes 1 and 2, Miller also provides a substantial “bio-discography” for a large selection of musicians. An invaluable reference tool for its time, this section comprises some 150 pages of information across the first two volumes. Annual summaries of jazz by month can also be found.
While the first three volumes were largely the product of jazz critics and journalists, including Miller, George Hoefer, Charles Edward Smith, Leonard Feather, volume 4 largely contains writings by musicians themselves. Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong, the Dorsey brothers, Max Kaminsky, Jimmie Lunceford, and Nat “King” Cole are a small sampling of those who contributed, all on topics closely associated with their genre, instrument, or location.
While volumes 2 and 3 number some 250 and 200 pages respectively, volumes 1 and 4 number in excess of 90 pages. As noted by the editors in the final volume, the editorial focus had changed from critical examination and production of reference information to stories of the musicians and the music they make. With the changing tastes of the listening public, so changed Esquire’s editorial focus and thus ended this first attempt at an annual summary of the jazz world, which would be taken up again by Down Beat and Metronome in the 1950s.