history and focused greater attention on jazz since 1970.We tried to stimulate fresh thinking about the jazz canon
by including on the accompanying CD set recordingsthat complement rather than duplicate the selections in
the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. In addition tothe book's primary concern-the development of jazz
and its most important artists-our fi rst and second edi-tions related the music to relevant aspects of social and
intellectual history, including the Harlem Renaissancein the 1920s and black activism in the 1960s. Finally, weincluded the most up-to-date information possible, tak-ing advantage of the fi ne scholarly work on jazz that has
appeared during the past several years.