A Life in Jazz

As a musician who grew up in New Orleans, and later worked in New York with the major swing orchestras of Lucky Millinder and Cab Calloway, Barker is uniquely placed to give an authoritative but personal view of jazz history. In this book he discusses his life in music, from the children's 'spasm' bands of the seventh ward of New Orleans, through the experience of brass bands and jazz funerals involving his grandfather, Isidore Barbarin, to his early days on the road with the blues singer Little