Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930–1942

Association of Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music–Certificate of Merit (2013) The coal fields of West Virginia would seem an unlikely market for big band jazz during the Great Depression. That a prosperous African American audience dominated by those involved with the coal industry was there for jazz tours would seem equally improbable. Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930-1942 shows that, contrary to expectations, black Mountaineers flock