Jazz gets a history

23 December 1938: Number 12 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of jazz musicFrom Spirituals to Swing was the title of a concert at Carnegie Hall on 23 December 1938, marking the first time jazz had made a formal recognition of its own history. The concert, intended to present music of African-American origin to a mixed audience, was the brainchild of John Hammond, a scion of the Vanderbilt dynasty who had fallen in love with jazz during his youth. He worked as a jazz critic before...

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