It all happened in America in the 1920s: blues, jazz, band music, torch ballards, operettas, and musicals. Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, and Duke Ellington, Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, and Porter, all burst on to the musical scene in this decade. Harlem celebrated its own artistic and musical renaissance, while the world of prohibition, extravagant parties, and speakeasies produced timeless tunes such as `Stardust' and `Tea for Two'. Christened by F. Scott Fitzgerald and declared `open' by Louis Armstrong, the Jazz Age saw the flowering of the most prolific musical talents of this century.

Arnold Shaw's lively account embraces all the major personalities from instrumentalists to composers, and from singers to lyricists.

The book includes a bibliography, a detailed discography, and lists of songs and films from the 1920s.