Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930-1943

Contents

Contents ix Preface 3 Introduction: Coal, Railroads, and the Establishment of African American Life in West Virginia part one The Economic Foundation of Big Band Dance Music in the Mountain State 35 chapter one From the Coal Face to the Dance Floor: Black Miners as Patrons of Big Bands 48 chapter two Validating Herbert Hall’s Contention: Paul Barnes’s Gig Book part two Big Bands in Black West Virginia: 1929–1935 61 chapter three Newspapers and Radio Bring the World of the Big Bands to Black West Virginia 68 chapter four Local and Territory Bands in the Emerging Culture of Big Band Jazz and Dance Music in the Mountain State 86 chapter five Big Band Jazz Comes to the Mountain State: 1929–1933 102 chapter six Comparative Prosperity Arrives, September 1933–April 1935 viii Contents part three West Virginia in the Swing Era, 1935–1942 125 chapter seven The Place of the Mountain State on the Road Traveled by the Big Bands 140 chapter eight The Big Bands’ Audience in the Mountain State 148 chapter nine The Dance Repertory Played in the Coal Fields 165 chapter ten The Party Winds Down 179 Notes 185 Works Cited 191 Index ...