Wow! eBook
Swing Under the Nazis: Jazz as a Metaphor for Freedom
Author(s): Mike Zwerin (Author)
- Publisher: Cooper Square Publishers Inc.,U.S.
- Publication Date: 5 Sept. 2000
- Language: English
- Print length: 224 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780815410751
- ISBN-13: 0815410751
Book Description
For a brief time in a Europe threatened and then occupied by Nazi Germany, jazz was heard as ubiquitously as rock ‘ n’ roll is today. In a personal search for the story of that time, Mike Zwerin spent two years traveling across Europe talking with individuals who performed and enjoyed jazz in Hitler’s dark shadow, including the Ghetto Swingers, a Jewish jazz band that “toured” Auschwitz and Theresienstadt; the Luftwaffe pilot who listened to Glenn Miller while bombing London; Django Reinhardt, the brilliant guitarist who refused to flee Nazi-controlled France; and many others.
Editorial Reviews
Review
The most sensitive writer on jazz since the late Otis Ferguson. — John Hammond
This book is the literary equivalent of a jam session in an after-hours joint on the wrong side of twon―loose and untidy, scary, downright rank, exhilarating and exhausting. ―
San Francisco ChronicleA treasure of information, affection and understanding. ―
Times Literary SupplementThe best jazz columnist at work today. — Studs Terkel
