Canciones del Camino (1906)

Trombone Masters traces the development and evolution of the trombone in jazz. Starting with early practitioners such as Jim Robinson and Miff Mole, the book moves forward to the swing era, a time when popular band leaders such as Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller held sway, and some of the great stylists on the horn emerged: performers such as Jack Teagarden, Bill Harris, the idiosyncratic soloist with the Woody Herman Orchestra, and a host of others. In the succeeding period the most important of all jazz trombonists emerged-J.J. Johnson-who, for the first time, translated the language of bebop to the trombone. Finally, we explore the post-modernists, players such as Roswell Rudd, Ray Anderson, George Lewis, and the many Europeans, such as Konrad Bauer (Germany); Giancarlo Schiaffini (Italy); Paul Rutherford (England); and Wolter Wierbos (Holland), all of whom have extended the range and facility of the horn beyond the pioneers’ dreams. Along the way we touch on women performers, too, such as the bebop arranger Melba Liston, and the British free-stylist, Annie Whitehead. The second half of the book consists of reviews of the major jazz albums in which trombonists play prominent roles, either as leaders or sidemen.