Behind the iconic jazz orchestras, vocalists, and stage productions of
the Swing Era lay the talents of popular music's unsung heroes: the
arrangers. John Wriggle takes you behind the scenes of New York City's
vibrant entertainment industry of the 1930s and 1940s to uncover the
lives and work of jazz arrangers, both black and white, who left an
indelible mark on American music and culture.
Blue Rhythm Fantasy traces the extraordinary career of arranger
Chappie Willet--a collaborator of Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke
Ellington, Gene Krupa, and many others--to revisit legendary Swing Era
venues and performers from Harlem to Times Square. Wriggle's insightful
music analyses of big band arranging techniques explore representations
of cultural modernism, discourses on art and commercialism, conceptions
of race and cultural identity, music industry marketing strategies, and
stage entertainment variety genres.
Drawing on archives, obscure recordings, untapped sources in the African
American press, and interviews with participants, Blue Rhythm Fantasy
is a long-overdue study of the arranger during this dynamic era of
American music history.