Author and radio host discusses how the Birmingham jazz scene impacted American music
A crowd of music and book lovers gathered this afternoon downtown to listen to Montgomery native Burgin Mathews talk about how Birmingham’s jazz scene helped shape the sound of American music. At the Capitol City’s NewSouth book store, Mathews signed copies of his new book Magic City: How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of America. In it, he writes about Birmingham’s unique, influential and long overlooked jazz community, and how Birmingham artists and innovators contributed to the sound and culture of American music as we know it. Mathews also highlighted some of Montgomery’s connections to the story of jazz, and he emphasized the history of Alabama State’s Bama State Collegians.
Dozens of people came to hear the writer and radio host speak about what he discovered, during his ten plus years spent researching Alabama’s jazz traditions. “It was a story fueled by these high school and even elementary school band directors who shaped the culture of these musicians and led to professional careers. Fess Whatley was the most celebrated because he instituted this whole culture of music through education. And the national major hit ‘Tuxedo Junction’ helped sustain America through the war years, and it is named for a little spot in Birmingham called ‘Tuxedo Junction’ where those musicians learned to play music.” Mathews is also the founding director of the Southern Music Research Center an organization devoted to the documentation and preservation of the American South’s diverse music history.
If you would like to purchase a copy of his book, it is available at The NewSouth Bookstore in Montgomery or at https://bookshop.org/p/books/magic-city-how-the-birmingham-jazz-tradition-shaped-the-sound-of-america-burgin-mathews/19946246?ean=9781469676883
