California Polyphony: Ethnic Voices, Musical Crossroads

For a long time, Ted Gioia's West Coast Jazz, 1945-1960 (1992) and Steven Loza's Barrio Rhythm (1993) were largely solitary pioneers, but in the last ten years we have seen important contributions on jazz, country, blues, rock 'n' roll, opera, and formal concert music from Clora Bryant, Gerald Haslam, David Reyes and Tom Waldman, Catherine Parsons Smith, and others. Yang's strongest chapters - those that focus on modernist composers and on the Central Avenue scene - highlight her versatility by alternating deftly between profound musicological analysis and solid historical discovery.