Harry A. Yerkes

During the decade preceding the transmutation of the word "jazz" from a verb into a noun, a vibrant mosaic of musical ideas and styles made it possible for this new form to germinate, develop, and spread throughout the world, a process accelerated by the increasing availability of phonograph records. Little attention has been paid to certain unsung innovators who participated in this fascinating fomentation, as jazz is thought to have first appeared on records in 1917, bursting suddenly on to the scene like Athena springing fully armed from an aneurysm in the brain of Zeus. Mu...