The Jazz Scene

English historian Hobsbawn ( The Age of Empire ) started writing about jazz for the New Statesman in the 1950s under the pseudonym Francis Newton, and most of the essays in this volume were originally published in the U.S. between 1959 and 1961. The body of this valuable study consists of an overview of the history, music, business and people of jazz. Older sections are left untouched (at one point the author notes that readers will need a gramophone to appreciate his advice on listening to jazz fully), but the introductions--one dated 1989 for the most recent British edition and one written for the first U.S. publication--are helpful. From them it is obvious that time hasn't dampened Hobsbawn's enthusiasm for what he calls ``one of the most remarkable cultural phenomena of our century.'' In addition to the articles from the New Statesman , pieces from the New York Review of Books, written in the late 1980s, are also included in this love song from a dedicated fan. (Jan.)