Magic City

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352 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 29 halftones, notes, bibl., index

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-7688-3
Published: November 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-7687-6
Published: November 2023
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-7689-0
Published: November 2023

American Music: New Roots

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Awards & distinctions

Finalist, 2024 Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz, Association for Recorded Sound Collections

Magic City is the story of one of American music's essential unsung places: Birmingham, Alabama, birthplace of a distinctive and influential jazz heritage. In a telling replete with colorful characters, iconic artists, and unheralded masters, Burgin Mathews reveals how Birmingham was the cradle and training ground for such luminaries as big band leader Erskine Hawkins, cosmic outsider Sun Ra, and a long list of sidemen, soloists, and arrangers. He also celebrates the contributions of local educators, club owners, and civic leaders who nurtured a vital culture of Black expression in one of the country's most notoriously segregated cities. In Birmingham, jazz was more than entertainment: long before the city emerged as a focal point in the national civil rights movement, its homegrown jazz heroes helped set the stage, crafting a unique tradition of independence, innovation, achievement, and empowerment.

Blending deep archival research and original interviews with living elders of the Birmingham scene, Mathews elevates the stories of figures like John T. "Fess" Whatley, the pioneering teacher-bandleader who emphasized instrumental training as a means of upward mobility and community pride. Along the way, he takes readers into the high school band rooms, fraternal ballrooms, vaudeville houses, and circus tent shows that shaped a musical movement, revealing a community of players whose influence spread throughout the world.

About the Author

Burgin Mathews is a writer, a radio host, and the founding director of the nonprofit Southern Music Research Center.
For more information about Burgin Mathews, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"Magic City is impressively researched and gracefully written by an author who clearly loves his topic. . . . [It] will be of interest to readers hoping to learn more about jazz and the wider history of music in America, but also readers who want to learn more about the communities and individuals who made Black Birmingham a vibrant and innovative place."—BirminghamWatch

"Burgin Mathews successfully argues for Birmingham, [AL]’s pivotal role in jazz, swing, and big band, among other American musical traditions. . . . Centering Black southern community, ingenuity, and resistance throughout, Mathews has created an important account of Birmingham’s influence on American popular music."—North Carolina Historical Review

"Fascinating and rewarding."—Jazz Journal

"An invaluable description of the twentieth-century jazz scene emanating from an often-overlooked location: Birmingham, Alabama. . . . Mathews’s emphasis on the concurrent role of Birmingham in jazz music and the struggle for Black civil rights reminds us of the importance of music beyond a purely aesthetic interpretation—it is instead the core of humanity, in all its messiness."—Journal of Southern History

"An indispensable source for jazz aficionados and anyone interested in Birmingham history."—Alabama Writers’ Forum

"Mathews' writing has a rhythm and lyricism that perfectly captures the spirit of the era, transporting readers to the smoky clubs and pulsating streets where this music was born. . . . You don’t have to be a jazz aficionado to appreciate the artistry and emotion that pours from the pages — this is a story about the human condition, set to the soundtrack of one of America’s most enduring art forms.”—Tributaries, Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association