Author Fumi Tomita Delves into Early Jazz

Fumi Tomita is Associate Professor of Jazz Pedagogy and Performance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author of The Jazz Rhythm Section: A Manual for Band Directors. He was active as a bass player in the New York jazz scene for over fifteen years. His recordings include The Elephant Vanishes: Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruki Murakami, and on tenor saxophonist David Detweiler’s recordings, Celebrating Bird: The Music of Charlie Parker and There Used To Be Rain. I conducted the interview by email. SP: What was your general goal in writing the book? Who was your intended audience? FT: The intended audience is for those familiar with jazz but wanting to know more about early jazz. I felt that there weren’t any good introductory-type books on the topic and was surprised to find out that no one had really written anything like it since Schuller’s book. Court Carney came pretty close [Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear] and there are some good New Orleans material out there, but no overview. I guess a big goal I had was to write a complete history of jazz over several volumes or books. When I studied for comprehensive exams I had to learn the whole history of Western classical music and came across Richard Taruskin’s History of Western Music which is five or so volumes. It was amazingly detailed and I remember thinking that jaz