Martin Torgoff—journalist, author and film-maker—has taken a unique point of view in this book. He has covered the use of recreational and hence illegal drugs in the US since the 1920s until beginning of the 21st century. He has juxtaposed the use of drugs specifically as it relates to jazz musicians with special emphasis on musicians post WWII.
In reading the book, I noted that his references to interviews with jazz musicians, prominent jazz writers begin in the 1990s. In fact, just about every important jazz writer was interviewed. The acknowledgments at the end of book and a brief mention in the text, explain that his researches for a previous book—Can’t Find My Way Home; America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000 (2004)—inspired the present volume. He wanted to expand a chapter which he called “Bop Apocalypse,” which became the basis for the present volume.
Bop Apocalypse covers in some detail the approach of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics approach to recreational drugs—marijuana, cocaine, heroin, crack cocaine, and peyote. It was Harry Anslinger, chief of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who chose to focus on jazz musicians—especially as he felt that they were influential in popularizing these drugs to the populace. It was noted that the Anslinger file “Marijuana and Musicians” included Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. The Fed
