Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld

We all know about Louis Armstrong’s mobster managers and the vicious knifing of vocalist Joe E. Lewis in 1927 in Chicago. We remember that Al Capone’s Outfit forbid Fatha Hines to quit his Grand Terrace gig for a dozen long years. We know all about Bing Crosby’s gangster golfing buddies and Frank Sinatra’s lifelong affinity for Mafiosi. We vaguely recall Meyer Lansky’s jukebox rackets of the 1940s and Mo Levy’s shady operations at his Birdland nightspot and Roulette Records in the 1950s and ’60s. And, of course, we’re all aware that Prohibition prompted the rise of the mob for providing the populace with beverages which the government had outlawed. Before long, narcotics replaced liquor and the syndicates continued turning contraband into big profits. Those of us lucky enough to have read Mezz Mezzrow’s colorful memoir, Really the Blues, have already been introduced in person to a number of shady characters from the pre-swing era in the Windy City and the Big Apple. Dangerous Rhythms author T.J. English is wise enough to quote from Mezzrow’s recollections several times in early chapters of his new book subtitled Jazz and The Underworld. Instead of breaking new ground. English puts the tangled relationship between musicians and mobsters into perspective. He gives it historical, musical, racial, and social context. In so doing, English invites us to understand the