W. Royal Stokes at his April 2005 Washington, D.C., book signing for Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About Their Lives and Careers (Oxford University Press, 2005). Photo by Erika Else.

"W. Royal Stokes, an expert interviewer, has assembled a truly amazing cast of characters here, illuminating his conviction that jazz has become a global phenomenon. Surprises are in store for any and all interested in the music and its makers."
—Dan Morgenstern,
Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University
and author of Living with Jazz

"W. Royal Stokes is sensitive to the range of experiences of people who have 'grown up with jazz,'
yielding a fascinating, often-surprising, kaleidoscope of life stories. Organized as a history of
the present, Stokes interviews the jazz musicians he hears at the turn of the 21st century, and
invites them to relate how they 'got there' from a wide variety of historical, social, cultural, and
national trajectories. It is so refreshing to see so many women musicians included in a jazz book
that isn't ear-marked 'women-in-jazz.' Clearly Stokes 'gets it' that women are already in jazz!"
—Sherrie Tucker,
Associate Professor, American Studies, University of Kansas
and author of Swing Shift: "All-Girl" Bands of the 1940s

"W. Royal Stokes's Growing Up With Jazz is a rich and insightful book about the making of jazz.
Spanning generations, with a mix of old heads and young stars, this book shows through its
series of autobiographical testimonies just how enduring and how profound the jazz tradition is."
—Gerald Early,
Professor of English and African American Studies,
Washington University, and author of Miles Davis and American Culture

Check out Royal’s Round-up of 35 Recently Published Jazz, Blues & Popular Music Photography & Art Books

 Click here for more on Growing Up With Jazz

Click here for Gene Martin: A Reminiscence

Royal is interviewed by Bill Lynch of the Charleston Gazette.

Royal is interviewed on PBS radio by Jean Snedegar

Royal profiles the late Louie Bellson

Click here for Royal's Photo Gallery

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