Thirty Years with the Big Bands

Arthur Rollini describes his career as a tenor saxophonist in the big US jazz orchestras. In the 1920s he played in London with the Savoy Dance Orchestra and on his return to the USA he joined the nascent Benny Goodman Orchestra, before working in the bands of the Dorsey Brothers, Paul Whiteman and Ray McKinley. He thus tells an insider's story of the foremost white swing orchestras. Rollini's account of the early development of jazz in England and Europe and of the growth of the Goodman Orchestra will be of great use to jazz historians, as will his discussion of his brother Adrian's career. The book contains a number of rare photographs.