Boysie's Horn

<p>In <em>Boysie's Horn</em> social historian radio host producer journalist and novelist Steven Leech highlights the influence of <strong>one of America's greatest jazz educators Boysie Lowrie</strong> in making African American Wilmington Delaware a launchpad for national performers like <strong>vibraphonist Lem Winchester trumpeter Clifford Brown and vocalist Betty Roché.</strong> Reaching back to the turn of the twentieth century Leech traces the social foundation and dynamic personalities who made Wilmington like New Orleans and Kansas City a place where Jazz came from. <strong>We meet bandleader Sam Wooding who abandoned his career in pre-World War II Europe for one as a music teacher at Wilmington's Howard High when Clifford Brown was a student there.</strong></p><p><strong>Leech also traces the systematic racism and economic forces that undermined Wilmington's cultural vibrance </strong>and led to the demise of the numerous jazz venues that had kept Wilmington jumpin' for eight decades.</p><p>Jazz fans and researchers will delight in all the artists Leech name checks in <strong>this well-indexed record of bands clubs musicians and social movers.</strong></p><p>This is a story that has needed to be told for a long time.</p>