Rolling Jazz Out From Harlem to Shanghai

Posted: December 26th, 2022 | No Comments »

In Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem (1928) the author attempted to capture the vitality of the “black vagabonds” of urban America and Europe. Jake Brown, the protagonist of Home to Harlem, deserts the U.S. Army during WW1, hangs out in France and then lives in London until a race riot inspires him to return to New York and Harlem. In and out of the barrel joints, bars, cabarets, clubs and gin parties of Harlem and Brooklyn he notes the meteroic rise of ragtime and its spread to an interesting group of places:

‘All America jazzed to it, and it was already world famous. Already being jazzed perhaps in Paris and Cairo, Shanghai, Honolulu, and Java.’

below with a miguel covarrubias cover…

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