The Jazz Barn by John Gennari Book Launch

The Lenox Library is pleased to launch the latest release by John Gennari, professor of English and critical race and ethnic studies at the University of Vermont.

The Jazz Barn: Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life tells the story of what happened in the 1950s in a barn, an icehouse, and a greenhouse in the verdant Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. Gennari explores how Lenox, a predominantly white New England town became a haven for African American musicians, and reveals the Berkshires as an important incubator not just of American literature and classical music but also of the Modern Jazz Quartet and Ornette Coleman’s “new thing.”

Illustrations for the book include iconic photos by Clemens Kalischer.