Published: Aug. 25, 2022, 10:49 a.m.
Journalist, screenwriter, and New York Times bestselling author TJ English chats with Trey Elling about DANGEROUS RHYTHMS: JAZZ AND THE UNDERWORLD. In the second of a two-part conversation with TJ, topics include:
\n
\n - Jazz thriving through the Great Depression (0:15)
\n - How gangsters "mobbed up" jukeboxes during the Great Depression (2:40)
\n - Frank Sinatra as the main figure in the book's second half (4:40)
\n - Sinatra's mom providing him an 'in' with the Hoboken, NJ mafia (6:16)
\n - Frank using the mob to help settle a disputes with a fellow, and former, band members (7:36)
\n - How the mafia had pay those favors back (12:21)
\n - Why heroin became so popular with jazz musicians at the start of World War II (19:33)
\n - The Times Square joint Birdland as perhaps the most mobbed up club in history (23:56)
\n - How 1950s Havana, Cuba was different from other mob-run jazz scenes (29:45)
\n - Miles Davis reinvigorating US jazz in the late 1950s (32:50)
\n - Sinatra having the mob give JFK a boost in the 1960 presidential election (38:44)
\n - When and why the relationship between jazz and gangsters fizzled (44:25)
\n