Sylvester Ahola has played the trumpet on 2,000 records and been part of fifty orchestras and jazz bands. This comprehensive study charts his role as one of the great musicians during a unique period in American musical culture—from the growth of jazz through the Depression to the development of commercial radio. After a classical training, Ahola's prolific recording career among the top bands of the age, in both America and England, was a tribute to the skill and mastery of his chosen instrument. His career as a first-rate studio musician found him equally at ease with classical trumpet solos, light orchestral music, popular dance band tunes, and in groups accompanying such great singers as Paul Robeson and Sophie Tucker. He was also responsible, in no small way, for establishing a style of "hot" jazz-flavored playing among emerging British dance bands. His, however, is a story of anonymity. This bibliography is intended to help restore his name to its proper place in both American and British musical history. The author recalls Ahola's incredible memory of events, anecdotes about musicians, band leaders, and recording studios, and a lifelong passion for amateur radio. With a comprehensive discography of all his known recordings and many photographs. ... not a story of an overpublicized celebrity... but about a first rate, top-flight professional musician who has led an exemplary life and career, and enjoyed the world and people around him and produced so much pleasure for others.... fine prose.... (Brownlee, Diane) ... unusual and carefully researched biography... with many quotes from Ahola... One local music fan, after glancing over the book in great excitement, took out his own collection of Ahola's records amd played each one as he read it through. Jazz record collectors will value the discography.... ( Gloucester Daily Times ) ...full of personal anecdotes...most welcome.... ( The New Amberola Graphic ) ... this is a book that is at once an irreplaceable work of reference and a biographical account of a man...who chose to be one of the greatest trumpet players in the history of jazz and dance music...this is an important book about a most important jazz musician who modestly never considered himself as much of a jazzman at all.... ( Storyville ) ...writing is highly absorbing and give one the feeling 'You are there, live, ' listening to this great artist.... ( The Back Bay Ramblers ) ...the book is a charmer-there is much verbatim transcription of Ahola's own words in interview and correspondence (evidencing extraordinarily razor-sharp recall), seamlessly linked by the data-packed, flowing prose of Dick Hill.... A fascinating slice of jazz history, recalled in a uniquely personal, minutely observant, totally authoritative fashion. ( Crescendo & Jazz Music ) ...fascinating content... ( Big Bands International ) ...little known tidbits of information crop up frequently in the telling and provide us with rare insight into a world of music quite dissimilar from our own.... ( Jazz Times ) Dick Hill did a fine job in every respect...a wonderful story that deserves your attention. I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did. ( Iajrc Journal ) Richard Hill (BA (Hons.), fine arts, Brighton College of Art; Postgraduate Certificate in Education, University of Manchester) is Director of Studies for Creative and Aesthetic Subjects, Stanway School, Colchester, Essex England; he is also a studio painter. He first became aware of Sylvester Ahola when he began to collect jazz and dance band records made in England between 1928 and 1931, when Ahola played the trumpet at the Savoy Hotel, and later at the May Fair Hotel in London. Hill has made regular visits to Ahola's home in Gloucester, MA for the past several years. Used Book in Good Condition