The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles

In the early 1960s, Horace Tapscott founded the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra to provide community-oriented jazz and training in Black Los Angeles. The Arkestra, along with the Union of Gods Musicians and Artists Ascension collective, was a significant part of the community-based arts movement, with over three hundred artists passing through it. Steven L. Isoardi's book, The Dark Tree, chronicles the history of the Arkestra through one hundred in-depth interviews, highlighting its enduring influence on jazz and popular music.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 456 pages
Publication date: 10 October 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

In the early 1960s, pianist Horace Tapscott abandoned a successful career in Lionel Hampton's band and returned to his home in Los Angeles to establish the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a community arts organization dedicated to providing community-oriented jazz and jazz training. For nearly forty years, the Arkestra, along with the related Union of Gods Musicians and Artists Ascension collective, was at the forefront of the vital community-based arts movement in Black Los Angeles. Some three hundred artists, including musicians, vocalists, poets, playwrights, painters, sculptors, and graphic artists, passed through these organizations, many of whom ultimately remained within the community and others who went on to achieve international fame. In The Dark Tree, Steven L. Isoardi draws on one hundred in-depth interviews with Arkestra participants to chronicle the history of this significant and largely overlooked community arts movement in Black Los Angeles. This revised and updated edition brings the story of the Arkestra up to date, as its ethos and aesthetic remain vital forces in jazz and popular music to this day.

Weight: 612g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478025283
Edition number: Revised and Updated