T. J. English

Such a great book and so eye-opening about the intersecting worlds of jazz and the Mafia. I had no idea. There were rumors of Frank Sinatra's involvement with the Mob and Mob Bosses, but the work done by this author brings so much more to light about these two worlds.

In short, the Mafia had the money and they were active during Prohibition, while they also ran the speakeasy's as a chief source of income. And they were familiar with the burgeoning jazz musicians who were willing to play in those same clubs as a way to make a living.

Then once Prohibition ended, these same Mafia bosses had to find a way to keep their income coming in and boy did they. From New York's famed
Cotton Club to Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Miami, the jazz clubs sprang up, the musicians played, big band music became the new thing, and the money rolled in. Mostly to the mobsters as one would expect.

Very many aspects of the intertwining of jazz and the Mafia are put into history, including the increased use of heroin and the musicians who got hooked, the violence that happened if anyone tried to switch clubs or bands, and the "plantation mentality" of black musicians, white audience till the 60's and early 70's. Also detailed are the years that Havana was a jazz-and-Mob jewel and how Las Vegas came to exist.

Highly recommend this book for music fans and readers interested in 20th century American history.… (mere)

Havana Nocturne by T. J. English

This is a fascinating look at Cuba just before Castro rose to power.

Havana in the 1950s was a steamy, beautiful, sexy city. Batista was in control of Cuba and the mob was in control of Havana with intentions of turning it into a Monte Carlo-like playground just off America's shore. This book brings 1950s and '60s American and Cuban politics to life but reads like great crime fiction. I couldn't put it down. The author explains how the mob came to build great, glittering casinos in Havana and writes about the movie stars and American politicians who befriended the mobsters and frequented those casinos. The wild nightlife of Havana is sharply contrasted with a poorer Cuba outside the city where we learn of the rise of Castro and his revolutionaries and their many attempts to come to power.

I knew little about Cuba and its history before reading Havana Nocturne. However, this book piqued my interest in this neighboring island that the US still blockades. If you liked The Godfather, I think you'll love this true story and learn some history in the process. I highly recommend it.
… (mere)

This book is about the city of New York in the 60s and 70s: a seething maelstrom of demographic change, bigotry, corruption, and the rise of the black power movement.

English ties this account together with a focus on three individuals: a militant black activist radicalised in prison, a corrupt cop, and a young black man subjected to monstrous injustice by a brutal, bigoted, and corrupt legal system. Through these lenses, he exposes the bigotry, brutality and corruption of the NYPD, the bias of a white courts system when trying black defendants, and the evolution of the civil rights movement from King's non-violence, to the more strident position of Malcolm X, and then to the armed insurrection of the Black Panthers and their violent battle with law enforcement.

At the end of the book, English notes that all of the social conditions that gave rise to the violence of the Savage City are still there, still unresolved, and continuing to deteriorate. This is a hair-raising story, and there's no reason why it couldn't happen again.… (mere)