The Reading Chair: “Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz and the Underworld” by T. J. English

(Credit: HarperCollins)

Through most of twentieth-century American history, jazz music and organized crime were mostly seen as running along two separate tracks (except for anomalies like Frank Sinatra). Rumors may have floated like iceberg tips, and sharp-eyed film noir buffs might notice that jazz and nightclubs in Hollywood movies were often under the rule of slippery…