Album Covers by Jimmy Ernst

"...My lower East Side pals were quite critical about my new association and my enthusiasm for the music. "Jazz is for them Jiggs.'' Their objections cut no ice with me, even though they began calling me a 'nigger lover'...''

"...The ceremony was performed by richly painted dancers who to the insistent rhythm of drums and an almost monotone chant moved in a contracting circle toward a pit in the center of the village's plaza from which each man pulled a pair of writhing rattlesnakes. Holding the serpents aloft, one in each hand, the chant and the Dance continued, punctuated by the drum and heavy bells affixed to the ankles of the stomping feet.

In a double row they moved imperceptibly from one end of the plaza to the other..."