
A couple of months ago I presented a paper — "Nice Work: Jazz Agency and the New York City Cabaret Card, 1943-1967" — at the EMP Pop Conference. The abridged, edited-for-mainstream-usage version of the paper appeared in the May issue of JazzTimes, and can now be accessed online. There are a lot of interesting little historical details that didn't make the cut in this version, but I think it gets my basic point across. (Pictured above: Billie Holiday leaving a Philadelphia police station after her arrest in 1956.)