This is a firsthand account of the world of black American music told by a man who has been part of that world for 80 years. Bernhardt began his career in the early 1920s, and by 1927, was touring with Charlie Grear's Midnite Ramblers and the Whitman Sisters Company. In the 1930s he worked in nightclubs and dancehalls with bands, including King Oliver's New Orleans Creole Jazz Band and Marion Hardy's Alabamians, and toured Europe with the Edgar Hayes Orchestra. He also worked with the orchestras of Cecil Scott, Luis Russel, Claude Hopkins, and Joe Garland and started his own Blue Blazers, the Harlem Bands, and Jazz Band. The volume is full of vivid descriptions and anecdotes about the music that was created and the musicians who created it. It also includes many rare and historically important photographs and a complete discography of Clyde's recordings. ISBN 0-8122-8018-0: $30.00.