Isoardi, Steven L. 1949- (Steven Louis Isoardi)

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Isoardi, Steven L. 1949- (Steven Louis Isoardi)

PERSONAL:

Born 1949. Education: University of San Francisco, B.A., M.A. (government); University of California—Los Angeles, M.A. (political science), Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Oakwood School, 11600 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601-3015.

CAREER:

Oakwood School, Los Angeles, CA, social studies teacher.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Buddy Collete and others) Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1999.

(With Buddy Collete) Jazz Generations: A Life in American Music and Society, Continuum (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor) Horace Tapscott, Songs of the Unsung: The Musical and Social Journey of Horace Tapscott, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2001.

The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Steven L. Isoardi's bachelor's degree and first master's degree were in government, earned at the University of San Francisco; his second master's degree and doctorate were in political science, earned at the University of California—Los Angeles. His master's thesis at the University of San Francisco was "United States Foreign Policy and the Rearmament of West Germany: 1950-1955," a far cry from the books he would later write. During the 1990s, he recorded interviews for the California State Archives State Government Oral History Program, and it was out of this experience that his best-known book, The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles (2006), developed.

His first book, Jazz Generations: A Life in American Music and Society, was written with jazz composer and musician Buddy Collette and is an account of Collette's life in the Los Angeles jazz scene beginning in the 1940s. The coauthors describe Collette's experiences working with some of the prominent jazz musicians of the twentieth century and composing, arranging, and performing music for motion picture soundtracks.

Songs of the Unsung: The Musical and Social Journey of Horace Tapscott developed out of interviews Isoardi conducted with musician Horace Tapscott in 1993, 1997, and 1998 for the oral history program. Isoardi chronicles the life of this pianist, trombonist, and composer who traveled with bands in his early career but came to wish for a stable, nurturing environment for his family. Isoardi reveals how Tapscott created such an environment, settling in Los Angeles and founding Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, a jazz ensemble he hoped would promote a sense of community among those who lived in the expansive city.

The Dark Tree provides accounts of the lives of some of the most influential of the musicians and composers who lived in Los Angeles during the twentieth century. It covers many of the people who were a part of or were influenced by Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. Musicians Lester Robertson, Will Connell, Jr., Butch Morris, Arthur Blythe, David Murray, and others who became nationally influential are among those whose lives are recounted. Reviewers noted that the book is not a treatise on music theory but instead a study of a social movement founded on music. Writing for the Journal of American Ethnic History, Michael E. Veal declared that "this book constitutes a tremendous achievement in and of itself." Booklist contributor Vanessa Bush felt that the author "presents a lively and energetic look at an enormous community and artistic resource."