Twenty years after his pioneering "Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development, " Schuller turned to the swing era, a glorious period in American music, when Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington developed an idiom that was accessible yet also innovative and artistically satisfying.

WSJ: Five Best

He added jazz to his critical portfolio two years later, publishing some of the first essays of substance about such now-legendary artists as Bix Beiderbecke, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.

WSJ: Otis Ferguson: A Film and Jazz Critic Still Waiting for His Due | Sightings By Terry Teachout