While the new millennium may serve as little more than a marketing opportunity for some people—and merely an excuse for excessive celebration for most of the rest—historians can view the turn of the century as an ideal opportunity to make sense of the one through which we just passed. Visions Of Jazz is one man's loving portrait of jazz as a popular music, tracking its progression from its earliest recordings to its transitional present. The task of capturing the almost endless permutations of a form so malleable that it defies definition would prove all but impossible for even the most talented writer. It's a remarkable achievement, then, that Gary Giddins not only makes the history of jazz—in all its shapes, forms, and manifestations—accessible to the layman, but also expresses the incalculable effect jazz has had on American life in the 20th century. Giddins wisely divides his epic tale into 79 short, easily digestible chapters, each usually covering one or two related subjects. Visions Of Jazz begins with Bert Williams and Al Jolson in the era of blackface and minstrel performances, gradually moving up to the contemporary sounds of Don Byron. Along that epic path, Giddins pauses to recount the popular and creative breakthroughs of jazz giants both famous (Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, et al) and a little more obscure (Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill). Yet Giddins also makes clear the nearly invisible border separating what's usually considered jazz from the pop songs of Sarah Vaughn and Frank Sinatra, not to mention the wild workouts of Spike Jones. Most impressively, while Giddins appropriately traces all jazz back to the black experience, he clearly demonstrates the universality of this spontaneous music plucked from the air and passed from generation to generation. At its popular peak, jazz transcended race, nationality, and class. And, though the great tradition of jazz is always threatening to fade from view the way classical music continues to struggle for a receptive audience, Giddins' great enthusiasm for and knowledge of his subject is infectious and uplifting.