Black Bottom Stomp: Eight Masters of Ragtime and Early Jazz tells the compelling stories of the lives and times of eight seminal figures in American music, including Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. By focusing on these life stories, the authors shed new light on how individuals played such important roles in shaping the development of jazz music. The stories told range from the frustrations Scott Joplin faced trying to be taken "seriously" as a composer to the many protean changes that Jelly Roll Morton made in his life to adapt to new musical times and tastes. The human side of being a musician is explored, with all the sacrifices that were necessary to making it as black entertainers in a predominantly white world.