Masters of the river : Streckfus Steamers, Inc. and the "swan complex" -- Fate marable, musical professionalism, and the great migration -- Groovin' on the river : Louis Armstrong and riverboat culture -- From Beale Street to Market Street : music and movement through Memphis and St. Louis -- "Blue river" : Bix Beiderbecke and Jess Stacy on the Mississippi -- Steamin' to the end of the line : jazz on, along, and beyond the Ohio River -- Epilogue: the decline and fall of excursion boat jazz in St. Louis.

Steam-driven boats served to bring jazz up the Missisippi River after World War I. This book follows the boats from Memphis to St. Louis all the way up the Ohio River, where the music captivated audiences in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh alike, concluding with the story of the decline of the old paddle wheelers - and thus riverboat jazz - on the inland waterways after World War II.