"Satchmo Meets Amadeus" examines the close encounters between classical music--the soundtrack of the Europeanized world--and jazz, the classical music of globalization. This is an eclectic collection of essays by renowned experts covering just about every aspect of the subject: the history of European and American music; African-American culture; international cultural encounters; the political, economic, and cultural histories of New Orleans and Salzburg; the political exploitation of music during the eras of National Socialism and the Cold War; the economic utilization of art by the music and tourism industries; and how classical music and jazz, the New World and the Old, have been blended. Satchmo Meets Amadeus analyzes the cultural, economic, social, and political structures shaping or hindering the creation of music, as well as the construction of popular images and myths about (and against) these seminal musical figures from the 18th to the beginning of the 21st century.

The collection is enhanced by the insights of noted musicians Joe Muranyi (the last surviving member of the Louis Armstrong All Stars), Tom McDermott, Wolfgang Pillinger, Abi von Reininghaus, and S. Frederick Starr. Other contributors include Connie Atkinson, (University of New Orleans), John H. Baron (Tulane University, New Orleans); Erwin Giedenbacher (University of Salzburg), Hubert Giesinger (Salzburg) and Clemens Panagl (Salzburg), Christian Gruber (University of Salzburg), Rainer Gstrein (University of Innsbruck), Robert Hoffmann (University of Salzburg), Tad Jones (New Orleans), Kurt Luger (University of Salzburg), David Nelson (University of North Carolina at Greensboro's School of Music), Berndt Ostendorf (Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich), Gilda Pasetzky (Universit de Franche-Comt, Besanon), Lawrence N. Powell (Tulane University, New Orleans), Oliver Rathkolb (University of Vienna), Jack Stewart (New Orleans), Penny Von Eschen (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), and Reinhold Wagnleitner (University of Salzburg).