After the second World War, America achieves a level of growth and prosperity unimaginable just a few years earlier. As the Cold War intensifies, jazz becomes the official symbol of American democracy abroad. But a new generation of rebellious young musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, is determined to free jazz from what they consider the tyranny of popular taste. Their innovations come at a great cost: the jazz audience splinters into different camps—cool and hot, East and West, traditional and modern. The new era of jazz brings with it the threat of vocalists, integration and drugs.