Friends along the way : a journey through jazz / Gene Lees.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lees, Gene.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jazz musicians--Biography.

Jazz musicians.

Jazz musicians--Interviews.

Genre:

Interviews.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xvii, 359 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2003]

Summary:

For more than half a century, jazz writer and lyricist Gene Lees has been the friend of many in the world of jazz music. In this delightful book he offers minibiographies of fifteen of these friends--some of them jazz greats, some lesser-known figures, and some up-and-comers. Combining conversations and memoirs with critical commentary, Lees's insightful and intimate profiles will captivate jazz fans, performers, and historians alike. The subjects of the book range from the versatile orchestrator and arranger Claus Ogerman to legendary jazz broadcaster Willis Conover, from the gifted young Chinese violinist Yue Deng to undersung pianist Junior Mance. Lees writes about these figures both as musicians and as human beings, and he writes out of a conviction that jazz as an art form represents the highest values of American culture. Inviting us into the lives of these unique individuals, Lees offers an affectionate view of the jazz community that only an insider could provide.

Contents:

The journey : Milt Bernhart

Two of a kind : Stan and Pete

A walking sound : Ray Brown

The man from Powell River : Don Thompson

Remembering Dizzy : Junior Mance

The Pittsburgh connection : Stanley Turrentine

The good gray fox : Lou Levy

The hug : Hugo Friedhofer

Claus Ogerman

The hot potato : John Bunch

The boy in the P-38 : Allyn Ferguson

Early autumn : Ralph Burns

The man who won the cold war : Willis Conover

Helen and Bill

The adventures of Yue Deng

The Wombat chronicle.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0300099673

OCLC:

51937145