Musicians Portrayed in Ken Burns' "jazz" Series

If you were intrigued by the musicians portrayed in Ken Burns' "Jazz" series, this book will deepen your appreciation of the musicians' humor, problems, and triumphs. Though limited to short anecdotes, jokes, and short but histories, the book, much like Gene Lees' great "Meet Me at Jim and Andy's, offers a whole pie of jazz life its intimate slices.

Crow provides a lot of jazz history to introduce the topically arranged anecdotes (e.g., Good Lines," "On the Road," "Beginnings," "Hirings and Firings," "Prejudice"). The lines and stories are very good, and give insights into personalities and jazz, in general. There are one-liners: "Shelley Manne gave an interviewer his definition of jazz musicians: 'We never play anything the same way once,'" and longer stories such as the legendary fight between Juan Tizol and Charles Mingus on Ellington's bandstand (We get Tizol's and Mingus' versions of what happened, including Mingus' revealing recitation of what Duke told him afterwards about the fight "I congratulate you on your performance, but why didn't you and Juan inform me about the adagio you planned so that we could score it?."

There are short sections focusing on one or two famous jazz musicians, such as Mingus, Armstrong, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Bessie Smith, "Fats" Waller, Dizzy, Bird, Eddie Condon and others, as well as funny stories about lesser known players: "[Joe] Puma dropped in at a small New York Club where Jim Rainey was working. The club wasn't doing much business...there was a fire department sign on the wall... 'OCCUPANCY OF THESE PREMISES BY OVER 116 PEOPLE IS UNLAWFUL.' Jimmy penciled neatly underneath: 'AND UNLIKELY.'"

Sources include autobiographies, interviews, biographies, oral histories, and Crow's own experiences. Under "Acknowledgements," the book includes a great bibliography of jazz-related writings. No pictures, but an index, and, as mentioned earlier, lots of information mixed in with the humor. Very highly recommended.