Written by Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark and featuring a diverse group of artists, Deep Cuts is a richly imagined and illustrated anthology of fictional vignettes that recreate the history of jazz, from New Orleans in the early 20th century to the L.A. music scene of the late 1970s. Broadly inspired by the lives of a century of jazz musicians, the writers use fictional surrogates from successive historical periods to represent their musical prowess and triumphs and the financial and social challenges jazz artists navigate to survive in the American music industry. In this 12-page excerpt from one vignette, called “Blue Notes: New York City 1956” and set in the hard bop era that followed the death of Charlie Parker, the writers and artist Ramon K. Perez render the mythology of a legendary trumpet player, capturing the feel of bebop jam sessions, the nuance of jazz composition, and the grim impact of drugs and New York City cops on the hippest musicians of the time. Deep Cuts by Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark is out now from Image Comics.