Meet Me at Jim and Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World

Following on last year's superlative Singers and the Song , this new collection of Lees's perceptive essays from his magazine Jazzletter focuses on major instrumentalists and bandleadersPaul Desmond, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Woody Herman, Gerry Mulligan, Artie Shaw, Billy Taylor among them. Based on his intimate knowledge of these creative artists, Lees introduces us (often in their own words) to their individual personalities, attitudes and accomplishments. He explodes the ``subtly racist'' myth that poor, uneducated, inarticulate blacks invented jazz out of inspiration and thin air, by demonstrating that many seminal figures achieved what they did because they were superior musicians who mastered their craft through education and hard work. One of the most delightful essays recreates the bygone world of Jim & Andy's bar on New York's West 48th Street, a favorite tavern of jazz musicians in the 1960s, and an introduction pays tribute to Don DeMicheal, a jazz editor from Louisville who invented the legendary blues singer Blind Orange Adams. (Oct.)