Although Count Basie worked with some flamboyant musical personalities, he was himself a rather quiet man and comes off as very demure in this autobiography. This thoroughly researched book details his career from its roots in the territory bands to his stature as a jazz icon. The history of the Basie band and its music is documented extensively through what, where, and when the band played and recorded. Although the book is interesting in historical terms, it will mainly be of interest to jazz standards readers who are Basie aficionados.

Albert Murray is a critic, novelist and biographer. He is cofounder of Jazz at Lincoln Center and the author of The Omni-Americans: Black Experience and American Culture, The Blue Devils of Nada, The Seven League Boots, and Train Whistle Guitar.

Dan Morgenstern is the Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers, editor of the Journal of Jazz Studies, and former editor-in-chief of Down Beat. He is the author of Living with Jazz: A Reader and the award-winning Jazz People, the former editor of three jazz publications, and consistently writes for numerous newspapers and periodicals.