This fine collection of essays is especially significant because the author personally knew his subjects, including Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Desmond, and others. Not following the usual biographical patterns, Lees often highlights unknown aspects of their careers or personal lives. Bassist John Heard discusses his painting, Woody Herman his deep sorrow at the loss of his wife. The complex and charismatic Artie Shaw, virtuoso, reluctant bandleader, intellectual, and writer speaks without artifice. And with Bill Evans, Lees discusses his music and digs into the extraordinary aspects of his playing. The chapter on Jim and Andy’s, the former musicians’ hangout on New York’s 48^th Street off of Sixth Avenue, is both amusing and nostalgic. Booklist called this “...One of the masterpieces on jazz by the best jazz essayist there is.”

Gene Lees is a jazz journalist, the biographer of Lerner and Loewe, and the author of Meet Me at Jim & Andy’s; Friends Along the Way: A Journey Through Jazz; Cats of Any Color: Jazz, Black and White; Arranging the Score: Portraits of the Great Arrangers; Leader of the Band: The Life of Woody Herman; Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer; Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee; Singers and the Song, and Singers and the Song II. Lees is also a three-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Journalists Association, a lyricist for such songs as Jobim’s “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars,” and the writer and publisher since 1981 of Jazzletter.