Gene Lees began his journalistic career in Ontario, Canada, where he was born. In 1955 he came to Kentucky as the music critic for the Louisville Times. From 1959 to 1962 he was editor of Down Beat magazine after which he freelanced for several notable publications, building his reputation as a prominent critic and spokesman for jazz. He wrote liner notes for the recordings of leading jazz musicians and studied composition, piano and guitar. In 1967 he published his first novel, And Sleep Until Noon.

He wrote lyrics for several Antonio Carlos Jobim tunes: “Dreamer,” “Someone to Light Up My Life,” and the popular “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars.” He also contributed lyrics to Milton Nascimento’s “Bridges” and Bill Evans’ “Waltz for Debby” (which Monica Zetterlund sings in Swedish with Evans) and translated the poems of Pope John Paul II which Sarah Vaughan recorded in 1985 as One World, One Peace.

Returning to Canada in the early ‘70s, Lees served as president of Kanata, which released his first vocal album, and hosted shows on radio and television. After returning to the States he was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor award three times and began a prolific period of writing. In 1981 he published The Modern Rhyming Dictionary and began his own prestigious monthly publication Jazzletter. He drew on the newsletter for the material contained in his next three critically acclaimed books: Singers and the Song (1987), Meet Me at Jim & Andy’s (1988), and Waiting for Dizzy (1991). He wrote the biography Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing in 1988 and collaborated with Henry Mancini on his 1989 autobiography Did They Mention the Music? He also wrote Inventing Champagne: The Worlds of Lerner and Lowe (1990) and Jazz Lives (1992). His Cats of Any Color: Jazz, Black and White came out in 1994 and You Can’t Steal a Gift: Dizzy, Clark, Milt, and Nat in 2001. In 2003 he published an autobiographical work, Friends Along the Way: A Journey Through Jazz, and his most recent work is an intimate account of his lyricist friend, Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer (2004).

- Sandra Burlingame