On The Bookshelf
WAITING FOR DIZZY | GENE LEES
The story of jazz is a story of individuals–enormously gifted, dedicated, sometimes driven, yet often gentle people.
In this volume, Gene Lees, continues his richly entertaining and informative chronicle of the lives and times of jazz with a new collection of fourteen memorable essays drawn from his renowned Jazzletter. Waiting for Dizzy adds to the insights of his two previous collections, where the lyricist, essayist, and music historian draws on a lifetime of experience, and in many cases friendships in the jazz world to bring fresh insights to the lives and work of these magnificent artists, whether he is discussing why any guitarists have unsteady time or the complex role of race in jazz history.
The heart of Waiting for Dizzy is its exquisitely crafted character studies, warm pictures of the men and women who created and continue to create this music. Beginning in the era of its first great flowering, the 1920s, he weaves a story of discrimination against Black Americans to the tragic, determined, gifted guitarist Emily Remler who sought to break the sex barrier and her own drug habit, only to die all too young in a far-away place.
The stories continue through the final essay: a day spent in the recording studio with Dizzy Gillespie, surrounded by brilliant younger musicians who are his spiritual children, among them Art Farmer and Phil Woods. It is a lyrical, affectionate, and affecting portrait of one of the three or four most important figures–and the most loved– in jazz history.
Waiting For Dizzy: 1991 | Gene Lees
Oxford University Press
