Text and photographs present a biography of jazz musician Branford Marsalis chronicling his life from his childhood in Louisiana through his years in the Wynton Maralis Quintet and on his own.
Because the Baptist minister's children in a small North Carolina town have difficulty conforming to the roles their father wishes them to play for public consumption, fifteen-year-old Neal feels he must hide his consuming interest in jazz music.
Looks at the pervasiveness of racism in jazz's past and present--both the white racism that long ghettoized the music of talented African-American musicians, and what Lees maintains is an increasingly virulent reverse racism aimed at white jazz musicians.
Presents a comprehensive history of the development of jazz in America, tracing its origins in New Orleans during the 1920s and migrating North, and describes such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Fletcher Henderson.
