Miles and Me

Miles and Me by Quincy Troupe   189 pages

I picked this nonfiction piece as my August selection to meet my 2018 New Year’s resolution. As I was pondering what titles to add the list in December 27, I grabbed this one off the shelf. I’ve like jazz music, but I have to admit that I’m extremely knowledgeable about it. I was aware that Miles Davis is one of the greatest of all time.

As I started to flip the pages, I landed on the title page, where lo and behold, was an inscription to me, personally, from the author. It was dated 10/7/06. I must have picked it up at a booksigning, probably at St. Louis’ best indie bookstore, Left Bank Books, but I have absolutely no recollection of the event. So I figured it was time to read this little gem.

The book is about Troupe and Davis and their collaboration on a book, “Miles: The Autobiography,” that was published in 1989.

In the first chapter of Troupe’s memoir, “Meeting Miles,” Troupe pulls no punches telling about their rocky start and how Davis was not an easy many to get along with. In fact, he as a snob, a jerk ad used the most awful language. With that kind of drivel spewing from his mouth, no wonder he hid behind dark sunglasses most of the time.

In the second chapter, “Up Close and Personal,” the two men become friends. Miles is hard to be friends with. He’s really just a jerk who can play the trumpet. I can’t say that I would even have like to have met the man after reading this book. I was struck about how much Davis hated how black he was and wondered if that didn’t contribute to his orneriness.

The third chapter is about the music. I won’t say I can recognize a Davis piece when I hear it, but Troupe’s musical criticism seems right on. Of course, I would have no real clue if Troupe was accurate or not. The final chapter is about the last few years of Davis’s life (he died on 1991) and his legacy.

“Miles and Me” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans

 

Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist    448 pages

I’ve always been fascinated with New Orleans. It’s such a contradictory city, with a touch of evil hovering over it, and an unsavory feel that often makes me nervous to visit. Yet, the foods that come from that part of the country are unparalleled.

Until I read Gary Krist’s nonfiction piece, Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans, I had come to believe that the debauchery of the 1960s through the ‘70s was at its height there. To me, and what I knew about the city, New Orleans made Las Vegas seem like a night out for nuns and priests.

Krist focuses on a scant thirty years, from 1890 to 1920. When I first realized that the book 448 and that 105 of them were the bibliography, notes, and index, I was a little overwhelmed, afraid that the writing would be too deep for me to sink my teeth into. However, Krist’s has written an easy-to-read narrative that held me attention from the beginning.

I enjoyed reading/learning about such characters and places as Storyville (where the city tried to coral its vice) and Tom Anderson (its unofficial mayor). There were the madams like Lulu White and Josie Arlington. There were the saloons and gambling houses. There was the immigrant population---Italians, whom too seemed to be in the same mess today’s illegals are in. I ws mesmerized by the corruption that ran rampart from the slums to the highest echelons of state government. Old Huey Long was a saint compared to some men back then; they make today’s politicians looks like humble old ladies.

I knew that New Orleans was a port-of-entry for many Italians, and they lived in slums and ghettos that reminded me of New York’s tenements. And I had learned of “Little Sicily” from a PBS special, The Italian-Americans.

There are three areas in the book that I really enjoyed reading: First, of course, are the jazzmen. Guys like Robert Charles, Buddy Bolden, Jellyroll Martin---how they created the music form that we now know as jazz, and how hard it was a musician wanted more than a gig in a whore house.

Second, was the Mafia or the Black-Hand. Krist could have delved into that more in my opinion, but still the rise and fall still fascinated me.

Third, the serial killer, The Axeman, seemed to target the Italians.  Brutality knows no generation.

Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans is an easy read that I highly recommend. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.