A vivid interpretation of the life of a remarkable musician perfect for “anyone who’s ever struggled to express themselves.”
A mostly wordless illustrated tribute to a celebrated yet doomed jazz musician.
In this unconventional graphic biography, Canadian cartoonist and illustrator Chantler chronicles the life of legendary 1920s musician Leon “Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931). Calling him the “unlikeliest of jazz heroes,” the author re-creates the musician’s life through a series of cartoon panels that relate events from previous biographies, varying in interpretation and reliability. Chantler’s drawings chronicle Beiderbecke’s childhood in World War–era Iowa, where he was raised by critical, conservative parents. The story then moves to his boyhood, when his love of music and harmonic jazz melodies blossomed, particularly after hearing it live from a passing river steamboat. Though his schooling suffered, he matured as a mostly self-taught musician, scoring gigs with local bands and garnering regional notoriety. Inspired by Louis Armstrong, Bix rose to prominence as an outstanding jazz pianist and cornetist. However, chronic alcohol dependency would lead to his death at age 28. Chantler’s treatment of the musician’s life is distinctly creative, capturing moods through facial expressions and tightly detailed panels. In the brief introduction, the author readily admits that several scenes in the book are “apocryphal at best,” but he notes that the silent nature of its contents and the manner in which Bix’s life is portrayed reflects the struggle of many hypercreative, misunderstood artists (himself included) to express themselves in terms outside of the art they create. His experimental visualization of musical rhythms in scenes depicting Bix’s career high points is a marvel of imaginative illustrated narration. Chantler poignantly notes that the book was drawn during a devastating upheaval in his own personal life and that sketching it served as a “life raft for my battered sense of self.” This biographical storybook is a unique keepsake for jazz fans.
A vivid interpretation of the life of a remarkable musician perfect for “anyone who’s ever struggled to express themselves.”Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9078-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Gallery 13/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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