Book description
Mezz Mezzrow was a white Jewish boy who learnt how to play
saxophone while he was in reformatory school. He was one of the first
white musicians to dedicate himself to jazz (as a saxophonist, a
manager for Louis Armstrong, owning his own record label and he was
also one of jazz's most famous drug dealers) and crossed the racial
divide in 1920's America to make himself part of black culture.
In Really the Blues he describes the underworld of 1920's and 30's
America, from New York to Chicago and New Orleans. Mezzrow captures
the atmosphere of the brothels, bars and honky-tonks, as well as the
oversized personalities of those musicians he played with; from Bessie
Smith and Sidney Bechet to Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong. Written in
the slang of the jazz underground, Mezzrow introduced the world to
words such as “hipster”, “groovy” and “high”.
It is one of the great music autobiographies (and its influence
has been felt for decades, Tom Waits still credits it as a major
influence on his own life and work). Mezz Mezzrow was the literary
pioneer for the Beats, hippies and every writer since who has written
about the music that has moved their generation to rebellion or joy.
Mezz Mezzrow was born in 1899, and organised (and played in)
some of the most famous recording sessions of the 1930's and 40's. He
was jailed in 1940 for possession of marijuana and died in 1972.
Bernard Wolfe was a journalist who met Mezz Mezzrow in the 1940's
and helped him to write his autobiography.
Barry Gifford is the biographer of Jack Kerouac and the novelist
of 'Wild at Heart', among others.
