Geoff Dyer

A fictional recreation of the spirit and sound of jazz traces the history of the music through the lives of eight great musicians: Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Chet Baker, Bud Powell, and Art Pepper

A Book about Jazz

But Beautiful

"May be the best book ever written about jazz."—David Thomson, Los Angeles Times In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skillfully evokes the music and the men who shaped modern jazz. Drawing on photos, anecdotes, and, most important, the way he hears the music, Dyer imaginatively reconstructs scenes from the embattled lives of some of the greats: Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonious Monk creating his own private language on the piano. However, music is the driving force of But Beautiful, and wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity, and brilliance of each musician's style.

But Beautiful A Book about Jazz

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