Aerobleu: Pilot's Journal: 1939-1959 [Hardcover]

Chronicle Books LLC Staff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

Throughout jazz history there have been nightclubs where the music and the atmosphere live on to become legendary, like Minton's in Harlem or Lincoln Gardens in Chicago. In Paris in the late 1940's , it was Aerobleu -- notorious for its all-night jam sessions and its enigmatic owner, Max Morgan. In the heady chaos and excitement of postwar Paris, in a time that was every bit as shadowy, as sensual, as idealistic as it was reported to be, all paths crossed at Aerobleu. Drawn by a feverish mix of music and martinis, Janet Flanner, Hemingway, Picasso, and Bogart all flocked to hear the best jazz this side of Harlem. And when Max Morgon won an old DC-3 in an all-night poker game, Miles Davis and Max Roach were there, giving flight to the music in legendary jam sessions en route to New York, Paris, London, and New Orleans. In the late 1950s, the ever-elusive Max Morgan disappeared, vanishing mysteriously from Havana, leaving behind some of the best jazz ever played and a state of mind that has come to be known as "Aerobleu."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aerobleu Pilot's Journal is one-third of an unusually presented three-part novel. Packaged as a gift book, it is printed in handwriting font on newsprint, and its textured covers are stored in a beautiful metal slipcase, giving Aerobleu Pilot's Journal the feel of a World War II pilot's journal, which it pretends to be. Telling the story of Max Morgan, an American who is depressed by the damage he inflicted as a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, Aerobleu Pilot's Journal brings to life the popular music scene of post-war Paris. Morgan mysteriously acquires a bebop bar, Aerobleu, that becomes the main watering hole for all the great jazz musicians, literary figures, and cold-war spies who pass through the city and who entangle the narrator in cloak-and-dagger shenanigans that are never fully explained. More than just a gift book, Aerobleu Pilot's Journal, with its companion, Observations from the Bar, offers an engaging literary experience.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 1st Ed. edition (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811817555
• ISBN-13: 978-0811817554
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,610,844 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a movie tie-in with no movie..., July 4, 2000

By 

Elizabeth Metz "Muse" (Crescent, Iowa, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aerobleu: Pilot's Journal: 1939-1959 (Hardcover)

The Aerobleu series is made to look like authentic Jazz-age artifacts, with a style and feel that have the reader almost able to smell the smoke in the air of the 'legendary' Aerobleu club in Paris. The Pilot's Journal, one piece of the puzzle that is the series, is handwritten and personal, with enough left out that there are "holes" that the reader's mind fills in.

I haven't picked up the other two Chronicle Books in the series, but I have a feeling that by the time I'm done reading them, there will be a timeless story indelibly etched on my mind of Aerobleu and it's glitterati. It's well worth both the price and the wait, and I can't recommend it highly enough.