Blue Bossa [Hardcover]

Bart Schneider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

As this evocative novel opens, former jazz trumpet star Ronnie Reboulet hasn't picked up his horn in more than five years. Against the shadow of Patty Hearst's kidnapping in 1970s San Francisco, Ronnie, a charming but emotionally distant man, struggles to make a life free of drugs and outside of the music business. With the support of his soulful companion, Betty, and his daughter, Rae, an aspiring singer, Ronnie attempts a comeback that will have readers rooting for him every step of the way. Composed in short scenes that segue into one another like a songwriter's medley, Bart Schneider's Blue Bossa echoes the Buddy Bolden legend in Michael Ondaatje's Coming Through Slaughter. Readers will relish the cross-rhythms of a jazz novel alive with intimate music and a family novel filled with affections withheld and restored.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ronnie Reboulet, the Chet Baker-esque hero of this coolly passionate debut, has lost a lot: his teeth, his looks, his wife, his daughter and his career as a singer and trumpeter. On the positive side, he's beaten a heroin habit and found Betty, a girlfriend who forgives his weaknesses and admires his soul, no matter how far he wanders or how hard he tries to keep her at a distance. Then, one evening in the 1970s, his teenage daughter Rae?an aspiring singer who is struggling to give her own baby son the care Ronnie never gave her?appears on his doorstep, desperate for direction and love, and forces her way back into his life. Under her sway, Ronnie starts playing again, first alone, later in a club where the local San Francisco press rediscovers him. The masterful passages that follow Ronnie through his slow relearning of music are full of frustration, beauty and moments of elation. The individual dramas of Ronnie, Betty and Rae are all set against another family crisis that gripped the nation?namely the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. The contrast between the image of Randolph Hearst on TV, forced to make public declarations of his love for Patty, and Ronnie's battle against the urge to flee his family is particularly poignant. With grace and dexterity, Schneider cuts to the heart of the matter, his characters' losses and redemptions, outlining their lives in deceptively simple terms. By the end of the novel, just Ronnie's gesture (described en passant) of slipping off his shoes moves us because we know that it means he's using drugs again. Ronnie's singing style is described as "intimate, and yet free of affect." The same could be said about this smooth first novel from the editor of the Hungry Mind Review. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the late 1960s, Ronnie Reboulet was a brilliant but drug-wrecked jazz trumpeter who had blown notes of aching beauty for decades and then laid down his instrument for good. Five years later, all he has to show for his hard-won sobriety is ruined good looks, a nowhere Bay Area job, and the steadfast love of Betty, wise from her own sorrowful chapters. In 1974, Ronnie's life undergoes a sea change. His long-estranged, too-young daughter shows up on his doorstep with a child of her own just as Ronnie follows his troubled heart back to the freedom only music can bring him. Schneider, editor of the Hungry Mind Review, pulls the reader into the rhythm of this tale with vignettes of lovely artistry that weave back and forth throughout Ronnie's life. The standard formula of drugs plus musical wizardry equals heartbreak does not necessarily apply to this poignant tale of good-hearted people working hard to carve a life, hopefully with each other. Highly recommended.?Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., Mich.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067087695X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670876952
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,843,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love Jazz? You'll Love This Book, December 27, 2000

By 

William Gray (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Bossa (Hardcover)

Although the main character, Ronnie Reboulet, bears a striking resemblance to the legendary Chet Baker in musical style, personal appearance, and affinity for tragedy, this is not, nor is it intended to be, a fictional portrait of the late, great jazz trumpeter. The similarities are evocative but superficial. Reboulet is a unique and well-drawn character in his own right. Ronnie's story is not Chet's story, but is just as compelling, perhaps more so. Ronnie's personal relationships ache with tenderness and futility: wishful intention followed by inevitable disappointment. A daughter whom he has abandoned returns to Ronnie's life with a son of her own. They reunite with help from Ronnie's lover, a wise and stoic woman, who shepherds them all through the agonies of coming together and falling apart. It's a remarkable book, poetically written, emotionally true, with the gnostic lyricism of jazz underpinning it all. Jazz lovers will recognize the theme. From great pain and uncertainty in life, great art often flows.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick read with a "jazzy" flow, May 17, 2002

By 

Anna K "annoula_k" (Queens, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Bossa (Paperback)

This book was recommended to me by Amazon.com because I had bought a jazz cd. At first I was sceptical since I had never before read a "jazz novel," but decided to try it anyway. A quick read with a jazzy flow, "Blue Bossa" did not disappoint.

"Blue Bossa" is not exactly set in the grandest jazz period in history (it's set in the 1970s), yet it takes you on a virtual tour of jazz history through flashbacks of the life of Ronnie Reboulet, a "retired" trumpet star. Bart Schneider has woven a very intricate tale involving Ronnie's journey out of retirement, his reunion with an estranged daughter & grandson, the subsequent estrangement of his female companion, and the complexities of life in general. The chapters are short & sweet; each one is like an individual note of a song. The end result is a harmonious flow of words that leave you satisfied.

Certainly recommended for any jazz lover or simply anyone looking to read a great story.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific read, March 22, 1999

By 

"dkillen11" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Bossa (Paperback)

If you love sentences and/or jazz circa 1950-70, you will love this book. Read it slowly and savor the author's artful insight to the world of jazz.