Customer Reviews

Blue Bossa

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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.

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.

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.

I hadn't intended to read this,but now that I have, I'm certanly happy I did!
I read none of the review's or discription's of this book before reading it & come to find out, I'm not the only one to compair it to Chet Baker's life.
I too recommend this to any lover of Jazz music.

Blue Bossa is the story of Ronnie Reboulet, a down and out former jazz musician on the comeback trail.

A former addict who has been cleaned up and more or less rehabilitated by the woman he's living with, Ronnie hasn't played at all in over five years when the book opens. His estranged daughter, with a grandson in tow, arrives on the scene with the ambition of becoming a singer. Drawn back into the world of music, Ronnie starts playing again, hooks up with a young local musician, and is back in the groove. Unfortunately, the groove leads him back to the addictions that got him in trouble in the first place.

The book consists of a long series of short, feisty passages portraying his relationship with both his daughter and lover interspersed with a series of flashbacks to his youth working with the greats of the jazz scene of the 1960's and 1970's. These retrospective scenes provide a lively look into that scene and are both extremely informative as well as emmenintly entertaining given the characters involved.

Ultimately it all comes together for Ronnie-and then proceeds to once again fall apart.

A novel about the power of love-and it's limitations-the power of music and the source of artistic inspiration, this is a beautiful, heartfelt little gem of a novel any jazz fan is sure to love.