Customer Reviews

Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World

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Jim and Andy's bar, located at 48th Street and 6th Avenue in New York, was a home, restaurant, answering service, employment agency, bank, storage place, and general hang-out for some of the 60's most famous jazz musicians, including Gerry Mulligan, Clark Terry, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Eddie Davis, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims--with visits from Belafonte, Bennett, Horne, and Vaughan.

Here, the bar serves primarily as a backdrop for Lees' intimate conversations with musicians and observations on the idiom. Lee admonishes critics who question the status of jazz as a "serious" art form. The rest of the book, while somewhat overly-structured, includes chapters devoted to such icons as Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Billy Taylor, and Art Farmer. The writing is uniformly lucid; the anecdotes humorous and illuminating.

While the book doesn't return to a satisfying coda to either Jim and Andy's (now closed) or the new hang-outs, Lee's first person narrative conveys a singular warmth and sympathy, radiant with his love of jazz.

I read "Meet Me at Jim and Andy's" a decade ago and still can enjoy now the joy it gave me then. I have just (September, 2005) looked up the book on Amazon to buy it for a friend and am surprised to see only a lone review of it, and that bestowing somewhat qualified praise. I was an editor for many years and am a teacher of writing. I would bet whatever reputation I have on my belief that every book Gene Lees has written is a gem and that this one is a masterpiece. Lees reports from the front lines of jazz on remarkable individuals who come alive in the reading. You do not need any great interest in jazz to be fascinated and moved by the writing. Lees has deep humanitarian insights, the gifts of a born storyteller and the prose of a poet. He has uncanny knowledge of his subject, the memory of an elephant and the respect of great numbers of practitioners in the varied realms of music. Necessary disclosure: I met Gene Lees early in the Nineties and we became friends. For years, living 3,000 miles apart, we have had only spasmodic communication. I don't believe this should disbar me from stating my conviction that this book, and others of Lees's award winning titles, will occupy a deserved and undying place in the history of music. Today they are an enlightenment and a joy for all.

An illuminating look into the lives of some of the most brilliantly talented jazz musicians in the 20th & 21st century. You'll learn
some very interesting facts about these talented people that one would never imagine. The author, Gene Lees, was a knowledgeable and factual
writer with strong feelings for the jazz world. Plus, Lees understood "The Guys." This is a "must read" book.
Michael Thomas - Thompson