Customer Reviews

Sweet Music in Harlem

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In the late 1950's, new "Esquire" photographer Art Kane photographed 57 great jazz musicians standing and sitting on the staircase and sidewalk of a Harlem greystone. I own the poster reprint, and I enjoy looking at such legends as Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams, Thelonious Monk, Gene Krupa, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, Maxine Sullivan, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie sticking his tongue out at Roy Eldridge, the great and unassuming Count Basie sitting on the curbside next to some neighborhood kids, and there, on the 5th row from the top, cigarette dangling, Mr. Charles Mingus. There's been a lot written about this famous photo, but that's another book...

Debbie Taylor dips into the legend, and dabbles pieces of it throughout her loving portrait of an older jazz musician and the nephew who looks up to him. "C.J." is an aspiring clarinetist living with his Uncle Click, a semi-retired trumpet player who still jams at the "Midnight Melody Club." Click hears that a photographer from "Highnote" is taking his picture, but can't find his "snappy black beret." (It doesn't matter, I suppose, that the black beret was not a staple of trumpet players in the decades in which Chick would have played.) C.J. launches a search through Harlem hangouts looking for the signature hat.

C. J. loves his self-deprecating uncle ("Back then, I played the meanest trumpet in Harlem. Now all I do is lose things."), and runs to various Harlem hangouts-a barber shop, a café, and the "Midnight Melody Club," achieving three main results: Finding various other personal items that Uncle Chick lost, meeting some of Harlem's musicians, and informing the latter about the photo op. occurring soon at Click's place.

The great fun here is spotting the real musicians among the fictional ones portrayed by illustrator Frank Morrison. There's Dizzy and Duke Ellington at the barber shop owned by the fictional "Big Charlie Garlic," whose barber coat makes him look like a zoot-suited bopper. At the "Eat and Run Diner," we see Lester Young and Billie Holiday (curious that they're not sitting together), backgrounded by a NYC horizon of crammed brown buildings. At the club, C. J. finds his uncle's lost bow tie (but not his beret), prompting a singer's comment," He's forgetful, but when Chick blows his trumpet the wallpaper curls." There's a nice, almost rhythmic quality to Ms. Taylor's repeated verbal riffs. At every stop, someone compliments Uncle Chick, and comments on C.J.'s musical potential: "We're saving a spot for you here," says a drummer, "without losing the beat." "I reckon you'll be joining us in a few years." The denouement is exiting and dramatic, as the neighborhood musicians (Lester Young and Diz are both in this book as well as the original picture) gather on the stairs outside Chick's place for the photographer, and Chick not only finds his beret, but gives C. J. a new trumpet.

The book is colorful and energetic, and Debbie Taylor keeps the story moving briskly. For that reason alone, I think kids will enjoy it. There are, however, a few minor problems here, mostly in the illustrations. We're told that the book is inspired by Art Kane's photo, so it need not be historically accurate. However, the misspelling of bebop as "Bee Bop," the exclusion of famous musicians from the Harlem neighborhood (legal reasons?), and a Harlem that lacks a clear sense of time and place-all these elements reduce the book's impact. Perhaps on the theory that "more is more," illustrator Frank Morrison doesn't let up on the long-limbs, stretched curvy lines, and vivid shots of color filling the book. The best jazz musicians know when to "lay out," but Morrison just keeps pouring it on.

For some reason, the publishers felt it necessary to inform us that these aren't just illustrations done by some slouch, but by "fine artist Morrison," whose works are collected by people such as Bill Cosby and Maya Angelou. It's a little condescending to the great illustrators of kids' books for kids, and it hints of a time when the popular image of a jazz musician (nurtured in its sartorial aspects by Dizzy) was of a beret-wearing, unschooled performer not in the same league as classical music performers. I recommend the book, but with a sense that it could have been better.

One word came to mind as I read this book: community. The book was inspired by a picture that featured many people gathered on stairs with young children sitting at the base of them. The picture is pretty fantastic and it is no wonder it inspired a story. We follow C.J. around Harlem as he interacts with people that know him and his uncle. It is a warm feeling to know that everyone knows him.

The story is a search for a hat but what C.J. finds is so much more important. The famous photograph that inspired the story is of famous jazz musicians called Harlem 1958, by Art Kane. I love looking at old photographs of an era that came and went. It makes me imagine what things must have been like. I would love to have been around in those times when music was everywhere and everyone knew your name.

The artwork can be called nothing else. It is art. How anyone can fill an entire book with high quality illustrations has always left me in a state of awe. This book is no exception. The illustration really help transport the reader to a time when music and community were of the utmost importance. This book allows me to experience a feeling that I would otherwise never experience. I felt myself immersed in a culture different from my own and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

ahgooreview.com

Really cute, my girls loved this story. My two kids loved this book. They're 4 and 6 and sat to listen to the whole thing. The art work is beautiful and captivating and there's a surprise at the end that will tickle your funny bone like it did ours. Great story!

To think that this story was inspired by a picture on a t-shirt the author's husband wore! Creative story, wonderful illustrations that underscore jazz music and the way it flows. I loved the sense of community that is revealed as C.J. searches for his uncle's hat. Both the story and the illustrations pop with warmth and color and flow soulfully together making their own sweet music.