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Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World
Gene Lees, author of the highly acclaimed Singers and the Song , offers, in Meet Me at Jim & Andy's , another tightly integrated collection of essays about postwar American music. This time he focuses on major jazz instrumentalists and bandleaders.
In a vivid series of portraits, Lees introduces the clientele of Jim & Andy's, one of the most popular New York musicians' haunts in the sixties. This unforgettable gallery of individualists included Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Art Farmer, Billy Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, and Paul
Desmond among many others. Lees, himself a noted songwriter, writes about these musicians with vividness and intimacy. Far from being the inarticulate jazz musicians of legend, they turn out to be eloquent indeed as the inventors of a colorful slang that has passed into the American
language.
In a vivid series of portraits, Lees introduces the clientele of Jim & Andy's, one of the most popular New York musicians' haunts in the sixties. This unforgettable gallery of individualists included Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Art Farmer, Billy Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, and Paul
Desmond among many others. Lees, himself a noted songwriter, writes about these musicians with vividness and intimacy. Far from being the inarticulate jazz musicians of legend, they turn out to be eloquent indeed as the inventors of a colorful slang that has passed into the American
language.
Paperback
First published November 1, 1987
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About the author
Gene Lees
42 books6 followersFrederick Eugene John Lees (February 8, 1928 – April 22, 2010) was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and journalist.
Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist.
Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 13, 2011
HOLY GOD this was an incredible book. I'm dying to recommend it to people but I know I'll get about as far as "I read this amazing collection of essays about jazz..." and that will be that.
The author writes about all aspects of the jazz world, from the hilarity of boozed-up players in their favoured NYC drinking hole of the '60s, to the heroin addiction, suicide and, in one case, murder that blighted the scene. He writes beautifully about the people and the craft and the life, and he held me spellbound every step of the way.
The author writes about all aspects of the jazz world, from the hilarity of boozed-up players in their favoured NYC drinking hole of the '60s, to the heroin addiction, suicide and, in one case, murder that blighted the scene. He writes beautifully about the people and the craft and the life, and he held me spellbound every step of the way.
June 10, 2013
I seem to stand alone on this one.....I was hoping for a looser oral history of jazz Reminiscences somewhat like 'Jazz Anecdote's' by the great Gerry Mulligan bassist Bill Crow. I have been a Jazz programmer and fan of the music for 3 decades, but I am not a musician. I can appreciate the author's skill in braking down music note by note, but it is boring and pompous sounding to those of us who don't play. I was very entertained by the more human exchanges that actually took place at the various jazz haunts in NYC, rather than hearing over and over how a b-minor double flatted fifth chord made the difference on a solo in Rachmaninoff's piano concerto no.2.... Book was not very interesting at all considering the material the author had to work with.
March 14, 2020
Meet Me is one of the finest books written on the world of jazz and some of its foremost practitioners in the 1950s-70s, the last Golden Era for this music. Gene Lees was a true insider, having written for DownBeat and other trade periodicals as well as creating lyrics for several instrumental songs such as Bill Evans’s “Waltz For Debby.” He was also personal friends with some of the artists profiled, including Evans and Paul Desmond; the chapter detailing the legendary Desmond dry wit is worth the price of the book all by itself. Even if you’re only a casual jazz fan you’ll find this an eminently worthwhile read.
July 31, 2018
As good as music writing gets.
June 16, 2024
This landed on my radar when I stumbled across the chapter on Rosolino excerpted on a random blog. I read it and it blew me away, so I immediately ordered a copy of the book. I've read that chapter back a few times and its astonishing -- composed like a great short story, but drawn directly from a strange-but-true story. The ambiguity, the unknowability, of its nightmarish qualities is so perfectly balanced by the relatability present in Lees's portrait of Frank Rosolino. I can't recommend this piece of writing highly enough.
The chapters on Evans and Desmond are similarly powerful. I also found the chapter on Woody Herman incredibly compelling. Lees makes some interesting arguments in the chapter on Ellington, and even moreso in a chapter called 'The Myth'. This is stuff worth reading for those of us who are invested in jazz. Lees is a wonderful writer and his up-close-and-personal position makes for some fascinating work (the detail about him and Gerry Mulligan going to see Company -- which they both "enormously admired" the score of -- in the wake of Judy Holliday's death is such an evocative, beautiful, heart-aching moment). The inside-info about Brubeck and Desmond sneaking womens' phone numbers into their solos as they walk into the club is priceless.
This book will turn you on the musicians and recordings that you weren't aware of -- I guarantee you. It will also give you a new appreciation for ones that you are familiar with. I know I went back to and listened to tons of the Bill Evans stuff again, and listened for the intricacies, and the narrative, and the personality of the man, that Lees has made me more aware of.
For the artists among us, here is a quotation that I adored -- attributed to Artie Shaw:
"There's a big difference between the artist and the entertainer. When we talk about Elvis Presley or John Denver or Fleetwood Mac, we're talking about entertainment. Now there's nothing wrong with entertainment. But we ought to make a distinction between that and art.
"Take Phil Woods--or anybody who's an artist. The man has a serious purpose, which is basically to do what he does to his utmost limits. If the audience doesn't like it, that's too bad. He naturally wishes they did. But he can't stop himself. Where the entertainer says, 'Give the people what they want,' the artist says, 'No, I'm gonna give the people what I want. And if they don't like it, tant pis, that's tough, but I gotta do it.' Isn't that the basic distinction? And don't we overlook it?
"I keep telling people, 'If you want to play your own kind of music, get yourself a livelihood. If you want to write your own kind of music, do something like what Charles Ives did -- run an insurance company, or take up carpentry, whatever.' I read something somewhere recently. If you cheat on your own ability, for instance by writing less than your best, in order to make money, you're doing something that'll vitiate your abilities forever.
"It's too bad most people can't seem to see these distinctions. When you're a young man just getting out in the world, one of your biggest problems is, 'How am I going to make a living?' In order to do it, you must please a certain number of people so they'll pay you the money you need. When you get past that -- that is, if you grow -- you can then ask yourself, 'Now. What do I want to do? Rather than, 'How do I make more money?' And the more they make, the more some like it, and they laugh, as they say, all the way to the bank. Man, what a phrase. But they've stopped growing. I prefer to invert the old phrase, 'If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?' and make it, 'If you're so wise, why ain't you poor?'
"A few weeks ago I was at a writers' conference in Santa Barbara. Joey Bushkin was playing piano, and he talked about Bing Crosby. When he was working with Bing, he played something and Bing liked it and the audience liked it. The next time Joey played it differently. Bing said to him -- and Joey quoted this with some admiration -- 'If you do it right and the audience likes it, why change it?' Joey looked at me and said, 'Don't you agree?' And I said, 'No. If you're an artist, you have to change it. How can you keep doing the same thing over and over without being bored to death? And the boredom, if you're someone who's capable of growth, eventually communicates itself to an audience.' Point is, the reason Lawrence Welk has been so successful is that he does what would bore me to tears and does it with great enthusiasm. Guy Lombardo did what he did very well. But it was Model T music, of course. He was a sweet guy, and the band played Model T music. We used to laugh at them when I was a kid. When I was seventeen, I worked right across the street from him in Cleveland. I was listening to Bix and Tram at the time, and the Goldkette band and, occasionally, even the Dixieland Five. Guy's was a perfectly okay sweet band, like Jan Garber, Paul Specht. Paul Whiteman, mostly, was a sweet band."
The chapters on Evans and Desmond are similarly powerful. I also found the chapter on Woody Herman incredibly compelling. Lees makes some interesting arguments in the chapter on Ellington, and even moreso in a chapter called 'The Myth'. This is stuff worth reading for those of us who are invested in jazz. Lees is a wonderful writer and his up-close-and-personal position makes for some fascinating work (the detail about him and Gerry Mulligan going to see Company -- which they both "enormously admired" the score of -- in the wake of Judy Holliday's death is such an evocative, beautiful, heart-aching moment). The inside-info about Brubeck and Desmond sneaking womens' phone numbers into their solos as they walk into the club is priceless.
This book will turn you on the musicians and recordings that you weren't aware of -- I guarantee you. It will also give you a new appreciation for ones that you are familiar with. I know I went back to and listened to tons of the Bill Evans stuff again, and listened for the intricacies, and the narrative, and the personality of the man, that Lees has made me more aware of.
For the artists among us, here is a quotation that I adored -- attributed to Artie Shaw:
"There's a big difference between the artist and the entertainer. When we talk about Elvis Presley or John Denver or Fleetwood Mac, we're talking about entertainment. Now there's nothing wrong with entertainment. But we ought to make a distinction between that and art.
"Take Phil Woods--or anybody who's an artist. The man has a serious purpose, which is basically to do what he does to his utmost limits. If the audience doesn't like it, that's too bad. He naturally wishes they did. But he can't stop himself. Where the entertainer says, 'Give the people what they want,' the artist says, 'No, I'm gonna give the people what I want. And if they don't like it, tant pis, that's tough, but I gotta do it.' Isn't that the basic distinction? And don't we overlook it?
"I keep telling people, 'If you want to play your own kind of music, get yourself a livelihood. If you want to write your own kind of music, do something like what Charles Ives did -- run an insurance company, or take up carpentry, whatever.' I read something somewhere recently. If you cheat on your own ability, for instance by writing less than your best, in order to make money, you're doing something that'll vitiate your abilities forever.
"It's too bad most people can't seem to see these distinctions. When you're a young man just getting out in the world, one of your biggest problems is, 'How am I going to make a living?' In order to do it, you must please a certain number of people so they'll pay you the money you need. When you get past that -- that is, if you grow -- you can then ask yourself, 'Now. What do I want to do? Rather than, 'How do I make more money?' And the more they make, the more some like it, and they laugh, as they say, all the way to the bank. Man, what a phrase. But they've stopped growing. I prefer to invert the old phrase, 'If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?' and make it, 'If you're so wise, why ain't you poor?'
"A few weeks ago I was at a writers' conference in Santa Barbara. Joey Bushkin was playing piano, and he talked about Bing Crosby. When he was working with Bing, he played something and Bing liked it and the audience liked it. The next time Joey played it differently. Bing said to him -- and Joey quoted this with some admiration -- 'If you do it right and the audience likes it, why change it?' Joey looked at me and said, 'Don't you agree?' And I said, 'No. If you're an artist, you have to change it. How can you keep doing the same thing over and over without being bored to death? And the boredom, if you're someone who's capable of growth, eventually communicates itself to an audience.' Point is, the reason Lawrence Welk has been so successful is that he does what would bore me to tears and does it with great enthusiasm. Guy Lombardo did what he did very well. But it was Model T music, of course. He was a sweet guy, and the band played Model T music. We used to laugh at them when I was a kid. When I was seventeen, I worked right across the street from him in Cleveland. I was listening to Bix and Tram at the time, and the Goldkette band and, occasionally, even the Dixieland Five. Guy's was a perfectly okay sweet band, like Jan Garber, Paul Specht. Paul Whiteman, mostly, was a sweet band."
May 2, 2023
Intimate view of post WWII jazz musicians of note. Provides details of well-known and not so well-known significant musicians in the history of jazz. I enjoyed the nick names Gene Lees gave to each. A must read for jazz fans to fill in the picture of the evolution of this music.
November 28, 2023
This is a wonderful collection of essays by Gene Lees, taken from his Jazz Letter. He admirably brings to life the various characters he is profiling. Happily, Lees published a number of such books, so if this one interests you, there are several others to look for!
August 19, 2011
i don't know, i shoulda been reading this Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Mayhem, Life and this Kids of the Black Hole: Punk Rock in Post-Suburban California and this Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music instead of Lees, but oh well, this book had some, sort of entertaining stories and insights in to drug/jazz culture, back in the day.
July 15, 2012
Wonderful book of long essays written by a composer and journalist. Reminisces about such musicians as Art Farmer, BIll Evans, Billie Taylor, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Duke, Paul Desmond, actress/singer Judy Holiday, and the various hangouts for jazz musicians like Jim and Andy's and Charlie's and other places I wish I had been able to visit.
September 14, 2018
I love jazz and reading about music, but I'd never heard of this book or author. (Turns out Lees was the long-time editor of Down-Beat Magazine.) This is really a collection of profiles and vignettes, but it paints a larger picture of jazz as a way of life, a business, and an art form. Especially terrific profiles of Bill Evans and Artie Shaw.
January 25, 2008
I wish the introductory chapter, a description and brief history of the old NYC professional musicians' hangout, Jim & Andy's, filled a book all on its own.
August 11, 2015
Insight into the lives of some jazz legends. For any jazz fan
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews