Jazz

by Miles Rothwell

Jazz is a film noir inspired snapshot of the life of Ben ‘Freddie’ Thurman who lives a quiet solitary existence playing piano in a jazz band at a Seoul Nightclub. He lives in a one bedroom apartment. His days float by, he rarely sees the Sun and spends his days sleeping after performing at night.
One night a group of American businessmen stroll into the nightclub as it’s the only place open. One of the men takes a photo of Freddie's band and sends it home to his wife and son who live in the suburbs amongst isolation from neighbours. His son researches the musician and finds out he was a famous session player and member of a backing band at the Lynx Lounge who used to support Freddie Webster, Sonny Stitt and a host of others.
The American doesn’t know much about Jazz but is intrigued with the piano player performing in the Seoul nightclub scene which is filled with drugs, prostitutes and other shady figures of the Seoul underworld.
Freddie symbolises New York - The people the subway the parks the restaurants they were all me, he states. He lived in the Cecil Hotel on Seventh Ave and frequented Minton’s. Freddie remembers the Brownstone buildings with names like Adelle, Onyx and guys like Drex who sold Dexedrine to musos to keep them going through the ten or twelve sets a night.
One of Freddie's neighbours is a transsexual dancer and when Gigi is murdered the integrity of the club land owners and their dealings with property developers with links to the Freemason Fraternity is called into question.
Freddie's other friends Jae-yo and Cia find out about Gigi's murder while on holiday at a peaceful meditation resort in the countryside. They help him to make sense of the loss of his neighbour. The style is film noir based with references to the purity of Jazz performance and the search and dedication to the cause.
Freddie decides the official report of Gigi's death is unacceptable and takes it upon himself to investigate further by delving into the shadowy world of Club owners. Freddie is approached by one such underworld figure to perform in a proposed Casino venue which Freddie initially baulks at as it epitomises everything he despises – grand commercialism on a grand scale - but accepts the proposal when the developer insinuates he might be able to assist with his enquiries into Gigi's death.

ebook

Published May 15, 2016

About the author

Miles Rothwell was born in Sydney, Australia in 1962. His first creative piece of writing was a short poem titled - Snow which impressed his school teacher so much he had to read it in front of his class mates which by all accounts was a terrifying experience.
When the band Talking Heads released 'Remain In Light', Miles became obsessed with writing lyrics. After reading Joyce's 'Ulysses', Miles knew he wanted to become an author. His first manuscript was written while living in Darlinghurst in the 1980's.
Miles wanted to be a musician but had neither the skill or aptitude to progress, so writing became an obsession trying to emulate the likes of Joyce, Proust, Pynchon and Patrick White.
Music is a constant theme in all his novels as Miles sees Music as Humankind's most artistic pursuit.
Favourite Books:
Ulysses - extraordinary, brilliant and full of risks.
Gravity's Rainbow - simply a work of genius
À la recherche du temps perdu - superb re-counting of detail taken to the most extreme level
Tree of Man - White at his best, there is something noble in the ordinariness of the characters.
Catch-22 - the book that changed my years in high school
The Glass Bead Game - pure genius and one of the most under rated novelists
Miles ranks making Spike Milligan laugh at an ABC shop book signing as one of his greatest personal moments.