Jazzman

"This book speaks for itself. Read it, and be transported to the smoked filled jazz clubs of the nascent bop era, and hear its music as you follow the roller coaster career of the trumpet-playing protagonist." -David Shire

Jazzman is the vivid tale of Lance Willliams, a brilliant, innovative and troubled trumpet player in a golden age of jazz in the '40s and '50s, back when such musicians as John Coltrane and Charlie Mingus were household names. Fogg, a veteran novelist and former corporate executive and consultant, is himself a former jazz musician. He has long known that world inside and out. The novel takes us from Lance's prodigy years as a youth in Buffalo to fame and then decline, to near self-destruction, from drug addiction, amidst the stresses and temptations of the capital of jazz -- New York City -- and then back to his provincial but welcoming hometown as he tries to put his life together again. Along the way we get an unforgettable insider's look at the smoky world of jazz -- that great American art form - and a panoramic view of churning mid-century life.

"...an unforgettable insider's look at the smoky world of jazz -- that great American art form - and a panoramic view of churning mid-century life."-Robert Whitcomb, Opinion Page Editor, Providence Journal