HarperCollins have just published that rarity: a jazz book by an author uniquely placed and guaranteed to dominate the jazz twittersphere, blogosphere, magazineosphere: you name it. Expect a controversy and if there isn't one: that's the controversy. Yes, it’s Stanley Crouch’s long awaited life of Bird, Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker. Crouch has been working on the book apparently since the early-1980s. Surely someone should ask Django Bates to review it, or Matthew Shipp! One thing it won’t be is boring.
The cover of Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker pictured