Four Lives in the Bebop Business [Ornette Coleman; Herbie Nichols; Jackie McLean; Cecil Taylor]

xiv, 241 pp. An account of the lives and careers of four jazz musicians, based on hours of recorded interviews, intended as "an essentially human account of what it's like to be a Negro artist in the least remunerative but most lively and exciting field of American art today." Spellman focuses on two saxophonists and two pianists, using their experiences as a lens through which to examine jazz culture as a whole.