In 1986, jazz guitarist, banjoist, singer and composer Danny Barker (who died in 1994) published the first volume of his memoirs "A Life in Jazz," which was widely praised as an addition to the history of jazz. This is a further selection of Barker's writings (beginning with a long portrait of Buddy Bolden, the "first man of jazz") drawn from conversations and interviews with the generation of jazzmen that invented the music. Many of those interviewed were musicians Danny Barker knew and worked with. The book also contains Barker's own recollections of Storyville in its dying days, plus more material dating from his pioneering period of work in the big bands, with a memoir of trombonist Charlie Green, and of life on the road with Cab Calloway
