Paul Combs – författare

Dameronia is the first authoritative biography of Tadd Dameron, an important and widely influential figure in jazz history as one of the most significant composers and arrangers of jazz, swing, bebop, and big band. He arranged for names like Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, and Dizzy Gillespie and played with Bull Moose Jackson and Benny Golson. This book sets out to clarify Dameron's place in the development of jazz in the post–World War II era. It also attempts to shed light on the tragedy of his retreat from the center of jazz activity in the 1950s. By tracing Dameron's career, one finds that until 1958, when he was incarcerated for drug related offenses, he was at the forefront of developments in jazz, sometimes anticipating trends that would not develop fully for several years. Dameron was also an important influence on several high-profile musicians, including Miles Davis, Benny Golson, and Frank Foster. Dameron was a very private man, and while in some aspects of his life he will probably remain an enigma, this book manages to give an intimate portrait of his life at a couple of key stages: the height of his career in 1949 and the brief but productive period between his release from prison and his death.

Readers will find that this book is more than a collection of 156 fire service editorial cartoons. Paul Combs is a gifted artist who uses his talent as a tool to express his passion for making a difference in the fire service, the greatest job in the world.

Paul Combs has returned with a second collection of his fire service editorials, Drawn by Fire, Too!An 18-year veteran firefighter and the editorial cartoonist for Fire Engineering magazine, Combs sees and captures moments that help us all take a good look at ourselves and learn from. He does it as no one else can—with humor, irreverence, respect, insight, compassion, and the skills of an award-winning illustrator.