Kansas City Lightning: The Rise And Times Of Charlie Parker

"Good artists make good art; great artists change the way we think and talk about it. Charlie Parker was great, and his effect on jazz was so incredible and outsize, it’s easy to forget that he was only 34 when he died. Kansas City Lightning, by esteemed cultural critic Stanley Crouch, isn’t just a biography of Parker; it’s also a history of one of the most important times in American music. Crouch’s prose is, as usual, perfect — it takes a genius to write about one, perhaps, and Kansas City Lightning is a thoughtful, generous look at one of the country’s most important artists."