Kansas City Lightning

It was around X'mas 2013 and I wanted to know what were the best recommended books from 2013. Found this list but it was all novels. Then I went on Amazon and it recommended this book by Stanley Crouch about Charlie Parker's days in KC. I downloaded the intro and eventually borrowed the book from the library for two months. (It's ~330 pages and not exactly a page turner so it took me a long time to finish :P I did read 130 pages in 5 days right before the due date) To be honest, I am kinda biased against the author's work because he has a tendency to relate everything to race, e.g. what happened to whom because he was African American or not. And it affected how he favored some jazz musicians/music over others. With that in mind, I still find it valuable to know what happened in USA during the 1st half of the 20th century in the social context of African American. It did explain the origins of some elements of jazz, and the social background from which jazz was emerged: a politically corrupted city allowed entertainment venues to thrive, which in turns allowed musicians to prosper (and honed their craft via experimentation with others.) There were tons of dramas in Charlie Parker's life too: drug addiction, how he met his first wife (whose family subleased from the Parker's) and how they separated, his move to Chicago and New York and back. My timing of reading this book couldn't be better since I am also studying Parker's improvisation lines.

BTW, I read some reviews recommended that audiobook was ideal for it. In fact, I think Hollywood could make a good movie out of it (starring Bruno Mars as Charlie Parker? I don't think Crouch would approve :P)