THE LAST JAZZ BAND
By Charles Boeckman
Jazztex Publishing Co.
185 pages
When World War II pilot Charlie Neil learns his beloved
wife, Meg, has died only months before his discharge, his world is turned
upside down. He returns to an empty
apartment in New York City
and is cruelly haunted by the dreams he’d left behind. Then an old war buddy,
and fellow musician, Ted Riley, calls from South Texas
to tell Charlie he’s putting together and hot jazz band and wants him to pack
his clarinet and come join him to make musical history.
What follows over the next three years is a full tilt life
altering odyssey for Charlie and his fellow members of Joe Barney’s Jazz
Band. From the honkytonks of Corpus Christi to the
seedy dirt alleys of Mexican cantinas, Charlie, Ted, Skinny Lang, Cemetery
Wilson and Big Irving play for all they are worth; drinking, carousing and
taking on whatever life has to dish out. When they end up in New Orleans and manage to cut a demo tape,
Ted is convinced it is only the beginning of their new found fame but Charlie
can see the winds of change; their kind of reckless, pure jazz has run its
course.
Writer Charles Boeckman is that rare soul who is both an accomplished
musician and gifted writer able to infuse his fiction with the same feverish
beat that propelled the wonderful music he has played all his life. He weaves characters throughout his narrative
like melodies always in flux, always changing, always moving to the inevitable
final crescendo that is the end.
The story of Charlie Neil and his pal Ted Riley is funny,
sad and heart wrenching in so many ways that it will leave the reader with a
tear and a smile all the while tapping their feet to some unheard beat. Why Hollywood
hasn’t found “The Last Jazz Band” is a true tragedy. If you enjoy inspired storytelling, find this
book now!
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