Description: The riveting biography of one of the world's greatest yet lesser-known jazz musicians
Brief description: Con Chapman is a Boston-area writer and author of Rabbit's Blues: The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges, winner of the 2019 Book of the Year Award by Hot Club de France, and Kansas City Jazz: A Little Evil Will Do You Good, nominee for 2023 Book of the Year Award by the Jazz Journalists Association. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and other publications.
Review Quotes: In Sax Expat: Don Byas, Chapman deftly cuts to the chase about his subject, a man worthy of admiration, and who, as the author sites in the prologue, had a lifelong desire to 'create his own identity, in equal parts romantic and noble.' . . . Chapman's ultimate view of Byas as a 'sensitive and intelligent man' is an excellent and very worthy read.--Marilyn Lester "The New York City Jazz Record"