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Young Man with a Horn
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
11 posts | 3 read | 11 to read
Dorothy Baker's Young Man with a Horn is widely regarded as the first jazz novel, and it courses with the verve and swing of the music that defined an era. From the beginning, Rick Martin loved music and the music loved him. He could pick up a tune so quickly that it didn't matter to the boss at the Cotton Club that he was underage or to the folks in the band that he was just a white kid. He started out with nothing in the slums of LA, but there was a kind of fate to his ending up on top of the game in the speakeasies and nightclubs of New York. But where instinct and drive are all you need to take you far in music, they aren't enough to make a life work. Baker took her inspiration for Young Man with a Horn from the tragic life of Bix Beiderbecke, and the novel went on to be adapted into a successful movie starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and Doris Day.
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Leftcoastzen
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
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#MayMontage #InternationalJazzDay late to the party ! Fiction loosely based on the life of Bix Beiderbecke .This book now in print as a #NYRBclassic .When they made a movie of it , Hoagy Carmichael was in it . He wrote the beautiful song Stardust , & actually played gigs with Bix IRL.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Excellent 📚 10mo
BarbaraBB I enjoyed this one a lot though not as much as 10mo
Leftcoastzen @BarbaraBB I loved Cassandra so much ! Haven‘t read this one yet! 10mo
46 likes3 comments
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BarbaraBB
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
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#julystats #bestofjuly

Of the 14 books I read this month, these three were my favorites (4,5* each).

emilyhaldi 🙌🏻 5y
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quote
BarbaraBB
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
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“The good thing, finally, is to lead a devoted life, even if it swings around and strikes you in the face.”

57 likes1 stack add
review
BarbaraBB
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
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Pickpick

Baker strikes again with this fantastic book about a white boy who becomes obsessed with black jazz music and becomes the best horn player LA or New York has known until then. The reader feels the trip that his life becomes, drowned in alcohol, steamy as an underground jazz club.

I did like Daisy Jones, buy this book really rocks!

(Pic: The Painted Hills, Oregon)

Melissa_J So pretty! 5y
CarolynM I definitely need to read this one. Stacked 🙂 5y
DebinHawaii Gorgeous pic! You are in my old stomping grounds of Oregon--though I lived mostly in the Portland area. Enjoy! Hope you get up there and to Powell's. 📚📚📚📚📚 5y
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BarbaraBB @CarolynM I think you do need to read it indeed 😉❤️ 5y
BarbaraBB @DebinHawaii Unfortunately not. We need to get west (travelling from San Francisco) to make it in time to Utah where we are expected on the 23th 😀 5y
BarbaraBB @DebinHawaii Is it a coincidence that @Hooked_on_books lived in Oregon too before moving to Hawaii? 5y
DebinHawaii @BarbaraBB Bummer! But better on the wallet & checked baggage weight I suppose! 😆 (edited) 5y
DebinHawaii @BarbaraBB @Hooked_on_books Hah! It's the Oregon rain! ☔️💦 Actually there are a lot of Hawaii people who go to university and/or move to Oregon & Washington so it's an exchange program I guess! 🤣🤣🤣 5y
AlaMich This sounds like such an amazing trip, and you are definitely making the most of it! 5y
BarbaraBB @AlaMich I am definitely trying to! It‘s a once in a lifetime trip probably 💕 5y
Hooked_on_books @BarbaraBB @DebinHawaii There definitely seems to be an Oregon-Hawaii connection! I‘ve only lived here a few months but have met several Oregonians. The funny part is that I moved from a place in Oregon (north coast) that has twice the average US rainfall yet only half the rainfall I have here in Hawaii. I live in a rain shadow on purpose, as I grow a rainforest flower. Not the Hawaii most people think of! 🌺💦 5y
AbigailDays The colors on those hills are so bright it almost doesn't seem real! You are giving me so many new places to add to my bucket list (and books to the reading list! ) 5y
QuintusMarcus I love Bix‘s music - I‘ve always intended to read this book, but thought it would be to depressing. If you‘ve never heard them, look up Bix‘s recordings with a very young Bing Crosby - superb! 5y
BarbaraBB @AbigailDays The colore are unreal, it is really gorgeous. One of the most beautiful landscapes I ever saw. Which State do you live in? 5y
BarbaraBB @QuintusMarcus I am going to listen to them, thanks for the suggestion! The book is not depressing, it is very intense though! 5y
AbigailDays @BarbaraBB I'm much further south, where the cactus and agave grow. I've never been up to Oregon, I had this idea it was all rain and pine trees! 5y
BarbaraBB @AbigailDays I saw your pictures, it looks amazing! There are many pine trees in Oregon as well, it is really diverse! 5y
Cinfhen I‘m just loving your photos 🤩 5y
LeahBergen Gorgeous!! ❤️❤️ 5y
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blurb
BarbaraBB
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
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My #NYRBBookClub friends will understand why I couldn‘t resist another book by Dorothy Baker. I can‘t imagine the young man can live up to the expectations (after Cassandra) but I am willing to find out!

vivastory Some have said it is even better. I'm pretty sceptical of that claim! 5y
Leftcoastzen It‘s weird , they have mentioned that she used Bix Beiderbecke as inspiration, Bix came from a well to do family who loved that their kids were talented in music , but horrified by his love of jazz.Sent Bix to a boarding school outside of Chicago to break him of it,guess who just played hooky all the time to listen to jazz in Chicago.Guess I will read it sometime keeping in mind inspiration can be very loosely based on someone. 5y
sisilia I heard that this is better than Cassandra 5y
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BarbaraBB @Leftcoastzen That is such an interesting story! Thanks for posting. 5y
BarbaraBB @vivastory @sisilia I dare not believe that. I hardly dare reading this one 😂 and will wait a bit longer! 5y
CarolynM Look forward to seeing your review. I may have to get a copy...🙂 5y
LeahBergen Ohhhh! I can‘t wait to hear how you like it! 5y
54 likes1 stack add7 comments
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Buechersuechtling
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I learned that there has been made a film of this book (“Young Man with a Horn“), too, and maybe this is the better medium for me concerning this topic.

I might watch it one day when I stumble across it.

review
Buechersuechtling
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Bailedbailed

Littens, I seriously begin to think I‘m in a reading slump. (Does it count if audiobooks work relatively well?)

Another bail. I don‘t say this book isn‘t interesting but for me it isn‘t. Probably because the prologue spoiled the story – plus: I‘m no musician. I like to listen to music but I‘m no good at imagining sound that is only described. Everything beyond “booming bass” gives me nothing.

And what I read wasn‘t told intriguingly, either.

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Buechersuechtling
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Littens, you are clever. Maybe you are cleverer than I am.
Does any of you have an idea why one should want to write a novel, a fictional book,and then in the book‘s prologue already reveal key moments of the plot one has thought up❓

I hope that the development of the story and the writing are nice. If not I am, sorry, once again inclined to bail. 🤷🏽‍♀️

ladyonequestion Madness, I hate editors who do that too, I get you want to appear erudite and reveal all your thoughts about a book, but the least you could do is warn me about spoilers! 5y
Buechersuechtling @ladyonequestion 👍🏼 Or put the waffle to the end. Works and is named „epilogue“. 🙄 5y
8 likes2 comments
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Buechersuechtling
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I needed five or six tries until this one finally let me open it on my e-reader. 🙄

But here I go now.

A story about a guy who is a talented jazz musician, about his life, his profession, his family life and his friends.

I like the atmosphere the cover transports so let‘s see what the inside is like.

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Amyegia
Young Man with a Horn | Dorothy Baker, Gary Giddins
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Reading another Dorothy Baker, with my whole heart.