Excerpt from the Foreword by Clint Eastwood

...The book is an easy and entertaining read; a journey

through time, chronologically sequenced to capture

the movement of jazz through its ragtime roots to its

present day forms. The biographies are concise,

yet comprehensive. The portraiture, consisting of

original paintings and drawings by niece Carol Bowie,

a well-known Santa Cruz-based artist, separates this book

from others in the genre...

The result is a perfect marriage of portrait and prose,

with never before printed Mingus family history...