Adamo reaches into the pre-rap turf of Gil Scott-Heron here with this seductive too-short flash memoir about how he discovered jazz and its legendary envelope-pushers—Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis. There’s energy and honor and wonder in Adamo’s words, especially in the fluid alliterative syncopated way the words reflect the inspiration that jazz gave him—as an artist, as a human being. Complementing his nimble vocals are former Herbie Hancock drummer Mike Clark and guitarist Steve Homan, both of whose equally homage-ist beats and licks, respectively, are clean but entirely their own.

Devon Jackson has written about music and film for a variety of publications--from Entertainment Weekly and The Village Voice to Rolling Stone and Details.