I had a wonderful time reading this book. It's more of a *long* essay than it is a book. The writing is excellent, and there are lots of wonderful photographs interspersed within. I don't know if it really matters, but for what it's worth I read part of this book while sitting at a table at Birdland on 46th Street in NYC waiting for my favorite up and coming piano player, David Epstein, to return from break to play another set. I have three books by Gary Giddins and like him so much I'm going to buy more of his books. By coinicidence I saw a video recently on the life of Charlie Parker, and it used many of the same photographs that were used in this book. I am not aware of a tie in between the two products however. In conclusion, this book was enjoyable and I learned a great deal about Charlie Parker from the point of view of his personality and his character and what his life was like.