350 pages of invigorating anecdotes

Or, jazz cats purring

It stands to reason that if you know how to riff, you know how to riff.

Jazz musicians connect unrelated musical phrases for the delight of an audience, so can they do the same with regular old phrases? In other words, does jazz virtuosity translate into verbal wit?

According to this terrific book, it can and it does. But someone’s got to write it down. In the words of drummer Shelley Manne, “We never play anything the same way once.”