Jazz etc by John Murray

Jazz etc

John Murray

Enzo Mori is a modern jazz fanatic. He argues with his father Vince, who prefers trad jazz, and falls fruitlessly in love with a jazz guitar genius Fanny Golightly. Vince provides the comic scenes, especially if you like de-ciphering his Italian English. Elsewhere the author's extravagant language seems to be imitating a certain style of intricate and ornate jazz, and, like some performances, the book ends on a down beat.

Extract
Impulsively, impressively, my fearless progenitor began to do an extravagant, eyes closed pirouette that threatened to have him concussing himself on Miff Mumberson's shuddering cymbals. At that grotesque sight, Fanny Golightly stared as if struck by a powerful barb of lightning. I meanwhile stared tensely into space and wondered why the hell I'd entered this madhouse in the first place. As the circus performance continued, Fanny relented and decided to listen with a calm, dispassionate tolerance. Wistfully fantasising I was in the front row at a Mahavishnu Orchestra concert in somewhere nice and unCumbrian like Hemel Hempstead or Croydon, I fidgeted miserably in my chair. My father was engaged in one of his very favourite activities;making a musical buffoon of himself in a provincial working men's club.
Parallels
  • High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  • Crossing The Lines by Melvyn Bragg
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Explicit sexual content