Excellently written account of the life of Rick Martin, a young jazz trumpet player who is devoted to his music.

It's not easy to capture the essence of music with just the written word. It's hard to capture the atmosphere of the swing era, the banter and comradeship of the musicians for an audience that hasn't experienced it first hand. Dorothy Baker manages both in an easy and accessible style that drew me in from the first page.

The main character, Rick, dies young. We are told this in the first few pages, so it comes as no surprise. But the book isn't about burning out or dying before your time. For me, the book is a celebration of living life for something you believe in.

Rick's final words 'The GOOD thing, finally, is to lead a devoted life, even if it swings round and strikes you in the face'. This is what his life (and the book) is about.

Quick, interesting read. An engaging look at how music captivates.

meh

The rise and inevitable fall of virtuoso jazz trumpeter Rick Martin plays out, but the real star is Baker's prose through the performances - it's just fantastic music writing. The language and politics are very much 1938 though.

Dorothy Baker's first novel follows the short life of Rick Martin, a virtuoso jazz musician at a time when jazz was not taken seriously. Rick Martin is white, but most of his friend and fellow musicians are black: Martin intuitively understand that black musicians play the best and most innovative jazz, and this allows him to move beyond the prejudices and racism of the 1920s. The novel is narrated by an unnamed man, a friend and admirer of Rick, although the focus is exclusively on Rick's life. Baker's main interest is in music: in the development of a musician and the single-minded obsession of someone who is a passionate and talented artist. The story itself does not feel new -- we are all familiar with stories about talented people who drink themselves to death -- but Baker's writing is fresh and insightful. We care about Rick, and the people in his life, particularly his best and oldest friend, Smoke Jordan, a black jazz musician who introduced Rick to jazz clubs. Although the narratives suffers from 1930s racist language and attitudes, Young Man with a Horn is full of measured and nuanced portrayals of black characters, which allows the novel to feel modern and gives the jazz world depth and insight. Although it is not a novel about racism, an examination of racist attitudes is constantly in the background of the text. For the most part, though, this is a novel about the transformative power of music and is a celebration of jazz.

I did not find it is revolutionary or full of emotion as Baker's last novel, Cassandra at the Wedding which was written twenty years after Young Man with a Horn, but in both she creates an authentic and compelling narrative voice, and both feel unique. She is an astonishingly talented writer.