Bebop Fairy Tales: An Historical Fiction Trilogy on Jazz, Intolerance, and Baseball

“Bebop Fairy Tales is a lively volume, full of engrossing tales and true-to-life stories immersed in the jazz ethic, dressed in the peculiar garments of racial nuances in America and reflections on that most uniquely American pastime baseball, all pointing to the unique impact of jazz on this country’s landscape. [SiriusXM’s] Mark Ruffin has absorbed [the stories through] his many decades as an enthusiast and ace jazz radio producer. —Willard Jenkins “In ‘The Sidewinder’ [Ruffin] can remember the ways that a young black man encountered it, and he can vividly inhabit the way a white boy learned about it from the other side. . . . In ‘The Saturday Night Fish Fry,’ characters casually navigate the ugliness of segregation, giving an unlikely trio of musicians a tale for the ages. . . . And in ‘’Round Midnight with the Ku Klux Klan,’ he explores the explosive alchemy of racism mixed with other bigotry, when a young Southerner discovers bebop and his own gayness and lives to tell the tale as he bolts for New York. “Mark lays it all out with humor and humanism, and almost phantasmagorical flights of fancy. That he can entertain us with these creations, even as they address the harsh reality, is a trick as complicated as the chord sequence John Coltrane introduced on ‘Giant Steps.’” —from the Introduction by Neil Tesser “[Ruffin’s] discernible empathy shepherds a fantastic odyssey with the added benefit of learning more about his heroes clearly indicating how culture can build bridges. Broadly, the stories confront illicit topics of interracial sex, misappropriation, marrying outside of your race, religious bigotry, and coming out. We get a glimpse into the lives of significant jazz artists (including Gene Ammons, Billy Eckstine, and Lee Morgan).“The author compels us to look at white privilege from multiple angles, and to look at the traumatic malignancy of Black hatred. As well, he nudges us to investigate more closely our own biases—explicit, implicit, or internalized—all while telling us some impressive facts about legendary jazzers, sportsmen, and the cities they incarnate. Pretty cool.” —from the Foreword by Terri Lyne Carrington “In his three stories connected by common themes, Mark also shows the impact of race on those institutions and on our culture in 20th-century America. Baseball, jazz, and race. Yes, it’s a book about America.” —Lee Mergner, JazzTimes “The music is alive and so are characters who breathe and speak and act out fully realized narratives built on the foundation of jazz legend. His stories weave together details drawn from song lyrics, cultural history, and his own rich imagination, creating scenes of musical transcendence as well as harsh, racial reality. These tales may be drawn from the annals of jazz, but they offer enduring lessons of life in America for all of us.” —Ashley Kahn “Mark Ruffin’s Bebop Fairy Tales captures the heart and soul of the American experience during the 20th century with humor, wit, and accuracy, just like the solos of the jazz musicians he uses as his artistic muse. It’s the best kind of poetic, noetic, and hip.” —Ben Sidran View Less