The late jazz legend offers his memories of the jazz scene of the 1950s and his decline from drug use in the early 1960s

This first major biography of the most romanticized icon in jazz thrillingly recounts his wild ride. From his emergence in the 1950s--when an uncannily beautiful young man from Oklahoma appeard on the West Coast to become, seemingly overnight, the prince of "cool" jazz--until his violent, drug-related death in Amsterdam in 1988, Chet Baker lived a life that has become an American myth. Here, drawing on hundreds of interviews and previously untapped sources, James Gavin gives a hair-raising account of the trumpeter's dark journey.

Told by the legendary trumpeter and singer himself, these memoirs launch wholeheartedly into the full-bodied and lush jazz-driven life that he led for more than 30 years.

The text is enhanced by many photographs of Chet, his friends, and colleagues. There is a select, as well as a complete, discography."--BOOK JACKET.

Now in paperback, this first oral history of the most nihilistic of all pop movements brings the sound of the punk generation chillingly to life with 50 new pages of depraved testimony. "Please Kill Me" reads like a fast-paced novel, but the tragedies it contains are all too human and all too real. photos.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame Bop drummer, composer, lyricist, and vocalist Artt Frank is one of the few authentic bop musicians on the scene today. He is best known for his friendship and professional association with trumpet immortal, Chet Baker, with whom he worked for many years. Michael Armando, jazz musician and President of MJA Records, says of Chet Baker: The Missing Years: A Memoir by Artt Frank, "Artt tells it like it was, what it was like being a friend and a drummer for this great legend Chet Baker ... When reading this book for the first time it is almost like you are being drawn into a time warp going back into time. Artt Frank takes you from the dark back alleys of drugs and despair to the shinning genius of Chet's playing smoke filled clubs and the streets ... If you are a musician you will cherish it after reading it. Non-musicians will learn how great Chet Baker was and how great a friend drumming great Artt Frank was to Chet. The truth will set you free and Artt Frank has done this with his memoir. Amen... I give this book 10 stars..." As reviewed by premiere jazz journalist and critic, Doug Ramsey, this memoir ..".shows us sides of the great trumpeter that few people knew. In gripping detail, he [Artt] tells of the well-known drama in Baker's life-the sudden fame, the struggle with drugs, the effects of a beating that almost ended his career. But Artt gives us new insights into Chet's warmth, his love of family, his steely determination and the early emergence of his astonishing talent...This is a book of revelations." "Chet Baker: The Missing Years is perhaps the most accurate account of Chet's life and true spirit to date. Superbly written by Artt Frank ... the book gives fresh insight into the man behind the music. A must-read for everyone from the casual jazz fan to the serious student of jazz history." -- JB Dyas, PhD, VP, Education and Curriculum Development, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

A celebrity stylist describes the personal challenges that overshadowed her successful career, from her struggles as an incest survivor to her battles with alcohol and drug abuse, and traces her return to sobriety and professional success.

A novel set in the 60's by a writer who lived through them.

A fan from the moment the Doors' first album took over KMPX, the revolutionary FM rock & roll station in San Francisco, Greil Marcus saw the band many times at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom in 1967. Five years later it was all over. Forty years after the singer Jim Morrison was found dead in Paris and the group disbanded, one could drive from here to there, changing from one FM pop station to another, and be all but guaranteed to hear two, three, four Doors songs in an hour -- every hour. Whatever the demands in the music, they remained unsatisfied, in the largest sense unfinished, and absolutely alive. There have been many books on the Doors. This is the first to bypass their myth, their mystique, and the death cult of both Jim Morrison and the era he was made to personify, and focus solely on the music. It is a story untold; all these years later, it is a new story.

Miles discusses his life and music from playing trumpet in high school to the new instruments and sounds from the Caribbean.