Through stories and portraits of the strong personalities around him, Nat Hentoff brings to life the political, familial, and musical forces that shaped his unique perspectives on the world. His love of jazz and his political stance put him at odds with his working class Jewish family and the predominantly conservative world of Boston of the 1940s. In this memoir, Hentoff revisits his Boston neighborhood, filled with colorful characters, including militant candy-store owners and evil-eyed schoolteachers. Hentoff's journeys into legendary jazz venues draw the teenager even further away from his parents and into the world of jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Boston Jazz and the South End:
Once, jazz was a real and pervasive presence in Boston and in the dim and scruffy clubs of the South End, this American Music-par-excellence thrilled thousands of afficionados, while yet rarely affording its dedicated and colorful creators a living.
It was the Twenties and the Jazz Age; it was the Thirties and the age of the Big Bands; it was the wartime Forties, the age of The Savoy on Mass Ave and of Sidney Bechet; it was the baby-boom Fifties and the age of Storeyville in Kenmore Square...
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Another Boston Boy:
It's great to see a book like this. As another Boston boy, I had many similar experiences that have been hard and perhaps confusing to explain to someone who grew up in another time and place.
My wife feels that she understands me better now after reading Boston Boy. We are giving copies to our sons.
The book for me is nostalgic, poignant, and somewhat reassuring. Helps to understand that generation, that time, and that place. We made it in spite of the bastards.
A terrific, short read:
Nat Hentoff, who later became famous as a writer about jazz and civil liberties, describes his "coming of age" and discovery of jazz in the Boston of the 1940s. A very enjoyable read.
