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  • But Beautiful

  • By: Geoff Dyer
  • Narrated by: Dion Graham
  • Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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But Beautiful

By: Geoff Dyer
Narrated by: Dion Graham
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Summary

Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonius Monk creating his own private language on the piano....

In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skilfully evokes the embattled lives of the players who shaped modern jazz. He draws on photos and anecdotes, but music is the driving force of But Beautiful, and Dyer brings it to life in luminescent and wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity and brilliance of each musician's style.
©2012 Geoff Dyer (P)2019 Canongate Books Ltd
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    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful writing, excellent narration

Dion Graham is my new favourite narrator. Dyer creates vivid and engaging portraits of the greats.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Great reading but lacking the afterword

Dion Graham does a great job of bringing this small masterpiece to life. But why oh why did the producers of this audiobook choose to leave out Dyer’s 33 page long “Afterword: Tradition, Influence and Innovation”? Surely it is a part of this book’s sustained meditation on jazz.

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