On the Road with George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend - Hardcover

In this compelling and moving account of the marvellous Melly's last five years, on- and off-stage, the eminent jazz trumpeter, Digby Fairweather, whose band has accompanied Melley during this period, captures the technicolour Melly as never before. He vividly recalls the many gigs, recording and drinking sessions, the performances up and down the country, the characters they have met and the unexpected and unscripted encounters...as well as their conversations and friendship.Anyone who has seen George Melly on stage will know how outrageous and captivating he can be - the rouguish twinkle in the eye always spelling mischief. But there is another side to him - his erudition, his fame as an expert on Surrealism, his passion for angling, his sexual appetite and more.Even in his last year, although very ill and growing ever more deaf, his sense of fun and his love of music has kept him singing to the end - the ultimate performer. In "George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend", one of his closest associates offers a view of this jazz master as never seen before.

Digby Fairweather has played jazz professionally for the last thirty years, worked with all of Britain's best-known Swing musicians, broadcast on jazz, worked in jazz education and (from 1995) led his 'Half-Dozen' which won the British Jazz Award for best small group in 2005 and 2006. His previous books include an autobiography Notes from a Jazz Life and Nat Gonella: a life in Jazz. He is a prolific co-author of jazz reference works including Jazz: the Rough Guide and Grove's Dictionary of Jazz. In 2007 he continues to play, to broadcast on Britain's new 24-hour station The Jazz and to lead his Half-Dozen countrywide.