Kansas City Lightning (HarperCollins Publishers Inc)

Throughout his life, Charlie Parker personified the tortured American artist: a revolutionary performer who used his alto saxophone to create a new music known as bebop even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would lead to his death at the age of 34. Drawing on interviews with peers, collaborators, and family members, 'Kansas City Lightning' recreates Parker's Depression-era childhood; his early days navigating the Kansas City night life; and on to New York, where he began to transcend the music he had mastered.