“From the strength of their personal decency and dedication, the musicians summoned up an oceanic passion, a commitment to the true experience of their materials that short-circuited the hair on the back of one’s neck”
“Drugs became his escape hatch and his prison. As his In Our Lifetime so brazenly articulates, the devil was after his soul and damned if he wasn’t determined to win”
“Put him in a raincoat and trademark fedora and have him walk the streets of metropolitan America, and he comes alive on screen. His cockiness and swagger make sense on a street”
“Nobody who played jazz was considered able to walk in and do a studio call. They were convinced you couldn't read, or you wouldn't show up, or you'd fall down drunk”
“Many jazz musicians don’t like singers, and some will go to great lengths to avoid playing for them. Not without reason. Frank Sinatra is a rare exception.”
“Like Garbo or Chaplin, he looms over the cultural life of the century, defying analysis, because every generation has to figure him out from scratch.”
