Good biographies tell us about people. Excellent biographies tell us how people shape, and are shaped by, their cultures. Gene Lee's biography of Woody Herman is excellent.

Writing about any big band figure is difficult because readers find it increasingly hard to envision a wartime culture, a culture in which popular music wasn't fragmented into a morass of styles and substyles, a culture without television and with live radio music. A central pleasure of this book is that it not only evokes the big band era vividly but the forces which caused it to dissolve. Many have discussed the demise of the big bands before, usually emphasizing economics. But other factors were involved: transformations in the music, communications, advertising and transportation industries--changing demographics and family structures. Much of this is subtle and hard to analyze accurately, but Lees succeeds, demonstrating why he is one of today's three or four best jazz writers.

Another challenge in writing a full length biography is to incorporate dozens of thumbnail biographies along the way. Everyone is touched in important ways by numerous people. A biographer's job is to introduce those people and help us understand their influence without diluting the book's focus. Again, Lees excels. Throughout this book we have vivid sketches of Isham Jones, Ralph Burns, Neil Hefti, Dave Tough, Zoot Sims and Stan Getz, to name but a few.

Lees' minimizing Woody Herman's character flaws represents the book's only controversy, and that a mild one. As many know, Herman spent the last twenty-five years of his life being pursued by the IRS and died owing over a million dollars in unpaid taxes and interest. Lees attributes that to Herman's "naiveté" and "the most egregious case of IRS persecution in the history of that branch of government" (vii). Possibly. Lees' argument is interesting, but not conclusive. When considering his argument, moreover, one cannot forget that Lees was not only a long time friend of Woody's, but when Lees most needed a job, Woody gave him one.

The matter, however, is of little consequence. Woody Herman's importance has nothing to do with his business sense and everything to do with his ability to identify and nurture talent, to take a collection of individuals and shape them into a cohesive, musical unit. Woody Herman probably influenced more jazz musicians over a longer period of time than anyone. The effect of that is--and should be--what this book is really about.