MAN BEHIND THE HORN, THE

By Leon Merian with Bill Bridges

Legendary trumpeter Leon Merian vividly recounts what it was like to live the life of the big band musician during those turbulent times, from his childhood in Roxbury, Massachusetts as the son of Armenian immigrants through the "Swing" times and beyond. The pages of his story literally come alive as he transports you to a very different time from the America of the new Millennium ... a time when the race issues of our country were being defined; when "jazz" was a life-style and not a small specialized section of a music store; when big bands ruled the land, with the trumpet the supreme commander; a time when music was an all-consuming passion for those who made it, listened to it, and danced to it. 

Diem Publishing Company (2000)