From inauspicious beginnings as an adopted child in 1920’s Cincinnati, George Russell overcame ill-health and transcended racism to become recognized as a unique figure in jazz: a major composer, bandleader, professor, and the music’s leading theoretician. The author of The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization and composer of a significant body of small group and orchestral works, Russell influenced the development of jazz and many of its leading practitioners.

George Russell: The Story of an American Composer is the first biography of one of the greatest figures in jazz. Russell’s story is interwoven with some of the most colorful characters in the history of the music-musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, and Gil Evans. Written with Russell’s full cooperation and extensively researched with interviews from friends, family members, musicians, associates, and commentators on jazz, the book reveals many valuable insights and previously unknown facts about Russell’s life. Not only a biography, this volume also reflects and celebrates the evolution of modern jazz while presenting a re-evaluation of the relationship between jazz and classical music.