History

Because it was a huge and expensive coffee-table-style book, I didn't buy Doug Ramsey's incredible book Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond (2005) until a few weeks ago, thanks to a piano student's Christmas gift card from Barnes & Noble, and the Tacoma, WA Goodwill Store.

The tireless research that must have gone into this book astounds me. Desmond was extremely private, and any information he gave you may have been a joke, apocryphal, or embellished by his peerless wit. But Ramsey has interviewed everyone who knew Desmond (born Paul Emil Breitenfeld), collected correspondence, and assembled the definitive story and summary of his life, and impact on the world of jazz.

But actually, this isn't about that, it's about a little tidbit of information I happened to catch towards the end of the book, as I was skimming through the massive tome. There is a picture in the back of pianist Renee Rosnes, who, though she has no connection to Desmond's life (she was 15 when he died in 1977), is pictured sitting at "Paul's Baldwin grand piano at the Jazz Gallery in New York."Read more