Nat Hentoff has been listening to jazz, blues, country, and gospel since he was eight years old and tuned in (under the bedsheets) to Fats Waller broadcasting from Chicago's Hotel Sherman during the Depression - and he has been writing about it nearly ever since, with ever-increasing passion.

This new book is the fruit of long nights of listening to, watching, traveling and talking with, and knowing firsthand jazz musicians and country and gospel singers from all over the nation - a book of truly American originals.