Novelist, essayist and raconteur, Albert Murray was an intellectual force in New York from the 1950s through his death in 2013. He wrote and talked of many things, but the African American experience was his focus, especially as manifested in jazz and blues, and was among those who sought to elevate jazz to classical music status without losing its ties to the rhythm of black life. Murray Talks Music collects transcribed interviews and discussions that range across music into the definition and purposes of art. Included are conversations between Murray and Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis. The best moments remain fascinating for their glimpses into an especially lucid mind.

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