Deep Cuts

Deep Cuts: Six Tales of Struggle, Hope, and Joy Through the History of Jazz, by Higgins, Clark and Perez. graphic novel, 312 pages, © 2024

A coworker introduced this to me. I don't read a lot of graphic novels anymore but I loved the concept for this one. Deep Cuts features six separate stories about jazz musicians at different eras, starting in New Orleans in the early 1900s following a Louis Armstrong-level talent with a clarinet and ending in the late 70s with jazz dwindling in the public imagination. At first, it seems like each story is a separate tale, but by the end you realize the thread connecting all of them is the music. Portrayed in this manner, I think it did a really neat job of highlighting different jazz eras, from ragtime to free jazz, as well as some of the struggles later jazz musicians had with the feeling of selling out. Each story also features different artists so you're getting new stylized visuals in each tale--it's a really cool effect and makes me want to seek out more music related graphic novels.