You Can't Steal a Gift

Deals with the impact of American racism on America's greatest gift to the world of musicojazz

---

You Can't Steal a Gift is about the impact of American racism on America's greatest gift to the world of musicojazz. In a work that combines memoir, oral history, and commentary, Gene Lees has crafted mini-biographies of four great black musicians whom he knew welloDizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Milt Hinton, and Nat "King" Cole. Lees writes of them, "All are men who had every reason to embrace bitterness ...and didn't." When Lees left Montreal to become the music and drama critic of the Louisville Times in 1955, he was shocked by the racism and segregation he found in the United States. In jazz he found a community of like-minded souls who freely shared their gifts with all lovers of music, regardless of race and condition. Gene Lees is a journalist and music critic, song lyricist, singer, and personal friend of several generations of jazz musicians. He is the author of Cats of Any Color and biographies of Woody Herman and Oscar Peterson. For twenty-one years he has been the publisher of the Jazzletter. Nat Hentoff is the author of Boston Boy: Growing Up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions and Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music.