“Judy’s personality leaps from the page; her humor, her vulnerability and her pain. This is a generous, entertaining autobiography by a wonderful jazz artist and courageous human being. I couldn’t put it down and I look forward to the sequel, if I’m still around.””
Autographed copy of book.
"Judy Carmichael first made her name in the 1980s as a svelte, blonde bombshell who played stride piano—a virtuoso jazz style made famous in the ‘20s and ‘30s by Count Basie and Fats Waller. Jazz critic Gary Giddons commented, “How ironic that the last man standing is a woman, as this kind of playing was long considered the private, competitive domain of people who smoked cigars and wore derbies.”
Swinger! A Jazz Girl’s Adventures from Hollywood to Harlem is a collection of hilarious, moving autobiographical essays, in the David Sedaris tradition, about a California surfer-girl who dreamed of being a spy but instead became a beauty queen, an actress, a pool shark, a quarterback, and—eventually—a jazz musician.
Judy Carmichael welcomes us into her wacky, maddening, thrilling creative life—from Carnegie Hall to camels in Ephesus, to performing for Richard Gere, Rod Stewart and Robert Redford, to a three hour lunch with Billy Joel, hors d’oeuvres with Yoko Ono and the creation of her NPR show, Jazz Inspired.
Judy trudges through a Hawaiian rain forest with Sarah Vaughan, auditions as a rodeo rider, flirts with Mr. Big and gets a kiss from Paul Newman, and that’s before she gets to Brazil, where things get seriously interesting.
Swinger! is a humorous, candid account of the creative life, the pursuit of one’s dreams, of staying strong, and refusing to suffer. When, in her late forties, a doctor told Judy that he thought she had cervical cancer, she responded, “I’m a jazz musician, doctor. To tell you the truth, this isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.