Sacsha Feinstein, the editor of Brilliant Corners, a review of "jazz literature" has released what is a collection of poetry and other literature based in large measure on personal interviews he has conducted over the last 10 years with literary artists as well as musical ones. And the musical ones as well as the literary ones have much to tell not only about music but how we as humans relate to and understand it. Feinstein is a brilliant interviewer and gets his guests to open up about their inspiration in a way that allows for meaningful conversation about memories of the days, for example, of Coltrane and Mingus as well as people like Amiri Baraka, whose social criticism of America and its relationship to Black people still pertains today, a concept that will surprise no-one reading this. The stories that are told by, for example, the sidemen who witnessed what is essentially the beginnings of bebop and before are just utterly fascinating to anyone with a heart for music but who, like me, is not musically trained but can, fortunately, interpret words on an emotional level. And the words that Feinstein puts into this book are simultaneously enlightening, striking, sometimes sad, always relevant (especially given the utter sameness of money-driven music today) and essential. ( )