Shades of Blue

Jazz pianist Evan Horne, back from Europe, settles near California's Russian River and reunites with FBI agent Andie Lawrence. He quickly connects with the Bay Area jazz scene and is elated when drummer Roy Haynes, one of the big names in jazz, invites him to New York to record a couple of tracks on a new album.But the tune goes sour when Evan receives a call from an LA attorney telling him his old friend and mentor, pianist Calvin Hughes, has died and named Evan his sole beneficiary and heir to Hughes' small Hollywood house, money, and all of his possessions. Playing through some of Calvin's handwritten sheet music, Evan recognizes a song from the landmark Miles Davis recording Birth of the Cool and then another from Kind of Blue, arguably one of the most important recordings in modern jazz. Was Hughes the uncredited composer of one or both of these tunes? If not, how did he get the sheet music?Then Evan finds a cryptic note from Hughes and a photo taken almost 40 years earlier taped to the bottom of a dresser drawer. It seems Hughes had more than one secret. And all of them will thrust Evan into a dangerous cross-country journey....Professional jazz drummer Bill Moody has played and/or recorded with Jr. Mance, Maynard Ferguson, Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross, and Lou Rawls. He lives in northern California, teaches creative writing at Sonoma State University, and is active in the Bay Area jazz scene with the Terry Henry Trio and Dick Conte's trio and quartet. Shades of Blue is sixth in his Evan Horne mystery series.www.billmoodyjazz.com