But Beautiful

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But Beautiful

By: Geoff Dyer

Narrated by: Dion Graham

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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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Lester Young fading away in a hotel room; Charles Mingus storming down the streets of New York on a too-small bicycle; Thelonius Monk creating his own private language on the piano....

In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skilfully evokes the embattled lives of the players who shaped modern jazz. He draws on photos and anecdotes, but music is the driving force of But Beautiful, and Dyer brings it to life in luminescent and wildly metaphoric prose that mirrors the quirks, eccentricity and brilliance of each musician's style.

Geoff DyerDion GrahamCanongate Books

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Dion Graham is my new favourite narrator. Dyer creates vivid and engaging portraits of the greats.

Beautiful writing, excellent narration

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Dion Graham does a great job of bringing this small masterpiece to life. But why oh why did the producers of this audiobook choose to leave out Dyer’s 33 page long “Afterword: Tradition, Influence and Innovation”? Surely it is a part of this book’s sustained meditation on jazz.

Great reading but lacking the afterword

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