Total jazz, paperback/blutch

In this freewheeling collection of short stories and vignettes, the famed French cartoonist examines not only the music, but the nature of the jazz sub-culture.

The grumpy festival goer, the curmudgeonly collector, and many other fan ``types`` are the targets of his unerring gimlet eye.

Drawn in a range of styles as improvisational as Coltrane and Mingus -- everything from loose linework to tight pen and ink to gestural pencils -- Blutch captures the excitement of live performance, the lovelorn, and the Great Jazz Detective, who is out but not down.