Piano Demon [NOOK Book]

Piano Demon: The globetrotting, gin-soaked, too-short life of Teddy Weatherford, the Chicago jazzman who conquered Asia

At age six, Teddy Weatherford was working in the coal mines of Virginia. By his early twenties he was the toast of Chicago’s jazz scene, rivaling Louis Armstrong and wowing Jelly Roll Morton with his piano talent. But when Weatherford left segregated America for the allures of Shanghai and Bombay, he set out on a adventure he hadn't imagined. The man they called “The Seagull” would become the globetrotting jazz king of Asia in the shadow of World War II, and provide the soundtrack for the last gasp of an empire. The Atavist, a new home for original nonfiction storytelling, presents Brendan I. Koerner's true tale of how a forgotten legend lived the American Dream by leaving it behind—and helped globalize music with a piano and a sharkskin suit.

The Atavist is a digital publisher of longform journalism and nonfiction tales, reported and written by skilled reporters and authors. Atavist stories are longer than magazine articles but shorter than books, and each one is sold individually on portable devices. More information about The Atavist and our other stories is available at www.atavist.net.