No musician evokes the swing style and times more strikingly than Tommy Dorsey (1905-1956), whose towering trombone style and smash hits created legions of fans and influenced popular music for decades. Peter J. Levinson, the author of critically acclaimed biographies of Harry James and Nelson Riddle, has now written the definitive account of this icon of jazz, drawing on exhaustive new research and scores of interviews with the musicians and others who knew him best.

Dorsey led a rich and complex life. After a harsh childhood in the coal mining towns of eastern Pennsylvania, the young trombonist rose to fame and fortune during the jazz age. With his brother Jimmy, Tommy Dorsey created one of the most popular bands of the era and played with such giants as Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller. But Dorsey's volcanic personality eventually erupted, and he went off to start his own band. Within a few years, he launched the career of a skinny young singer named Frank Sinatra.

Levinson delves deep into Dorsey's famously eccentric lifestyle and the reasons for his destructive behaviour. The bandleader died suddenly in 1956, a victim perhaps of his oversized appetite for perfection, drink, and women.

The first biography of Dorsey in more than thirty years, Tommy Dorsey is a dazzling portrait of one of the Big Band era's brightest stars - his tumultuous life, his turbulent times, and the unforgettable music that made him a true legend.

Tommy Dorsey completes PETER J. LEVINSON's trilogy of swing music portraits. He is now at work on a book about the artistry of Fred Astaire. A long-respected jazz publicist, he lives in Malibu, California.

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