Floyd Levin, an award-winning jazz writer, has personally known many of the jazz greats who contributed to the music's colorful history. In this collection of his articles, published mostly in jazz magazines over a fifty-year period, Levin takes us into the nightclubs, the recording studios, the record companies, and, most compellingly, into the lives of the musicians who made the great moments of the traditional jazz and swing eras. Brilliantly weaving anecdotal material, primary research, and music analysis into every chapter, "Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians" is a gold mine of information on a rich segment of American popular music. This collection of articles begins with Levin's first published piece and includes several new articles that were inspired by his work on this compilation. The articles are organized thematically, beginning with a piece on Kid Ory's early recordings and ending with a newly written article about the campaign to put up a monument to Louis Armstrong in New Orleans. Along the way, Levin gives in-depth profiles of many well-known jazz legends, such as Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong, and many lesser-known figures who contributed greatly to the development of jazz. Extensively illustrated with previously unpublished photographs from Levin's personal collection, this wonderfully readable and extremely personal book is full of information that is not available elsewhere. "Classic Jazz: A Personal View of the Music and the Musicians" will be celebrated by jazz scholars and fans everywhere for the overview it provides of the music's evolution, and for the love of jazz it inspires on every page.

All eight episodes of the 1980s TV series following a man who possesses the ability to transform himself into a variety of animals. Professor Jonathan Chase (Simon MacCorkindale) appears to have everything: he is handsome, wealthy, educated and possesses the slightly more unusual ability to transform himself into any animal he chooses. Only two people know about Jonathan's gift, his friend, Ty (Michael D. Roberts), and Detective Brooke Mackenzie (Melody Anderson), who encourages Jonathan to use his abilities to help her solve crimes. The episodes are: 'Manimal', 'Illusion', 'Night of the Scorpion', 'Female of the Species', 'High Stakes', 'Scrimshaw', 'Breath of the Dragon' and 'Night of the Beast'.