Just before the end of communism, Ferguson W. Sowell also
known as DJ Darky has done the impossible: he has concocted the perfect beat.
Or, it would be perfect, but it needs just one last thing, a few new notes from
the legendary and currently missing avant-garde jazz saxophonist Charles Stone
or as the DJ's know him, The Schwa. Powell has fallen on hard times, he won't
sell the nearly perfect beat, instead scraping through by scoring pornographic
films. One day a mysterious videocassette arrives from East Berlin, a film of
man-on-chicken carnality, but beyond that is the music scoring it. Tones of
saxophone that shouldn't exist in nature, that seem to stop time and curl space
upon itself, and it could only be made by the Shwa. Armed with the "chicken
fucking tape" he gets himself hired at the Slumberland bar in Berlin, the
return address on the cassette's envelope. He's hired as a Jukebox Sommelier,
using everything from old school rhythm and blues to bebop, disco and beyond to
transform the bar and its patrons as the Berlin Wall crumbles and the world is
irrevocably changed. It is through this backdrop of nonstop music, hedonism,
and the strangeness of being a black man in Germany, he finds the Shwa, and
then music itself is irrevocably changed. This was a great novel, alternately
hysterically funny and deeply poignant, Beatty's characters are very memorable
and his story within a story, the question of the black man becoming passé in
the post-modern world is fascinating and thoughtful with Stone and Sowell
seeing the world through the lenses of different generations and perspectives.
This is definitely a must read for music fans and readers who appreciate
thoughtful humor and satire. 
Send comments to Tim.
