Author: Charles Fox (Foreword by Roberta Flack)
 
Charles Fox is a musician who began his career in Paris.  Almost immediately, the reader is brought onto the propeller-driven plane where he and other students would be attending the Conservatoire de Musique.  What follows are some wonderful chapters that are the actual letters from Paris that Charles Fox sent home in the years 1959-1961.  The letters offer a fantastically intricate and fun look at how Charles Fox became what he became. 
 
The love of music can be “seen” washing over this man like a security blanket that would keep him comforted for the rest of his life.  The people and instructors that he met while training in that unbelievably gorgeous town completely draw the reader in, especially his tutor, Nadia Boulanger, who is, to this day, regarded as one of the most renowned and expert composition teachers of the twentieth century.  She was certainly the main focus of Fox’s life, and he carried her wisdom and talent throughout his career.  After reading the pages devoted to Paris, I can tell you that all readers will want to live, eat, and breathe, this time period, and wish with all their hearts that they could follow in Mr. Fox’s footsteps.
 
From the very intricate and lovely beginning of this memoir, we are then brought back to the U.S. and are instantly amazed and, more than a little star struck, by the highlights of this man’s career.  I mean…really, guys and gals, Mr. Fox has worked with everyone from Barry Manilow to Lena Horne, and even Fred Astaire.  He worked on movies, television scores – everything that a composer would kill to accomplish.  He is the man behind some of the most recognizable works in history.  I mean…who doesn’t know the theme to the Love Boat?  And, come on, Laverne and Shirley?  Happy Days?  God, I practically grew up on the compositions of this amazing musician.  Not only that, but the Grammy Award-winning song – “Killing Me Softly with His Song” – was not only a big deal in the 1970’s coming out of Roberta Flack’s mouth; but also, twenty years later, the Fugees decided to resurrect the fabulous words that this man so effortlessly put on paper.
 
I not only recommend this wonderful story (with great pictures, by the way) to musicians, composers, and people desperately trying to make their musical dreams come true, but I also recommend this bio to all readers in general.  Not only does this man represent a piece of our history, but his life and his writing are truly entertaining.