NONFICTION - Dec. 20, 1992

FROM BIRDLAND TO BROADWAY: Scenes from a Jazz Life by Bill Crow (Oxford University Press: $24; 273 pp.). Memoirs about the music world, particularly jazz and blues, are more compelling than most, presumably because music tends to be a more collaborative art than, say, painting or writing. “From Birdland to Broadway” by bassist Bill Crow is a fine example of the jazz-memoir genre, partly because Crow is a good writer but primarily because he has led the career of a journeyman musician: Although he’s played with myriad name performers--many of whom, like Benny Goodman, Lainie Kazan and Peter Duchin, do not come off well here--the heart of the book is smoke, cheap booze and late-night pick-up sessions. Crow has scores of tales to tell, and so many are funny it’s hard to pick a favorite. Still, it’s hard to beat the one about the Benny Goodman protege who was willing to play trumpet for the imperious bandleader during a 1962 tour of Russia but who couldn’t abide the idea of performing an extra week in Warsaw. He asked his wife to send a phony telegram describing a family emergency, and she complied with a wire saying “Come Home At Once. The Dog Died. The Cat Died. Everybody Died.” The Polish dates did not take place.