Bird’s Bar Mitzvah by Michael Peven

A story about how I came to love jazz music and my encounters with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the great jazz musician Thelonious Monk as well as my confirmation many years later at Charlie Parker’s grave in Blue Summit, MO. The front (color) side of the book features stories about my first experiences with jazz music leading up to the time I met Thelonious Monk (and he fell into my lap) and then my trip to see Charlie Parker's grave. It is illustrated with images of me morphing into Charlie Parker as a background to the story with a number of other images of me, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Monk, Parker and Parker's grave and monument. Then there are two "ribbons" of images featuring jazz album covers that are folded into the pages and attached but can be "unfolded" in order to see the writing and images. The "back" (black and white) side is images from my Bar Mitzvah album (I received my first jazz album for my Bar Mitzvah...hence the title) with a story on "ribbons" about going to Hebrew school, preparing for the Bar Mitzvah and the party the images are from. These ribbons have text on both sides and are "tucked in" so that they can be opened and read. Hebrew lettering runs over the images and is the "Haftorah" portion that I read for the ceremony.