This is an autobiographical account of trumpeter Doc Cheatham, telling the story of his boyhood in Nashville, his pioneer work as a saxophonist in 1920s Chicago, and his career as a trumpet soloist. The book looks back at his colourful life which encompassed the whole history of jazz, and at a career in which Cheatham deputized for Louis Armstrong in 1920s Chicago, and made recordings with blues "empress" Ma Rainey. Cheatham was one of the pioneers of black American music in Europe, coming to Berlin in the 1920s with Sam Wooding's Chocolate Kiddies, with whom he recorded in Barcelona and Paris. He then joined, in quick succession, two of the greatest big bands of the 1930s, McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Cab Calloway Orchestra. His jazz career was revitalized in the 1950s and 1960s, and he became recognized as one of the premier trumpet soloists of his generation.