This brassy, bold autobiography is a book about New Orleans, about music, and about Troy Andrews, aka Trombone Shorty. The beginning spreads show how music was part of Andrews’ everyday life at home and on the streets of New Orleans. The next spreads show the author trying to make music–at first without even an instrument in hand, “We were making music, and that’s all that mattered”–we see him getting a chance as a tiny child to play with jazz great Bo Didley, and finally, we see him forming his own band. Andrews organizes his story around the repeated refrain of “Where y’at?”

The book is an exuberant tribute to the power of music to enthrall. It will set your toes tapping and send you out to listen to a Trombone Shorty CD.

Trombone Shorty, by Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, illustrated by Bryan Collier. Abrams: 2015.