This was really fantastic. A music student who feels a bit lost and hopeless with her music because she compares herself to the success of one of her peers, gives up on aspirations of playing—until her mentor and friend enters a kind of coma, she believes is connected to The Blue. A spiritual kind of connection that jazz musicians can enter under particular circumstances. A place where time stops, and that has positive and negative effects on the artist spending time there.

This graphic novel is on point with absolutely everything. Thematically and as a metaphor, I found what is communicated about The Blue to be really compelling and highly novel. But it also manages to teach you a little bit about jazz, and why it endures, its iterations, and what can be so profound about it. The liminal space of The Blue, where an artist slips into a connection and conversation with all the great players, sometimes As they are playing themselves, in their own past, is just phenomenally done.

Then, the character arc of the protagonist is also really well done. She has her own issues that interrelate very well with the two conflicts on the page. The dialogue is good. The artwork is fantastic. When she slips into The Blue with Art Blackey, I actually physically went and took out THE FREEDOM RIDER (from Blue Note records, I might add), and put it on while I was reading it. What a great experience. As the discussion about the art form takes place, if you have a companion piece going at the same time, I challenge you to not get emotional.

One of the best graphic novels I have ever read.