The Sutherland
by Charles Smith

A promising young musician, Eugene Taylor, comes of age in the midst of Chicago's south side jazz scene in the 1950s with musical royalty Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane as his role models.

Having embarked on a six month European tour at the age of 18 and been seduced by the European's appreciation of jazz and the love of a Viennese woman, he returns 15 years later.

While abroad he heard about the race riots of the sixties and now he witnesses the devastation they caused, the black flight to the suburbs and the decline of the inner city neighborhood which was his home.

He ponders his absence during those turbulent times as well as his current existence while sitting amongst the ghosts of the Sutherland Show Lounge, once a Mecca of jazz.