"You met Marilyn Monroe?" That's one of the first questions people ask
Amy Duncan when they hear from others about her autobiography Getting
Down to Brass Tacks – My Adventures in the World of Jazz, Rio, and
Beyond. But she just shrugs, because she knows that the significant
things in her life (or anyone's life) have very little to do with
meeting famous people.
She's met plenty of them, and has even had a little notoriety of her
own as a musician and band leader, yet her story touches on many of
the things all of us encounter as we wend our way through the
complications, joys, frustrations, and surprises of our own lives.
Reading Getting Down to Brass Tacks is like pulling up a chair and
sitting down with Amy for a cup of tea and a nice, long chat. You'll
find yourself fascinated by her tales of driving from Boston to
Guatemala in an old VW bus with her five-year old daughter, parading
as a drummer in Rio de Janeiro's famous Carnival parades, traveling to
Japan as a road manager for a famous jazz band, and, of course,
meeting Marilyn Monroe.
But you'll also be pulled in by her hunger to find some kind of
meaning in life beyond just day-to-day survival, her unhappy
relationships with men and her difficulties in raising two daughters
while she tried to maintain a musical career. Both feisty and
vulnerable, she often struggles to make the right choices but
sometimes makes the wrong ones, as most of us do.
Getting Down to Brass Tacks reads more like a novel than a memoir, and
it will capture you with its humor and honesty. It's a life full of
music, love, loss, gain, and triumph. Along the way, Amy will
introduce you to other cultures and places and their unique
characters, customs, and colors.