Gene Lees is a journalist and music critic, song lyricist, singer, and personal friend of several generations of jazz musicians. He is the author of "Cats of Any Color" and biographies of Woody Herman and Oscar Peterson. For twenty-one years he has been the publisher of the "Jazzletter." Nat Hentoff is the author of "Boston Boy: Growing Up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions" and "Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music."