The two haunting, poetic novellas brilliantly evoke the comedy and sadness of life under the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships. They are prefaced by a remarkable memoir of Škvorecký's jazz-obsessed youth. Jazz is a symbol of freedom in both these novellas. In Emöke, which is set in the shadow of the Communist regime, jazz becomes the means by which a jaded young man plots the seduction of a mysterious girl enmeshed in superstition and the occult. Spurned, but fascinated, he is drawn into her tortured existence until catapulted into the final bitter comedy. In The bass saxophone, a young Czechoslovakian student living under the rule of the Nazis is lured by his love of jazz - the "forbidden music" - into secretly and dangerously playing in a German band, with bizarre and unexpected results.

Two novellas. Translation of: Bassaxofon.

Foreword:Red Music -- Emöke -- The bass saxophone.