Memoir shared in Carson City for jazz festival

The Jazz & Beyond Festival is in full swing and one husband is driven to share his late wife’s story about her friendships with many well-known jazz musicians.

Claire P. Gordon died June 3 at the age of 97 in Arroyo Grande, Calif. Since her death, Joe Peel, 84, has resided at Carson City’s Sierra Place Senior Living.

“My Unforgettable Jazz Friends” is a 286-paged memoir written by Gordon about her experience serving as secretary to jazz composer Duke Ellington, and her marriage with Irving Gordon, a songwriter. He’s best known for writing the song, “Unforgettable,” which Claire encouraged Nat King Cole to record.

She also shares memories about her bond with saxophonist Benny Carter, her attendance of Cole’s recording sessions, and reflections of jazz music from the 1930s and 1940s era. The book published in 2004.

“I didn’t listen to a lot of jazz but I met a lot of people in the genre because of her,” Peel said. “Anyone who loves jazz would love reading her stories. She certainly changed my life.”

Peel is selling her memoir $35 for paperback and $40 for hardcover. Although he will be selling them in person and through Amazon.com, he plans to display her books during the Deep Groove performance Aug. 18.

Peel said many of Gordon’s experiences inspired him, however, he’s most fascinated with her friendship with Benny Carter, in which she covers in many chapters of her novel.

“They were close,” he said. “He was such a jewel of a man. His library would knock your eyes out — he was intelligent.”

Peel met Gordon in a program through the American Mensa organization. He was living in Reno at the time when he sent her letters, as she resided in Brentwood, Calif. They married in the early 1990s, many years after she divorced Irving and the death of her second husband, Ken Williams, a television announcer.

After their wedding in Las Vegas, the couple moved to Los Altos, Calif., to be closer to Gordon’s children.

Gordon is also the author of two other books, “Boy Meets Horn” and “The Color of Music,” and a co-author of “Marshal Royal: Jazz Survivor.”