“JAZZ LIVES: 100 PORTRAITS IN JAZZ” By...

“JAZZ LIVES: 100 PORTRAITS IN JAZZ” By Gene Lees, Photographs by John Reeves Firefly ($28.95) * * *

“I’ve had a great life being John Reeves the photographer,” says the man whose pictures grace this book, “but in an absolutely perfect world, I would have chosen to be Zoot Sims or Mel Lewis or McCoy Tyner.”

As a lifelong fan, the Toronto-based Reeves was a logical choice to assemble this remarkable volume, in which a technique was employed that is rarely used in photographing jazzmen: There are no horns around, no in-performance shots. Instead, these are basically portraits of faces--some of them literally as large as life in this 8-by-11-inch format. Visually, it’s an outstanding collection.

The artists are arranged according to their birth dates, starting to the trombonist Spiegle Willcox, born in 1903 and still active, and ending with the bassist Christian McBride, born in 1972. These are not necessarily the 100 greatest musicians of all time, but most are men and women of distinction, with a few odd choices such as pianist Romano Mussolini-- Il Duce’s son--and a guitarist named Akio Sasajima.

Fellow Canadian Gene Lees’ introduction offers a well-conceived evaluation of the jazz tradition. His notes accompanying the photos are satisfactory except for several factual errors, which he says will be corrected in the next printing.

Items in this periodic survey of jazz-related books, videocassettes and laser discs are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).