In the 1930's, the fictional Emmet Ray ruled as the second greatest jazz guitarist in the world. But his reputation was eclipsed by his eccentric career moves, hilarious clashes with gangsters and stormy love affairs with two very different women.

Recounts the stellar singer's career from her beginnings at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, to her debut at the Apollo Theater and her pre-eminence in nightclubs, concert halls, and jazz festivals around the world.

"From Poverty Row came a movie that, perhaps more than any other, epitomizes the dark fatalism at the heart of film noir. As he hitchhikes his way from New York to Los Angeles, a down-on-his-luck nightclub pianist (Tom Neal) finds himself with a dead body on his hands and nowhere to run -- a waking nightmare that goes from bad to worse when he picks up the most vicious femme fatale in cinema history, Ann Savage's snarling, monstrously conniving drifter...