Praise for GET ME OUT OF HERE, a memoir by Jeremy Steig

“As a musician, Jeremy Steig was completely and compellingly original, and so he was as a visual artist. This fascinating and totally honest memoir reveals an equal gift for storytelling, with a generous sampling of his artwork. It will make you want to hear his special music—again or for the first time.”

—Dan Morgenstern, Director Emeritus, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University

“Jeremy Steig was one of the first-class flautists of all time and an innovative composer and visionary of music in the twentieth century. His utilization of amplified flute with synthesizer produced twenty-first-century music. . . . Jeremy and the Satyrs was one of the first, if not the first, group to infuse rock, funk, and rhythm and blues elements with jazz–jazz rock.”

—Joe Chambers, percussionist and composer

“Jeremy Steig . . . was a tireless giant of technicolor jazz, a Picasso of the flute. Knowing him nourished my life. This book tells some of his story; the rest could be a five-foot shelf.”

—Bob Fass, Creator and Host of Radio Unnameable, WBAI-FM 99.5, New York

“In 1963 it was a great privilege and thrill to be part of the quartet with Ben Riley and Ben Tucker for Jeremy Steig’s debut album on Columbia, Flute Fever. . . . We went in separate career directions afterwards, and I’ve frequently wondered how his life and career unfolded. Get Me Out of Here answers that question in a series of engaging chapters where Jeremy shares his thoughts and feelings in an extremely candid, uncompromising style.” 

—Denny Zeitlin, jazz pianist and composer

“Jeremy was the most complete artist and the most relentlessly creative individual I have ever met. . . . He breathed art and music twenty-four hours a day. Steig’s notes are as clear and soaring as ever in this chronicle of Greenwich Village in the ’60s and the music and art scene that he was so much a part of and helped create.”

—Andrew Smith, former Head Writer, Saturday Night Live

“Great story and great book! It takes you on a whirlwind tour of music of the ’60s and the ’70s.

—Bruce Spiegel, film director of Bill Evans: Time Remembered

“Jeremy was the most original jazz flutist of his era, and his memoir is a fascinating and often jarring glimpse into the realities of the hardscrabble jazz life. Fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for a bumpy ride. A must read.”

—Ron Micci, flutist, Paige Brook student, and author of Addie & Me

“I’ve known Jeremy for decades and had no idea what a truly fascinating life he had. I’m blown away by this interesting and entertaining memoir.”

—Glenn Franke, leader of the Glenn Franke Big Band

“Jeremy has left us his thoughts in a trenchant, incisive, sardonic last testament, peppered with his ingenious sketches. . . . This is an absorbing self-portrait of a multifaceted artist.”

—Karla Munger, childhood friend

“I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to read this memoir and learn more about the creative journey of his life path. . . . Jeremy is a teacher for those of us who have struggled with our own creativity in our life.”

—Ellen Olian Bate, retired attorney and alumnus of Music & Art High School

“Jeremy was a breath of fresh air. He was kind, loved irony, and the idiosyncrasies of life in general. He also played his ass off.” 

—Racey Gilbert, jazz drummer, photographer, and entrepreneur

“Jeremy Steig is possibly the most interesting and talented jazz flute player ever. Get Me Out of Here is a peek into how he got there. It gives clear and personal insight into what growing up in the New York jazz scene from the late 1950s on was like for him. It is a wonderfully articulate and delightful tale about a very complex artist, his dysfunctional family, and his friends and lovers.”

—Stuart Bigley, cofounder and former Executive Director, Unison Arts Center