The Accordion Years

The poet and journalist Quincy Troupe has told the stories of many people before, often to great acclaim, but not until now has he told us his own incredible story.

Known for the power of his metaphors and the stride in his sentences, Troupe’s language springs from the rhythms of jazz and the history of the African diaspora. Even today, Quincy Troupe will tell you that the strength in his writing is his memories of his parents and grandparents and the worlds they showed him through their eyes. Here is Quincy Troupe’s first memoir, his own life in his own words.

Troupe’s father was the legendary catcher Quincy Troupe Sr., a hero of the Negro Leagues who played for the Cleveland Indians in 1952 at the end of his long career, fielding flawlessly with a 1000 fielding rating, one of the oldest and highest achieving rookies ever.

Quincy junior grew up in St. Louis and went to Grambling College on a basketball and baseball scholarship. But he was a rebel who could not be put down, so trouble found him and he was asked to leave Grambling. Shortly after, his own beloved mother asked him to leave home in similar fashion. She registered him in the US Army, and he spent the next 3 ½ of his six-year enlistment period playing basketball on the All-Army basketball team in France (1959-1962).

From the time he left sports for writing, he excelled in many forms, from poetry to journalism to bestselling nonfiction. Troupe did the last interview with James Baldwin, and his friendship with Miles Davis led to their legendary collaboration in Miles: The Autobiography, which began when Spin magazine sent young Quincy over to Miles Davis’s house and it turned out they were both from St. Louis—and Miles liked him!