Growing up where fresh fruit meant the occasional brown banana or “sour green apple he found on the ground,” Art Blakey craved freshness in the kitchen as well as on stage when his need for heroin didn’t override everything else. Sandy Warren, or “Egghead,” Blakey’s partner in love, has traced an honest portrait of a man and a cook and one of the greatest jazz drummers in America.

The recipes are reasonable, and there are almost 100 of them. Some are quite simple, such as “Sautéed Flounder in a Flash,” which consists of seasoning the fillets with salt and pepper, dredging in flour, and frying in butter—not a recipe you’d need to read twice. “Peas” are just peas—fresh peas, boiled in water, served with a dab of butter and a dash of kosher salt. But the recipe belongs, because buttered peas were Blakey’s favorite vegetable. “Outrageous Oatmeal Nutmeg Cookies” are not outrageous, but rather mellow. The only surprising thing about this recipe is the addition of one quarter cup of water to the dough, which becomes quite sticky (I was glad I had my mechanical cookie/meatball scoop to portion it out with). Warren describes a household that valued fresh produce and seafood above all else, but also secured boxes of instant vanilla pudding mix.

Art Blakey Cookin’ and Jammin’ is first and foremost a love story about two people trying to figure out how to balance a life together with a pinch of salt, a lot of love, and just the right amount of self-destruction. Warren ends her chapter on cookies thus: “I would soon experience first-hand that sometimes the only way for love to survive is to let go of one another.” Art Blakey died of cancer in 1990, seven years after his and Warren’s separation.