Stanley Crouch Parker biography reviewed

[bichos]

a question for those who have the book: are there photos in the book? in the new haddix book are ten pages of photos (well known to most of us --but: two unknown (to me) Pictures. one from 1931 bird with students from penn School and Charlie on stage with the earl hines band 1943 playing Tenor.

Keep boppin´

marcel

[Larry Kart]

a question for those who have the book: are there photos in the book? in the new haddix book are ten pages of photos (well known to most of us --but: two unknown (to me) Pictures. one from 1931 bird with students from penn School and Charlie on stage with the earl hines band 1943 playing Tenor.

Keep boppin´

marcel

Yes.

[bichos]

a question for those who have the book: are there photos in the book? in the new haddix book are ten pages of photos (well known to most of us --but: two unknown (to me) Pictures. one from 1931 bird with students from penn School and Charlie on stage with the earl hines band 1943 playing Tenor.

Keep boppin´

marcel

Yes.

thanks for info.

Keep boppin´

marcel

[jazzbo]

Crouch was briefly on the PBS News Hour last night, interviewed about the book. He didn't dress up, wore a t-shirt and a warm up jacket. And he said nothing deep or meaningful at all. Disappointing.

[Utevsky]

Stanley Crouch is a super-egotistical gasbag. Anything he writes is primarily about himself. If he wants to punch me out, as he is wont to do, he'll have to come to the west coast.

[skeith]

Crouch was briefly on the PBS News Hour last night, interviewed about the book. He didn't dress up, wore a t-shirt and a warm up jacket. And he said nothing deep or meaningful at all. Disappointing.

I saw that too Lon. First I was shocked at the color of his skin tone... much lighter than I remember and I have seen him in person.... I hope it was the TV makeup or is he doing a Michael Jackson?

The thing I remember is that he kept saying that Parker could improvise at "digital speed" ... a concept that he never explained or else I just did not understand it. Either I am dumb (probably) or he is a phony.

Edited October 17, 2013 by skeith

[jazzbo]

Stuart,

You are not dumb.

He made a big deal of saying "Parker could listen to the other musicians and play his own line."

My Dad looked at me and said "I did that when I was in Band in high school playing the clarinet. Don't all musicians?"

I felt sad for Crouch.

[Daniel A]

"Stanley Crouch recounts rise of jazz giant Charlie 'Bird' Parker":

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec13/kansascity_10-16.html

[AllenLowe]

maybe he meant that his digits were doing the playing.

[JSngry]

As seems to be his bented wont, I know what he means, but in spite of what he says, not because of it.

I'd like to send my heart out to him, because I do that shit all the time myself, but I'm usually playing games with the words because games are for toys and words are toys and toys are for fun and games.

Therefore: Trix are for kids & Stanley Crouch is a silly rabbit.

Q.E.D.

[mjzee]

Review in the Wall St Journal. Please let me know if it cannot be read in its entirety:

WSJ

[JSngry]

Always a firewall with WSJ links, but easily penetrable. The second link on this page will take you to it: https://www.google.com/search?q=Fast%2C+slow+or+blue%2C+Charlie+Parker+redefined+the+jazz+vocabulary+in+his+short+life.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs

Doesn't sound like Morgenstern is too thrilled about any of the three books under review. It's like the books were an excuse for him to write about Bird instead of writing a book review. It reads more like liner notes than a book review (but I always/usually love me some Dan Morgenstern liner notes) But maybe that's just how he rolls.

But...does this read like "Help, I'm being held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory"?

The jazz world is a small one—too small, these days—and I have known or encountered many of the authors of these works. I've shared many memorable musical moments with Mr. Crouch. And Mr. Giddins was my proudest find when I was editor of Down Beat in the 1960s and '70s.

[mjzee]

So if you post the Google page, the Organissimo member will be able to read it, but if you post a link to the actual WSJ page, then they cannot?

[JSngry]

That seems to be how it's working. You get the "teaser", the headline and the wahtever that other line is called, but that's it. I just google that whatever line, and a link comes up that opens straight to the full article.

[Larry Kart]

A musician friend of some prominence told me that several decades ago he was on the bill at a NYC concert at which Giddins was the emcee. Standing together in the wings before the band he was a part of was to go on, my friend was startled to hear Gary muse, in response to what the band then onstage was playing, "The blues and 'I Got Rhythm' are the same thing harmonically, right?"

[mjzee]

That seems to be how it's working. You get the "teaser", the headline and the wahtever that other line is called, but that's it. I just google that whatever line, and a link comes up that opens straight to the full article.

If we could get this down to a protocol, I'd be cool with it.

[AllenLowe]

Larry and I have the same friend, re: Giddins; one of Gary's problems is that he often tries to get technical but hasn't a clue (he used to say that You are Too Beautiful and I'll Keep Loving You were the same changes; not true; he also screwed up the definition of enharmonic).

[Larry Kart]

A musician friend of some prominence told me that several decades ago he was on the bill at a NYC concert at which Giddins was the emcee. Standing together in the wings before the band he was a part of was to go on, my friend was startled to hear Gary muse, in response to what the band then onstage was playing, "The blues and 'I Got Rhythm' are the same thing harmonically, right?"

Ken Burns sure knows how to pick 'experts' for his docs...

At least IMO, Giddins has done some good work, but it's important to know that you don't know what you don't know. IIRC, Giddins eventually took some lessons from guitarist Howard Alden in an attempt to acquire a general technical background, but, again IIRC, they agreed early on that things weren't working out.

[John Litweiler]

A musician friend of some prominence told me that several decades ago he was on the bill at a NYC concert at which Giddins was the emcee. Standing together in the wings before the band he was a part of was to go on, my friend was startled to hear Gary muse, in response to what the band then onstage was playing, "The blues and 'I Got Rhythm' are the same thing harmonically, right?"

Looks like Gary was making a sarcastic remark about something he heard the band play.

[Larry Kart]

A musician friend of some prominence told me that several decades ago he was on the bill at a NYC concert at which Giddins was the emcee. Standing together in the wings before the band he was a part of was to go on, my friend was startled to hear Gary muse, in response to what the band then onstage was playing, "The blues and 'I Got Rhythm' are the same thing harmonically, right?"

Looks like Gary was making a sarcastic remark about something he heard the band play.

No -- my friend said he was quite serious and asking for validation of his "insight."

[JSngry]

There's some JATP thing where a "Lester Leaps In"-ish riff is set against a blues form, and there's some momentary ambiguity as a result.

So, at some level it would be an "insightful" question, but that's a level far beyond not really getting the fundamental difference.

It's like asking if a tree is an egg, well, do you know the difference between a pine cone and a chicken? No? Then let's not talk about that, ok?

[AllenLowe]

i can attest also that Giddins was completely serious in his question. Sad but true.

[Teasing the Korean]

I have always wondered if "I'll Keep Loving You" was inspired by "You are Too Beautiful." The chord changes are different, but there are certain similarities, in spirit if not in actual notes, although there is the recurrence of the flatted 9th.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Teasing the Korean

[Larry Kart]

FWIW, Adam Schatz:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/arts/music/05archive.html?_r=0

contributes an enthusiastic review of Crouch's Bird bio to the current New York Review of Books.

It's behind a pay wall, unfortunately:

http://www.nybooks.com/issues/2013/nov/07/

[Leeway]

I picked up the hard copy (imagine that) of the NYRB today and came across the Schatz review of Crouch's Parker book. It's one of those typical NYRB reviews that make you wonder if you need to read the book. Schatz concluded by calling the book "an enchanting biography," which rather surprised me, as the review itself did not seem that laudatory. It pointed out some of Crouch's usual memes, for example, varieties of skin tone, Negro for black or African-American, Albert Murray's importance, "Negro vernacular music" (as opposed to that avant stuff), etc. In other words, Crouch being Crouch. Looks like the biography to make Charlie Parker safe for Wynton Marsalis and the LCJO. I know, I'm inferring a lot from a review, but I don't think I'll be far off.