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I searched for this book here, and just found an announcement for it, and then some knee jerk sexism put-downs by the usual suspects...

While there is a lot of material on the Bunnies (PF was a former model and Bunny) which I just skipped over, there''s some interesting jazz content, and a portrait of the 'Hef' as one of the few civil rights activists in the entertainment biz in the 50s.

People such as Dick Gregory, Freda Payne, Aretha Franklin, Al Jarreau, Maurice and Gregory Hines and Ramsey Lewis were given their first steady, decent paying gigs and exposure to a larger white audience at Playboy Clubs, resulting in all of them becoming nationally recognized in their fields. Gregory, Payne, Hines and Lewis were interviewed in the book, and gave Hef's courage in hiring and defending them from racism, credit for their success as artists.

Great jazz artists such as Monty Alexander, Gene Bertoncini, Earl May, Al Foster, Al Belletto, Larry Willis and Al Gafa were given steady gigs that lasted for years, playing uncompromising jazz.

Willis would get pianists like Chick Corea, Albert Dailey, Herbie Hancock and Roland Hanna as subs if he had another gig.

Jim Hall and Ron Carter recorded the groundbreaking duo album Alone Together at the NYC Playboy Club, and Bill Evans had a week's engagement there.

In the South, they established a New Orleans Club in 1961, where Al Belletto led an integrated house band with musicians like Richie Payne, and Ellis Marsalis had his own trio that played there for many years.

HH had two TV shows, one in 1959, where he featured Dick Gregory, and another one in 1969.where he featured Dick Gregory. The '59 show featured jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn, Ray Charles, June Christy, Dakota Staton, Beverley Kenney, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams and Billy Eckstine.

Jazz groups included Woody Herman, Cal Tjader, Dizzy Gillespie and Buddy Rich.

Pianists featured were Earl Hines, Count Basie, Ahmad Jamal Eddie Higgins and Dave Brubeck.

Crooners such as Tony Bennett, David Allen and Frank D`Rone plus pianist/vocalists Buddy Greco and Nina Simone were also featured.

You can find some of these shows on YouTube, and Frank D'Rone's 'Joey,Joey,Joey' knocked me out, accompanying himself on guitar back in 1959!

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2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Examples, please?

On 9/28/2015 at 3:06 PM, JSngry said:

...Naked chicks everywhere and sex at will, sure, yeah, All without pubic hair or exposed vaginas. What kind of jazz you gonna have without exposed vaginas in the metaphorical mix?...

Edited by sonnymax
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That's not exactly a " knee jerk sexism put-down", not by any stretch of even my imagination. Statement of fact (or am I mistaken that the Playboy "image" was indeed based in part - a good-sized part (no pun intended!) on naked chick everywhere and sex at will and that for the longest, they did not show pubic hair, and for the even longer, exposed vaginas?) followed by a perfectly logical question, not about sexism, but about jazz.

I mean, i think the whole "Playboy Lifestyle"  is stupid now, but not for reasons of "sexism". It's not sexist, it's stunted, Sexism is anything but stunted, it's quite evolved. There's nothing at all evolved about naked chicks without vaginas being presented as "sex" or "lifestyle". And especially not as "jazz".

As a reflection of a particular people at a particular place in time, it analyzes, but think about this - by equating "jazz" and "sexual freedom", how many myths were being not only perpetrated but further ensconced. Oooh, Al Belletto had a long gig at the N.O. Playboy Club. Jelly Roll Morton had a long time playing N.O. Whorehouses. Does the story end at that? No, but you'd not know it from looking at all those fine asses on all them bunnies (yes, I visited a club or two). The asses were indeed fine, but that's what you paid for, right?

OTOH, sure, Hefner was an employer of note, and that cannot be overlooked. So were, a.o., Owney Madden, Morris Levy, Bill Cosby (the PERFECT Hefner partner in crime,as it turns out, literally!), the list goes on. You link one commodity with another and sell a package of illusions. When one commodity loses favor, no problem, there's another one waiting, all too willing. The supply of commodities and consumers is endless.

And yes, Playboy made an attempt to "expose" (ha ha) "real jazz" to mass audiences, but jeezus, look at those poll results. They could have tried harder if the cared that much, ok? Sure we have Miles Davis interviews, and thanks for those, but where was the Max Roach interview. Or the Duke Ellington interview? Or the Sonny Rollins interview? Or the goddammed Archie Shepp interview? AFAIK, there's not even a Dave Brubeck interview or a Paul Desmond interview or a Stan Getz interview. Brubeck in particular was a very articulate speaker on a wide range of totally relevant social issues, why no give ink to his voice instead of just pimping some "cool" fantasy (uh-oh, again no pun intended!) shit.

Hugh Hefner today is a fucking joke, and the punch line was already silently in place from the beginning, it just took a long time to finally deliver it. Of course, hinsight is 20-20, always. But live an learn, hopefully.

Got anything else?

 

 

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