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RIP Stanley Crouch


Hardbopjazz

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Iverson's obit is an excellent bit of writing.  The way Iverson recalls how Crouch made his interview transcript even more provocative and volatile than their actual discussion!  That tells the tale. Stanley Crouch, right there. 

It's Crouch's combative tone that almost always turned me off.  The way he put down people; it reminded me of a jazz version of Rush Limbaugh.  Not listening "in good faith," always trying to score some sort of point in an imaginary game.

... But I guess that was Stanley Crouch.  He loved to provoke people.

 

EDIT:
Am I speaking ill of the dead?  I guess so. ... But also maybe Crouch's temperament, his experience, and his circumstances were just so different than mine that I have difficulty bridging the gap.  ... How about this?  He loved what he loved. You can't take that away from him.

 

Edited by HutchFan
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39 minutes ago, Brad said:

It looks like volume 2 of his Bird bio is supposed to be published early next year.

 

My first thought was, will there be another volume?  I never actually picked up the first volume but always planned to do so ... do I recall correctly that in amidst the weird ramblings about trains that he did bring out new information, and that overall people were wanting to see what he writes about the post-KC Bird?  I thought that was the gist of what I read, and therefore I am excited if he was able to complete the book (or was there going to be a third volume that will probably next come out?).

As for Stanley in general, I encountered him first early in my listening, and he and Wynton speaking about 'blues and swing' rang true to me then, as it does today. The best jazz for me has those two elements.  So for all his verbosity and the contrast between his early attitudes and the later ones, I didn't find him contemptible like some do.

RIP. And I hope volume 2 takes us all the way thru to Nica's apartment in 1954.

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2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

If this wasn’t an RIP thread, I’d be temped to ask “full of what?”. :ph34r:

I think you just did.  Look, I understand that Crouch was a polarizing figure.  Did he have strong opinions?  For sure.  Did lots of people disagree with him?  For sure.  But, the bottom line is this.  He loved and championed the music. 

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2 hours ago, Brad said:

It looks like volume 2 of his Bird bio is supposed to be published early next year.

Just finished reading Ethan Iverson’s piece on him. Tremendous. 

Sadly, there is no Vol. 2 and will not be — the Amazon listing is the result of a technological and publisher glitch dating back to the publication of Vol 1. 

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2 hours ago, Mark Stryker said:

Sadly, there is no Vol. 2 and will not be — the Amazon listing is the result of a technological and publisher glitch dating back to the publication of Vol 1. 

Thanks for the clarification Mark. Too bad.  Do you know how far he’d gotten?

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22 hours ago, Brad said:

Thanks for the clarification Mark. Too bad.  Do you know how far he’d gotten?

I don't, but I'm afraid the answer would likely be not very far. I think it wasn't all that long after Vol. 1 came out that he was over taken by various maladies and eventually stopped working altogether. 

Edited by Mark Stryker
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10 hours ago, bresna said:

This is a great piece of writing.  I was struck that  Crouch  toughened his conversation in editing it for print whereas most people would soften what they've said before publishing it.  Many years ago I did a radio show with the film critic Andrew Sarris who was was very opinionated in his writings but  I was surprised to find  him  very agreeable and open in conversation. 

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