Favorite authors of liner notes?

[John Tapscott]

Yanow writes clearly and his notes are usually pretty good, but I find he's been a bit lazy lately, not providing quite as much detail as one would like (not always identifying soloists, etc). Maybe it depends on how much he's being paid. Plus the style of his liner notes is very predictable. Not a bad thing necessarily, but sometimes it's good to change things up a bit.

I like Morgenstern a lot; he's my favorite. I also enjoy Ira Gitler's ice hockey references.

And I'm going to mention Peter Leitch who has done some fine liner notes for CD's on the Reservoir label.

Now here is a very obscure LP. Apparently sold less than a thousand copies according to producer Ted O'Reilly. But the liner notes a superb, a real model for the genre, written by Org Board member Don Brown.

[crisp]

Forgot to mention Will Friedwald who is unusual in specialising in singers. Very readable and gets everything spot on most of the time.

[colinmce]

I agree. I like reading Friedwald on the swing era, singers, GAS, etc. On more recent music and other sundry topics, less so.

[Bill Nelson]

What I especially like about Friedwald is his critical thinking and creative way of calling 'em as he sees 'em.

As a result of his audacity, he frequently leaves me hooting or howling.

[Simon8]

I was surprised to see so many favorites here, as I find myself almost always disappointed by the liner notes (never evocative enough for my poetic taste) - but then last night I listened to Lester Young "Kansas City Sessions", with Loren Schoenberg providing clear, informative and very well written notes, followed by Paul Bley's "Ramblin'" with an inspired Philippe Carles beautifully describing Bley's music and thought process (speaking of Bley, love his comments in the excellent liner notes of "Diane", the duo album with Chet.)

Edited December 10, 2013 by Simon8

[Christiern]

Let me throw another name out that has not been mentioned: Scott Yanow.

According to his Wikipedia entry, "Yanow has penned more than 600 liner notes for many record labels." Of course, he has done many of the reviews for the AMG.

There is a significant difference between savoring the flavor through slow chewing (Dan Morgenstern) and gulping down whole (Scott Yanow).

[Utevsky]

For me, Nat Hentoff and Stanley Crouch are among the worst.