THE PLEASURES OF JAZZ

by Leonard Feather ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 28, 1976

Born in a whorehouse, by 1954 it was being underwritten by the Lorillard millions at fashionable Newport. ""This is the only new thing in Newport since Henry James,"" quoth Elaine Lorillard. Through taped interviews Feather gives us a survey of jazz's past 20 years, which began with Time's heavy cover stories on Thelonious Monk and Dave Brubeck, followed by even lengthier profiles in The New Yorker. Dignity afoot! We sent Nixon to Venezuela, where he got stoned, then Louis Armstrong, who got buried in roses. Remarks Jon Hendricks: ""Just like the sun, jazz never moves; everything revolves around it. . . it can no more die than the sun."" Feather presents his interviews with instrumentalists Freddie Hubbard and Maynard Ferguson, old masters Hoagy Carmichael, Eubie Blake, Earl Hines and Jess Stacy, big bandsmen Woody Herman and Mercer Ellington, combo leaders Dizzy Gillespie and Gerry Mulligan, vocalists Billy Eckstine, Lena Home, Anita O'Day, and other benders of the blue note. Where it's at--but not as brilliant as Whitney Balliett's New York Notes (p. 36).

Pub Date: May 28, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Horizon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION