2013 Charlie Parker book.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 16 Dec 2013 2:03 pm

Anybody read Stanley Crouch's 2013 book?

http://www.amazon.com/Kansas-City-Light ... ley+crouch

I just heard an NPR rave review and I'm thinking of getting it for my Kindle. I detest Stanley Crouch. He has earned my scorn several times over the years. But I'm leaning towards overlooking that based on what I heard, considering my passion for Charlie Parker.

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 16 Dec 2013 6:58 pm

Jon,
Haven't read it, but are you hep to this other new (2013) tome on Bird?
It's written by Kansas Citys ~>Chuck Haddix and focuses on Birds Kansas City years.
~> Click
~Russ

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 16 Dec 2013 11:53 pm

Thanks, Russ. No, missed that one. Useful review tells me just enough. I think I'll pass.
It's hard to overcome my feelings about Crouch. He truly is a low quality person and I hate giving him my money but the book sounds pretty enticing.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 17 Dec 2013 7:18 am

Maybe Crouch will redeem himself with this book. I'd be interested to find out. My vote is that Jon Light should be the canary in the coalmine.

Michael Maddex · Post by **Michael Maddex** » 17 Dec 2013 8:58 am

If you are a Bird fan and haven't already seen Bird Lives!: The High Life And Hard Times Of Charlie Parker by Ross Russell, read it. It's all there.

Amazon Link

Enjoy!

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 17 Dec 2013 11:46 am

Mike--I do believe I will.

Michael--I know it well. It was a bible of sorts for me when it came out in the 70s. I've come to believe that it is a bit of a romantic flight with some questionable accuracy but it was a great read. Gotta go scoff down a conquistador dinner now.

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 17 Dec 2013 6:28 pm

Jon, Just wondering how Mr. Crouch run a foul of you. Please share I would love to know and it might save me some money.

Tom

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 18 Dec 2013 2:35 am

Tom---first time I heard of him was in the 70's when he wrote a piece in the Village Voice excoriating Oliver Lake for having white musicians in his band. As a white musician playing on the edges of the NYC loft scene at the time with colorblind artists, I took this personally.
He went on to be fired from the Voice for physically fighting with a fellow writer on the premises (apparently consistent with a general behavior pattern of intimidation & blowhardism).

Since then he has become a member of a small group of influential people who advocate for a narrow orthodoxy that seeks to define 'what is jazz'. Their advocacy for the music they like is fine. And a lot of the music is great. But they have dismissed a huge amount of art and artists that did not and does not conform to their personal definitions. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But they have sort of elected themselves into office and they do wield power.
I'm not sure what it will take for me to put his deviant behavior behind and forgive him. Maybe this book. We'll see. I hope it is as good as the reviews say.
I scored and found it for download at my local library so it's onboard the Kindle and awaiting my attention.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 18 Dec 2013 3:44 am

What does Stanley Crouch have to say about the pedal steel guitar?

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 18 Dec 2013 12:13 pm

If he were interested in steel guitar, he would be telling people that if a certain way was good enough for Jerry Byrd then it should be good enough for them.

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 18 Dec 2013 2:50 pm

Jon, Thanks for a very reasonable and thoughtful explanation. My only experiences with Mr. Crouch were venues like Booktv where he always offered a scholarly discourse and of course with those types of presentations most authors do not venture very far from the book being discussed.

Tom

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 19 Dec 2013 2:49 am

I can't imagine there's much to reveal about Parker that we don't already know. Let us know if I'm wrong, Jon.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 19 Dec 2013 11:33 am

Andy--I think Phil Schaap should receive a Pulitzer or Nobel or medal of honor or something. But I avoid listening to him at all costs. I'm not looking for more biographical details or where he should have been buried or what he snacked on in between breakfast and lunch on March 23, 1947 (Phil will tell us what he had for those meals).

I got the impression from a review I read earlier this year that this book might fill in more backdrop, color. I would love to be able to know some of these guys as real people and real working musicians instead of just icons and magical geniuses and there is nobody I would be more thrilled to humanize than Bird.
I will most certainly provide my impressions.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 6 Jan 2014 6:41 am

Jon, did you ever get this book? I'm going to take a walk over to B&N later and buy it.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 6 Jan 2014 8:09 am

Jon Light wrote:Andy--I think Phil Schaap should receive a Pulitzer or Nobel or medal of honor or something. But I avoid listening to him at all costs. I'm not looking for more biographical details or where he should have been buried or what he snacked on in between breakfast and lunch on March 23, 1947 (Phil will tell us what he had for those meals).

I'm with you on the Phil Schaap thing ! I couldn't listen to his otherwise brilliant morning show. I talked to the guys at WKCR a couple times about how they could make a quick fortune by having a "Phip Schaap shuts his yaap" fundraiser. For every $10,000 pledged Phip Shaap would play an hour of Bird without talking. They shuddered in horror at the thought of doing anything except show Schaap complete worship.

One show was about how somebody who was in Bird's band or somebody Bird met that day made a pbj sandwich but didn't have time to toast the bread. There wasn't enough time left after Schaaps blabbering to play the music he was pretending to talk about.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 6 Jan 2014 9:44 am

Okay: Phil Schaap.

If you ever wanted to know what it would be like for someone with Aspergers Syndrome to have his own jazz radio show, Phil Schaap is the man. I think he still lives in the house he grew up in. He is nearly impossible to listen to. I once listened to a week of his shows of birds music chronologically and during that week, I think he only played 4 or 5 songs....the entire week. We were bombarded with every bit of Minutia : On this track bird went to 57th street and had his reed fixed...we got that story at least 50 times during the course of the week. I finally gave up.

BUT....

Phil Schaap is the guy who goes out and visits all those old Jazz players in the nursing home....he is the guy that reminds them what they used to be and brings them things and makes them feel like the pioneers and brilliant musicians they were. His life is dedicated to not only documenting everything about jazz, but caring for our aged musicians when he is really the only one left coming around to visit each week.

Yes, he is unlistenable but I wouldn't want a world where he didn't exist.

Chad Karnitz · Post by **Chad Karnitz** » 6 Jan 2014 9:49 am

The Crouch book is okay. It's mainly focused on Bird's formative years in KC. It's fairly well-written with some detours that seem unnecessary.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 6 Jan 2014 10:12 am

I had the Bird book in my hand, read it for 10 minutes, but then Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout caught my eye. I went with Duke.

Philip Sterk · Post by **Philip Sterk** » 6 Jan 2014 12:30 pm

I think when you listen to Phil Schapp, you need to ask yourself;

Do I want to be entertained right now? or Do I want to be educated right now?

I think Phil offers an insight into the lives of musicians that lived before many of us. If anything, Phil brings a discussion to the table in the history of early jazz music. Does anyone do this for Country music? For Hawaiian Music? Etc...?

I look at his "obsession" in a different light. I think of it as more a "master" class or "lecture".

Oh, the best part is that it's on THE RADIO...for FREE. I don't even have to be barraged with insipid mind-numbing advertising.
What else is on the radio right now that provides that level of insight or passion for matter?

Take it or leave it, but I'll take it! Another reason why I love NYC.

I'm reading Robin Kelly's autobiography of Thelonious Monk right now. It's great.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 6 Jan 2014 1:12 pm

The kelly book is great. You come away with a completely different impression of Monk. I've always thought of Monk as more of a savant but she really showed what a true genius he was and really set the record straight on he question of who invented Bebop.

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 6 Jan 2014 1:42 pm

I got the book on my Kindle from the library, had little time to read it, it expired and now I've re-borrowed it. I'm about 3/4 through. The Crouch issues are not a problem. Some of his prose is brilliantly evocative. Truly. He goes off on some flights that paint vivid pictures. Other times it is as embarrassing as a homework assignment for a high school creative writing class.
With the last quarter of the book still to be read, what I've dug about it is how it has set the KC scene. It has significantly fleshed out some characters about whom I knew relatively little. And it has brought some human color to the two dimensional figure of Bird. I suppose these features are exactly what I'd hoped for so the book has delivered. It is worth noting that Crouch had been working on this for 30 years so he did have access to people who are long gone now. This is in answer to the question "what new info could someone possibly bring to the discussion?"

The Monk book sounds like a must-read. When piano was my instrument, nobody affected me more deeply than Monk.

re: Schaap---as I said, I honor him. I rarely listen to him anymore--he has had my ears for more hours than any other music/radio talker. He is who I would seek out if I wanted a lecture, a source , a guru.
But after 40 years of listening to him, if it's music I want to hear and if I don't want to start talking back to the damned radio, I'll go elsewhere.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 6 Jan 2014 10:31 pm

I think Phil offers an insight into the lives of musicians that lived before many of us. If anything, Phil brings a discussion to the table in the history of early jazz music. Does anyone do this for Country music? For Hawaiian Music? Etc...?

I also agree that Phil is like unto a god when it comes to that period of jazz. The world and NYC in particular is a much better place because of him. I listened to him for years until I just couldn't take it.

There was this late night beatnik jazz DJ in San Fransisco in the 70's that had the same sort of personal historic perspective on jazz without the rainman issues. I forgot his name but he was a treasure.

Eddie Stubbs is a way less crazy and listenable version of Phil when it comes to country music.

Come to think about it the DJ/historian role is quite common and not unique to NYC at all.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 7 Jan 2014 9:53 am

Robin Kelly's autobiography of Thelonious Monk

I, ummm... Who is this book about? Are those pesky shape-shifters back in town....

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 7 Jan 2014 2:50 pm

How can it be I've never before heard of Phil Schapp? Is he a NY-only radio presence?

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 7 Jan 2014 3:16 pm

I don't know his whole CV but his home base and primary gig has always been WKCR, Columbia University station.