#leonard feather

[oldshowbiz]

1962.

Leonard Feather versus Jackie Cooper.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Duke Ellington at the piano and Louis Armstrong on trumpet rehearse Leonard Feather's "Long, Long Journey" during a session at the RCA Victor recording studio, January 12, 1946.

Source: Associated Press

[vinylspinning]

Various Artists: Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records (1957)

If you thought boxed sets were a phenomenon exclusive to the compact disc era, think again.

Here’s a perfect example of the very same marketing/content strategy resulting from the advent of long playing 33 1/3 vinyl LPs back in the 1950s and manifested in the highly influential Encyclopedia of Jazz on Records box.

In his must-read memoirs, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s, industry legend Joe Boyd (best known as the guy who discovered Nick Drake) credited  this collection (among other things) for igniting his curiosity and turning him into a music obsessive at an early age.

I can relate -- it takes one to know one, so I decided to order a copy, if only to share in that rare thrill of discovery I get from most any kinds of music.

The series was curated by Leonard Feather, a British-born, New York and L.A.-based pianist, composer, producer, broadcaster, historian, journalist, and all-around jazz evangelist, who later worked as The Los Angeles Times’ chief jazz critic until his death in 1994.

From what I can gather, this is just one of many iterations, variations and configurations released over the years, but mine boasts four records and 48 songs, evenly representing jazz from the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, supported with song-by-song liner notes one can easily get lost in.

Don’t forget, jazz’s four-decade reign as America’s most popular musical form is comparable to rock & roll’s rule over the second half of the 20th Century.

So, there’s a rich and fascinating evolution to behold here, even though the collection only skirts the fringes of bebop and never reached, let alone contemplated the avant-garde, free jazz, and other radical fusions yet to come.

And even if you’re not especially fond of sub-genres like swing, dixieland, stride, cool jazz, west coast jazz, or even big bands in general (I’m not), the box also covers blues, boogie woogie, and other tangential styles that affected jazz.

Plus, there are several unique benefits to spinning these LPs so many decades after the fact ...

First, there’s something refreshingly democratic about hearing both future immortals (Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sydney Bechet) and relatively forgotten names (Elmer Schoebel, Venuti-Lang, Glen Gray, Bob Crosby) impartially sharing side-by-side grooves.

Second, there’s the musical DE-segregation that momentarily eases racial divides with timeless black AND white interpretations of the same medium: jazz -- and not always delineated along preconceived color and style lines, as one might expect, since masters and pupils, black and white and in-between, continually learned from each other as the music evolved.

Sure, lots of patience and endurance is required because it’s a long way from King Oliver’s “Aunt Hagar's Blues” to Elmer Bernstein’s “Frankie Machine,” not least with detours to Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “That’s All,” and I could have done without the claw-your-eyes-out fluff of Charlie Ventura’s “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” 

But that’s a small price to pay for acquiring a condensed, “higher education” in such an important musical, cultural, and historical movement, so I was certainly happy to take the long trip across four decades of jazz -- you won’t regret it either, if you try.

After all, that’s what music obsessives do ...

More Jazz: Cannonball Adderley’s Somethin’ Else, Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream & Other Delights, Bola Sete’s Tour de Force, Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch!, Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite, Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, Coleman Hawkins’ The Hawk Flies High, Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D., Andrew Hill’s Point of Departure, Dave Holland’s Conference of the Birds, Billie Holiday’s Lady in Satin, Les McCann’s Swiss Movement, Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um, Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant Corners, Lee Morgan’s The Sidewinder, Duke Pearson’s Sweet Honey Bee, Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus, Nina Simone’s Nina at the Village Gate, Sun Ra’s Angels and Demons at Play, Various Artists’ Jazz Abstractions.

[mosaicrecords]

Gerry Mulligan: Before & After

Jazz Profiles has reprinted an utterly fascinating Leonard Feather essay on Gerry Mulligan’s career which first appeared in the May 26, 1960 Down Beat. Through quotes with many who knew and worked with Mulligan from his high school days to the early ‘50s, a lot a blanks and little know details in his early career have been fleshed out.

-Michael Cuscuna

Read and listen to Part 1 from Jazz Profiles… Read and listen to Part 2 from Jazz Profiles… Follow: Mosaic Records Facebook Tumblr Twitter

[cobblestonestreet]

Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Leonard Feather.

[uidahodigital]

Did you know: the University of Idaho Library Special Collections holds prolific jazz critic and composer Leonard Feather’s photographs, scrapbooks, publications, and recordings in safe keeping for future generations? This photo of Ella Fitzgerald and Nelson Riddle is just one of thousands of images from Feather’s collection. Don’t miss our display of Ella Fitzgerald’s wig, jewelry, and dress as part of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary celebration!

From the Leonard Feather Collection, part of our renowned International Jazz Collection. 

[oldshowbiz]

1970 - Rare Audio of Mort Sahl doing a long set at Dante’s in North Hollywood. Featuring opening remarks by birthday Stan Kenton while Leonard Feather and Louie Bellson look on. Shelly Manne joins Sahl in the second half. In the third portion, Harry Sweets Edison tells funny stories about the Count Basie Orchestra.

[oldshowbiz]