Memorable Quotes: Horace Greeley, on character
“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take…”
...Search Results for: memorable quote
Memorable Quotes: Elie Wiesel, on protest
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice…”
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Memorable Quotes: Albert Einstein, on labor
“Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must…”
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Memorable Quotes: Bertrand Russell, on facts
“Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through…”
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Memorable Quotes: Louis Brandeis…on lawbreaking government
“Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker…”
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Memorable Quotes: Rosa Parks, on freedom
“As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from…”
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Memorable Quotes – Mark Twain, on the pattern of a civilization’s destruction
“Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the…”
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Memorable Quotes – James Joyce, on aging
“One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of…”
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Memorable Quotes – Henry David Thoreau, on music
“When I hear music, I feel no danger. I am…”
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A Memorable Quote by Maya Angelou…(and a short message of gratitude and faith)
“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the…
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Memorable Quote: H.L. Mencken…
. . Ben Pinchot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons . “I believe it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.” . -H. L. Mencken . . Listen … Continue reading “Memorable Quote: H.L. Mencken…”
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Memorable Quote:…Martin Luther King
. . photo via Pixabay . “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” . -Martin Luther King . . ___ . . Listen to the 1963 recording of Oscar Peterson performing “Hymn to Freedom,” with Ray Brown (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums). [Universal … Continue reading “Memorable Quote:…Martin Luther King”
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Memorable Quote….Abraham Lincoln, on labor
“If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor…”
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Memorable Quote: Martin Luther King, on what hate destroys, and the challenge of change
“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his…”
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Memorable Quote: George Gershwin on composing “Rhapsody in Blue”
“…The rhapsody, as you see, began as a purpose, not a plan.. I tried to conceive the composition as a whole…”
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Memorable Quote: Franklin Roosevelt…on Labor Day
“Labor Day symbolizes our determination to achieve an…”
...Memorable Quotes — Ornette Coleman
“Making music is like a form of religion for me, because it soothes your heart and increases the pleasure of your brain. Most of all, it’s very enjoyable to express something that you can only hear and not see, which is not bad.”
– Ornette Coleman
1930 – 2015
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Summer 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Summer, 2025 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Monk, as seen by Gottlieb, Dorsett and 16 poets – an ekphrastic poetry collection Dear Readers: …..I recently invited interested poets to take part in an ekphrastic poem exercise that involved … Continue reading “Summer 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter”
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From the Interview Archive: Paul Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey
In a 2005 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Paul Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey discusses his subject – a jazz artist who transcended genres to establish one of the most immediately recognizable sounds in all of music.
...Spring 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Spring, 2025 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong It’s safe to assume we can agree that Louis Armstrong deserved this – a comprehensive biography (now … Continue reading “Spring 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
...Interview with Doug Ramsey, author of Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond is the story of a jazz artist who transcended genres to establish one of the most immediately recognizable sounds in all of music. Long before his success as the alto saxophonist with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, decades before he wrote “Take Five ,” Desmond determined that he would be himself, never a disciple or an imitator, whatever the cost.
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Interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers
The collection of 14 interviews is an impressive and determined effort, one that contributes mightily to the deepening of our understanding for the music’s past impact, and fans optimism for more.
...Fall 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Fall, 2024 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Jazz Poetry…Collected! With a major collection of jazz poetry soon to be published in book form, this edition of Jerry Jazz Musician features poets from all over the world whose work … Continue reading “Fall 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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True Jazz Stories: “Well You Needn’t: My Life as a Jazz Fan” by Joel Lewis
The journalist and poet Joel Lewis shares his immensely colorful story of falling in love with jazz, and living with it and reporting on it during his younger days in New Jersey and New York
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Beyond Category…Two Vienna jazz clubs
Two completely different experiences in Vienna jazz clubs demonstrates how impresarios of the music, like the musicians themselves, see the music as being “beyond category.”
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Book excerpt from The Real Ambassadors: Dave and Iola Brubeck and Louis Armstrong Challenge Segregation, by Keith Hatschek
In the book’s prologue, published here in its entirety, the author writes about some of “The Real Ambassador’s” challenges getting to the stage.
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Interview with jazz impresario George Wein
A 2003 interview with jazz impresario George Wein, the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival who died last week at the age of 95
...A Black History Month Profile: Thelonious Monk, a founding father of modern jazz
. . In a 2009 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, talks about the legendary composer/pianist who was a founding father of modern jazz. . . .Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an … Continue reading “A Black History Month Profile: Thelonious Monk, a founding father of modern jazz”
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The “Three Dot Update”…An occasional flurry of news and information, Vol. 3
Updates and news about content recently and soon-to-be published.
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Veryl Oakland’s “Jazz in Available Light” — photos (and stories) of Frank Morgan, Charles Lloyd/Michel Petrucciani, and Emily Remler
In this edition of photographs and stories from Mr. Oakland’s impressive book, Frank Morgan, Michel Petrucciani, Charles Lloyd, and Emily Remler are featured…
...Winter 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter — Winter, 2020 Information about new content published on Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2020 Edition ….The winter collection of poetry offers readers a look at the culture of jazz music through the imaginative writings of its 32 contributors. Within these 41 poems, … Continue reading “Winter 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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Book Excerpt: Irving Berlin: New York Genius, by James Kaplan
This story, excerpted from Irving Berlin: New York Genius by James Kaplan, describes how Berlin came to write his first major hit song, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and speaks to its historic musical and cultural significance.
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Interview with Con Chapman, author of Rabbit’s Blues: The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges
In a Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Con Chapman, author of Rabbit’s Blues: The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges – the first-ever biography of the immortal musician – talks about the enigmatic man and his unforgettable sound.
...Interview with Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
Gary Giddins, his generation’s most eminent jazz writer and author of the award winning biography Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years, 1903 – 1940, talks with us about his brilliant second book on Crosby, Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940 – 1946. The interview is a fascinating read — a virtual history of Crosby’s life and his impact on America during its most consequential decade. Featuring photos, music and film clips, and information about Giddins’ experience studying Crosby for 25 years.
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A true jazz story — “The Sober Years” by Robert Hecht
From a small balcony above the stage of the Maybeck Recital Hall in Berkeley, I’m looking down on the jazz duo of bassist Red Mitchell and pianist Roger Kellaway, while tapping my foot to the earthy, swinging beat they are laying down.
It’s a Sunday afternoon in 1992 at this unique venue. The recital hall is part of a house originally built by the famed architect Bernard Maybeck in the early twentieth century. (Maybeck designed the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, along with many other notable buildings in that city.) The hall accommodates only about 50 people, and it’s a warm, redwood-paneled room with beautiful leaded glass windows on three sides. It actually feels a lot like being in a little chapel—but the religion being worshipped here is that of acoustic jazz, primarily of the pianistic variety.
For several years now, ‘The Maybeck’ as it’s familiarly called, has hosted a who’s-who of
...A writer’s appreciation of Nat Hentoff — by Scott Shachter
I was eighteen when I read Nat Hentoff’s Jazz Is, and it changed my life. I’d always thought good jazz was just the crafting of pretty notes with a smooth feel. I’d never imagined it could be a “cry for justice.” Or a captivating tour through a heart lay bare. The greatest jazz goes even beyond that: the symphony of a soul freshly released and taking flight, nothing less than what Nat calls “spirit-music.”
As readers know, Nat Hentoff was far more than a jazz authority. He was a spectacular writer and a freedom-of-speech icon with no tolerance for hypocrisy. He was a great hero of
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Cover Stories with Paul Morris, Vol. 12
Paul Morris is a graphic designer and writer who collects album art of the 1940’s and 1950’s. He finds his examples of influential mid-century design in the used record stores of Portland, Oregon.
John Goodman, author of Charles Mingus Speaks
As a writer for Playboy, John F. Goodman reviewed Mingus’s comeback concert in 1972 and went on to achieve an intimacy with the composer that brings a relaxed and candid tone to the ensuing interviews. Much of what Mingus shares shows him in a new light: his personality, his passions and sense of humor, and his thoughts on music. The conversations are wide-ranging, shedding fresh light on important milestones in Mingus’s life such as the publication of his memoir, Beneath the Underdog, the famous Tijuana episodes, his relationships, and the jazz business.
Goodman discusses his book in a July, 2013 interview with Jerry Jazz Musician publisher Joe Maita.
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Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
“The piano ain’t got no wrong notes!” So ranted Thelonious Sphere Monk, who proved his point every time he sat down at the keyboard. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of “bebop” and establishing Monk as one of America’s greatest composers. Yet throughout much of his life, his musical contribution took a backseat to tales of his reputed behavior. Writers tended to obsess over Monk’s hats or his proclivity to dance on stage. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. But these labels tell us little about the man or his music.
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Marybeth Hamilton, author of In Search of the Blues
Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton — we are all familiar with the story of the Delta blues. Fierce, raw voices; tormented drifters; deals with the devil at the crossroads at midnight.
In an extraordinary reconstruction of the origins of the Delta blues, historian Marybeth Hamilton demonstrates that the story as we know it is largely a myth. The idea of something called Delta blues only emerged in the mid-twentieth century, the culmination of a longstanding white fascination with the exotic mysteries of black music.
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Conversations with Gary Giddins: on his book, Natural Selection
Long recognized as America’s most brilliant jazz writer, the winner of many major awards — including the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award — and author of a highly popular biography of Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins has also produced a wide range of stimulating and original cultural criticism in other fields. With Natural Selection, he brings together the best of these previously uncollected essays, including a few written expressly for this volume.
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“Civil Liberties and Jazz — Past, Present and Future” — A conversation with journalist Nat Hentoff
at Hentoff, a prolific author and journalist whose work has been published for many years in, among other publications, the Village Voice, the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, the Wall Street Journal, and Jazz Times, has been described by one of his publishers, DaCapo Press, as “a man of passion and insight, of streetwise wit and polished eloquence — a true American original.” This “passion of insight” is particularly apparent in his lifelong devotion to the chronicling of jazz music — a pursuit that began even before he became editor of Downbeat in 1953 — and in his steadfast defense of the Constitution.
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Anthony Bianco, author of Ghosts of 42nd Street
Beginning in 1899, a burst of construction on the mid-Manhattan block of West 42nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue created the greatest concentration of theaters America had ever seen, giving birth to today’s Broadway theater district. When the New York Times built a slender twenty-five-story tower on an odd, triangular site formed by the convergence of 42nd Street, Broadway, and Seventh Avenue, the city named the square facing the tower Times Square, which quickly became New York’s gathering place for all important civic events.
...“Remembering Dizzy Gillespie,” a conversation with Nat Hentoff and James Moody
Saxophonist James Moody, whose significant achievements include employment in a variety of Gillespie’s best groups, and journalist Nat Hentoff, whose chronicles on jazz during Gillespie’s era were the benchmarks of his craft, remember Dizzy and his remarkable life in a March 19, 2004 Jerry Jazz Musician hosted conversation.
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John Chilton, author of Roy Eldridge: Little Jazz Giant
Roy Eldridge’s style is universally recognized as the all-important link between the playing of Louis Armstrong and the achievements of modernist Dizzy Gillespie. Roy’s daring harmonic approach and his technically awesome improvisations provided guidance and inspiration for countless jazz musicians, but he was also a star performer in his own right, whose recordings as a bandleader, and with Gene Krupa and Artie Shaw, gained him a durable international reputation. The indignities he experienced and overcame during the 1940’s while working in otherwise all-white ensembles proved he was as bold a social pioneer as he was a performer.
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Fire in a Canebrake author Laura Wexler
“Fire in a Canebrake” is a phrase Walton County, Georgians used to describe the sound of fatal gunshots, and the title of Laura Wexler’s critically acclaimed book on the Moore’s Ford lynching of 1946, the last mass lynching in America.
While the book is a moving and frightening tale of violence, sex and lies, it is also a disturbing snapshot of a divided nation on the brink of the civil rights movement and a haunting meditation on race, history, and the struggle for truth.
...Newport Jazz founder George Wein, author of Myself Among Others: My Life in Music
No one has had a better seat in the house than George Wein. The legendary impresario has known some of the most celebrated figures of jazz — from Duke Ellington to Count Basie, and from Thelonious Monk to Miles Davis. As a founder of the Newport Jazz Festival and countless other festivals around the world, Wein has brought a broad spectrum of musical artists to millions, forever changing the country’s cultural landscape.
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Conversations with Gary Giddins: on Sonny Rollins
Village Voice writer Gary Giddins, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and who is the country’s preeminent jazz critic, joins us in an October 21, 2002 conversation about jazz legend Sonny Rollins.
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Richard Sudhalter, author of Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael remains, for millions, the enduring voice of heartland America, a beloved counterpoint to the urban sensibility of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. The author William Zinsser said of Carmichael ,”Play me a Hoagy Carmichael song and I hear the banging of a screen door and the whine of an outboard motor on a lake — sounds of summer in a small-town America that is long gone but still longed for.”
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In This Issue
The Sunday Poem
”One Night in New Orleans,” by Rebecca Watkins
The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Rebecca Watkins reads her poem at its conclusion
Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem
Poetry
Community
Poetry
Community
A Letter from the Publisher
The High Price of Authoritarianism– by editor/publisher Joe Maita...An essay inspired by my recent experiences witnessing the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation of several World War II concentration camps in Germany.
Feature
Community
Interview
Poetry
Jazz History Quiz
Short Fiction
Poetry
Playlist
Poetry
Short Fiction
Essay
Poetry
Feature
Short Fiction
Interview
Feature
Short Fiction
Essay
Community
Feature
Poetry
Poetry
Playlist
Art
Community
Contributing Writers
Coming Soon
Interview Archive
