Who was your childhood hero?

April 14th, 2013

Childhood Heroes —  We all had them

Excerpted from exclusive Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, our guests talk of theirs.

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Reverend Ralph David Abernathy’s daughter Donzaleigh Abernathy

Low Down: junk, jazz, and other fairy tales from childhood author Amy Albany

Bessie Smith biographer Chris Albertson

Jack Kerouac collaborator David Amram

Jazz Modernism author Alfred Appel

Joshua Berrett, author of Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz

New Yorker writer Whitney Balliett

Anthony Bianco, author of Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America’s Most Infamous Block

Arc of Justice author Kevin Boyle

New York Times writer, Stork Club author Ralph Blumenthal

Lost Sounds:  Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890 – 1919 author Tim Brooks

Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans author Thomas Brothers

Madam C.J. Walker biographer A’Lelia Bundles

Ralph Ellison ‘s literary executor John Callahan

New York Mayor John Lindsay historian Vincent Cannato

Free Speech Movement historian Robert Cohen

World War II historian David Colley

Gil Evans biographer Stephanie Stein Crease

Cultural critic Stanley Crouch

Writer, critic Francis Davis

Bayrd Rustin biographer John D’Emilio

Chet Baker biographer Jeroen de Valk

Django Reinhardt biographer Michael Dregni

Cultural critic Gerald Early

Bobby Darin biographer David Evanier

Jazz poet Sascha Feinstein

Stardust Melodies writer Will Friedwald

Chet Baker biographer James Gavin

Blowin’ Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics author John Gennari

Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins

Ken Burns advisor Matt Glaser

Beat poet Gary Glazner

Harlem Globetrotters biographer Ben Green

Sam Cooke biographer Peter Guralnick

Billie Holiday historian Farah Griffin

Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop — A History author Chuck Haddix

Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth editor Sam Hamill

Journalist Nat Hentoff

Ralph Ellison biographer Lawrence Jackson

Making of Kind of Blue author Ashley Kahn

Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Leters editor Carla Kaplan

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original author Robin D. G. Kelley

Boogaloo: The Quintessance of American Popular Music author Arthur Kempton

Jazz on the River author William Howland Kenney

Ralph Ellison documentarian Avon Kirkland

Rahsaan Roland Kirk biographer John Kruth

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution author Neil Lanctot

Critic and writer, Gene Lees

Tony Award winning playwright Warren Leight

Hip: The History author John Leland

Nelson Riddle biographer Peter Levinson

The Burning author Tim Madigan

Fletcher Henderson biographer Jeffrey Magee

They Marched Into Sunlight author David Maraniss

Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink author David Margolick

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War author Karl Marlantes

Pulitzer Prize winning author Diane McWhorter

Billy Tipton biographer Diane Wood Middlebrook

Musician, writer Max Morath

Jazz historian, Living With Jazz author Dan Morgenstern

Author, critic Albert Murray

Seriously Funny author Gerald Nachman

Sonny Rollins biographer Eric Nisenson

Paul Bowles biographer Cherie Nutting

Writer Robert O’Meally

Jelly Roll Morton biographer Phil Pastras

Robert Johnson: Lost and Found author Barry Lee Pearson

The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music author Dunstan Prial

Chasin’ The Bird : The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker author Brian Priestley

Ralph Ellison in America author Horace Porter

Paul Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey

New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff

Saxophonist Joshua Redman

Writer Ishmael Reed

W.C. Handy biographer David Robertson

Richard Wright biographer Hazel Rowley

Reverend C.L. Franklin biographer Nick Salvatore

Bill Evans biographer Keith Shadwick

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Cab Calloway biographer Alyn Shipton

Jackie Robinson biographer, NPR journalist Scott Simon

Lenny Bruce biographer David Skover

Comedian Tom Smothers

Hoagy Carmichael biographer Richard Sudhalter

Miles Davis biographer John Szwed

Jazz photographer Lee Tanner

Journalist Terry Teachout

Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945 – 2000 author Martin Torgoff

Pianist McCoy Tyner

Jack Johnson biographer Geoffrey Ward

Flying over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy author Thomas Webber

Newport Jazz Festival founder George Wein

Satchmo Blows Up the World author Penny Von Eschen

Fire in a Canebrake author Laura Wexler

Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II author Emily Yellin

Mitchell and Ruff biographer William Zinsser

Dixie Hummingbirds biographer Jerry Zolten

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Publisher’s Notes

News about upcoming publishing dates, collections, interviews, and recent posts…

In This Issue

The Modern Jazz Quintet by Everett Spruill
A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2023 Edition

A wide range of topics are found in this collection. Tributes are paid to Tony Bennett and Ahmad Jamal and to the abstract worlds of musicians like Ornette Coleman and Pharoah Sanders; the complex lives of Chet Baker and Nina Simone are considered; devotions to Ellington and Basie are revealed; and personal solace is found in the music of Tommy Flanagan and Quartet West. These are poems of peace, reflection, time, venue and humor – all with jazz at their core. (Featuring the art of Everett Spruill)

The Sunday Poem

Reijo Koskinen / Lehtikuva, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
“Miles” by Charlie Brice

Interview

IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Interview with Judith Tick, author of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song...The author discusses her book, a rich, emotionally stirring, exceptional work that explores every element of Ella’s legacy in great depth, reminding readers that she was not only a great singing artist, but also a musical visionary and social activist.

Poetry

The poet Connie Johnson in 1981
In a Place of Dreams: Connie Johnson’s album of jazz poetry, music, and life stories...A collection of the remarkable poet's work is woven among her audio readings, a personal narrative of her journey and music she considers significant to it, providing readers the chance to experience the full value of her gifts.

Community

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize XLVIII

Interview

photo courtesy of Henry Threadgill
Interview with Brent Hayes Edwards, co-author (with Henry Threadgill) of Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music...The author discusses his work co-written with Threadgill, the composer and multi-instrumentalist widely recognized as one of the most original and innovative voices in contemporary music, and the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Poetry

"Jazz Diva" by Marsha Hammel
A brief collection of poetry devoted to jazz…and love...Seven poets combine the music of jazz with an act of love…

Book Excerpt

Book Excerpt from Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song, by Judith Tick...The author writes about highlights of Ella’s career, and how the significance of her Song Book recordings is an example of her “becoming” Ella.

Poetry

photo of Bill Evans by Veryl Oakland
Six poets, six poems on Bill Evans...A poetic appreciation for the work of the legendary pianist

Feature

Joel Lewis
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

Poetry

"The Dancer" by Elaine Croce Happnie
“The Dancer” – a poem by Zoya Gargova

Playlist

photo by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
“A Baker’s Dozen Playlist of Ella Fitzgerald Specialties from Five Decades,” as selected by Ella biographer Judith Tick...Chosen from Ella’s entire repertoire, Ms. Tick’s intriguing playlist (with brief commentary) is a mix of studio recordings, live dates, and video, all available for listening here.

Poetry

painting by Henry Denander
A collection of jazz haiku...This collection, featuring 22 poets, is an example of how much love, humor, sentimentality, reverence, joy and sorrow poets can fit into their haiku devoted to jazz.

Poetry

photo of Cab Calloway by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
“Zoot Suit Times (Rhythms From the Past)” – a poem by Oliver Lake

Community

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize XLVIII...announcing the six Jerry Jazz Musician-published writers nominated for the prestigious literary award

Poetry

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 18: “The Sermon”..."Trading Fours" is occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition features organist Jimmy Smith's 1958 Blue Note recording, "The Sermon"

Poetry

photo of Sarah Vaughan by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
”Sarah” – a poem by Connie Johnson

Short Fiction

photo vi Wallpaper Flare
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #63 — “Company” by Anastasia Jill...Twenty-year-old Priscilla Habel lives with her wannabe flapper mother who remains stuck in the jazz age 40 years later. Life is monotonous and sad until Cil meets Willie Flasterstain, a beatnik lesbian who offers an escape from her mother's ever-imposing shadow.

Photography

photo of Anthony Braxton by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Anthony Braxton...Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition is of the saxophonist Anthony Braxton, taken in January, 2015.

Interview

Chick Webb/photographer unknown
Interview with Stephanie Stein Crease, author of Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat That Changed America...The author talks about her book and Chick Webb, once at the center of America’s popular music, and among the most influential musicians in jazz history.

Poetry

photo by Ric Brooks Knoxville, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“Four Sides Live” – a poem by Justin Hare

Community

FOTO:FORTEPAN / Kölcsey Ferenc Dunakeszi Városi Könyvtár / Petanovics fényképek, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
.“Community Bookshelf, #1"...a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so…

Short Fiction

photo via joogleberry.com
“A Song and Dance Proposition” – a short story by Richard Moore...Because of his childhood experiences, the story’s narrator loses his singing voice and as an adult neither sings nor dances. But when his marriage falls apart he meets a ‘song and dance man’ who turns out to be Iris, a woman with multiple sclerosis. With her help, he comes to grip with his inhibitions.

Playlist

photo by Bob Hecht
This 28-song Spotify playlist, curated by Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writer Bob Hecht, features great tunes performed by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Lester Young, Stan Getz, and…well, you get the idea.

Jazz History Quiz #168

photo of Coleman Hawkins by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Jazz History Quiz #168...In addition to being a top bassist between 1945 – 1960, he was the first major jazz soloist on the cello. He also played on Coleman Hawkins’ 1943 recording of “The Man I Love,” and appeared with Hawkins and Howard McGhee in the film The Crimson Canary. Who is he?

Short Fiction

Tents at Nuseirat, southern Palestine, UNRRA's biggest camp for Greek refugees/via United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
“Remember to Forget” – a short story by Amadea Tanner...Ms. Tanner's story, a finalist in the recently concluded 63rd Short Fiction Contest, is about a war correspondent's haunting revelations after she comes across musicians in a refugee camp.

Interview

photo by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Interview with Alyn Shipton, author of The Gerry Mulligan 1950’s Quartets...Long regarded as jazz music’s most eminent baritone saxophonist, Gerry Mulligan was a central figure in “cool” jazz whose contributions to it also included his important work as a composer and arranger. Noted jazz scholar Alyn Shipton, author of The Gerry Mulligan 1950s Quartets, and Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writer Bob Hecht discuss Mulligan’s unique contributions to modern jazz.

Photography

photo by Giovanni Piesco
Giovanni Piesco’s photographs of Tristan Honsinger

Short Fiction

Mary Pickford, 1918/trialsanderrors, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
“Bashert” – a short story by Diane Lederman...This story, a finalist in the 63rd Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest, looks at the hopes one man has that a woman he meets the night before he leaves for Camp Devens will keep him alive during World War I so he can return and take her out for dinner

Book Excerpt

“Chick” Webb was one of the first virtuoso drummers in jazz and an innovative bandleader dubbed the “Savoy King,” who reigned at Harlem’s world-famous Savoy Ballroom. Stephanie Stein Crease is the first to fully tell Webb’s story in her biography, Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat that Changed America…The book’s entire introduction is excerpted here.

Feature

Hans Christian Hagedorn, professor for German and Comparative Literature at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Ciudad Real (Spain) reveals the remarkable presence of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic Don Quixote in the history of jazz.

Short Fiction

“In the Church Library” – a short story by Zary Fekete

Book Excerpt

Book excerpt from Easily Slip Into Another World: A Life in Music, by Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

Art

Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance: “Outtakes” — Vol. 2...In this edition, the authors Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder share examples of Cha Cha Cha record album covers that didn't make the final cut in their book

Pressed for All Time

“Pressed For All Time,” Vol. 17 — producer Joel Dorn on Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s 1967 album, The Inflated Tear

Coming Soon

An interview with Gary Carner, author of Pepper Adams: Saxophone Trailblazer; A new collection of jazz poetry; a collection of jazz haiku; a new Jazz History Quiz; short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and lots more in the works…

Interview Archive

Eubie Blake
Click to view the complete 22 year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake (pictured); Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.

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