Much jazz writing has proceeded from the Great Man theory of history. If you’re trying to fashion a narrative, it’s a convenient theory. Buddy Bolden begat King Oliver begat Louis Armstrong begat Roy Eldridge begat Dizzy Gillespie; Bix Beiderbecke begat Bobby Hackett begat Chet Baker. And so on. These trains of influence are supportable to […]
The Democracy of Jazz Read More »
“The late humorist James Thurber wrote a fable set in a medieval court, and he has the Royal Astronomer report that all the stars are going out! It turns out that he is simply going blind. I am probably making the same mistake.” — Dan Wakefield, ed., Kurt Vonnegut Letters, Delacorte, 2012 I needed to
Mozart’s Kept Canaries: Music and Technology Read More »
The Aim Was Song Before man came to blow it right The wind once blew itself untaught, And did its loudest day and night In any rough place where it caught. Man came to tell it what was wrong: It hadn’t found the place to blow; It blew too hard – the aim was
If It Ain’t Got That Swing – Jazz Then and Now Read More »
I’ve spent the last fifty years or so writing songs, performing them, trying to sell them, all without the slightest financial reward. Well, I overstate – back in the early 1980s, I played many paying gigs with a small group, Toy Boat. In 1982, Toy Boat had had two extended gigs at a Westside club
How to Avoid Success Read More »
Symbiotic Suffocation: Many people have suffocating relationships. When they extricate themselves from these, many fall into the hands of dubious Consultants and Psychiatrists – ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire.’ *** David Russell is a resident of the UK. He writes poetry, literary criticism, speculative fiction, and romance. His poetry includes the collection Prickling
Symbiotic Suffocation Read More »
It oozes out of every restaurant speaker like toxic sludge coated in tinsel, spreading its fraudulent corporate message. We’re all subject, against our will, to endure this imposed holiday cheer every year. It tests our patience. It’s the abrasive visiting relative you’re stuck with for the next few weeks who follows you everywhere and won’t
Christmas Music Evil Read More »