on 8/23/02 12:11 PM, Zachary Steiner at zsteiner@butler.edu wrote:
This reminds me of a project I had to do for school in which we had to research the origins of the word jazz. We needed non-internet sources so I went to the library. I found all sorts of books, but the most recent was published in 1965 or 1970. There were several from the same vintage as the Panassie book. These books had faint whispers of the bebop movement, but chose to stick to more established "negro music."
But nobody could as yet tell what mark be bop was making or would make. Also, honestly, I don't think the musicians knew exactly what was going on, even through the early 1960's. Someone like Hank Jones was at home on many bop-oriented bandstands, but also played a great deal with Benny Goodman. Herbie Hancock even played with Benny.
The best was from a late 50s book stating that John Coltrane was a talented new player, but the author expressed doubt as to whether he would last and make any mark. Similar assesments were made of Bird, et al in the earlier books.
In Trane's case, Sonny Rollins was so much the voice of the future that the only chances of his dethronement would be extreme circumstances, and that's what happened -- Sonny's retirement, Trane's playing with Monk just as Monk was artistically exploding, Coltrane's ability to form a group that would be both a commercial and a critical success etc -- so I don't really fault the critics as much for missing on the Coltrane pitch. What's really interesting is the people who they would claim were making the jazz that "everybody" would be playing in the future -- Tristano, Ornette etc, which is to say people whose influence is felt a lot less than that of the 1950's Miles bands.
I'm sure we will laugh in 20 years about the critics inaccurate/poor assesments of current geniuses. Some would say that said geniuses don't exist. Will they eat their words?
Not likely. And most of the geniuses in question will probably not have much to eat anyway, words or otherwise. skip h