Oddly enough, my copy didn't arrive either. I read it at a newsstand. I won't spoil it for you too much, because you really do need to read it to believe that it actually happened. But as I recall, it was called "Putting the White Man in Charge," and sneeringly posited that Douglas is so much more "important" than Crouch's favorite trumpeters (such as Nicholas Payton and Terence Blanchard, either of whom could reduce Douglas to a "puddle" if they were on the same bandstand) because he brought in hip Balkan influences and other Euro-oriented elements. I think the secondary broadsides against Byron and Mark Turner were something to the effect of their overt intellectualism making them more palatable to white critics. Francis Davis also comes in for ad hominem attack, and Stanley gets to display once more his complete and utter ignorance and intolerance towards hip-hop. All that in just one column! Honestly, it was such a disgusting display that were I still writing for the magazine, I'd quit. But that wasn't necessary. There's a rumor afloat that Stanley has since been "fired," but honestly, isn't that more than a bit like closing the barn door after the horse's ass has escaped? Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
Steve (et. al): As much as I might personally disagree with Crouch's views. I hope he wasn't "fired" for printing them. That's a freedom of speech/freedom of the media issue after all. The "damage" could be repaired in a letter to the editor or better still an opposing column. Hopefully he just quit/was fired after a fit of pique when he was asked to justify certain statements. In a way, after all, his views are a variation of what appeared in LeRoi Jones's (sic) downbeat columns of the 1960s, which exposed the same sort of "four legs good, two legs bad" POV. Baraka was right part of the time, but very wrong other times, just ask Burton Greene. Ken Waxman --- "ssmith36@sprynet.com" <ssmith36@sprynet.com> wrote: > Oddly enough, my copy didn't arrive either. I read
it at a newsstand.
I won't spoil it for you too much, because you really do need to read it to believe that it actually happened. But as I recall, it was called "Putting the White Man in Charge," and sneeringly posited that Douglas is so much more "important" than Crouch's favorite trumpeters (such as Nicholas Payton and Terence Blanchard, either of whom could reduce Douglas to a "puddle" if they were on the same bandstand) because he brought in hip Balkan influences and other Euro-oriented elements.
I think the secondary broadsides against Byron and Mark Turner were something to the effect of their overt intellectualism making them more palatable to white critics. Francis Davis also comes in for ad hominem attack, and Stanley gets to display once more his complete and utter ignorance and intolerance towards hip-hop. All that in just one column!
Honestly, it was such a disgusting display that were I still writing for the magazine, I'd quit. But that wasn't necessary. There's a rumor afloat that Stanley has since been "fired," but honestly, isn't that more than a bit like closing the barn door after the horse's ass has escaped?
Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com
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http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zorn-list ===== Ken Waxman mingusaum@yahoo.ca www.jazzword.com - Jazz/improv news, CD reviews and photos ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
on 4/5/03 11:43 AM, Ken Waxman at mingusaum@yahoo.ca wrote:
In a way, after all, his views are a variation of what appeared in LeRoi Jones's (sic) downbeat columns of the 1960s, which exposed the same sort of "four legs good, two legs bad" POV. Baraka was right part of the time, but very wrong other times, just ask Burton Greene.
And when you go back and read Jones' columns, you realize that he and Crouch are cut from the same stupidity. I remember reading the book that collected his column -- BLACK MUSIC -- in high school, and being amazed at how completely unreasonable his predictions were, as well as how ignorant he could be (his dismissals of Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, and Wayne Shorter are right up there with that guy who told Brian Epstein that guitar bands were on their way out). If you ever need an indication of how damaging to unformed minds bad critical analysis can be, he's the guy to read. The work of a man who truly belonged on the OJ jury. sh np: sun ra -- the nubians at plutonia
Oh, I agree, Stanley's got the absolute right to say anything he wants. But that doesn't mean that the magazine has a responsibility to print whatever bilious spewings he puts forward, and it genuinely would have been reason enough for me to want to disassociate myself from the magazine for having done so. But since I stopped writing for them (merely out of overextension, not due to any political stance), the point became moot. Anyway, if Stanley was indeed "fired," that would be the epitome of disingenuousness on the part of the magazine, and mind you, that was only an unsubstantiated rumor from another journalist. But cheap sensationalism does sell magazines and generate discussion. I'd be surprised if there weren't pages and pages of letters to the editor; I've already seen a few of them that were forwarded around by writers who feared that their views wouldn't be published. And Jazz Times is far from the only magazine that can be accused of such activity. Still, coming so soon after the furor that arose when the magazine printed an anti-homosexual letter (which used the word "faggots" in the heading, as I recall), it does point to a troubling lack of sensitivity. That, too, resulted in a number of barbed responses, including some serious outrage and organized protest from Gary Burton and others. But perhaps I'm just being too "P.C." for my own good... Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com
But cheap sensationalism does sell magazines and generate discussion. I'd be surprised if there weren't pages and pages of letters to the editor
That's the theory of practice that my school's newspaper operates under. There is a Neanderthal that can barely put two coherent sentences together which was given a weekly opinion column. He's weighed in on a variety of topics from the necessity of promiscuity--you are a "nerd" (his words)if you aren't promiscuous every weekend--to how homosexuals don't belong in "his beloved Marine Corps." It generates weekly discussion along the lines of "What the hell did that asshole write this week?" If we didn't know better--and weren't in the middle of Indiana--we would think that it was a big joke, what with its absurdity. It's in poor taste for a school newspaper (with low expectations of quality), but it's definitely in poor taste for a national magazine (with some semblance of respect). Magazines don't have free reign to publish whatever they want; they rely on advertisers for funding. If the opinions published are too inflammatory, advertisers will disassociate themselves with the magazine. They don't have free reign under a Pulliam grant funding and aren't run by a Pulliam brat(as our newspaper is). Zach
From Steve Smith
I think the secondary broadsides against Byron and Mark Turner were something to the effect of their overt intellectualism making them more palatable to white critics.
This is a strange volte-face, not to say rather hypocritical from Crouch. As if "overt intellectualism" were a prerogative of white critics! And guess who's citing Wagner and Nietzsche in the liner notes to "Live At Blues Alley", trying to charge Wynton's music (which is great on that record) with as much cultural capital as possible. Even the hyperbole is already there: "With the opening track, Marsalis demotes the avant-garde trumpeters one and all [...]" Regards Franz Fuchs
participants (6)
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Franz Fuchs -
Ken Waxman -
skip Heller -
ssmith36＠sprynet.com -
Steve Smith
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Zach Steiner