[Dixielandjazz] Leonard Feather

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

I come neither to bury Feather, nor to praise him. However, there is some
middle ground which may lighten the black picture painted by Jim Beebe.

On the matter of the antagonism between the "modernists" and the "mouldy
fygges" in the 1940s, there was intractable bias on both sides. Rudi Blesh,
for example, couched his views in elegant  prose but he was just as
narrow-minded as Feather. Read Blesh's comments on Duke Ellington in
"Shining trumpets" or listen to him explaining what "real jazz" is, at the
Bunk Johnson concert in San Francisco in May 1943 (available on American
Music CD AMCD 16). I suspect that most DJMLers would now be appalled by
such views.

As a record producer, Feather is deserving of some praise. Listen to his
London sessions of May 1937 and September 1938. There is both humour and
fine playing here (the band is called "Leonard Feather and Ye Olde English
Swynge Band"), the repertoire is adventurous( "jazzy" folk songs), and we
can hear that Feather was an adequate pianist.

In America he promoted the work of relative unknowns such as alto player
Pete Brown and is particularly noteworthy for his support of female
musicians on record. Mary Lou Williams, June Rotenberg, Beryl Booker,
Vivien Garry, Edna Williams and Hazel Scott are some of the people who
benefited from Feather's work as a producer.

All the best
Anton