[Dixielandjazz] Leonard Feather

Thu Jan 16 18:55:32 PST 2003

Hello Listmates,

I haven't frollowed the Leonard Feather debate too closely as I am (eat your 
hearts out) vacationing in Hawaii. However, I do have a Feather anecdote to 
share with y'all.

A few years back (maybe 15 years), I was publicity director for the 
Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. I thought it would be a great publicity thing to 
invite Feather to our festival, show him a good time and he would naturally 
be very impressed and write nice things about us in his column. I got 
appsroval from Bill Borcher, then Executive Director of the Jubilee, to 
proceed.

I got in touch with Feather, invited him out and we provided admission to 
the affair and hotel accomodations. He accepted. I picked him up at the 
airport, drove him to the hotel and then squired him around town for a bit 
and bought him some nice meals and we did small talk banter . . . I don't 
even recall what we discussed, but he seemed pleasant enough.

Now at this particular festival we had two particular bands that I recall . 
. . Dejan's Olympian Band from N'alins and Joe Liggin's HoneyDrippers. They 
were popular and put on good shows. I don't know whether or not Feather saw 
them but I do know that when he went home and wrote the Jubilee up in his 
column he accused us of being racist because we didn't have any black bands.

Our attitude, of course, was that if there were any black groups playing 
OKOM we would have surely invited them, but . . . name some.

Feather said in his column that this excuse didn't fly citing two bands that 
played jazz and who were black. One was the Dirty Dozen and I don't recall 
the name of the other one at the moment.

Anyway, I was less than pleased that my great plans for the Great Feather 
turned out to be such a flop.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "No Racist" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com

>From: fred spencer <drjz at bealenet.com>
>To: "Goggin, Brian (Dublin)" <GoggiBri at exchange.ie.ml.com>,        DJML 
><dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Leonard Feather
>Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 10:57:47 -0500
>
>Dear Brian,
>Your doubt about Leonard Feather's "racism" is apropos. Benny Goodman, John
>Hammond, and Duke Ellington wrote the "Foreword/ Introduction" to three of
>Feather's "Yearbook/ Encyclopedia of Jazz "series. I don't think any of 
>these
>jazzmen would have supported a racist author. Whatever bias Feather may 
>have had
>as a critic, he performed a service of enormous value to jazz by compiling 
>seven
>biographical dictionaries from 1956 to 1999 (the last two with Ira Gitler,
>posthumously for Feather in 1999). The current edition is entitled "The
>Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz" and is a $49.50, 718 page book, offered 
>in an
>Oxford University Press sales catalogue until January 31, 2003 at $15.00!
>Regards.
>Fred
>
>
>"Goggin, Brian (Dublin)" wrote:
>
> > Feather did some great work and did a lot to promote jazz, but he could 
>be
> > odd. He said he reckoned there'd even be a CD of Leo Watson come out
> > eventually and there was!
> > I think he took a few unfair digs at some people though. I'm not too 
>well up
> > on modern jazz and have no real interest in it, but in his book he was
> > giving out about Stan Kenton's lack of black guys in his band etc. 
>implying
> > he was racist and it turned out later that he had submitted arrangements 
>to
> > Kenton who didn't want to use them and Feather was quite peeved by this. 
>I
> > never heard anyone else say Kenton was racist, so that was a little bit
> > petty.
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Anton Crouch [SMTP:a.crouch at unsw.edu.au]
> > > Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 10:13 AM
> > > To:   DJML
> > > Subject:      [Dixielandjazz] Leonard Feather
> > >
> > >
> > > 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
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> > > http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
> >
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>
>
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