[Dixielandjazz] Kenton & Feather

[JimDBB at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/16/03 11:43:04 PM Central Standard Time, Paigevan at cs.com 
writes:


> As to Kenton, he appears to have been a racist. Gary Giddins wrote a 
> hilarious analysis of Kenton on Visions of Jazz which, among other things 
> indicates that Kenton favored George Wallace's presidential candidacy and 
> that Kenton's followers used to send out notices of his appearances etc 
> with 
> the initials KKK (for Keep Kenton Kicking) as a return address. 

   Appears to have been a racist?  Conjecture by Gary Giddins is not enough 
reason to print rumors like this.  I never heard anything of Kenton being a 
racist and I've known guys who played with him.  I seriously doubt the KKK 
thing and if it did happen, Kenton had nothing to do with it.  I"ve never 
heard of any jazz fans or musicians anywhere doing something like that.  

As has been pointed out, Paige, Leonard Feather started the bogus race 
accusations against Kenton.

Jim Beebe
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