[Dixielandjazz] Leonard Feather

[Bill Gunter]

Hi listmates,

Jim Bebee wrote:

>  Leonard Feather was a despicable person.

to which Jack Tracy wrote:

>I would find it difficult to describe someone as "a despicable person" 
>unles
>I had known him.
>
>Did you know Leonard?

This raises some points. First, the question "Did you know Leonard?" would 
imply that you would have to meet the man personally to claim he was 
despicable. There are myriad writings and anecdotes about Feather which 
enable us to know the man without actually meeting him. We can base our 
attitudes toward people in the public arena on this material. In a sense, 
all of us who read Feather's writings "knew" the man.

Secondly, the claim he was a despicable person may be a bit subjective. In 
Feather's mind I would think he viewed himself as one who calls 'em as he 
sees 'em without regard for others opinions and/or attitudes. I don't say 
this as an apology for Feather but simply how people's perceptions may vary.

Finally, I did know Feather to a small extent and I'd like to submit an 
anecdote here. I told this story before on the DJML a number of years ago, 
but the Feather thread has come around again so I'll tell it again.

A number of years ago I was the publicity director for the Sacramento 
Dixieland Jubilee (now called the Jazz Jubilee). I got the bright idea one 
year that it would be good to invite Feather to the Jubilee and give him a 
hotel room and buy him a couple of meals. The plan was he would be so 
impressed with how wonderful the festival was and what a great group of guys 
and gals we all were he would just naturally go home and say nice things 
about us in his next column. I ran the idea past Bill Borcher (then 
executive director of the festival) and he said "If you think it's 
worthwhile, go ahead" and so I did.

Feather accepted the invitation and came to Sacramento. I picked him up at 
the airport and drove him to his hotel. I took him to a nice lunch and we 
chatted about jazz, musicians, festivals, what a great column he wrote (?), 
and generally what a great guy he was (?). I bought him a few more meals as 
the festival progressed and we seemed to ge getting along fine.

Then he went home.

His next column came out and he talked about how poor most of the bands were 
and accused us of racism!  This happened to be the year that Joe Liggins and 
the Honeydrippers appeared along with DeJan's Olympia Marching Band.

I recalled saying something to Feather about the small amount of black bands 
available. I indicated that most black bands were not playing dixieland (and 
we were the "Sacramento DIXIELAND Jubilee"). Feather recalled that comment 
in his column and said that "it didn't wash" and he cited a New Orleans band 
called "The Dirty Dozen."  We were, of course, familiar with the Dirty 
Dozen. We considered them but they demanded waaayyyy to much money and that, 
added to the fact they really didn't play dixieland, kept us from booking 
them.

I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not the Jubilee (or any trad jazz 
festival for that matter) is "racist" but I'll submit that before such a 
claim is made one should look a little more deeply. To accuse trad jazz 
musicians and those who promote trad festivals of denying participation to 
blacks is like accusing the democratic party of bias because you don't see 
many republicans in their ranks. Maybe that's not an exact analolgy, but 
it'll do until I can think of a better one.

In summary, I think it was shoddy for Feather to make the accusation of 
racism against the Jubilee. If he didn't like the bands he heard so be it. 
He certainly had a right to his opinions and I certainly wouldn't fault him 
for that. But the Racism charge was uncalled for and I considered it 
vindictive and hateful. I learned after that experience that Feather had a 
long history of demeaning white musicians while claiming that all jazz of 
any value was a product of black musicians. This is certainly evident in 
much of his writings.

I don't think Feather was despicable, but I do think he had an agenda to 
which he adhered throughout his journalistic life and, as a result, it led 
to a certain mean-spiritedness, shoddy scholarship and reportage.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Gunter
Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society
Past president and Jubilee publicity director
jazzboard at hotmail.com

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