[Dixielandjazz] Fwd: Phillip Larkin on Coltrane

[Steve Voce]

These are from 'The Collected Letters Of Philip Larkin'. He didn't like 
Miles, did he?
Steve Voce



> To Steve Voce- 3 September 1985
>
> The University of Hull,
> The Brynmor Jones Library
>
> Dear Steve,
> Many thanks for your letter of 14th August and the tapes. You really 
> mustn't think of me as someone in your league, jazzwise (I'm sure you 
> don't); when back in i96o or whenever it was Sir Colin Coote of the 
> Daily Telegraph decreed that the paper should carry a jazz feature, 
> one of the music staff' knew me as a jazz enthusiast and put my name 
> forward. Of course the job should have gone to somebody of greater 
> competence, such as yourself! I read your column with interest and 
> amusement, and take a certain unregenerate pleasure in the protests 
> you sometimes evoke. I also admire your stamina in being able to 
> sustain occasions like the Nice Festival. You seem to be more 
> charitable about Miles Davis than some other reporters - I thought I 
> saw the word `endured' used more than once by people who had listened 
> to him.
> The Teagarden interview was absorbing, though I found him hard to hear 
> sometimes; it's tantalising how these chaps will go on about matters 
> of limited interest (to me, at any rate), instead of describing every 
> minute they spent with Bix or Pee Wee. My interest in Wingy Manone is 
> limited, though I never knew he lost his arm so early. Much of the 
> early life is in Smith and Guttridge.4 Once again, I am forced to 
> wonder, WAS PECK KELLEY ANY GOOD? I know there has been a recording 
> issued posthumously, but I haven't heard it, and I can't help thinking 
> that I should have if it had been worth hearing (via the BBC, for 
> instance). As for the Dorsey stories, they simply reinforce my 
> impression that Tommy Dorsey was perhaps the most disagreeable jazz 
> musician ever to draw breath; and Jimmy doesn't sound much better. And 
> yet musicians stayed with him! A great puzzle.
> And finally, of course, the magic of Buck Clayton's" final comment. It 
> was wonderful to have the autograph of a player I have admired since I 
> was a schoolboy in the Thirties, and I do thank you deeply for 
> engineering it. I hope Buck is in reasonable health: his memories 
> would be worth recording.
   Again, with many thanks and all good wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Phillip


> To Steve Voce-15 September 1985
> 105 Newland Park, Hull Hu 5 ZDT
> Dear Steve,
> I am sorry to have delayed so long in replying to your letter and 
> acknowledging your generous consignment of tapes (by the way, do you 
> want them back? I'm unused to such largesse). The reason for this is 
> that my hifi has gone on the blink & I haven't been able to play them.
> Your letter was full of good stuff. Miles & C.B.S. - well, 
> interesting, and reminiscent of Louis, Fats & Billie (to some extent) 
> being told to `play the tune', or suffering if they didn't, but I've 
> never thought Miles's `rock' very like what it's supposed to be - I 
> mean, rock is exciting on a low level, isn't it? M. is never exciting 
> on any level. But what a comment on the music biz! The Clayton 
> biography is a tempting prospect. I'm alarmed at your hints. I 
> imagined B.C. as a gentlemanly character not in the best of health, 
> likely to retire at io p.m. with a hot milk. The Holiday stories are 
> awful. Really, I can't imagine the drug scene. My generation are 
> drinkers and smokers; I wouldn't stick a needle into myself for a 
> hatful of golden guineas.
> My convalescence continues. I suppose I am getting better. However, I 
> discern no eagerness for return to work, wch I shall have to do before 
> long. Getting up, dressing & pottering about seems to fill the day 
> quite satisfactorily, although it's accompanied by a subdued unease at 
> the thought that I've become an old man. Sixty-three ... can't believe 
> it. What have I done to be sixty-three? It isn't fair.
> Yes. US correspondents can be tiresome. I have one who has sort of 
> shouldered himself into my life by sending tapes (the last was of some 
> Walter piano rolls recreated on a pipe organ in Bolton, the most 
> dismal sound I've ever heard) & is now threatening to come at 
> Christmas. Shall have to give him the chop. The Hermit of Hull and all 
> that. Of your needling of lefties, well, I'm sorry, but I suppose the 
> editor's decision is final, as they say. But things seem to have swung 
> so far in that direction I can't believe a little counterpoint is 
> unjustified. There will be a swing back - not in our lifetime; I only 
> hope it doesn't involve too much suffering. Keep your head down.I look 
> forward to hearing the Russells. Up to his serious illness, or when he 
> `went modern', I find him completely original and exciting. Even his 
> squeaks seem premeditated. He was great from about r93o-1945: I 
> remember after the war buying Condon's `Aunt Hagar' with Wild Bill and 
> rejoicing that everything had survived. His range was so wide: light 
> dancing solos with no distortion matched by others that were like 
> wading through musical mud. And a great musical unexpectedness: notes 
> you didn't expect but wch are quite right, at least from him.
> Your stories about Bud F.' are very funny. I remember Kingsley Amis's 
> astonishment on finding B.F. had read Lucky Jim. I wonder if Bud was 
> equally surprised at K.'s knowing `The Eel' etc. Somehow I doubt it. 
> Bud sounds like the Geoff Boycott' of jazz. By the way, I see that in 
> his latest edition Rust has adopted the claim (made by Banks, I think) 
> that Krupa was on one of those sessions. When my hifi returns I shall 
> listen narrowly.
> Supper & `Lady Windermere's Fan' await me. Again, many thanks. Yours 
> sincerely Philip



  On 16/03/2012 01:57, Joe Carbery wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Joe Carbery<joe.carbery at gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 2:53 PM
> Subject: Phillip Larkin on Coltrane
> To: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List<Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>
>
> English poet and writer on jazz Phillip Larkin had this to say about John
> Coltrane:
> "Well, I can't imagine how anyone can listen to a Coltrane record for
> pleasure.