[Dixielandjazz] Sage Sighting! LewRockwell.com: Mezz Mezzrow on Mencken

[Norman Vickers]

To: Musicians and Jazzfans list; Pensacola Mencken list;  DJML
From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

It's not often that my two interests - jazz music and H. L. Mencken
coincide.  Here's one instance.
Thanks to Frank Forman, moderator of the National Mencken list, for
forwarding the piece below.

Some explanatory comments are needed  since this is a  post to a diverse
list.  Mencken (1880-1956)-- author, newspaperman, editor and social
commentator-- was also a serious amateur pianist.  He hated jazz-- couldn't
play it, of course-- and loved classical music, especially German.

Now for Mezz Mezzrow ( given name Milton):  He was a Chicago clarinet player
who moved to Harlem.  His clarinet playing was average, not excellent, and
he was briefly manager for Louis Armstrong.  Among the musicians, his main
claim to fame was as supplier of quality marijuana.  Many of you know that
Louis Armstrong smoked marijuana daily.  Mezzrow was the supplier for
Armstrong and the band.  If they were traveling, Armstrong would write a
post-card to Mezzrow explaining that they were traveling, give the address,
and state that they have "lost our instruments." This would be the clue that
a new supply of "Mezz" ( one of the many nicknames for MJ in those days) was
needed.  Mezzrow was co-author of the book "Really the Blues."

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Forman [mailto:checker at panix.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 5:22 AM
To: Frank Forman:
Subject: Sage Sighting! LewRockwell.com: Mezz Mezzrow on Mencken

Mezz Mezzrow on Mencken
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/125810.html
November 9, 2012

Posted by Michael S. Rozeff on November 9, 2012 10:57 AM

Thanks to Robert Bennett who alerted us to the Mezzrow-Mencken
connection and now has pdf'ed me the pages in Mezzrow's book that
are relevant. It makes interesting reading concerning freedom and
jazz:

"There was a revolution simmering in Chicago, led by a gang of
pink-cheeked high-school kids. These rebels in plus-fours, huddled
on a bandstand instead of a soap-box, passed out riffs instead of
hand-bills, but the effect was the same. Their jazz was only a
musical version of the hard-cutting broadsides that two foxy studs
named Mencken and Nathan were beginning to shoot at Joe Public in
the pages of the American Mercury--a collectively improvised
nose-thumbing at all pillars of all communities, one big syncopated
Bronx cheer for the righteous squares everywhere. Jazz was the only
language they could find to preach their fire-eating message."

The Chicago musical gang was the Austin High Gang.

"It was little Dave [Tough] who gave me a knockdown to George Jean
Nathan and H.L. Mencken, two guys who could mess with the King's
English too. Dave used to read The American Mercury from cover to
cover, especially the section called "Americana" where all the
bluenoses, bigots, and two-faced killjoys in this land-of-the-free
got a going-over they never forgot. That Mercury really got to be
the Austin High Gang's Bible. It looked to us like Mencken was
yelling the same message in his magazine that we were trying to get
across in our music; his words were practically lyrics to our hot
jazz."

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