Tony Scott 11-16-57

[gabriele.cinico]

I remember when I was a kid liking a Tony Scott 10-inch "live" Decca LP, recorded at an Army camp IIRC with Philly Joe on drums, but everything that I've heard from him since he moved to RCA in '56 or so has struck me as unlistenable. All he does is twiddle and twiddle -- and pretty much the same damn twiddles regardless of the tune or where he is in it. I guess you could call that wriggling outside the harmony. Also, FWIW there was Bill Crow's "famous" put down of Scott as an egomaniac in a record review in the old Jazz Review (June 1959), which inspired a letter in defense of Scott from Bill Evans.

Crow review excerpts: "When he is around it is always a show, and it is always Tony's show, unless a bigger ham upstages him. Tony wants to be a star. He uses every situation as a stepping stone in his energetic scramble not for artistry, but for fame. He is so intent on his goal that he doesn't even realize how badly he uses his associates.... He plays in a tortured, rigid, sensationalistic manner that successfully attracts attention but has little to do with playing music.... His affectations of humility are loaded with egotism.... [H]e falls back constantly on his three favorite devices: five note descending chromatic runs, ear-piercing squeals and glissandos, and hysteric noncommital twittering around the changes...." Then Crow really lets him have it. And you thought it was the critics who are unkind to jazz musicians?

Hello. I'm interested to know more about this Crow review. Do you have the full review? Do you know where i can find it? And about the letter of Bill Evans?

Thanks a lot

[king ubu]

related:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...st&p=881246

[jazztrain]

The first six issues of Jazz Review are now available on line with the promise of more. It looks like the next one to be posted will be the June 1959 issue. Here's a link to what's available so far:

http://jazzstudiesonline.org/?q=node/923

I remember when I was a kid liking a Tony Scott 10-inch "live" Decca LP, recorded at an Army camp IIRC with Philly Joe on drums, but everything that I've heard from him since he moved to RCA in '56 or so has struck me as unlistenable. All he does is twiddle and twiddle -- and pretty much the same damn twiddles regardless of the tune or where he is in it. I guess you could call that wriggling outside the harmony. Also, FWIW there was Bill Crow's "famous" put down of Scott as an egomaniac in a record review in the old Jazz Review (June 1959), which inspired a letter in defense of Scott from Bill Evans.

Crow review excerpts: "When he is around it is always a show, and it is always Tony's show, unless a bigger ham upstages him. Tony wants to be a star. He uses every situation as a stepping stone in his energetic scramble not for artistry, but for fame. He is so intent on his goal that he doesn't even realize how badly he uses his associates.... He plays in a tortured, rigid, sensationalistic manner that successfully attracts attention but has little to do with playing music.... His affectations of humility are loaded with egotism.... [H]e falls back constantly on his three favorite devices: five note descending chromatic runs, ear-piercing squeals and glissandos, and hysteric noncommital twittering around the changes...." Then Crow really lets him have it. And you thought it was the critics who are unkind to jazz musicians?

Hello. I'm interested to know more about this Crow review. Do you have the full review? Do you know where i can find it? And about the letter of Bill Evans?

Thanks a lot