Elmore Leonard, RIP

[GA Russell]

Elmore Leonard has died. RIP.

So far, my favorite of his is The Switch. Anybody else have a favorite?

[GA Russell]

Here's an obit.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/08/20/elmore-leonard-dies-three-weeks-after-stroke/

[Michael Weiss]

RIP

I was introduced to EL with Freaky Deaky last year and got hooked. I like Killshot and Swag.

[jlhoots]

I've read many of his novels.

Also neat that one of his writings is the inspiration for the TV series Justified.

R.I.P.

[GA Russell]

Here's his LA Times obit.

http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-elmore-leonard-20130821,0,1809904,full.story

[Larry Kart]

Unfortunately my reviews of two early 1980s Leonard novels, "City Primeval" and "Stick," are behind the Chicago Tribune archives pay wall, but I have good memories of those books (plus much else by Leonard) and what I wrote about them. If anyone can rescue and post those reviews, I'd be grateful.

[T.D.]

Interesting - I recall City Primeval as my favorite Leonard title. I prefer his earlier stuff, just personal taste.

I'd like to see those reviews, too.

[Blue Train]

Lot of people don't realize he started out writing westerns and several classic western films were adaptions of his short stories. As a friend pointed out on FB....his books read like screanplays, which explains why so many were adapted into films, or tv shows.

Be well....

Edited August 21, 2013 by Blue Train

[Head Man]

One of the very few writers whose whole output I have on my bookshelf. A terrific writer whose greatest strength was his dialogue. I'm always surprised that more of his books weren't made into films. Two of the most successful that come to mind are the western "Hombre" with Paul Newman and "Out of Sight" with George Clooney & Jennifer Lopez.

I'll dig out one of his early novels to read tomorrow.

RIP

[GA Russell]

I forgot to mention in the OP that in The Switch, the criminals spend the whole book listening to Groove Holmes tapes!

[Larry Kart]

Not to be too self-serving, but here's a Facebook message I just got from an old Chicago Tribune colleague, John Blades:

I was talking to Elmore Leonard at a party in the mid-80s, and when I told him I was from the Trib, he said, "Do you know Larry Kart? He's been writing about me for years, and he says he won't stop till he gets it right." I'm a little foggy about the rest of the conversation, but it was mostly a testimony to LK's tenacity and perspicacity. You (and maybe Bruce Cook) were the first to recognize his particular genius. Go Dutch, wherever you are.

[John Litweiler]

Not to be too self-serving, but here's a Facebook message I just got from an old Chicago Tribune colleague, John Blades:

I was talking to Elmore Leonard at a party in the mid-80s, and when I told him I was from the Trib, he said, "Do you know Larry Kart? He's been writing about me for years, and he says he won't stop till he gets it right." I'm a little foggy about the rest of the conversation, but it was mostly a testimony to LK's tenacity and perspicacity. You (and maybe Bruce Cook) were the first to recognize his particular genius. Go Dutch, wherever you are.

Once again, Elmore Leonard got it right.

[alankin]

Read "The Moonshine War" while I was away last week. Love most of his books that I've read...

[Ted O'Reilly]

In The Hot Kid, set in the '30s, the lead character, Carlos Webster has a sit-down chat with a young jazz piano player: Jay McShann! http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/the_hot_kid1//=

[Mark Stryker]

Unfortunately my reviews of two early 1980s Leonard novels, "City Primeval" and "Stick," are behind the Chicago Tribune archives pay wall, but I have good memories of those books (plus much else by Leonard) and what I wrote about them. If anyone can rescue and post those reviews, I'd be grateful.

Tried to find these via Nexis and they were not in the system -- must not go back that far. Sorry. Tried.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Mark Stryker

[Larry Kart]

I've now got PDF copies of them from my local library but don't have the energy to type them out right now -- in part because they strike me as good, especially for their time, but not as good as I remembered them being. Also, the other one I reviewed wasn't "Stick" but IIRC "Sideswipe."

[Mark Stryker]

When I type "Larry Kart" and "Sideswipe" into the Nexis search engine, the only thing that comes up is a long 1985 profile of Joan Rivers! ("Who, for instance, could resist the breathless pace of one of her better Liz Taylor sideswipes, which, if it were printed the way Rivers
says it, would look something like 'I-say-this-with-love-we're-very-close-she's-a-pig.' "

In any case, I'm guesing the Tribune's book review section in that era, for whatever reason, did not transfer over to the Nexis data base.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Mark Stryker

[Larry Kart]

When I type "Larry Kart" and "Sideswipe" into the Nexis search engine, the only thing that comes up is a long 1985 profile of Joan Rivers! ("Who, for instance, could resist the breathless pace of one of her better Liz Taylor sideswipes, which, if it were printed the way Rivers

says it, would look something like 'I-say-this-with-love-we're-very-close-she's-a-pig.' "

In any case, I'm guesing the Tribune's book review section in that era, for whatever reason, did not transfer over to the Nexis data base.

Sorry, Mark -- should have checked first. It was "Split Images." The Trib archives pre-1985 are behind a pay wall. My library can get then through some intermediate service but only as PDF files, and AFIK they can be turned into type that can be read in a post here or elsewhere only if one types them in manually. But try "Larry Kart" and "Split Images," though you may just get a scan of my brain.

[Mark Stryker]

Searching "Split Images" and "Larry Kart" yields a 1987 double review of Gloria Lynne at George's and the Jazztet at the Showcase. For the record, you raved about both sets and the specific sentence captured by the search was this: ":Highlights abounded, among them Fuller's pair of rumbustious solos on Golson's 'Are You Real,' Farmer's harmonic subtleties on his 'Right Soon,' the care with which Golson brought a compositional order to his hip, heated lines, Tucker's brilliant outing on 'Split Image,' where he alternated between uptempo swing and a sensitive, technically expert interpretation of Brahms' Rhapsody in G minor, Op. 79, and drummer Marvin Smith's explosive solo on 'Stablemates.'

In a rather freakish coincidence, I just Tweeted out some things regarding Gloria Lynne yesterday. I was shocked to learn that she was still performing at age 81 and was in fact on the schedule last night in New York at 54 Below. I'm a HUGE fan. Have over the years been picking up all the LPs. One of the most underrated jazz singers there is -- out of Dinah and Sarah -- but personalized and just tremendously expressive, great phrasing, swings, ballads to break your heart, the whole bit. I'm not necessarily one of those everything-in-the-old-days-was-better guys, but jazz singing certain was. The standards were just way more elevated. Most of today's singers (national stars and the workadays in every city) would get run off the stage in the old days, even by those singers who might be thought of as the second tier. It's interesting too to think about those who never managed to truly break out like a Gloria Lynne, Teri Thornton, Dakato Staton, Bill Henderson, etc. Maybe it was bad management, problems with husbands or personal lives, on the wrong record labels, bad luck, some sort of quirk in their styles, whatever. But Gloria -- whew!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYyB4tODRQM

Edited August 28, 2013 by Mark Stryker

[Larry Kart]

Searching "Split Images" and "Larry Kart" yields a 1987 double review of Gloria Lynne at George's and the Jazztet at the Showcase. For the record, you raved about both sets and the specific sentence captured by the search was this: ":Highlights abounded, among them Fuller's pair of rumbustious solos on Golson's 'Are You Real,' Farmer's harmonic subtleties on his 'Right Soon,' the care with which Golson brought a compositional order to his hip, heated lines, Tucker's brilliant outing on 'Split Image,' where he alternated between uptempo swing and a sensitive, technically expert interpretation of Brahms' Rhapsody in G minor, Op. 79, and drummer Marvin Smith's explosive solo on 'Stablemates.'

In a rather freakish coincidence, I just Tweeted out some things regarding Gloria Lynne yesterday. I was shocked to learn that she was still performing at age 81 and was in fact on the schedule last night in New York at 54 Below. I'm a HUGE fan. Have over the years been picking up all the LPs. One of the most underrated jazz singers there is -- out of Dinah and Sarah -- but personalized and just tremendously expressive, great phrasing, swings, ballads to break your heart, the whole bit. I'm not necessarily one of those everything-in-the-old-days-was-better guys, but jazz singing certain was. The standards were just way more elevated. Most of today's singers (national stars and the workadays in every city) would get run off the stage in the old days, even by those singers who might be thought of as the second tier. It's interesting too to think about those who never managed to truly break out like a Gloria Lynne, Teri Thornton, Dakato Staton, Bill Henderson, etc. Maybe it was bad management, problems with husbands or personal lives, on the wrong record labels, bad luck, some sort of quirk in their styles, whatever. But Gloria -- whew!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYyB4tODRQM

Hmm -- forget all about that Jazztet set. Glad it was a good one (but then they pretty much all were) and that I got to say so.