Terry Teachout's "Duke" -- any thoughts?

[medjuck]

In answer to the question posed by the title of this thread: Yes I have some thoughts-- I've read this book and it sucks.

Edited March 27, 2014 by medjuck

[ArtSalt]

I've had that 48 hour flu that's doing the rounds, so I've had some time to complete Teachout's biography of Ellington. The evidence of his hack status is in the coda of the book, where he admits that the work is un-original and based on other writers research and it is only his perspective on their research.

His last trick is after character assassinating Ellington he tries to redeem him in the last couple of paragraphs. Too late baby.

Still, I would like to see Teachout's play on Satchmo.

[John Tapscott]

I recently read the book. I've read a couple of other Ellington biographies. I don't know about racism and all the rest. It doesn't really bring us any new insights into Ellington. (I admit to being a bit surprised at the extent of Ellington's financial problems - a recurring theme with many jazz musicians, it seems, especially with the IRS). I thought Teachout really raced through the last 10 years of Duke's life, as if he couldn't wait to get the thing finished. Overall there is a rather negative tone to the book and I often found myself wondering whether Teachout really "enjoys" Ellington's music. (Not that I believe a bio should be "hero worship" and Ellington was no saint, but there is something a bit "off" with the book and I can't quite name it).

Edited September 21, 2014 by John Tapscott

[ArtSalt]

Certainly, Teachout is no fan of Ellington, but that shouldn't disqualify him from being a biographer of him. But there's a number of things wrong with Teachout's perspective:

1. The constant whinning that Ellington couldn't reach the dizzy classical heights of a full symphony in the classical form.

2. Billy Strayhorn was the ultimate genius behind Ellington's reputation as composer.

3. He had a high sexual drive with lots of groupies and I will return to this theme throughout the book to emphasize something not quite right with

his character.

4. In the late 60s and 70s he was dressing in "gaudily mod oufits" and that he was embarrassing himself. But so wasn't everyone during this

period, especially the likes of Miles Davis. He was merely following the fashion of the time.

5. The comparison at the end that he was "'minitiaturist", when that, is exactly what he was not!

[Big Beat Steve]

4. In the late 60s and 70s he was dressing in "gaudily mod oufits" and that he was embarrassing himself. But so wasn't everyone during this

period, especially the likes of Miles Davis. He was merely following the fashion of the time.

Indeed.

Dig this:

Anybody out there qwho would have recognized Barrett Deems, former drummer with Louis Armstrong's All Stars??

[duaneiac]

4. In the late 60s and 70s he was dressing in "gaudily mod oufits" and that he was embarrassing himself. But so wasn't everyone during this

period, especially the likes of Miles Davis. He was merely following the fashion of the time.

Indeed.

Dig this:

Anybody out there qwho would have recognized Barrett Deems, former drummer with Louis Armstrong's All Stars??

My first thought upon glancing at that photo was "That looks like Barrett Deems", so I guess I'm one who would recognize him.

[Big Beat Steve]

Hats off to you, then.

At any rate, that garb and that wig, that's really odd.

[medjuck]

https://jjs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jjs/search/search  You can find a good rebuttal to Teachout by Dukes' nephew at the Journal of Jazz Studies.    I didn't know about Teachout's racist background.  One caveat:  Lawrence Brown told  many people that Duke punched him in the mouth.  (Admittedly I heard this 2nd hand from the people who claim they were told this, but they were all Ellington fans and I have no reason to disbelieve them.) 

 

 

[ghost of miles]

3 hours ago, medjuck said:

https://jjs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jjs/search/search  You can find a good rebuttal to Teachout by Dukes' nephew at the Journal of Jazz Studies.    I didn't know about Teachout's racist background.  One caveat:  Lawrence Brown told  many people that Duke punched him in the mouth.  (Admittedly I heard this 2nd hand from the people who claim they were told this, but they were all Ellington fans and I have no reason to disbelieve them.) 

 

 

Thanks for that, excellent read.  Ellington's music will be played and written about long after Terry Teachout has receded even beyond the mark of an asterisk in American cultural history.  

[Larry Kart]

BTW, in the first post on this thread I quoted Loren Schoenberg to the effect that the late Richard Sudhalter's book "Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945" is marked by "race insanity"  and is "suffused with a Riefenstahlian  ... myopia." I couldn't disagree more. Sudhalter's book is a mine of valuable information, is full of shrewd balanced judgments, and is free of any trace of racism, as far as I can see. 

[medjuck]

I liked the cd that was issued to accompany "Lost Chords"  but trying to read the book drove me nuts because (at least as far as I got in it) it seemed to be the history of an alternative universe with no Black musicians hence no Black influences.    Maybe I should try it again.  But then again I just re-read a gratuitous anecdote he tells in the notes to the Mosaic Columbia Small Group sets in which he describes Illinois Jacquet taunting a "young white tenorist"  and I'm not sure I can stomach any more of  him.   (Why mention the guy was white and why tell the story at all?- it has nothing to do with the music at hand. )

Edited June 7, 2018 by medjuck

[Larry Kart]

51 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I liked the cd that was issued to accompany "Lost Chords"  but trying to read the book drove me nuts because (at least as far as I got in it) it seemed to be the history of an alternative universe with no Black musicians hence no Black influences.    Maybe I should try it again.  But then again I just re-read a gratuitous antidote he tells in the notes to the Mosaic Columbia Small Group sets in which he describes Illinois Jacquet taunting a "young white tenorist"  and I'm not sure I can stomach any more of  him.   (Why mention the guy was white and why tell the story at all?- it has nothing to do with the music at hand. )

Don't have the  Mosaic Columbia Small Group set so I can't comment on the tone/meaning of the Jacquet story, but looking at the index of "Lost Chords," the entries for the names of Black musicians are copious to say the least -- surely some of these numerous mentions allude to the influence/musical importance of these figures.

[Ken Dryden]

I bought Teachout's bio of Ellington and never got around to reading it. I'm of the opinion his name will be long forgotten within a few years, while Duke Ellington will live on. Ellington obviously wasn't perfect and had his share of quirks (as do we all), but the voluminous amount of music that he composed, arranged and recorded over his long career speaks for itself.