The story of Jazz hosted by Billy Crystal

[Hardbopjazz]

The story of Jazz hosted by Billy Crystal. Hum, do we need another history lesson?

May 1st Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis Plus: Jonathan Batiste, Bill Cosby, Aaron Diehl, Jon Faddis, Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, Dominick Farinacci, Taj Mahal, Pedrito Martinez, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Mark O’Connor, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, & Cécile McLorin Salvant

[thirdtry]

His '700 Sundays' show which was recently broadcast on HBO had a wonderful 15 minutes or so chunk about growing up in the jazz world. Billy's uncle was, of course, Milt Gabler and his dad ran the Commodore music shop and put on jazz concerts. He had a nice story about Billie Holiday taking him to see 'Shane' and a little joke about Zutty Singleton too.

I guess I'm just happy any time jazz gets some attention.

[clifford_thornton]

I had no idea Billy Crystal was part of the jazz world from a young age.

[sgcim]

My brother-in-law went to HS with him when they grew up on LI.

We were just talking about it over the holiday weekend.

Duke, Satchmo, and all the other biggies used to come out to Long Beach for dinner, and Billy knew them all.

[johnblitweiler]

looks like not much history at that concert

[jlhoots]

That doesn't reduce the value of what his family did back in the day.

[JSngry]

I had no idea Billy Crystal was part of the jazz world from a young age.

He did a monologue in a character based on Zutty Singleton on his first SNL appearance in 1976, and prefaced his entrance into character with a little bit about growing up around jazz and jazzmens...might have mentioned commodore, not sure Wonderful stuff, still fondly remembered here, although Billy Crystal as a whole is somebody with whom I've long ago had enough.

[ValerieB]

sounds like an evening I wouldn't mind attending. as some others feel, I, too, like it whenever jazz is revered.

[paul secor]

I'm not a big Billy Crystal fan and I don't know how much of a jazz afficianado he is, but it sounds as if he had some great connections with jazz musicians that are outside of my experience and he's been willing to share them.

[Larry Kart]

I recall back in the '80s reviewing a Crystal performance that included a good-sized routine about his young days among great jazz musicians I(he's probably been doing it for years), but a portion of it involved him impersonating one or more of those figures, in dialogue with his young self, and those impersonations found him using Black dialect in a broad, mush-mouth manner that seemed rather creepy to me. Yes, on the face of it, if you're going to try to talk like, say, Sandy Williams or Hot Lips Page, you're not going to sound like yourself, but these impersonations struck me as very "tourist-y" and sell-serving, which IMO wouldn't be out of the norm for Crystal in general.

[medjuck]

Billy's production company is "Face Productions" because he was nick-named "Face" by Willy the Lion Smith.

[AllenLowe]

well, as Valerie indicated, I am not going unless they include Herbie Hancock.