Nat Hentoff R.I.P.

[CJ Shearn]

RIP.  I remember reading one of his more recent political writings recently, aside from scads of liner notes

[JSngry]

There's a wealth there.

I'm ok with people running out, especially when, as in Hentoff's case, they put so much in before they did.

[mikeweil]

4 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Knew about the German translation but never saw it (it was OOP by the time I got into jazz) but bought a secondhand copy of the original UK printing in 1998 or so at a London secondhand bookseller - and reading it set the stage in an ideal way for Ira Gitler's "Swing To Bop" oral history that I bought not much later. Both desert-island reading matter.

The notes in my copies show me I was wrong - got the English paperback reprint in '86 and an used copy of the German edition in '88. IIRC I had borrowed it from the library before I got the English version. Like you I went right on to read Gitler's Swing to Bop, both are great examples of well done oral history jazz books. 

Edited January 9, 2017 by mikeweil

[Hardbopjazz]

R.I.P. Nat.

[Neal Pomea]

He wrote excellent liner notes for John Fahey's lp on Reprise, Of Rivers and Religion! Don't know if he wrote liner notes on albums from other genres very much. Well, there's a little bit of a Dixieland band on a few of the songs on this album, but that wasn't his focus.

[paul secor]

Nat Hentoff interview on Mosaic's website: http://www.jazzwax.com/2017/01/nat-hentoff-1925-2017.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=FeedBlitzRss&utm_content=Nat+Hentoff+%281925-2017%29

[paul secor]

On ‎1‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 11:49 PM, medjuck said:

In one of his books he says that what he was most proud of in the jazz world was his contribution to the tv show "The Sound of Jazz".  I was able to talk to him on the phone about it several months ago but he couldn't hear me very well and didn't really understand my questions.  I'm happy I did get to speak to him and tell him how much I admired his jazz writings. 

 

(BTW One of the things I asked about was why Lester Young appears with the Basie band on The Sound of Jazz record but not on the tv show.  My guess is that Lester was just not in good enough shape--he's sitting down during his great Fine and Mellow solo.)  

In the A Great Day in Harlem video, Mr. Hentoff says that Lester Young wasn't well enough to stand and perform when the Basie band performed on The Sound of Jazz. He was supposed to be seated during the performance of "Fine and Mellow", but he did stand up to play that beautiful solo.

That solo and Billie's facial expressions during it never fail to touch my heart.

Edited February 5, 2018 by paul secor

[Clunky]

Not sure how I missed this, he was a major contributor to jazz. RIP