Eric Dolphy postcard.

[Hardbopjazz]

This is great. 

 

Edited June 8, 2019 by Hardbopjazz

[HutchFan]

VERY cool. 

Thanks for sharing.  

[Д.Д.]

Pardon my curiosity. Such a low level of literacy - was this something typical for a person of Dolphy's background / circumstances at the time? He finished high school and attended college... Of course, he could have just been tired after a gig or something ("something" not being drugs or alcohol, since he was a teetotaler, as I understand).  

[AllenLowe]

what low level of literacy? A spelling mistake; could be a minor learning disability (which commonly leads to these kind of spelling errors); yes, should be an, but still, hardly a "low level of literacy."

[sonnymax]

3 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

what low level of literacy? A spelling mistake; could be a minor learning disability (which commonly leads to these kind of spelling errors); yes, should be an, but still, hardly a "low level of literacy."

He might be referring to the misspelling of Russell's first name ("Geroge") and the word "feeling" ("feelling"). Still, I agree with your point. Honestly, at first glance I thought the postcard was a fake. The idea that Dolphy would send Russell a postcard from Europe in 1961 that mentions the Lydian Chromatic Concept and the title of a recording he made the previous year seems a little too cool.

[erwbol]

I am on the spectrum myself, and have had trouble with memorising spelling since I was a child. I could try to memorise lists of words all I wanted, but when I had to put pen to paper, one spelling option seemed as likely as the other to me. What has helped for memorisation is having read a lot (in English) since. On the other hand neglecting Dutch reading material hasn't. Stress and fatigue only worsen the effects.

[JSngry]

Or maybe he was improvising with spelling, liking the way those letters looked next to each other and were still saying what he had to say. He did that with his playing, his notes, "wrong notes" not wrong at all. In which case, a higher level of literaccy.

[erwbol]

Diabetes might also have affected his mental functioning in areas like spelling.

[Big Beat Steve]

11 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

what low level of literacy? A spelling mistake; could be a minor learning disability (which commonly leads to these kind of spelling errors); yes, should be an, but still, hardly a "low level of literacy."

It may not be a matter of a low level of literacy but the WAY he wrote this IMHO shows someone who does NOT appear to have the habit of writing a lot at all. No fluency in handwriting,  just a visible effort at hanging letters together to make them form words. No doubt in this situation all sorts of mistakes can happen.

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[Niko]

fwiw here's a 1964 letter by Dolphy to Paul Karting, from here

http://adale.org/Discographies/KartingHolland.html

interestingly, the writing style is very similar but the signature is totally different... 

[Big Beat Steve]

Amazing that he got 3 of the 4 US musicians' names wrong ...

Edited June 9, 2019 by Big Beat Steve

[sgcim]

Eric was so cool when a DB interviewer asked him about what he was doing harmonically when he improvised on changes. He just said something like, "Yeah, I'm just adding some extensions or something", and then he laughed.

[clifford_thornton]

Lot of brilliant artists in various fields can't spell for shit. Not uncommon. Certainly jibes with my experience.

[Shrdlu]

The letter has a signature and the postcard has his name printed. I don't see any discrepancy.

Re names and spellings, Jimmy Cobb wrote "Jimmie". At the 1955 Jazz Messengers, Kenny Dorham announces "Jeromes Kerns".

Don't forget that, until Sammy Johnson's English Dictionary came out, in 1755, spelling was "make it up as you go along". We had Shakspere, Ann Bullen, and "servants" was "feruants", where the f is a curly s.

The main thing that grabs me is that these letters were written just before Eric's tragic and totally unnecessary death in that German hospital. They should have been sued for criminal negligence.

[Big Beat Steve]

8 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

Lot of brilliant artists in various fields can't spell for shit. Not uncommon. Certainly jibes with my experience.

It's not just that. Many weren't very articulate when it came to TALKING either. They've jot got other fortes. that's the way things sometimes are - not just with artists.

@shrdlu:

1755 was a wee bit BEFORE Eric Dolphy's prime, though.

(And continuing a bit OT re-your example:)

BTW, the "feruant" "f" being a "curly s" is just that - an s, not an f at all in the first place. Changes of typical handwriting styles over time. The same exists in German handwriting of days gone by too, BTW, even in printing as used up to 1942. And often exceedingly misunderstood by graphical arts dabblers (posing as professionals) who try to imitate (for effect) these antique typefaces today yet totally mix up the two types of "s" (because the two types of "s" are supposed to be used in specifc places in a word ONLY and are not nearly always interchangeable).  See the "type face samples" here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurrent

At any rate, the Shakespeare example you give seems to come from the same background and that "F" in your "feruants" never was an "f" in the first place.

Anyway ... the point is that ONE trait of not being very good at (and used to) handwriting oneself is that - without being dyslexic at all - you still cannot make the connection between what you SEE in writing (which you are bound to have seen often before) and what you memorize enough to be able to WRITE it correctly. Names are a particularly visible case. (The way he fumbled Stitt's name together into "Sitts" is a classic example.) Not to mention the fluency of your handwriting (which is another indicator).

 

 

 

 

[Brad]

Most of us on this board were fortunate; we had the advantage of a good education where reading and writing were emphasized, with teachers and parents who cared and made sure we worked on those things. When I lived in Trinidad when I was 10 years old, my penmanship was awful and, after being warned, the Head Mistress of my school whacked me across the rear end and sent my notebook home. Every day after I arrived home, I had to practice penmanship for an hour. 

However, others have not been as lucky to have people who cared. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Brad

[Dan Gould]

15 minutes ago, Brad said:

Most of us on this board were fortunate; we had the advantage of a good education where reading and writing were emphasized, with teachers and parents who cared and made sure we worked on those things. When I lived in Trinidad when I was 10 years old, my penmanship was awful and, after being warned, the Head Mistress of my school whacked me across the rear end and sent my notebook home. Every day after I arrived home, I had to practice penmanship for an hour. 

However, others have not been as lucky to have people who cared. 

I do think there is a qualitative difference in education between then and now but I sure could have used that Head Mistress because my penmanship was for-shit then and its worse now!

[Brad]

24 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I do think there is a qualitative difference in education between then and now but I sure could have used that Head Mistress because my penmanship was for-shit then and its worse now!

It improved marginally but it's still terrible!

[clifford_thornton]

yeah mine is awful. As an archivist I have had to work very hard in making my handwriting clear on folders and other documents for researchers. It's not easy!

[erwbol]

My handwriting turns to shit as well as soon as I get distracted by thoughts or come under stress.

[catesta]

2 hours ago, erwbol said:

My handwriting turns to shit as well as soon as I get distracted by thoughts or come under stress.

Man, I'm the same way.

My handwriting is terrible, especially if I'm taking notes in a meeting, or writing down a thought. When I'm done I look at at paper like, what the fuck?

 

[JSngry]

Based on these examples, Dolphy had very legible handwriting, imo.

[ghost of miles]

121 Bank Street?  I just walked down that block a few months ago.  Google Maps photo:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/121+Bank+St,+New+York,+NY+10014/@40.7362989,-74.0075345,3a,75y,339.19h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sfauO_egBInrIB1-Sncjy6Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DfauO_egBInrIB1-Sncjy6Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.TACTILE.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D339.1879%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c259eadf259fa7:0x91c5e8f4cf8e134c!8m2!3d40.7364869!4d-74.007662

[clifford_thornton]

Yes, Bill Dixon lived in that building at that time also.

[erwbol]

37 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Based on these examples, Dolphy had very legible handwriting, imo.

But these samples of Dolphy's aren't cursive. That helps.

Edited June 10, 2019 by erwbol