Frankie Newton: Lost and Found

[Mark Stryker]

I am thrilled to pass along this groundbreaking piece of scholarship about one of my heroes, trumpeter Frankie Newton, written by my gifted friend Matthew Rivera and published today by the New York Review of Books. I am proud to have played a small but consequential role in its development.   

Here's the backstory: A few years ago, Matthew, a young scholar and archivist whom I had never met, reached out to me after he read the long interview I did with Ethan Iverson in which I talk about my curious childhood interest in Newton, a sui generis trumpeter and political and social progressive. I corresponded with Newton's widow, Ethel, while in high school and later interviewed her in 1985 for a paper I wrote about Newton in a  jazz history seminar taught by the sainted Larry Gushee at the University of Illinois. Matthew, a longtime Newton obsessive, asked if I still had the tape. 

It took me a minute, but I located it. After 40 years, I had forgotten most of the details, but it turned out be a goldmine of information about Newton (whose biography is notably elusive), including his thoughts about music and his life with Ethel as an interracial couple. 

Matthew has drawn on that interview in his brilliant work here, and there's additional valuable information he'll be able to report as his research expands. He has also dug up an extraordinary treasure trove of newly discovered newspaper writing by Newton himself -- a MAJOR find. Ultimately, that's what this story is about -- the way scholarship expands, how jazz history is being written and revised in real time, and how you never know where bits and pieces of the historical record might be found.

 

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/03/19/frankie-newton-lost-and-found/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2mcS9rEILTzcXYVFckDkJuvwdehv89ntUBlujrEtUKhFK3UOz5W3T8jFg_aem_1GsAmCCPZJfRZz-ERSjLTQ

[JSngry]

Impressive!

[Chuck Nessa]

Looking forward - thanks.

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for this ... Rivera is a name I had been aware of when Phil Schaap was still alive and posting on FB.

[ghost of miles]

Amazing! As you know, Mark, I've long contemplated doing a Night Lights show about Newton, and have that short biographical pamphlet that a Virginia history society published about him. Glad now that I haven't gotten around to it yet, as it seems there'll be a lot more information to draw on, thanks to the efforts of Matthew and your assistance. Can't wait to read the NYRB article after work this evening... thanks for posting it here.

[John L]

Great!

[ghost of miles]

Excited to see that Rivera is writing a full-fledged biography of Newton, according to the NYRB's author note. I wish I could share a subscriber gift link to the whole piece, but I can't seem to locate that capacity on the NYRB website. 

Rivera mentions the paucity and scattered nature of available Newton music, but the Jasmine two-CD anthology apparently remains in print and is probably the best overview of Newton's music out there on physical media (not that it really has any competition). 

[Mark Stryker]

25 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Excited to see that Rivera is writing a full-fledged biography of Newton, according to the NYRB's author note. I wish I could share a subscriber gift link to the whole piece, but I can't seem to locate that capacity on the NYRB website. 

Rivera mentions the paucity and scattered nature of available Newton music, but the Jasmine two-CD anthology apparently remains in print and is probably the best overview of Newton's music out there on physical media (not that it really has any competition). 

There is a three-CD set on Acrobat that gets through a lot of music, but the sound is highly variable. Mosaic had a Newton box in the cue a few years back but, alas, Sony apparently withdrew licensing rights at the last minute. Hoping this changes. The world truly needs that set. 

Edited March 20 by Mark Stryker

[JSngry]

26 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Rivera mentions the paucity and scattered nature of available Newton music, but the Jasmine two-CD anthology apparently remains in print and is probably the best overview of Newton's music out there on physical media (not that it really has any competition). 

Discogs answered the call, thanks for the direction!

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

 I wish I could share a subscriber gift link to the whole piece, but I can't seem to locate that capacity on the NYRB website. 

 

Since I am not a subscriber, the moment I signed up to read the article, I printed out a PDF and saved that.