The Friday Link Dump, Pre-Picnic Edition

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

"I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball."
--Gerald Early

By the way, NPR Music partner WBGO has been at the Montreal Jazz Festival all this week. Follow their coverage at the WBGO Blog, or on air.

--Fats Waller Interview, c. 1943: In his seemingly near-constant perusal of old newspapers, Mule Walk And Jazz Talk turned up an old New York Times interview with the great keyboardist Fats Waller, from long before "hyperlink" made sense to anybody. Highlights:

--"Rachmaninoff was my friend."
--"Boogie-woogie is all right if you want to beat your brains out for five minutes."
--"That [Art] Tatum, he was just too good ... He had too much technique. When that man turns on the powerhouse don't no one play him down. He sounds like a brass band."
--and an early example of ornithological inspiration

--Michael Jackson's Jazz Song: Apparently, according to a Billboard exclusive feature, the King of Pop was working on some instrumental music before he died -- including a jazz piece. Unrelated comment -- my favorite thing said about Michael Jackson so far is still @questlove's Tweet, even if I don't fully agree with it: "elvis got revisionist media treatment. i expect the friggin same for my hero. lemme find out yall gonna paint this mofo as a freak cnn."

--The Women Of Latin Jazz: Chip Boaz spotlights five -- no, seventeen top female artists making Latin jazz. Part One, and Part Two. I think Boaz is getting at something when he muses in his introduction: "My daughters have experienced their share of live jazz ... It's great fun to share this wonderful music with my kids, but upon reflection I realized that my daughters have seen dangerously few female jazz musician role models. I can't help but wonder how this affects their psyche around the music and their future support for the jazz world." I wonder too.

--The BMI Jazz Composition Prize: Rather, the BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize. It was awarded recently to a one Sara Jacovino. Some real talk judges were involved: Rufus Reid, Darcy James Argue, Dennis Mackrel. The $3,000 grant is nice and all -- to my mind, perhaps the best part of winning the award, other than the press release/resume fodder -- but I've never heard of Ms. Jacovino before, and I think like I'd like to. Seems to me that BMI would do its finalists and award winners a real service by offering streaming or even downloadable examples of the music's recordings -- as well as raise its own profile. Just a thought.

--No Dancing In Des Moines: Nice to know that obsolete laws used to regulate and repress expressions of jazz in the 1930s are still on the books and are being enforced at the whims of police officers. Not that the kids these days don't need to be stopped.

--Alan Greenspan, Tenor Saxophonist: Of all places to find a bit of jazz humor, The Weekly Standard is one of the last rocks I'd turn over. But alas, here it is. Seems to be based on a grain of truth at least, which through some convoluted mental channels, calls to mind Paul Desmond's quip about jazz musicians dating female models, who "sometimes go around with guys who are scuffling -- for awhile. But usually they end up marrying some cat with a factory. This is the way the world ends, not with a whim but a banker."

9:30 AM ET | 07- 3-2009 | permalink

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