Table Of ContentJAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF
L A R R Y K A R T
Jazz in Search of Itself
Yale University Press NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
FORJACOB
PublishedwithassistancefromtheLouisSternMemorialFund.
Copyright(cid:1)2004byYaleUniversity.Allrightsreserved.Thisbookmaynotbe
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SetinMiniontypebyBinghamtonValleyComposition.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Kart,Larry,1942–
Jazzinsearchofitself/LarryKart.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN0-300-10420-0(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Jazz—Historyandcriticism.I.Title.
ML3506.K372004
781.65'09—dc22 2004041413
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
Thepaperinthisbookmeetstheguidelinesforpermanenceanddurabilityofthe
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ThefollowingpieceswerefirstpublishedintheChicagoTribuneandappearhereby
permission:JohnnyGriffin;IraSullivan;LouisArmstrong;BlackBeauty,WhiteHeat;Earl
Hines;CountBasie;DukeEllington;ArthurRollini;ArnettCobb;ArtieShaw;LouisBellson;
RubyBraff;DizzyGillespie;TheloniousMonk;HerbieNichols;OscarPeterson;StanGetz;
WoodyHermanandStanGetz;AlCohn;ArtPepper;SonnyStitt;JackieMcLean;Clifford
BrownandMaxRoach;PhillyJoeJones;HoraceSilver;BillEvans;KeithJarrett;Gary
Burton;PatMetheny;McCoyTyner;WayneShorter;OrnetteColeman;CecilTaylor;Roscoe
Mitchell;EvanParker;VillageVanguardJazzOrchestra;Milestones;MilesReturns;Lee
Konitz;MarsalisatTwenty-One;TheDeathofJazz?;“TheDeathofJazz?”Revisited;The
MarsalisBrothersFurtherOn;TheSound-Alikes;GershwinMusicals;HoagyCarmichael;
SmithsonianPop;BillieHoliday;SarahVaughan;CabaretMusic;ChrisConnor;Tony
Bennett;TheJazzmanasRebel;AnitaO’Day;JazzGoestoCollege.
ThefollowingpieceswerefirstpublishedinDownBeatmagazineandappearhereby
permission:NotesandMemoriesoftheNewMusic;LeeMorgan,DonaldByrd,Blue
Mitchell;FrankZappa;MilesintheSky;InaSilentWay;TheLostQuintet;Jazzinthe
GlobalVillage;RaidersoftheLostArt.
AnexcerptfromTheOxfordCompaniontoJazzappearsherebypermissionofOxford
UniversityPress.
JazzandJackKerouacfirstappearedinTheReviewofContemporaryFiction.
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Introduction:Enactmentin Sound 1
PART ONE Notes and Memories of the New Music, 1969
PART TWO A Way of Living
JohnnyGriffin 28
Ira Sullivan 33
WilburCampbell 37
PART THREE The Generators
LouisArmstrong 46
Black Beauty,WhiteHeat 49
Earl Hines 51
Count Basie 54
Duke Ellington 57
ArthurRollini 62
Arnett Cobb 64
Artie Shaw 65
LouisBellson 67
Ruby Braff 68
vi CONTENTS
PART FOUR Moderns and After
Dizzy Gillespie 73
TheloniousMonk 78
Monk in Motion 81
HerbieNichols 85
Oscar Peterson 88
Stan Getz 90
Woody HermanandStan Getz 95
Al Cohn 99
Art Pepper 105
SonnyStitt 111
Jackie McLean 112
SonnyRollins 116
Hank Mobley 119
Tina Brooks 126
CliffordBrownandMax Roach 130
PhillyJoe Jones 133
Horace Silver 134
Lee Morgan,DonaldByrd,Blue Mitchell 135
Bill Evans 138
Keith Jarrett 149
Gary Burton 150
Pat Metheny 155
Frank Zappa 161
McCoy Tyner 167
Wayne Shorter 170
Ornette Coleman 176
Cecil Taylor 185
Roscoe Mitchell 188
Evan Parker 194
The VanguardJazz Orchestra 196
PART FIVE Miles Davis
Milestones 201
Milesin theSky 206
CONTENTS vii
In a SilentWay 208
The Lost Quintet 209
Miles Returns 212
Fillesde Kilimanjaro 214
PART SIX Tristano-ites
Lee Konitz 220
Tristano,Konitz, Marsh 225
PART SEVEN The Neo-Con Game
Jazz in the Global Village 240
Raidersof the Lost Art 248
Marsalisat Twenty-One 251
The Deathof Jazz? 255
“The Death of Jazz?” Revisited 261
The MarsalisBrothersFurtherOn 265
The Sound-Alikes 270
PART EIGHT Singers and Songmakers
GershwinMusicals 278
HoagyCarmichael 283
SmithsonianPop 287
Billie Holiday 291
SarahVaughan 295
CabaretMusic 301
ChrisConnor 306
Tony Bennett 307
Standardsand “Standards” 313
PART NINE Alone Together
The Jazzmanas Rebel 320
Anita O’Day 326
Jazz and Jack Kerouac 330
Jazz Goes to College 336
PREFACE
In every case the pieces collected here came to be written be-
cause other people asked for them. But that is no excuse. Long
before I put myself in a position to be asked to write regularly
about jazz—first, in 1968–69, for a magazine (Down Beat) and
then, from 1977 to 1988, for a newspaper (the Chicago Trib-
une)—I wanted to be put there, in part because of a notion I’d
begun to have about the role that someone who writes about
jazz necessarily occupies.
Unlike the two other chief new arts—photographyandmo-
tion pictures—that arose or coalesced at some pointduringthe
nineteenthcentury,jazzdoesnothaveaprimarilytechnological
basis, though it would come to benefit greatly from technolog-
icalmeansofdissemination(thephonographrecordandradio).
Instead, jazz’s primary “material” is the quintessentially histor-
ical set of human circumstances under which it arose—thecol-
lision/interpenetration of particular peoples under particular
conditions in a new and expanding nation that had a form of
government based on particular principles. And perhaps it is
that inaugural immersion in the flux of history that has made
jazz’sfurtherartisticdevelopmentsoimmediate,visible,andin-
tense—as though this art were compelled to give us a running
accountofitsneedtobemadeandtheneedsitsmakingserved.
Of course, the same could be said of any other burst of novel
artisticactivity—say,paintingandsculptureinfifteenth-century
ix
