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Jazz Anecdotes
When jazz musicians get together, they often delight one another with stories about the great, or merely remarkable, players and singers they've worked with. One good story leads to another until someone says, amid the laughter, "Somebody ought to write these down!" With Jazz Anecdotes ,
somebody finally has.
Drawing on a rich verbal tradition, bassist and jazz writer Bill Crow has culled stories from interviews, biographies and autobiographies, the remarkable collection of oral histories compiled by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, and his own columns to paint fascinating and
very human portraits of jazz musicians. Organized around general topics--teaching and learning, stage fright, life on the road, prejudice and discrimination, and the importance of a good nickname-- Jazz Anecdotes shows the jazz world as it really is and suggests why it gives its devotees a kick like
no other. In addition, it offers extended sections on jazz greats such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and the fabulous Eddie Condon, who seems to have lived his entire life with the anecdotist in mind.
With its unique blend of sparkling dialogue and historical and social insight, Jazz Anecdotes will delight anyone who loves a good story. It offers a fresh perspective on the joys and hardships of a musician's life as well as a rare glimpse of the personalities who created America's most
distinctive music.
somebody finally has.
Drawing on a rich verbal tradition, bassist and jazz writer Bill Crow has culled stories from interviews, biographies and autobiographies, the remarkable collection of oral histories compiled by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, and his own columns to paint fascinating and
very human portraits of jazz musicians. Organized around general topics--teaching and learning, stage fright, life on the road, prejudice and discrimination, and the importance of a good nickname-- Jazz Anecdotes shows the jazz world as it really is and suggests why it gives its devotees a kick like
no other. In addition, it offers extended sections on jazz greats such as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and the fabulous Eddie Condon, who seems to have lived his entire life with the anecdotist in mind.
With its unique blend of sparkling dialogue and historical and social insight, Jazz Anecdotes will delight anyone who loves a good story. It offers a fresh perspective on the joys and hardships of a musician's life as well as a rare glimpse of the personalities who created America's most
distinctive music.
368 pages, Paperback
First published May 17, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 31, 2024
Very minor amendments 31 January 2024
Dizzy Gillespie took to a beret, because he kept losing his hats. There are many such anecdotes in this good book; mainly from the era when jazz was the popular musical form.
But inevitably the book suffers from its nature and structure. The stories vary in content and style and some are more engaging and interesting than others. The whole collection is a large assemblage of bits and pieces about jazz people roughly divided between topics of interest like ‘Stage Fright’, ‘Jazz on the Air’ ‘Pranks’ and ‘Goofs’ and the other half, which is devoted to tales about particular jazz luminaries, most of whom are eminent, but some are only included because they made good copy, like Eddie Condon. So to that extent the book follows its material, a great deal of which is from secondary sources, which is fine, but it’s still a bitsy book.
There is one other general point to make - the stories are venerable. This suits me, I like the old stuff, but, published in 1990, the materials really don’t go much beyond the sixties and is really concentrated in the thirties, forties and fifties. Perhaps it could have been better as ‘Anecdotes from the Golden Age of Jazz’, although sometimes it is difficult to place the stories in time.
There are nevertheless some striking tales and they are generally well told. I liked the one about Bunny Berrigan’s tooth: he lost a front tooth as a kid and had a removable replacement, he fiddled with it apparently. This was alright, but if it came out he could not play his trumpet so he and his colleagues spent considerable time looking for it on more than one occasion, including in the snow. Berrigan also disabled juke boxes by inserting chewing gum in the coin slot then ramming it home with the slide – just so the band members would not have inferior music inflicted upon them (p173).
Paul Desmond was a smart man with a pun: he had a reputation for dating fashion models and said, ‘They’ll go out for a while with a cat who’s scuffling, but they always seem to end up marrying some manufacturer from the Bronx. This is the way the world ends, not with a whim, but a banker.’
Cab Calloway was touched when President Nixon greeted him enthusiastically at a White House reception until it emerged that the President thought Calloway was Duke Ellington. Apparently Calloway just smiled and walked away, which is classy (p149). When Earl Hines was playing at the Apex Club he went to the men’s room where a patron told him he had played Rhapsody in Blue very well. The attendant asked Hines if he knew the gentleman. When Hines said ‘no’ he was told he had been talking with George Gershwin.
What does emerge is the level of maturity of some of the musicians, or lack of it, and the extent to which they played jokes on each other. However, on the positive side the book did confirm my impression that the jazz men of the day were the best dressed around, with particular attention (and money) being devoted to splendid clothes. Duke Ellington bought so many shoes he had special trunks made for them.
Oh, there is one more, which my wife likes: 'When Don Ellis had a band that featured arrangements in time signatures like 9/4 and 27/16, someone remarked, "The only tune they play in 4/4 is Take Five!"'
Dizzy Gillespie took to a beret, because he kept losing his hats. There are many such anecdotes in this good book; mainly from the era when jazz was the popular musical form.
But inevitably the book suffers from its nature and structure. The stories vary in content and style and some are more engaging and interesting than others. The whole collection is a large assemblage of bits and pieces about jazz people roughly divided between topics of interest like ‘Stage Fright’, ‘Jazz on the Air’ ‘Pranks’ and ‘Goofs’ and the other half, which is devoted to tales about particular jazz luminaries, most of whom are eminent, but some are only included because they made good copy, like Eddie Condon. So to that extent the book follows its material, a great deal of which is from secondary sources, which is fine, but it’s still a bitsy book.
There is one other general point to make - the stories are venerable. This suits me, I like the old stuff, but, published in 1990, the materials really don’t go much beyond the sixties and is really concentrated in the thirties, forties and fifties. Perhaps it could have been better as ‘Anecdotes from the Golden Age of Jazz’, although sometimes it is difficult to place the stories in time.
There are nevertheless some striking tales and they are generally well told. I liked the one about Bunny Berrigan’s tooth: he lost a front tooth as a kid and had a removable replacement, he fiddled with it apparently. This was alright, but if it came out he could not play his trumpet so he and his colleagues spent considerable time looking for it on more than one occasion, including in the snow. Berrigan also disabled juke boxes by inserting chewing gum in the coin slot then ramming it home with the slide – just so the band members would not have inferior music inflicted upon them (p173).
Paul Desmond was a smart man with a pun: he had a reputation for dating fashion models and said, ‘They’ll go out for a while with a cat who’s scuffling, but they always seem to end up marrying some manufacturer from the Bronx. This is the way the world ends, not with a whim, but a banker.’
Cab Calloway was touched when President Nixon greeted him enthusiastically at a White House reception until it emerged that the President thought Calloway was Duke Ellington. Apparently Calloway just smiled and walked away, which is classy (p149). When Earl Hines was playing at the Apex Club he went to the men’s room where a patron told him he had played Rhapsody in Blue very well. The attendant asked Hines if he knew the gentleman. When Hines said ‘no’ he was told he had been talking with George Gershwin.
What does emerge is the level of maturity of some of the musicians, or lack of it, and the extent to which they played jokes on each other. However, on the positive side the book did confirm my impression that the jazz men of the day were the best dressed around, with particular attention (and money) being devoted to splendid clothes. Duke Ellington bought so many shoes he had special trunks made for them.
Oh, there is one more, which my wife likes: 'When Don Ellis had a band that featured arrangements in time signatures like 9/4 and 27/16, someone remarked, "The only tune they play in 4/4 is Take Five!"'
July 25, 2017
Wow! What a collection!
Everything you hoped to hear about what really goes on. Bill Crow has done it………assembled THE collection of all collections of jazz stories from the earliest times until almost the end of the 20th century.
Here are some examples:
Cannonball Adderly told Nat Hentoff: “A young tenor player was complaining to me that Coleman Hawkins made him nervous. Man, I told him Hawkins was supposed to make him nervous! Hawkins has been making other sax players nervous for forty years!”
When Buddy Rich checked into a hospital, the admitting nurse who filled out his admission form asked if he was allergic to anything. “Country and Western music,” said Buddy.
Fats Waller was playing in Chicago and noticed a group of tough-looking guys in the crowd. When he took a break he found a revolver shoved in his side and he was pushed into a car. An hour’s ride brought him to an East Cicero speakeasy where the “boys” had brought him to play at a surprise birthday party for their boss, Al Capone. He started off apprehensively but “when he saw the enthusiastic response from Scarface and his buddies, he swung into high gear. Capone kept him there for three days, shoving hundred dollar bills into his pocket with each request.”
When asked by a fan how he could play so well when he was loaded, Zoot Sims replied, "I practice when I'm loaded."
“Frank Socolow was playing tenor at the Famous Door when Bird came to the Street. ‘He would come in, when I was with Bill Harris, grab my horn and sit in one set on tenor, sound beautiful, and then run back and do his own gig on alto.’”
Either these samples will intrigue your or they won’t. This book will go back to the library with great reluctance.
Everything you hoped to hear about what really goes on. Bill Crow has done it………assembled THE collection of all collections of jazz stories from the earliest times until almost the end of the 20th century.
Here are some examples:
Cannonball Adderly told Nat Hentoff: “A young tenor player was complaining to me that Coleman Hawkins made him nervous. Man, I told him Hawkins was supposed to make him nervous! Hawkins has been making other sax players nervous for forty years!”
When Buddy Rich checked into a hospital, the admitting nurse who filled out his admission form asked if he was allergic to anything. “Country and Western music,” said Buddy.
Fats Waller was playing in Chicago and noticed a group of tough-looking guys in the crowd. When he took a break he found a revolver shoved in his side and he was pushed into a car. An hour’s ride brought him to an East Cicero speakeasy where the “boys” had brought him to play at a surprise birthday party for their boss, Al Capone. He started off apprehensively but “when he saw the enthusiastic response from Scarface and his buddies, he swung into high gear. Capone kept him there for three days, shoving hundred dollar bills into his pocket with each request.”
When asked by a fan how he could play so well when he was loaded, Zoot Sims replied, "I practice when I'm loaded."
“Frank Socolow was playing tenor at the Famous Door when Bird came to the Street. ‘He would come in, when I was with Bill Harris, grab my horn and sit in one set on tenor, sound beautiful, and then run back and do his own gig on alto.’”
Either these samples will intrigue your or they won’t. This book will go back to the library with great reluctance.
January 16, 2020
The author is a bass player and writer who played with Gerry Mulligan and many others. This is one of two of his large collection of anecdotes about Jazz musicians. The stories are grouped thematically, e.g. a chapter with stories about Jazz musicians who don’t read music (Someone asked Erroll Garner why he had never bothered to learn to read music and he replied that nobody could hear him read.), and also by musician, e.g. a chapter with some of the many Benny Goodman stories. While reading these, I tended to group the anecdotes into those that couldn’t be true, those that are old jokes that someone applied to a Jazz musician, those that seem like they’ve been specifically created to highlight a known characteristic of a particular musician, and most interesting - those that involve multiple people and that the author has determined to be more or less true. The author did considerable research and in many cases he reports an interesting or well-known story from the different viewpoints of multiple participants.
July 30, 2014
Whether you like the music, hate the music or have such a passionate love for the music that you can't live without it, read this book. It is such a wonderful collection of stories about jazz greats and not-so-greats you'll want to read it again and again and again. There's at least a smile with each turn of the page and more than enough belly-laughs to make it worth your time. A truly delightful anthology.
June 23, 2015
This is one of the only books I refuse to loan out. It is hilarious and beautiful and sad, full of so many damaged people. Reading about musicians always involves characters who can only keep their shit together in their music - this book houses all of those characters. I hold it dear to my heart.
August 6, 2013
Funny collection, great read for a jazz enthusiast/ trivia buff.
August 6, 2013
Absolutely essential for every jazz bookshelf
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews