Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz [Hardcover]

Stanley Crouch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2006

Stanley Crouch-MacArthur "genius" award recipient, co-founder of Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Book Award nominee, and perennial bull in the china shop of black intelligentsia- has been writing about jazz and jazz artists for over thirty years. His reputation for controversy is exceeded only by a universal respect for his intellect and passion. As Gary Giddons notes: "Stanley may be the only jazz writer out there with the kind of rhinoceros hide necessary to provoke and outrage and then withstand the fulminations that come back." Now, in a long-awaited collection, Crouch collects fifteen of his most influential, and most controversial pieces (published in Jazz Times, The New Yorker, the Village Voice, and elsewhere), and includes two new essays as well. The pieces range from the introspective "Jazz Criticism and its Effect on the Art Form" to a rollicking debate with Amiri Baraka, to vivid, intimate portraits of the legendary performers Crouch has known. The first, autobiographical essay reflects on his life in jazz as a drummer, a promoter, a critic, and most of all a lover of this quintessentially American art form. And the closing essay, about a young Italian saxophonist, expresses undaunted optimism for the worldwide vibrancy of jazz.Throughout, Crouch's work reminds us not only of why he is one of the world's most important living jazz critics, but also of why jazz itself remains, against all odds, an elemental component of our cultural identity.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Although Crouch, the determinedly iconoclastic and always controversial critic, has cast his net widely over the last few years--declaiming on various social issues that swirl around but are never limited to race--he began as a jazz writer, albeit one who was never shy about combining musical analysis with cultural criticism. This collection brings together a healthy sampling of his jazz writings dating from 1977 to the present. A long and spirited prologue, "Jazz Me Blues," lays out Crouch's jazz aesthetic, but he really shows his stuff in the essays on particular musicians, combining trenchant analysis of the artist with fascinating biographical material and feeling free to speculate at will about the psychology and inner lives of such jazz greats as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. Nearly every essay has a pocketful of rare nuggets like this snippet on Ben Webster: "Webster was a big man known to turn out bars and appear drunk at European airports with wilting bouquets, weeping, as Betty Carter recalled, because he had just missed doing it right once again." Essential reading for jazz fans. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Stanley Crouch is an intriguing case. He is often described as a maverick and a conservative, but as this excellent collection of essays on jazz illustrates, there's more to him than that." The Guardian "Crouch writes passionately and often provocatively, to the extent that even when you think he's showing off, you end up feeling he has a good point." Jazz Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (June 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465015174
• ISBN-13: 978-0465015177
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,451,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight Shooting, July 1, 2006

By 

B. Feeney - See all my reviews

This review is from: Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz (Hardcover)

I come to Mr. Crouch's book not from the rarified precincts of jazz criticism but as a fan of his regular contributions to the New York Daily News. There, his pragmatic, humorous and always challenging responses and constructive criticisms to the world situation have always made him a "must read" upon receipt of the paper. He call 'em as he sees 'em without the ideological smokescreen that makes so much of the editorial page repugnant. So when I discovered that he is frequently regarded as "controversial" in the jazz press I was puzzled. It would seem to me that an intellectual provacateur of his magnitude would be welcomed. And upon reading this eminently enjoyable and at the same time profound series of meditations on the state of jazz in the world, I can only say that the same generosity of spirit that informs his Op-Ed pieces is manifest in his placing of the music and the people who make it in a context that centers them in our American Experience. This book really does straddle many of the idealogical hurdles that have been placed in our way, and that still keep the majority of Americans from truly embracing what it is that jazz, in Mr. Crouch's eloquent purview, truly represents. In his prose and in his ideas, Mr. Crouch is a true American original. I have already ordered several copies for friends who were wondering what they would read this summer. The search is over.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Jazz Pugilist, September 2, 2008

By 

Valjean (Orcas Island, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz (Paperback)

Having not read much of Mr. Crouch's work besides liner notes to some of my favorite CDs I admit I picked up `Considering Genius' with the hope of reading what amounted to an extended version of the same: a detailed explanation and celebration of the music, in this case extended to all of jazz rather than a single artist. I wasn't disappointed -- but I also got a little more of Mr. Crouch than I really wanted. Simple put, I found him difficult to read -- at least in extended essay form -- but more often than not worth the effort.

But even with the paragraph-long sentences and occasional jargon, what a refreshing blast! When reporting on, say, Miles Davis' 1961 Carnegie Hall concert -- a masterpiece of behind-the-scenes journalism -- Crouch takes no prisoners, hailing the masters, mocking the posers and drawing out the enigmatic Davis in all his glory and contradictions. (For good measure he later eviscerates Davis for his drift to fusion and rock.) This piece alone is worth the price of the book. Many others are nearly as worthy and my refreshment in general comes from Mr. Crouch speaking as a black man (he prefers the old-school "Negro") in the spirit of an Ellington (rather than, say, a Sharpton): not sugar-coating racial issues, but challenging adversity with brains and style rather than victimization and whining. A brilliant slam of Clint Eastwood's film `Bird' reflects this perspective, showing how the director evinced no interest in Charlie Parker's vast imagination and intelligence and preferred to portray the alto saxophone genius as a tragic, grinning addict.

Still, after three hundred odd pages with similar adversaries the author's bromides start to wear a little thin. Every musician who doesn't fit his jazz mold is a "slave to minstrelsy" (even Davis, after a turn -- though his characterizations of Lionel Richie as "a horse-faced Negro ... [who] pulls down millions for songs that contain so little character" and Michael Jackson as "rail-tailed" are pretty hilarious). A healthy selection of white jazz icons - from Chet Baker to Stan Getz - are strawmen for being "played into the ground" by their black counterparts. While Crouch pulls no punches about where he stands, he often doesn't seem to have done much homework on the objects of his sneers. To be fair, he admits he's "not interested" in many other types of music (and musicians); but this is hardly an excuse for such superficial dismissals.

Still, for all the highs and lows, this is jazz criticism pulverized into about the finest grain one can imagine. *Any* musician or other artist who attracts the author's attention on the subject is deconstructed here to the point where it's almost redundant to hear or read their work. For example, I was only vaguely aware of Albert Murray's `Stomping the Blues' (referred to in Ralph Ellison's jazz writings, which are also excellent) but I now know enough about it to almost not have to bother. I'm afraid a similar sense of overkill pervades much of this collection; Crouch's enthusiasm for his icons is admirable but occasionally suffocating. I'd like to think I love jazz as much as he does and after the liner notes experience was hopeful that maybe we loved it in a similar way. After reading `Considering Genius' I'm convinced we don't; but I respect his opinion and usually enjoy the way he gives it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Leaning Toward the Elite, June 11, 2007

By 

W. Bradley (Louisville, KY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz (Paperback)

Although I am aware of Mr. Crouch writings through the years certain things he says troubles me. I thought long and hard about commenting on this book due to Mr. Crouch's stature as a knowledgeable writer and me being no one important. Nevertheless I feel compelled to make this observation. I found much of what Mr. Crouch had to say in this book very informative. Where he lost me time and time again was in his insistence on puting contemporary jazz down. This especially got to me when he started talking about Wynton Marsalis. This guy rubs me the wrong way. He is a fabulous musician, a good composer (not great)and a good educator. What bugs me the most about both Marsalis and Crouch is their continuous references to other forms of Black music, i.e. contemporary jazz and the musicians who perform this music as "modern day minstrels". I find this very distasteful, illogical and disrespectful. As it appears to me, jazz is dead unless you consider contemporary jazz. There's no one out there showing any other way forward so guys like Wynton just go recreating music based on past styles, past instrumentation, past scores and past attitudes. Let me say that I love jazz of the past. I love learning about my jazz heroes like Miles, Monk, Trane, Horace Silver and scores of others. I appreciate everything Ellington did but my personal taste in jazz pretty much begins with the beboppers. I also love the fusion era and I like much of what is termed "smooth jazz". Now, is contemporary jazz on the same level as what we've heard in the past? In most cases no. However, it doesn't matter if no one is listening. When I say no one I am primarily speaking of Black people. In case you haven't noticed Stanley and Wynton, Black people have moved on musically. If we have learned anything about Black musical history it is that we don't stay in the same place. The music moves forward and that is true in jazz, blues, gospel, R & B, etc. etc. Do I wish that more people today were familiar with Monk, Mingus, Bird? You bet but it's not going to happen. The times are different and there is a different groove in the air. Neither Stanley or Marsalis seem to have any appreciation for funk which just blows me away. Instead, they choose to lump all other entertainment oriented music as "minstrel music". That attitude needs to be checked. Yes Wynton, you can play extremely well and Stanley you can write extremely well but keep this in mind: neither of you have much of a black audience. You have been left behind and basically deemed as irrelevant to today's black music enthusiasts.