Download - Downbeat

Chords
Discords
Abbey Lincoln Remembered
I am a D-Day veteran of the Fourth Infantry
Division. Before I went into the U.S. Army
at the age of 18, I was a huge jazz fan, and
Billie Holiday was my favorite vocalist. I
had spent many years attempting to find a
vocalist who stirred my emotional response
the way Billie had. I eventually found Abbey
Lincoln. I will not attempt to further embellish
your article because it reflects almost
completely my feelings about Abbey and
her singing (“Hall of Fame,” August).
I remember [having a conversation
with] her at the legendary Lennie’s
On The Turnpike in Peabody, Mass.
My late brother-in-law, Richard Roud,
was the program director of the first 25 New
York Film Festivals. At one of the festivals that
my wife and I attended, Catherine Deneuve
(who was considered by most to be among
the world’s most beautiful women) was a
guest. After the film, we all left for a club
close to Lincoln Center, and we were sitting
at a table near Deneuve. I can tell you this:
When it came to beauty, Abbey Lincoln gave
Catherine Deneuve great competition.
The last time I was with Abbey was at
Scullers in Boston. She was sitting at a table
next to me, talking to some patrons before
she was due to go on. Again I was drawn
into the conversation, and perhaps because
I was a few years older than she, she spoke
to me about political and social issues (topics
about which we shared similar feelings).
It is extremely gratifying that Lincoln
was voted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame
so shortly after her death. Thanks to the
critics, and thanks to John Ephland for
his insightful and wonderful tribute.
Irving Smolens
Melrose, Mass.
His History Outdated
In July’s Chords & Discords, Darryl Lynn of
Richmond, Va., wrote, “In today’s [educational]
programs, there is little or no discussion on the
origins of jazz and its relation to a segregated
America.” And he slams “the mostly white jazz
programs of today.” Does he mean programs
taught mostly by whites, or studied more by
whites, or maybe studies of “white jazz”
For someone based in Richmond, where
has he been Certainly not in VCU Jazz’s
classrooms. My own class begins with
weeks spent on West and Southern African
mbira, drum, and vocal recordings to
emphasize where so much of jazz rhythm
and inflection comes from, and then moves
to the spirituals and gospel songs of oppression,
hope, and freedom to reveal the
racial-history reasons why blues and the
beats existed before ragtime, Armstrong or
swing. And it hits the links between the Civil
Rights Movement of the 1960s and the jazz
of the time. To know the music, you have
to know the culture, which means knowing
the lives of the people of the time.
This individual has written DownBeat
before with other sweeping general statements.
It is unfortunate that DB offers
credence to this stereotyping of education.
Antonio Garcia, Director, Virginia
Commonwealth University Jazz Studies
Richmond, Va.
Editor’s note: DownBeat does not condone
stereotyping. Chords & Discords is a forum
for our readers to express their views.
Down With The System
Like many of your readers, the first section of
your magazine that I check every month is Reviews.
Over the past few years, I’ve watched
as the star system for CD reviews keeps
increasing, and the criticism keeps decreasing.
Because of this, I was quite surprised to read
the reviews for the debut James Farm effort in
your July issue. It’s my favorite set of new jazz
that I’ve heard in quite awhile. However, the
reviews made it a sound as if the musicians
were simply amusing themselves for the sake
of amusing themselves. I found it strange that
this was the CD that experienced real criticism,
and not the [numerous] average recordings
that receive 4-star reviews each month.
Rob Karp
Little Falls, N.J.
Correction
• On page 53 of the August issue, Philip
Booth should have been listed as one of the
voting critics (“59th Annual Critics Poll”).
downbeat regrets the error.
have a chord or discord
E-mail us at editor@downbeat.com
or visit us on Facebook and twitter
DownBeat
Hall of Fame
artist Abbey
Lincoln
john sann
10 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2011