Z:
Mezzrow wasn't much of a musician if at all, mostly a drug connection. Read his book very skeptically. This from All Music Guide:
"...While Norman Mailer probably didn't have M.M. in mind when he wrote his famous essay "The White Negro" (referring to white people who so identified with black culture they considered themselves black), Mezzrow was filling that bill for many years before Mailer wrote the essay. Either the ultimate hipster or a complete fraud, depending on yur perspective, M.M. rivaled Eddie Condon as a jazz advocate, personality, insider, and confidant, and was also one of the all-time greatest drug connections. All these things can't completely compensate for the fact that he was marginally talented; his clarinet solos were often hideous and, at best, were barely listenable. Probably no one realized this more than he did; therefore, he worked intensely on behalf of genuinely gifted musicians, and organized many vital sessions, including a number that were integrated...(the book purports) to tell the real jazz story, but was fleshed out with embellished yarns and outright myths."
Some good books about jazz musicians, if you're interested -
Straight Life - Art Pepper; Beneath the Underdog - Mingus; Celebrating Bird - Gary Giddins
Da Capo Press is a specialty house that publishes numerous books on blues, jazz and early r&b.
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/perseus-cgi-bin/searchShabbat shalom back at you.
HTH
Author
Topic: OFF to Harry The Hipster (Read 1093 times)