Correspondence
Correspondence PAYING THE ELECTRIC BILL William Tucker's article "From the Golden State to the Blackout State" provides a splendid overview of the energy pricing crisis here in the state of...
...DREYFUS New York, NY...
...While it's hard to knock any program that has a chance of introducing Americans (particularly young Americans) to a pantheon of great American music and musicians, i, too, have been disappointed at the racial overkill in the series...
...I was born in 1925 and went to Yale in 1942...
...I stopped surfing and watched the documentary to its end...
...After decades of public and political myopia, the bill for environmentalism is finally coming due...
...I also took in a few of Benny Goodman's performances at the Hotel New Yorker and stopped occasionally at the bars on 52nd Street which featured, among other artists, Art Tatum...
...i wasn't pouring my soul into anything or telling my life's story, i was just playing jazz...
...This would attract the best workers to the most worker-friendly businesses and the least friendly would fall by the wayside...
...At the end of the article Tucker writes apparently facetiously when he states: "Eventually, the solution to California's energy problems may involve lining the Nevada border with coal plants and pumping electricity to Los Angeles and San Francisco by underground transmission lines...
...This doesn't denigrate the talents of Duke Ellington, Armstrong, Goodman, or Billie Holiday...
...But come on, let's not forget Ella Fitzgerald singing something better than "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Woody Herman, the Dorseys, Artie shaw, Charlie Barnet, Jack Teagarden, the Candolis, Charlie Christian, Buddy De Franco, etc...
...The elite "leisure class" inflicts this bill on everyone else to preserve its ocean views, smog-free days, non-toxic neighborhoods, and bucolic communities...
...The beauty he gave us is timeless...
...Louis really was one of the greatest artists who ever lived...
...I am, however, disappointed that West does not see Louis Armstrong as the demi-god Burns portrays...
...ED WELLS Eau Claire, WI I WAS QUITE PLEASED to read Diana West's review of Ken Burns's Jazz...
...But one small point requires a bit of clarification...
...i (and everyone else playing) just listened, imitated, tried out new licks, practiced, and played...
...I agree with West's opinion about Burns's apotheosis of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington...
...The key thing to remember is that this documentary was put together by people who are basically social critics and writers, but not musicians...
...I would love to see this done to Hollywood filmmakers...
...Perhaps the problem is that the subject matter is too vast to be encapsulated or boiled down to the "top ten...
...BILL HASSAN Holyoke, MA THANK YOU for Diana West's dead-on criticism of Ken Burns...
...I don't mean government interference...
...Here in "La-La Land" politicians may take Tucker's future scenario as a possible solution to the energy problem...
...I became aware of swing and jazz playing when i was about 10 years old...
...When they gave $7 million to President Clinton, was it from the money that should have been shared with workers, namely the key grips, dolly grips, property masters, and makeup artists...
...Burns skews culture and history to advance a political agenda on race, while West's knowledge of and affection for jazz is obvious...
...MARION D.S...
...i agree that, even given the need to pick and choose for a project of limited space, Burns and company made some weird choices about whom to portray...
...I was more than a little turned off by the narrative in Jazz...
...Despite all of Burns's fawning over the genius of jazz players, I recall a comment attributed, ironically, to Louis Armstrong, who once supposedly said, "When it comes to playing jazz, either you got it or you ain't...
...His viewpoints are to jazz music what oprah's recommendations are to books—superficial, sappy, politically correct drivel that detracts from something worthwhile...
...ANTHONY BIALY Kenmore, NY SHARE THE WEALTH DINESH D'SOUZA'S ANALYSIS in "The Return of Inequality" is nothing less than brilliant, but he overlooks one point (Jan...
...our various efforts led to better styles and sounds...
...i have suffered through three episodes of the program, and i will probably not watch any more...
...Then he might have been able to shed some light on the history and origins of equally worthy musical forms—such as rock 'n' roll, country music, popular standards, musical theater, and so on...
...Burying smaller distribution lines around residential neighborhoods is done all the time, however...
...in the form not of lost jobs as many predicted, but of threefold higher energy prices...
...His data provide ample support to the trickle down theory, a la Reagan and Kemp...
...1/Jan...
...Also, i can say categorically as someone who has been playing jazz for over 60 years that Burns's intellectualization of the jazzman and the choruses he (or she) plays is pure baloney...
...If only the object of his desiccation and microscopy, the craven outgoing Prime Minister Barak, would read Rose's essay and pull back from his folly before the state of Israel goes up in smoke...
...Rather, non-profit agencies could be empowered to collect data and classify and compare competitors within each industry...
...I visited Greenwich Village several times, seeing Miff Mole, Muggsy Spanier, Eddie Condon, et al...
...Wynton Marsalis is the obvious exception, of course, but his musicianship and playing ability greatly exceed his experience as an unbiased and researched historian...
...i thought to myself, "I can do that...
...By the time Dizzy Gillespie and Charley Parker came along in the early forties, most musicians considered Armstrong to be kind of corny...
...Burns may argue that his role is not to provide the definitive history of jazz music, but the fact remains that for millions of people, Jazz will be seen as exactly that...
...Politicians sell aesthetics as a public good for consumption to enhance the amenity value of properties and communities...
...While both of these men made enormous contributions to the musical vernacular of the country, their efforts weren't exactly god-like...
...DAVID E. CONNOR Peoria, IL DIANA WEST IS ON TARGET in her view of Ken Burns and jazz...
...Each of these, while encompassing myriad influences both foreign and homegrown, is as uniquely American (and "artistic") as jazz...
...He was a Shakespeare, a Mozart, a Monet...
...Correspondence PAYING THE ELECTRIC BILL William Tucker's article "From the Golden State to the Blackout State" provides a splendid overview of the energy pricing crisis here in the state of California (Jan...
...A further trickle down could result from a Republican-supported pursuit of profit sharing (a la Goldwater and Reagan) as a more desirable alternative to minimum wage policy...
...I wasn't offended by Burns's documentary, but since I lived through the time period in question and am still quite taken by the jazz idiom of that time, I'm glad to see my disappointment echoed by West...
...Just so the governing elites do not take Tucker's future vision literally, power engineers indicate that burying electrical transmission cable underground is limited to lengths of about 1,000 feet, and is very costly...
...It's a pleasure to read such insightful, clear analysis...
...The other night I was surfing through TV channels when I came across Louis Armstrong and band playing "stomping at the Savoy...
...VENKAT R. CHALLA Winston-Salem, NC UNDERSTANDING EHUD TOM ROSE's piece on why Ehud Barak has single-handedly undermined the achievements of the past 50 years is exacting, lucid, careful, and correct ("War Through Weakness," Jan...
...But of course, it would have been much more difficult in that kind of program to put such a heavy emphasis on race...
...and I just started doing it...
...This is the kind of jazz I loved in my late teens and early twenties...
...RUSSELL EVANSEN Madison, WI KUDOS TO DIANA WEST for her incisive critique of Ken Burns's politically correct but otherwise not too well thought out documentary on jazz...
...i'm surprised that Marsalis, such an excellent jazz player, would agree with this foolishness...
...As in any public policy, the question that should be posed is, Who benefits and who pays...
...it's too bad Burns didn't decide to do a series on American music overall...
...WAYNE LUSVARDI Pasadena, CA THE JAZZMEN TESTIFY DIANA WEST'S appraisal of Ken Burns's Jazz is one of the few truly lucid pieces on the documentary i've read so far ("All That Jazz," Jan...
...Also, the cable may have to be constantly bathed in a fluid to prevent energy dissipation...
Vol. 6 • February 2001 • No. 20
