Crouch on Hicks

A nice tribute, though I do wish Crouch would resist the temptation to insert his boilerplate rant about "the dehumanizing vulgarity of hip-hop" in every single obituary he writes.

Comments

[mwanji]

1.

It's particularly incongruous comment, too, as it's not as if anyone born in 1941 is really involved in hip hop...

[godoggo]

2.

Baba Oje! Ha! Heck, I'm old hate hip hop, and even I was able to google knew that!

[godoggo]

3.

Which brung on yet more googling, to wit: the phrase: "hip hop that doesn't suck" gets "about" 169 hits. Must have a look.

[visionsong]

4.

It's not just obits- it's everything he writes about music. I remember he used to do this every chance he got when he still wrote for the Times a little.

Did anyone else know that at one point in the '70 he was a drummer peripherally involved in the loft scene? He's on one recording I've heard. Nothing to write home about. (Thanks to Allan Chase)

[Squashed]

5.

Maybe he is not a real writer. You now, a bit like surrealist rant machine. (goggle it, there are some nice automatic surrealist poem autoscript. There is even a narrative maker. Some are pretty hilarious.)

[andrea]

6.

so if crouch doesn't like hip-hop, shouldn't sasha frere-jones be calling him a rockist cracker?

[DJA]

7.

Crouch is like a rockist, but for jazz.

[Marc Geelhoed]

8.

"[I]mmeasurably important"? Can you say "meaningless overstatement"?

[godoggo]

9.

I posted this quote at blogcrtics once; now I'll post it here. From this James Newton Discography: "From 1973 to 1976, he played in a group that included jazz greats Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Bobby Bradford, and Stanley Crouch. Crouch introduced young Newton to the entire history of jazz, from early Jelly Roll Morton to contemporary Miles Davis. Crouch also introduced him to folk and classical music from around the world, including African Pygmy, Japanese shakuhachi, and Balinese gamelan music. "

Getting back to my hip hop googling, the key phrase seems to be "creative hip hop." This brought up a slew of amazon listmanias, and most of the samples I sampled actually sounded good to me! Unfortunately there are no samples for the cd with the following blurb: " Weather by Busdriver & Radioinactive With Daedelus $15.98   Used & New from: $8.97 against the grain.....topical and then some....an album for those intent on expanding their tastes.....the Coltrane's "Interstellar Space" of Hip Hop...and check the duo's expedient flow!" Anybody heard this?

LA DJ and man about town LeRoy Downs' blog the jazzcat links to a nice video about Hicks on Joe Lovano's site.

[godoggo]

10.

www.thejazzcat.net/

[godoggo]

11.

OK. can't resist one more, sorry, meant "Newton biography"; unfortunately, nay, criminally, the only up-to-date discography you'll find for him is on his web site. Great, great composer in addition to a hell of a flautist or however it's spelled.

[mwanji]

12.

"Did anyone else know that at one point in the '70 he was a drummer peripherally involved in the loft scene?"

I recently got the 3-CD "Wildflowers" reissue, which was recorded in 1976 during a festival at the Rivbea Studio. He's on some of the tracks.