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quintusmarcus's review
4.0
I believe these letters were originally intended for publication, so there is an element of self-conscious grandstanding in many of them. Still fun, though, to see their semi-casual back-and-forth about current writers and musicians. What shocked me is the complete disdain they have for the younger voices in jazz like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. Neither of them has anything good to say about these two, while they completely revere Duke Ellington. Two telling excerpts:
"I cannot understand for the life of me what these guys are finding so revolutionary in Gil Evans-Miles Davis' Miles Ahead and Porgy & Bess. It's nice and pleasant but other than that all I hear is a bunch of studio musicians playing decadent exercises in orchestration based on Ellington's old pastel period. It is incredible to me that anybody seriously interested in jazz would rave about Miles Ahead and pan or pass up Such Sweet Thunder."
Albert Murray to Ralph Ellison, March 22, 1959
"Old Duke is having a good year. The Jazz Party record has some very fine spots. The Anatomy of Murder record from the film soundtrack stands up even better as an LP than it does in the picture & a collection of cocktail lounge pieces, At the Bal Masque, come off very pleasantly indeed." ..."Old Duke is still reaching back, man; and he hits, the continuity is always there, the newness, individuality, and the relevance."
Albert Murray to Ralph Ellison, August 17, 1959
I was thrilled to see their comments on a couple Duke Ellington recordings I hadn't heard of before, At the Bal Masque and Duke's Mixture, which Ellison commented on in an earlier letter. And I loved the comment on the Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack--totally agree with Murray's judgement on that one. Now I really have to go and read the new Library of America collection of Albert Murray's writings.
"I cannot understand for the life of me what these guys are finding so revolutionary in Gil Evans-Miles Davis' Miles Ahead and Porgy & Bess. It's nice and pleasant but other than that all I hear is a bunch of studio musicians playing decadent exercises in orchestration based on Ellington's old pastel period. It is incredible to me that anybody seriously interested in jazz would rave about Miles Ahead and pan or pass up Such Sweet Thunder."
Albert Murray to Ralph Ellison, March 22, 1959
"Old Duke is having a good year. The Jazz Party record has some very fine spots. The Anatomy of Murder record from the film soundtrack stands up even better as an LP than it does in the picture & a collection of cocktail lounge pieces, At the Bal Masque, come off very pleasantly indeed." ..."Old Duke is still reaching back, man; and he hits, the continuity is always there, the newness, individuality, and the relevance."
Albert Murray to Ralph Ellison, August 17, 1959
I was thrilled to see their comments on a couple Duke Ellington recordings I hadn't heard of before, At the Bal Masque and Duke's Mixture, which Ellison commented on in an earlier letter. And I loved the comment on the Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack--totally agree with Murray's judgement on that one. Now I really have to go and read the new Library of America collection of Albert Murray's writings.
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