Let Freedom Swing

by Reich, Howard

• ISBN13: 9780810127050
• ISBN10: 0810127059
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-30
• Publisher: Northwestern Univ Pr

Summary

Howard Reich's writings on jazz have captured the music's spirit of fearless spontaneity and soulful lyricism. Let Freedom Swing showcases the best of these writings from the last quarter century. Each section of Let Freedom Swing is a suite, focusing on people, a place, or a scene. Reich gives new life to the standards with his profiles and elegies for such giants as Gershwin, Ellington, and Sinatra, while also helping to introduce readers to the younger voices that continue to revitalize the jazz scene.

Author Biography

Howard Reich has been an award-winning Chicago Tribune arts critic and writer since 1983. He is also a correspondent for DownBeat magazine. In addition to covering jazz, blues, gospel, and world music for the Tribune, he has authored several investigative reports that have been featured on ABC's Nightline and various National Public Radio programs. He is the author of three other books: The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich: A Son's Memoir (2006); Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton (2003), written with William Gaines; and Van Cliburn (1993). He most recently wrote, produced, and narrated a documentary film about his mother's unspoken Holocaust childhood, Prisoner of Her Past. Reich graduated from Northwestern University's School of Music.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Born on the South Side: Exploring Chicago Gospel, Jazz, and Blues-Then and Now (in Three Parts)
Can Music Save the Church That Gave Birth to Gospel?	p. 5
The Drill Sergeant of DuSable	p. 19
Faded Blues	p. 32
Street Scenes: Music Bubbling Up from the Pavement
St. John the Saxist	p. 47
A Groovable Feast	p. 52
In the Home of Jazz, Swing Definitely Not the Thing	p. 57
Heavenly Choir	p. 60
Night School	p. 65
Havana's Pulse: At the Nexus of Afro-Cuban Jazz
Homegrown Virtuosos	p. 71
"I May Never Get to the Heart of Jazz"	p. 79
Link to the Past: Compay Segundo Upholds the Traditions of a More Romantic Era	p. 88
Back in the Swing: The Spotlight Is Finally Reaching an Early Master of Afro-Cuban Jazz	p. 92
Latin Evolution: The Remarkable Cachao Is the Real Mambo King	p. 97
Sound Architect: Buena Vista's Unsung Hero Brings His Band to Chicago	p. 101
Musings on Satchmo: Behind the Famous Facade (in Two Parts)
Jazz Giant's Private Views Show Anger Behind Smile	p. 107
The Thoroughly Human Side of a Jazz Virtuoso	p. 113
Crisis of Culture in New Orleans: The Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (in Four Parts)
Battered	p. 121
The Long March Back	p. 128
Treasures of Music Lovers Now Just So Much Debris	p. 134
The Struggle to Reclaim Threads of the Past	p. 139
Ellington's Legacy: Grasping an Enormous Oeuvre
Maestro's Mystique	p. 147
Fans Recover Ellington's Lost Musical	p. 154
Silent for Thirty-Five Years, Ellington's Restored Musical Celebrates Black Culture, Composer's Genius	p. 158
Lost Classics	p. 161
The Unknown Ellington	p. 165
Sinatra Songs: Listening Anew to the Voice
A Bouquet for Sinatra	p. 171
Frank Sinatra: The Virtuoso	p. 177
The Memory of All That ...	p. 182
"The Sound of Surprise": Unexpected Developments in Jazz
Let Freedom Swing	p. 191
The Measure of Jazz	p. 195
Completely Hot: Live at the Plugged Nickel	p. 200
Maturity Isn't the Right Key in Today's Jazz	p. 204
Landmark Blues Opera De Organizer Powerfully Reborn	p. 207
Lady Has Her Say	p. 211
Gershwin Reconsidered: Assessing America's Quintessential Composer, a Century Later
Bittersweet Rhapsody	p. 217
Gershwin at One Hundred	p. 223
Porgy and Bess	p. 229
Race Music: Crossing the Color Line-in Sound
"It Took Our Minds off of the Bad Things"	p. 237
Coming to America	p. 242
Anniversary Tune	p. 249
"Strange Fruit": The Song Too Painful to Sing	p. 254
Chicago Radicals: The Alluring Eccentrics of Chicago Jazz
Ragtime Blues: Reginald Robinson	p. 261
Patricia Barber Has Built Her Career Defying Conventions	p. 273
Jazzman: Kurt Elling	p. 280
Jazz Lovers Are Beating a Path to Fred Anderson and His Velvet Lounge	p. 290
Chicago Jazzman Among "Genius Grant" Winners: Ken Vandermark	p. 296
Profiles in Jazz: Major Voices Speak
Herbie's Blues	p. 305
Nobody Knows the Trouble She's Seen: Dee Dee Bridgewater	p. 318
Ornette Coleman Still Blazing a Musical Trail	p. 329
The Last Diva: Lena Horne	p. 336
Von Freeman Is Chicago Jazz History	p. 341
Panama's Vanished Music: Searching for the Missing Link of Jazz-in Panama (in Three Parts)
A Culture with a Lost Past	p. 349
"I've Got to Go Back Home"	p. 357
Falling on Deaf Ears	p. 362
Farewells: Final Parting from the Masters
Legendary Farewell: Lionel Hampton	p. 371
Sounding the Trumpet: Miles Davis	p. 375
An Underrated Legend: Ella Fitzgerald	p. 379
A Free-Form Life: Sun Ra	p. 382
Favors's Spirit Will Live On Through Music	p. 385
Spirit of Dorsey's Songs Fills His "Home-Going"	p. 388
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