young pre

2006 Sage Hit 10 Vince Young Texas (Pre - Rookie - Football Cards) [Misc.]
$1.00

Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester "Pres" Young
$24.00
In a refreshing approach that I think might be unprecedented, Daniels treats Lester Young's story in the context of Black Studies.

Daniels is not a musician, and his book, while very good, could only have been improved by editorial oversight by a musician or (this would have been best) musician/scholars like Lewis Porter or Loren Schoenberg. In addition to noting some mild technical inaccuracies, I'm unimpressed by Daniels's emphasis on the Black Church and religion in general. I just don't hear this in Young's music.

Quibbles aside, Daniels's book is based on twenty years of unique interviews he did with Young's relations and fellow musicians. He thinks that Young's community has had its ups and downs with the world of white jazz criticism, and in this Daniels can only be right. Daniels supplies amazing information about how the white-run publications DownBeat and Metronome ripped Young to shreds for the last fifteen years of his life while Young was revered as a cultural hero in contemporary black press like the Chicago Defender and the New York Amsterdam News. (Around the same time George T. Simon -- Glenn Miller's drummer and biographer -- reviewed a Young performance in Melody Maker saying that Lester Young couldn't play on the changes of the simple standard "A Foggy Day," Ebony published an pictorial on Young called, "How to Make a Porkpie Hat.") Even today, when I talk to older black musicians, they give Young an iconic, heroic status that is as related to what he represented as to what he played. Young is the perfect subject for a Black Studies approach.

At any rate, the entry of black writers into jazz should be celebrated, whether they are musicians or not. They are a much-needed voice in the choir. I'm appalled at the defamatory one and two star reviews on here on Amazon. (They have prompted this, my first Amazon review.) Daniels is certainly not "militant" or "neo-conservative." He's not racist, either, being appropriately careful to document Young's lifelong love of Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, and Jimmy Dorsey. (A love that has been the sorest sticking point to black-centric musicians and critics in jazz history!) Daniels talks to white sidemen like Barney Kessel too.

The story of Young's upbringing and family is told nowhere else in such detail than in Lester Leaps In. I don't think a white jazz critic would have downplayed this information if they could have gotten it, but that's the point: only Daniels could have gotten it. This is the most recent major book on Lester Young, and future writers will be indebted to Daniels for sharing some of this inside material.

Pre-Code Hollywood - The Risque Years (Of Human Bondage / Millie / Kept Husbands)
$19.95
"Thank God for simple pleasures; a good appetite, roast beef, and beer." that's the moral of "Of Human Bondage." Too bad one has to whether 100+ minutes of one woman playing one man for a fool before the lesson is acknowledged. The Mildred character couldn't be more manipulative herein. Kudos to Bette Davis for the portrayal and Somerset Maugham for writing the book upon which this film is based. It's almost a truism that no film can best its novelistic heritage. One shouldn't be surprised by this. To squeze 300-400 pages of character development into 80-100 minutes of film is almost a task beyond the possible ("The Remains of the Day" comes to mind as both an exceptional book and film; and "Frankenstein" was a fabulous film, but only because it left out half the book).

Somerset Maugham's book "Of Human Bondage" is a ultimately positive parable of how a lack of self-worth sets one up for putting up with too much nonsense. "You're free," one tells Phillip. "Yes," he responds, "but suddenly, suddenly there is nowhere to go. I had to be free to realize that. I had to be free to understand that all those years that I dreamed of escape was because I was limping through life." But even then the character played ably by Leslie Howard betrays the notion that at the end he's not for embracing life's simple pleasures---that which makes life really enjoyable, but for settling for peace and tranquility---not one and the same thing. "I'll see the film because I'll never read the book" may seem logical, but is one that oughtn't be indulged in, I'd posit. If such is your predilection I'd say ignore the book as well as the film. Or see the film if such is your inclination, but certainly don't go out of your way to see it; and if you buy this 3 film set keep in mind that you won't wind up watching "Of Human Bondage" more than once.

Of the collection "Millie" works best as a film. Its story is told from the opposite viewpoint from"Of Human Bondage," by which I mean from the viewpoint of the woman who is endlessly courted by men. Where we see things through the eyes of the sap as played by Leslie Howard in "Of Human Bondage" as Bette Davis manipulates his feelings for her, in "Millie" we have a woman who plays independence in a different manner; not taking anything for anyone...until she winds up losing almost everything. "Millie" is a film that can be re-viewed, but that's not to say it is great cinema.

Then finally we have "Kept Husbands;" the plodding simple story of a rich man's daughter who decides she is going to lasso Joel McCrea's character within a month of meeting him. Soon he becomes a vice-president of 'daddy's' company and a "yes, dear" man to his pampered wife...until he declares that he just can't take it anymore and walks out. Then the wife tries to track him down at his mother's house. "Can you blame him? Who'd stand for being called a---" the spoiled wife bemoans to her mother-in-law . To which the mother-in-law responds: "All husbands are kept. Some of them are kept with money, but most of them with love, devotion, and sacrifice. Why, it's every woman's mission in life, keeping her husband." And having tried keeping him with money ultimately decides it's worth another attempt trying with love. Cheers

Pres & Teddy
$5.00
Ive had this album for probably 25 years,but I could't resist a good value. This disc is a wonderful session of Pres and Teddy,witha great rhythm section(Gene Ramey and Jo Jones). Pres blows beautifully on this recording, even thought he does sound tired at times. Teddy Wilson backed up Pres on the 1930's sessions with Lady Day;these two go hand in glove. Do youself a favor and pick up one of the very best jazz albums from this or any other era.