Stanley Crouch
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Stanley Crouch (born December 14, 1945, Los Angeles) is an American music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, and novelist perhaps best known for his jazz criticism and his novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome?
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[edit] Biography
During the early 1970s, Crouch moved from California to New York City, where he shared a loft with tenor saxophonist David Murray above an East Village club called the Tin Palace. While working as a drummer, Crouch conducted the booking for an avant-garde jazz series at the club, as well as organizing occasional concert events at the Ladies' Fort.
Since the early 1980s, Crouch has become critical of the more progressive forms of jazz and has been associated with the neo-conservative opinions of Albert Murray. An ardent proselytizer for the music of Wynton Marsalis, Crouch writes the liner notes for all the trumpeter's albums. Crouch was dismissed from JazzTimes following his controversial article "Putting the White Man in Charge", in which he asserted that white critics elevate white jazz musicians beyond their abilities.
Crouch appeared in Ken Burns' 2001 documentary Jazz and served on the film's advisory board.[1][2]
[edit] Controversy
Crouch has reacted offensively to critics and detractors. At the First Annual Jazz Awards, Crouch was invited to present an award. While reading the nominees, he made disparaging comments about two of them: trumpeter Dave Douglas and pianist Matthew Shipp. After the show, jazz critic Howard Mandel, who was chiefly responsible for creating and organizing the Jazz Awards, confronted Crouch about his earlier comments. After a short argument, Crouch punched Mandel and then was confronted by Shipp, who called Crouch "an Uncle Tom and a fucking loser". However, the two were quickly separated and a brawl was avoided. [3]
In 2004, Crouch approached critic Dale Peck, who had written an unfavorable review of Crouch's first novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome. In a Greenwich Village restaurant, Crouch slapped Peck in the face and warned him, "Don’t you ever do that again. If you do you’ll get much worse." Crouch has also punched jazz writer Russ Musto and Village Voice letters editor Ron Plotkin. Crouch's putting his fellow Voice critic Harry Allen in a choke hold, led to his dismissal from the magazine.
[edit] Opinions
Crouch is a fierce critic of gangsta rap music, claiming it promotes violence, criminal lifestyles and degrading attitudes toward women. With this viewpoint, he has defended Bill Cosby's remarks (see the "Pound Cake Speech") and praised a women's group at Spelman College for speaking out against those rap music. Recently several of his syndicated columns have been dedicated to these subjects.
Crouch was invited to a panel of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award, a $25,000 award designed to protect speech as it applies to the written word.
His syndicated column for the New York Daily News frequently challenges prominent members of the African American community. Crouch has criticised, among others, author Alex Haley, the author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots: The Saga of an American Family; community leader Al Sharpton; filmmaker Spike Lee, scholar Cornel West, playwright Amiri Baraka and Tupac Shakur, whom he called "scum."[citation needed] Crouch's controversial work has won him critical acclaim from some quarters.
In 2005, he was selected as one of the inaugural fellows by the Fletcher Foundation, which awards annual fellowships to people working on issues of race and civil rights. The fellowship program is directed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard University.
[edit] References
- ^ Stanley Crouch at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Jazz (HTML) (English). PBS.org. Public Broadcasting System. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
- ^ All About Jazz - The Definitive Resource for Jazz Music
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Non-fiction
| Title |
| Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz |
| The Artificial White Man: Essays on Authenticity |
| Kansas City Lightning: The Life and Times of Young Charlie Parker |
| The All-American Skin Game, or, The Decoy of Race: The Long and the Short of It, 1990-1994 |
| Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979-1989 |
| Reconsidering the Souls of Black Folk with Playthell G. Benjamin |
| Always in Pursuit: Fresh American Perspectives |
| In Defence of Taboos |
[edit] Fiction
| Title |
| Don't the Moon Look Lonesome? |
| Ain't No Ambulances For No Nigguhs Tonight |
[edit] External links
- Brief biography
- Interview with Crouch by Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus, mostly about "Considering Genius"
- “The Bull in the Black-Intelligentsia China Shop” (Salon.com article; part of its "Brilliant Careers" series)
