Writing About Jazz

A couple of years ago I was at a record date that featured a saxophonist. At one point, as he was doing a take of a blues, his girl friend walked into the control room and waved a hello to him.

If we assume that it permissible to talk or write about jazz, how should one do so? In other words, should criticism be couched in lyrical, poetical, technical, dogmatic, or philosophical terms?

The first specialized jazz critics felt that their task was to judge and classify.

The following passage was written earlier in the year. It is the review of a record by the Bud Shank Quartet, called Bag of Blues. “Here is the present reigning king of alto sax jazz with a trio support knocking out the greatest beat you’ll hear in many an L.P.

A musician is supposed to have said recently that the criticism of jazz is a kind of joke and that there are no jazz critics. Without agreeing with him entirely, I am very sympathetic to his statement. But I say this to indicate that to me the words critic and criticism are rather special ones.