Da Capo and Jazz

I'm trying to make it through every volume of Da Capo's Best Music Writing, which has been coming out as a yearly trade paperback since at least 2000. It's part of my new kick to actually read music criticism, since I'm, you know, a music critic. The Da Capo series are my favorite reads, because they offer some amazing writing on artists and genres I didn't know much about.

For example, Matthew Duersten's "The Moon Look Down and Laughs," originally published in Flaunt. It's about jazz singer Anita O'Day, and what a crazy, fucked up life she's had. He describes in detail her amazing performance at Newport '58, documented in Bert Stern's Jazz On A Summer's Day, which, with the magic of the internet, I was able to find and post here:



I had never heard Anita O'Day, but now I'm eager to stroll through her back catalog and see what she has to offer. She's not quite as clean and pure as Ella Fitzgerald, but isn't quite as sultry and damaged as Billie Holiday, either. (Although I still contend that once you've heard Ms. Holiday do a song, you can't ever really accept someone else doing it.)

Incidentally, another blogger had the same reaction to the article. Here.


This all coincides with me listening to a lot more jazz lately, partially because I moved into a space with a record player. I've been going to Recycled Records on Haight and finding old bargains. My favorite new acquisition is a copy of the record that John Coltrane did with vocalist Johnny Hartman. I love this album, all thirty minutes of it. I'm on a bit of a Coltrane kick, and have been listening to Giant Steps, his greatest hits, and the record he did with Duke Ellington which is also good. I just picked up a bio of him that Ben Ratliff of the New York Times wrote, but it may be over my head. Here's "The Very Thought of You," with Johnny Hartman singing. It's the perfect fall music, and makes you want to curl up in a warm bed.