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A review by duffypratt
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch
3.0
The subtitle of this book is accurate, so I guess it is shame on me to expect a full blown biography of Parker. It's not. It's not even really a biography of Parker's rise, although that story is strongly in the mix. Instead, its composed of a scattershot history of jazz and the Kansas City scene, drawing on just about anything that Crouch thinks might be relevant. A lot of this stuff is fascinating on its own, especially things like the glimpse of Lester Young and Count Basie, and even more so with the more extended treatment of lesser known sax player Buster Smith.
Another large part of it is Crouch's imaginings of how things "must have been" or "must have felt like" to Parker. This may even be intelligent extrapolation from things Crouch actually knows. But a good portion of the time it sounds like Crouch is simply making stuff up. That makes me think that there is a very large part of Parker's early days that is basically completely unknown. For example, it appears we don't know how or why he first started using hard drugs, what drugs they were, or who supplied them. Crouch makes some guesses and is upfront about it. In other areas, however, Crouch will delve directly into how Parker "must have felt" about something, and it sounds like bullshit to me.
A decent portion of the book is describing music, and for the most part, Crouch does very well. Then, when he gets into something technical, I have to wonder whether he has no idea what he is talking about, or whether he has deliberately dumbed things down for his readers. So this is a mixed bag, but for the most part I enjoy anyone intelligent and passionate who is talking about music I love.
And then there is more than a heaping helping of race talk. This seems to bear more on the scene itself than it does on Parker. And I understand why its here. But it seems strange to me that he dwells so long on Birth of a Nation and Gone With The Wind, when neither have much, if anything, to do with Parker. He also gives lip service to players paying attention to anyone who could play, regardless of race, and yet I'm left with the impression overall that he deeply feels that Jazz is a black man's field, and whites have no business having anything to do with it.
The rumor is that this is only the first part of a longer biography. If so, I will likely read the next part, but do so with different expectations.
Another large part of it is Crouch's imaginings of how things "must have been" or "must have felt like" to Parker. This may even be intelligent extrapolation from things Crouch actually knows. But a good portion of the time it sounds like Crouch is simply making stuff up. That makes me think that there is a very large part of Parker's early days that is basically completely unknown. For example, it appears we don't know how or why he first started using hard drugs, what drugs they were, or who supplied them. Crouch makes some guesses and is upfront about it. In other areas, however, Crouch will delve directly into how Parker "must have felt" about something, and it sounds like bullshit to me.
A decent portion of the book is describing music, and for the most part, Crouch does very well. Then, when he gets into something technical, I have to wonder whether he has no idea what he is talking about, or whether he has deliberately dumbed things down for his readers. So this is a mixed bag, but for the most part I enjoy anyone intelligent and passionate who is talking about music I love.
And then there is more than a heaping helping of race talk. This seems to bear more on the scene itself than it does on Parker. And I understand why its here. But it seems strange to me that he dwells so long on Birth of a Nation and Gone With The Wind, when neither have much, if anything, to do with Parker. He also gives lip service to players paying attention to anyone who could play, regardless of race, and yet I'm left with the impression overall that he deeply feels that Jazz is a black man's field, and whites have no business having anything to do with it.
The rumor is that this is only the first part of a longer biography. If so, I will likely read the next part, but do so with different expectations.