Many Rifftides readers check in regularly with Terry Teachout’s indispensable artsjournal.com blog About Last Night. You may also read him in The Wall Street Journal, where Terry’s Sightings column over the weekend concerned the economic, ethical, commercial and cultural facets of a phenomenon often discussed and linked here. It is YouTube, the web site devoted to video clips. A large percentage of what appears on YouTube and similar sites is ego-driven ephemera, but much of it is cultural treasure. To read Teachout’s thoughts on the long-term value of YouTube, go here. The Journal has granted a free link to the piece.
When you come back, click this link for a YouTube clip of the great saxophonists Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins at a latterday Jazz At The Philharmonic concert. The introducer is JATP’s impresario, Norman Granz. The intergenerational rhythm section is pianist Teddy Wilson, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Louie Bellson. The tune is “Blue Lou,” not, as YouTube bills it, “Blue Lue.” Spelling is not often the strong suit of the people who mount these videos.