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Other Matters: Bill Monroe’s Legacy

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Bill Monroe

Bill Monroe died yesterday at the age of 90. You may remember him as the moderator of NBC's Meet The Press. He was noted for the toughness and fairness of his questioning in the years when that Sunday morning program influenced millions of Americans' thinking about government and politics. I remember him as the man who built the news department of WDSU-TV in New Orleans into a pioneer in early television news and a moderating force when the south was riven by the hatreds and tensions that … [Read more...]

Other Places: Frishberg In Portland

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Frishberg

Dave Frishberg will be featured this weekend at one of the main concerts of the Portland Jazz Festival. It's an unusual gig for Frishberg; he frequently plays piano in his adopted hometown but rarely sings his songs there. In Oregon Music News, Jack Berry opens his piece about Frishberg with a story of the time Frishberg got a startling surprise when he spotted an old friend. Here's a link. To see the PDX Jazz festival schedule, go here. … [Read more...]

Other Places: Shearing In Perspective—And A Coup

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In today's Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout writes about George Shearing's popularity. He finds it admirable. A sample observation: Mr. Shearing's willingness to work both sides of the street vexed jazz critics, who are not an especially tolerant lot, and by the '60s he had been written off as a popularizer. In fact, though, he was something completely different, a dead-serious artist who enjoyed playing well-crafted music that was accessible to a popular audience. To read the whole thing, go … [Read more...]