Major metropolitan newspapers seldom turn their editorial page spotlights on matters to do with the arts—even more rarely when the issues concern jazz or jazz musicians. Over the weekend, The New York Times made an exception with an editorial about the fate of John Coltrane’s house in suburban New York. Some time ago, the house was officially made an Historic Place, but that designation did nothing to fix the building, which is falling apart. Here is some of the editorial:

While it will live on, the house is another story. It has been empty about seven years. The bricks are crumbling. The raccoons have been evicted, but not the termites. Lexan panels cover the windows; a fan blows futilely to keep down the mold. That’s about as far as the restoration goes.

In 2003, a local jazz lover, Steve Fulgoni, helped wrest the house away from developers who coveted its three and a half woodsy acres. Thanks to his efforts, the Town of Huntington preserved the land. A foundation owns the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation just put it on its most-endangered list

To read all of the editorial, which includes a slide show and a plea for practical help, go here.

As the Times points out, the house in Dix Hills is where Coltrane wrote A Love Supreme. That album celebrated his victory over the addictions that had controlled his life. It objectified his turn to spirituality and attracted to his music a generation or two—or three—of listeners. Here are Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones in “Psalm,” the final movement.

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups…I want to speak to their souls.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and that’s too bad.

I’ve been listening—over and over—to Jean Sibelius’s “Voces Intimae,” his String Quartet in D-minor. The great Finnish composer (1865-1957) wrote it in 1909 when he was 44 years old. He had completed his Third Symphony and was well on his way out of the romanticism that characterized his earlier symphonies. A number of analysts have called the D-minor austere, but it is difficult to accept that conclusion about a piece whose inner harmonies progress with such warmth. Jazz listeners may be taken with Sibelius’s “changes” in the allegro, the final movement of the quartet’s five. The performance is by the young Aeolus Quartet, Nicholas Tavani and Rachel Shapiro, violins; 
Zak Collins, viola;
 Alan Richardson, cello.

If I had found video of the Aelous playing the whole piece, I’d have posted it. No such luck. You can hear the Julliard String Quartet play it on this CD.

If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.

Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.

Los Angeles Times sportswriter Jerry Crowe’s column makes much of the dual careers of Carmen Fanzone. The former Chicgo Cubs utility infielder is also a trumpet player. Here is a section of the column:

The Detroit native played in parts of five major league seasons with the Cubs and Boston Red Sox from 1970 to 1974, batting .224 with 20 home runs and 94 runs batted in.

Among his infrequent highlights, he homered in his first National League at-bat after being traded from the Red Sox in December 1970 and later, against Ken Forsch and the Houston Astros, he hit two home runs in a nationally televised game.

In addition, he occasionally brought out his trumpet to perform the national anthem before Cubs games.

“I had my moments,” he says.

To read all of Crowe’s article, go here. The columnist managed to get through the whole piece without so much as a mention that for decades Fanzone has been married to Sue Raney, one of the most accomplished singers of her generation. Here they are—he in his Fourth of July shirt—at the 2009 Baseball Reliquary awards in Pasadena, California.

Fanzone solos on a track of this Sue Raney album. It’s worth mentioning.

The jazz community has not forgotten the victims of Japan’s disastrous March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Following a flurry of April concerts to benefit the victims, the efforts continue. Vitello’s, the Los Angeles jazz club, hosts its next installment later this month, with Sue Raney, Tom Warrington, Pinky Winters, Diane Hubka and other artists contributing their talents. Thanks to Bill Reed for alerting us to the relief concert. You will find details on his People vs. Dr. Chilledair (love that title) website.

Journalism is an “other matter” (see the subtitle of the blog) that I think about constantly but write about too seldom. The news business has occupied most of my working life. Seeing it change for the worse is more than a matter of professional interest. The freedom and quality of the flow of information to the public through the news has a profound effect on the state of the democracy. It always has had. Thomas Jefferson was under frequent attack by newspapers, but this is what he said about them:

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

The narrowing focus and trivialization of news in print and broadcast and on the internet is a danger to the country’s future. Does all of journalism—I’m still holding out against the amorphous, unspecific and meaningless term “media”—and do all journalists pander to the lowest common denominator or to vested interests? Has clear, objective, tough-minded reporting disappeared? Of course not. There are great newspapers, although in the struggle against the lousy economy and the digital revolution, they are losing revenue and staff at a rapid rate. There is journalism of depth in radio and television, although it is getting harder to find, even on the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC. I sample the major networks and Fox, CNN and MSNBC but have pretty much retreated to The News Hour on PBS and radio news on NPR. They are not perfect, but they come close to fairness and balance. Much, maybe most, of cable news programming substitutes ranting for reporting. I hope that the newspapers and broadcasters in your region are exceptions to the trend.

Donald Barlett, one of the most honored journalists of our time, was asked about all of this in a Columbia Journalism Review interview with Trudy Lieberman, another respected reporter. Barlett and his reporting partner James Steele have won two Pulitzer Prizes for their work at The Philadelphia Inquirer—and a raft of other journalism awards for penetrating investigative work on nuclear waste, tax dodges, housing and crime, among other subjects. A book based on their reporting, America: What Went Wrong? was a bestseller. Here is a bit of Lieberman talking with Barlett.

TL: Why are we disconnected from our readers?

DB: It’s difficult to overcome the drumbeat of sound bites. There are some great young reporters so it’s not an age thing. What’s missing is a sense of fairness, equality and inequality, right and wrong that journalists traditionally brought to their reporting. Like so many other aspects of American life—business and government come to mind—what’s missing is a moral compass: Is this right or wrong?

TL: Do reporters think about that today?

DB: Not so much. Journalism has become a business. It’s no longer a calling. Everyone’s job seems to be in jeopardy. People are worried about their next paycheck.

TL: Has the specialization in journalism with all the training programs and fellowships backfired? Some think that this has encouraged journalists to write for their sources.

DB: Yes. Today’s journalists often forget the audience earlier generations wrote for – the average person. Now they write for Wall Street or Silicon Valley or Capitol Hill or cable television talking heads. Their questions are framed in economic terms not in moral terms—is this right or wrong. There used to be moral outrage in the newsroom, but now not so much. Where you really see this is in the use of language. Here is where journalists have literally lost their moral compass.

TL: Can you explain this a bit more?

DB: In stories on taxes, reporters often ask whether it’s fair to impose higher tax rates on someone who has worked hard and achieved success. The implication is that someone who doesn’t make much money has not worked hard. Nonetheless, reporters often ask, “Do you really want to raise taxes on someone who is successful?” That usually means those who have made a lot of money.

TL: So we are not framing or asking the right questions?

DB: Yes. We don’t know what we need to know unless we ask the right question. You listen to TV reporters, and they inevitably ask the wrong question so the problem is framed wrong or from a point of view. Americans are not dumb. But journalism is dumbing down the information it delivers. Sometimes it’s political. Sometimes it’s laziness.

There is much more of Lieberman’s conversation with Barlett at the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. If you have an interest in the effect of reporting on the state of the nation, read the whole thing.

A reflection: For many years after my daily journalism career in newspapers, radio and television, I oversaw education of professional journalists in the use of analytical thinking to cover the economy, the environment, law, health care, foreign affairs and other issues. The Foundation for American Communications (FACS) was a nonprofit supported by grants from major news organizations, charitable foundations and corporations. We engaged top academics, trained them to teach journalists, and helped reporters, editors, columnists, commentators and producers to increase their understanding of complex public issues. As the economy worsened and news organizations foundered, support dwindled and finally ceased. FACS went out of existence a couple of years ago; one small but important symptom of disturbing changes in the news business that should concern us all. Heading into the Fourth of July weekend, this is a good time to think about it.

Lena Horne died a little more than a year ago. Yesterday, she would have been 94. Ms. Horne’s varied gifts launched her into a career as a massively successful general entertainer. But her jazz roots went deep, and she never forgot where she came from, as she demonstrated in this performance of her most famous song. The YouTube statistics say that a quarter of a million people have watched this. That’s not enough.

The Rifftides staff has done exhaustive auditioning, winnowing and selecting from among hundreds of CDs, DVDs and books hoping to be chosen. The result: a new batch of recommendations. They are compact discs by a pianist and a trumpeter who love Mingus, musical portraits of the seven deadly sins, a Nat King Cole concert that surfaced after 61 years in hiding, a DVD of two elderly avant-garde saxophonists with the energy of teenagers, and a book dedicated to the proposition that Louis Armstrong’s late period was glorious. Please see the listings in the right column under Doug’s Picks.