If you follow this blog, you know how much I value the role of participant-observers in interpreting the American experience. With specialized knowledge and insider perspectives, they often bring great presence and deep analysis to their subjects, especially when guided by objectivity. The world of American music history lost one of its best participant-observers this week with the passing of Gene Lees. Lees wrote a number of biographies from the world of jazz and the Great American Songbook. In addition, he produced his subscription-only Jazzletter for almost thirty years.His NYT obituary is available here.
The photograph is by John Reeves and appears on the back panel of the dust jacket of Lees's Portrait of Johnny (The Life of John Herndon Mercer), published by Pantheon Books, October 2004.
No comments:
Post a Comment