The Jazz Television of Robert Herridge

There was a time jazz and classical musicians, even including opera singers, regularly performed on The Tonight Show. That was when Johnny Carson hosted—and it certainly helped that he idolized Buddy Rich. Yet, the idea all music deserves representation goes back to Robert Herridge, who produced many arts-focused anthology and variety programs for CBS. In fact, Herridge oversaw some of the most important jazz programs to ever air on American television. His close jazz advisor, the late, great Nat Hentoff explains how and why they came to be in John Sorensen’s documentary, The Jazz Television of Robert Herridge, which screens this Sunday at Anthology Film Archives, to celebrate the publication of The Herridge Style (edited by Sorensen).

When Herridge decided to produce a jazz showcase, he first sought the counsel of critic Whitney Balliet, who connected the producer with the younger Hentoff, who became his jazz guru. Together they assembled an amazing, but not obviously commercial line-up for The Sound of Jazz, which is now considered a pivotal moment in jazz history and spawned a perennially popular companion album.

You might have heard about these sessions in Ken Burns’ Jazz and other documentaries, because they captured Billie Holiday’s final performance with her indefinably close friend, Lester Young. It also documented one of the first TV appearances for Thelonius Monk, who many critics and fans dismissed at the time as too outré. Hentoff and Herridge were way ahead of the curve recognizing his genius. Yet, they also programmed traditional Dixieland artists, like Peewee Russell, whom many considered too passé.

Perhaps Miles Davis was most notable jazz musician of the era not represented in The Sound of Jazz, so Herridge and Hentoff convinced him to appear in The Sound of Miles Davis, featuring his So What quintet and a big band conducted by Gil Evans. Unfortunately, it is much harder to find, in toto, than The Sound of Jazz. A third program, Jazz from Studio 61, followed featuring the very modern Ahmad Jamal (whose popularity at the time approached that of Davis) with an all-star ensemble of swing and traditional musicians, including Buck Clayton and Ben Webster.

Herridge and Hentoff also collaborated on two showcases for blues and folk, which also arguably had a lasting impact. Indeed, according to Bob Dylan, he first heard Joan Baez when she performed on one of these broadcasts, so you could make a case Timothee Chalamet owes his second Oscar nomination to Herridge.

The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: A Portrait of a True Iconoclast

Napster-generation kids will probably never appreciate the art of liner notes. Obviously, there is no place to put them on an illegal download. There is also the clear implication that the music contained within is worth taking the time to discuss at length. Nat Hentoff always, always believed jazz was an art form worthy of serious attention. Not surprisingly, many of Hentoff’s admirers first knew him for his LP notes and jazz journalism. However, David L. Lewis devotes roughly equal time to Hentoff’s tireless defense of free expression. It is a continuing commitment that cuts across ideological lines. As a result, he offers an unusually complex and intellectually engaging profile of the NEA Jazz Master in The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff (trailer here), which opens this Wednesday in New York.

Hentoff never worried about winning popularity contests. To put things in perspective, Hentoff was fired from Downbeat magazine decades ago, because he hired an African American. In a bit of a scoop, Hentoff provides an ironic coda to this notorious story during a public appearance Lewis captures. Nevertheless, it still illustrates Hentoff’s personal and political commitment to racial equality. The fact that was on good terms with musicians like Max Roach and Charles Mingus (not exactly shrinking violets) and developed a considerable level of trust with Malcolm X, speaks volumes.

Through his long association with the Village Voice, Hentoff also emerged as arguably the strongest and most consistent defender of civil liberties. While Lewis never addresses Hentoff’s dissenting reports on Terri Schiavo (which frankly shames us all as a nation), he tackles the columnist’s unapologetically pro-life evolution (for much the same reasons he opposes capital punishment).

Indeed, Lewis’s instincts are pretty much spot-on throughout Pleasures. While fully establishing Hentoff’s nonpartisan dedication to principle, he largely lets the man speak for himself. Of course, it is easy to see why. Six decades of courting controversy have not dulled his wit, eloquence, or flair for the provocative. Most importantly, Lewis licensed many classic, thematically appropriate jazz recordings for the soundtrack (Mingus, Roach with Abbey Lincoln, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, etc.). It probably sounds like a no-brainer to use jazz music in a film about jazz, but you would be surprised how many filmmakers lose faith in their subjects and opt for mushy mood music instead.

So good for Lewis for recognizing jazz and contrariness make an entertaining combination. Probably nobody agrees with Hentoff up and down the line (his wife certainly does not, but she is also a smart, dynamic interview subject). Yet, it is always interesting hear the Cato Institute fellow make his case. Fittingly, Hentoff is also on the board of the Jazz Foundation of America, so he would most likely approve of closing this review with an invitation to support their efforts on behalf of real deal musicians in need at their website here. Highly recommended for supporters of jazz and the Constitution, The Pleasures of Being Out of Step opens this Wednesday (6/25) in New York at the IFC Center.

Moral Clarity from Nat Hentoff

Nat Hentoff is the first non-musician to win the NEA Jazz Master Award for Jazz Advocacy. He is also the recipient of the American Library Association’s Immroth Award for Intellectual Freedom, which he has since disavowed in protest of the ALA’s refusal to condemn the arrest and torture of Cuba’s independent librarians. He continues to turn up the heat on the Castro apologists in the first of two editorials in the Washington Times this week. Hentoff pointedly writes:

“Bearing such signs as ‘Book Burning Is NOT A solution to Cuba's Energy Problems’ and ‘Ray Bradbury (author of "Fahrenheit 451") Says: “Free The Jailed Librarians,"’ the Freadomistas also handed out fliers that quoted the core ALA policy: ‘The American Library Association believes that freedom of expression is an inalienable human right... vital to the resistance of oppression... and the principles of freedom of expression should be applied by libraries and librarians throughout the world.’ Another ALA policy cited on the flyers ‘deplores the destruction of libraries, library collections and property.’ Yet, as I have reported previously, the ALA ignores the fact that Cuban court documents (validated by Amnesty International and the Organization of American States) reveal that the entire collections of at least six independent libraries were ordered destroyed. . . .

And the ALA council — in defiance of a Jan. 25, 2006, poll in the official American Libraries e-mail newsletter, AL Direct, in which 76 percent of the rank-and-file membership urged emancipation — continues its refusal to call for the release of what some ALA leaders deride as ‘so-called librarians.’ Yet the library associations of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have vigorously demanded their release. Those countries know what it is to live under communism.

At the ALA conference, a Freadomista flier ended with a reminder from Martin Luther King Jr., whose biography was burned by Castro judges: ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.’ The next time you visit your local library, you might express your support for the extraordinarily courageous independent librarians whose devotion to Cubans' right to read have put them in these gulags.”

Hentoff is a rare public intellectual who refuses to wear ideological blinkers. Whether it be championing the Jazz Foundation of America or publicizing the plight of Cuba’s independent librarians, the Village Voice and Jazz Times columnist has always aligned himself with the underdogs of the world. Although generally a man of the left, he is a consistent and independent thinker who brings real moral authority to issues of intellectual freedom. Look for part two of his editorial next week.