DC Public Library System

Victory is assured, uncollected writings of Stanley Crouch, Stanley Crouch ; edited with a preface by Glenn Mott ; introduction by Jelani Cobb ; afterword by Wynton Marsalis

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

essays

Victory is assured

bibliography

1272856463

Stanley Crouch ; edited with a preface by Glenn Mott ; introduction by Jelani Cobb ; afterword by Wynton Marsalis

uncollected writings of Stanley Crouch

The grievous loss of Stanley Crouch, one of America's most renowned intellectuals, is underscored by the posthumous appearance of these remarkable essays. With Stanley Crouch's untimely death in 2020, American literature lost "a critic without peer" (Ta-Nehisi Coates). Born in Los Angeles in 1945, Crouch-a towering stylist, fearless columnist, and without question, one of the finest jazz critics of all time-was Rabelaisian both in stature and in intellectual appetite. Beloved yet cantankerous, Crouch delighted and enflamed the passions of his readers in equal measure, whether writing about race, politics, literature, or music. In these essays-some discovered on his computer, unpublished until now-Crouch tackles subjects ranging from Malcolm X ("a thorned bud standing in the shadow of sequoias") to the films of Quentin Tarantino ("With Django, Tarantino has slipped down into a shallow and bloodstained hip-hop turn that his own best work has well-refuted"). Introduced by Jelani Cobb, with an afterword by Wynton Marsalis, and collected by his longtime editor Glenn Mott, Victory Is Assured canonizes the legacy of an inimitable, indispensable American critic.--, Provided by publisher

Preface: great bouts to come by Glenn Mott -- Introduction: the championship rounds by Jelani Cobb -- Prologue of blues and swing to be there, way down yonder in New Orleans -- Part one: Outlaws and gladiators. After the rain -- Look out moan we standing round -- When Watts burned -- Diminuendo and crescendo in dues: Duke Ellington at Disneyland -- Jazz lofts: A walk through the wild sounds -- Laughin' Louis Armstrong -- Comrade, comrade, where you been? -- Big star calling -- The king of constant repudiation -- An epic American hero: Buddy Bolden -- Thinking big: Max Roach and Cecil Taylor -- Cecil Taylor's pianistic fireworks -- Great escapes -- Marvin Gaye's interconnections -- Saint Monk -- Fighters -- Ellington the player -- The "scene" of Larry Neal -- The incomplete turn of Larry Neal -- Uptown again -- An opera based on Malcolm X -- Premature autopsies -- Part two: Swing time. Los Angeles: Jazz -- Invention of the self: John Coltrane -- Kansas City swing and shout -- The street: 1944 -- Lowdown and lofty, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis -- 1000 nights at the village vanguard -- Remembering Buddy Rich -- Fusionism: Wayne Shorter/Dexter Gordon -- Black like Huck -- A Bird in the world -- Miles Davis, romantic hero -- Blues for Krazy Kat -- Noir Americana -- The electric company: how technology revived Ellington's career -- I've got a right to tap my feet inside of the machine -- The Colossus: Sonny Rollins on the boulevard -- A baroness of blues and swing -- A song for Lady Day -- Part three: In defense of taboos. Voluptuary -- Harold Cruse -- Invention on the Black Willie blues -- The Admiral and the Duke -- Shut up, Scarlett! -- Bette Davis: the greatest white bitch of all -- The impeccable Sidney Poitier -- Tarantino enchained -- Then and now, I am a Negro -- 12 years a slave -- Goose-loose blues for the melting pot -- The lies that blind: Black girl/White girls -- Joyce Wein's life and death, a model for all of us -- By any means necessary -- Blues for note and paint -- Steel City swing -- Pimp's last mack: death R E quest -- Black and tan fantasy: a letter from the blues -- Afterword by Wynton Marsalis