Author: Devra Hall Levy

I’ve Got Mail: Loves Me, Loves Me Not, Loves Me…

The best present a bloggess can get is mail from readers — good or bad, pro or con, it’s great to know that people are out there reading and thinking and talking. Here’s a sampling of recent missives:

Just found your blog. Lots of great info!
I am listening to an interview of Mr. John Levy that my radio partner, Cheryl K. is airing on WMUA and I was directed to lushlife.com and then onto your blog. Great interview, and John is a great guest, so full of charm and fascinating info and anecdotes. Special insight on the late great Shirley Horn. Still can’t believe she is gone. It’s like when Ella passed; some artists create such an emotional bond with you. Through the magic of modern electronics you can just put on their recordings and you once again live that emotional relationship. So I guess, in a way, they haven’t left at all.

That one was from Ken Irwin, Jazz Music Director at WMUA and co-Host of “Java Jazz” (airs Wednesdays). (Note: WMUA can be heard online ands they play jazz from 9 AM to noon, Monday through Friday.)

Here’s one from anonymous who writes to disagree with me:

Hard to say what prompted Wallace to respond as he did to Suzanne Ryan’s question. It certainly wasn’t wisdom. Last time I looked, the President flew jets in the Naval Reserve. That experience must have taught him something about the military. Wallace’s supercilious tone is offensive, frankly. A little humility never hurt anyone. He (and you, based on what I’ve read) may think the country is messed up, but many of us, probably a majority of us, think otherwise. The economy is booming, crime is down, as is the divorce rate, and other important social indicators also are favorable. The Middle East is undergoing a transformation that only a crazy person would have predicted in 2001. Are there plenty of problems? Indisputably. But, contra Pinter, I rather face ours than have to deal with the far more vexing social and political ills (unfavorable demographic trends, sclerotic economies, racial and ethnic segregation etc) staring into the face of our friends in Europe. But what do I know? I haven’t lived as long as Mike Wallace so I suppose I’m still humbled by my ignorance.

Actually, I, too, find Wallace’s tone to be supercilious, and humility is a good thing. Our president might benefit from a dash of humility himself. As for a booming economy — it may be true for the upper middle class and beyond, but all those who have lost their jobs to cheap labor in India and elsewhere, or been laid off due to mega-mergers, are not feelig so flush. My applause for Pinter and Wallace was an endorsement or advocation of open discourse and transparency in government. We are not children and the government is not a parent. In the words of Albert Einstein: “A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.”

And last for today, words of encouragement from Mike Davis, co-author (with Roger Hunter) of “Hampton Hawes: Bio-discography”

I have just stumbled on to your log – it is very readable, immensely rich with recollection and affection; chock-a-block with sound sense and no little insight. I have logged it on to my ‘favourites’ list. Please keep up this good work and I will be so pleased to keep reading.

I hope that you, too, will keep on reading. Thank you.

Count Your Blessings

Terry Teachout posted an email from one of his blog readers in response to his illness:

I find it odd what a presence you’ve become in my life; I didn’t think it was possible to care so much, to be so saddened by, to fear the loss of a person whom I’ve never met.

A friend of mine who does not know Terry wrote to me

just read your latest and then TT’s. could hardly make it through his as my eyes were so blurred with tears! very happy to hear that he has been given the greatest xmas gift of all – “another chance,” – so to speak.

Odd perhaps, but not really considering our shared humanity. Is it not kin to the same feelings that make our eyes tear up watching happy-ending holiday movies, or even Extreme Home Makeover and Three Wishes? We identify and empathize, and it feels good to be a part of that something bigger than our individual selves.

It’s true that tangible gifts — whether a handmade card or the over-the-top ‘gifts’ of houses and scholarships and such on TV — are great, the latter often representing a second chance at a new or better life. But it is the words we speak and write to one another that can provide powerful sources of support, a measure of comfort, and sometimes inspiration — even when there is no second chance.

I was saddened last week by the death of a woman I had never met. A week ago tonight my neighbor’s mother, Gladys, died in the hospital, surrounded by loving family members and friends. Ever since my neighbor told me about it I’ve been thinking about the hospital scene she described. The doctor and nurses were kind…and more importantly I think, they were honest. When Gladys asked the doctor, “Is this the end of the road?” he told her the truth. The best part, if there is such a thing as ‘a best part’ in death, is that because she was lucid, and because of the doctor’s honesty, goodbyes were able to be said. They talked about how cool it was that they were not only mother and daughter, but also best friends. Mother-daughter relationships have their unique twists and turns, and to feel that one’s mom is also a best friend is definately a blessing. (I feel similarly blessed, and if I am with my mother when she makes her transition, I will remember to remind her of how great it is that we were also friends…in fact, maybe I will tell her now, too.) I don’t know what else they said to one another, I get choked up just trying to imagine it — does one actually say “good bye” at such a moment? “I love you” was certainly said, not only in words, but with every touch and glance.

When the doctor acknowledged to Gladys that it was, indeed, the end of her road, he also told her that he could take away her pain. That was another gift — not only the cessation of pain, Gladys was given a choice, one that brought her some small measure of control along with a large measure of dignity. Gladys knew, as did those who were with her, that as the pain meds were increased she would slowly slip into unconsciousness. No longer in fear of pain, she was able to stretch those last hours and share them with those she loved. When her physical pain became too much, it was she who chose to ask for relief…and for release. It must be hard to let go, to allow a loved one to slip away. I imagine that it is even hard for the nurses to administer the medications that while providing relief from pain also slow the heart, leading ultimately to its repose. But love is sometimes hard. Gladys sailed away a few hours after, leaving behind sadness to be sure, but the tears will be tempered in time by loving memories.

So let’s count our blessings, use our time on earth wisely, be kind to one another, and remember that we are not alone.

Curve Balls At Christmastime

Yesterday Terry Teachout wrote, “life has a way of pitching curve balls at your head.” He has been released from the hospital, and before heading off to spend Christmas with his family in Smalltown, USA, he updated his friends and blog followers on his ordeal.

TT has a serious ailment — congestive heart failure — but as he told me in an email message, “The good news, say the doctors, is that no permanent damage was done to the heart muscle and that IF I DO WHAT THEY TELL ME TO I can make a more or less complete recovery.”

Along with less salt and more exercise, one of the many mandates is sure to be reducing stress. The challenge of doing so is stressful in and of itself. As I told him in an email reply, “it won’t be easy, so get ready for the battle has just begun…You’ll need a support group, so lean on your friends — YOU ARE NOT ALONE — you have a formidable army at your disposal, so use us.”

I know whereof I speak. It will be ten years this summer since I told the grim reaper to take a hike. I thought I was immortal. Then, two years after that, the doctors happily reported that the cancer was still gone but diagnosed MS — more lifestyle changes. I’m still here, but superwoman took a nosedive. Priorities change in the proverbial blink of an eye and it is astounding what we we mere mortals can do, the things we can live with, and live without. Superwoman rises from the dead from time to time and tries to fly; sometimes I manage to hold her down, but sometimes I just let her soar…and pay for it later. Life requires an ongoing attitude adjustment, and it’s hard work.

Sharing your thoughts and fears, and reaching out to friends, makes the job a tad easier, and Terry is off to a good start. Read his account posted yesterday — Time off for good behavior — it is as eloquent as always with a touch of introspection mixed in with humor and journalistic details.

Color Purple

John Lahr reviewed the Broadway production of The Color Purple in the December 12th issue of The New Yorker (Artificial Respiration). Because I have been working on the Luther Henderson biography (the man behind the music of Broadway shows such as Ain’t Misbehavin’, Jelly’s Last Jam, and Play On, to name a few), I took particular note of Lahr’s comment regarding the music:

Under Gary Griffin’s direction, the show moves at speed but picks up no momentum. It has pace but no rhythm. There is something inert at its core, which has to do with the lyrics and music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, who have written pop songs but, as is all too evident, never assayed a Broadway show. Their songs illustrate, but don’t advance, the plot.

Lahr was not alone. Here’s an excerpt from Michael Feingold’s review (Prosaically ‘Purple’) in The Village Voice:

…the three songwriters, skilled professionals from the Hollywood pop scene, mostly display competence and craftsmanship rather than inspiration. One or two of the ensemble numbers built on traditional forms, refreshingly, break free of the standard pop conventions. But far too often you sit, watching dynamite performers give their all to a song, and wonder why the result doesn’t soar. Then the book takes over, and inexplicable events start rushing past again.

And Terry Teachout had this to say inThe Wall Street Journal (The Color Green):

I can’t say enough nasty things about the music, which consists of generic gospel, scrubbed-up blues and fake-fur jazz, all somewhat less memorable than the score to a made-for-TV movie. The lyrics are cloyingly faux-naïf, though I’ll be kind and cite only this stanza from the finale: “It take a grain of love/To make a mighty tree/Even the smallest voice/Can make a harmony.” Why does it not surprise me that one of the show’s songwriters is best known for having penned the theme to “Friends”?

Had Luther been alive and working on this show, I suspect the outcome would have been very different. In several interviews I have heard about Luther’s collaborative nature and how he approaches the music not as not an add-on or interlude, but as an integral part of a production. Here are snippets from two interviews, the first from Susan Birkenhead, lyricist for Jelly’s Last Jam:

…he took this complicated music and because he had worked in the theater for so much of his life, and he understood the dramatic needs of the music, and because he was a consummate musician who understood the complexities of that music, what he did, really, was not just arrange the music but almost recompose Morton’s music as a theatrical score…

Sheldon Epps, creator, writer and director of Play On, had this to say:

I was a huge admirer of his work on Jelly’s Last Jam and what I thought was an extremely difficult task, brilliantly executed in terms of Luther’s adapting that music to theater music and to theater songs. He was not given nearly enough credit for the brilliance with which he accomplished that task. I loved the show. I loved the way that Jelly’s music was used to tell that story, the way that music is adapted to the needs of choreography and staging and all of that, and in fact in addition to my overall admiration for his work, I think it was probably specifically the work that he did in adapting that music to the needs of the theater project that made him the one that I wanted to contact when I started to work on Play On….

Luther never approached it initially musically but always dramatically. When we were in the first rehearsal process, he never wanted anybody to sing a note of a song until I had been clear about what the scene was about, until the actors were clear about what was going on between the characters and what they were playing in the scene prior to where the song was going to be done, so that whatever adaptation of that song, whatever treatment of that music he created was the result of the dramatic needs rather than the musical needs. He then went on to arrange it in a way that was musically brilliant, that the inspiration for all of those arrangements was the story and the theatrical needs, not the musical needs.

I don’t know for a fact, but I imagine that the fault for the music in The Color Purple lies not with the songwriters, but more likely with the mandate they were given. Whether they have the expertise to have handled the job differently is not my point, rather I expect they were hired for their pop expertise, in hopes that the songs would become popular, sell lots of audio CDs, and thereby expand the revenue base for what is a very expensive production. The result of putting commercial concerns above artistic ones may yield financial success, but is unlikely to garner any critical acclaim.

I Am Not Alone — More About Truth

Nobody has written to me on this subject, but there is evidence out there on the Internet that I am not alone in bemoaning the erosion, if not outright loss, of truth in our public discourse. Bulldog Reporter, self-described as “The Leading Source of PR Views, News and Tools,” has a section called Daily ‘Dog, in which, on December 9th, there appeared a piece titled Is Truth the New Pink? How PR Can Bring Integrity Back into Fashion. Here’s the sub-head followed by the first two paragraphs of the piece written by Aaron D. Cushman:

Veteran publicist says the media’s waning credibility poses new challenges to PR’s ability to reach the public while also presenting an opportunity to help raise standards.

Truth is no longer fashionable. Our great country that has enjoyed its lofty position of righteousness is in the throes of losing the international public relations battle. Our nation’s reputation is suffering—thanks to unilaterally abandoning international treaties, militarily becoming an invader and occupier, and more recently, having its government leadership (like Senator Tom DeLay, Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff and a certain California congressman) pleading guilty to accepting bribes and kick-backs and allegedly lying to grand juries.

It’s become an infectious disease that has, in the past decade, infiltrated the media. Once pillars of the publication industry, media outlets such as CBS, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Cincinnati Inquirer are but a few who have acknowledged staff errors and misdeeds.

Incompatible Quotes? Stage or Soapbox?

From time to time the Rifftides staff posts compatible quotes, like these and these.

Today I offer two potentially incompatible quotes:

A lot of people are singing about how screwed up the world is, and I don’t think that everybody wants to hear about that all the time. — Mariah Carey

Country music is three chords and the truth. — Harlan Howard

If pushed to choose between country music and anything by Mariah, I’ll pick country, even when it does have only three chords. But that’s another story.

To me, these quotations imply a question: arts as refuge or arts as an expression of the world? Ideally it can, and should, be both. Any artform, whether expressing pain or passion, should touch the soul and transport the viewer/listener to a world beyond his or her own immediate realm. Such transportation is, to me, a refuge. Not to say that all works of art succeed, but those with a capital A do, and all others should strive to do so. If they do not make the attempt, then perhaps they are not artistic endeavors, but commercial ones.

The question of artists speaking out raises another issue, one about which I have ambilvalent feelings. Should artists use the stage as their soapbox? Certainly my bravo for Mr. Pinter’s remarks might lead you to think I’m in favor, but I’m not always so appreciative when I attend a concert and the musicians make lengthy political speeches. Why? Because I came (and paid) to hear the music and see the show. I want the art to speak to me, not the artist. Having saids that, I am not adverse to performers making brief comments as they introduce their works or tell an occassional joke, even if that comment is ‘political’ in nature. After all, they are leaders of a sort for their fans and it is fitting that they use their influence. Personally, I’d prefer they find means to do so off-stage, through interviews and/or participation in public events. Mr. Pinter was asked to make a speech and so he did; that was appropriate. When artists make speeches during a show, particularly the presentation of a non-verbal art, it should be short, and relevant to the performance.

This is just a my personal opinion. What do you think?

I’ve Got Mail: Friends Disagree

My friend who’s Just Muttering disagrees with me about Pinter’s diatribe. She wrote in an email:

About Pinter, I hope you don’t mind if I disagree? I don’t think America is as manipulative nor as heinous nor as nasty as he says. Not to mention who is he to be so smug and all-knowing, anyway. I was surprised by your “bravo” cuz agreeing wouldn’t necessarily mean championing the tone.

I’d agree with her easily if I thought that America was “we the people,” but sadly I don’t think we people have any say anymore. We vote for laws that never get put into practice, and ever since the last two presidential elections I have serious reservations about the process of tallying of votes anyway. George Bush doesn’t act for the good of the majority of the people, so in my view he doesn’t represent us, but the world sees him as “America” and his policies, not to mention his attitudes (talk about smug), have seriously hurt our country’s reputation all over the world. I think it is a good thing for people of stature to speak out when given an international platform. In fact, I think it is absolutely necessary. And that goes double for the media, which is what I was getting at with my post about Mike Wallace.

Chaos – Part 3

Sorry I’m late. I was without power for most of the day as the renovation process necessitated turning off the one circuit that connects me to the internet via cable modem. At left you have the state of the household as of the end of week three; at right was taken at the end of week four. Remember, this was slated to be a two-week job. Okay, everyone told me to multiply everything times 4 — the time and the cost and the number of bottles of aspirin that I would need. We’re not done yet, but I know it’s going to be worth it. We’re now at the end of week five; we’ve got some furniture back in the family room (see below) and the kitchen cabinets are finally underway. Dishware, pots and pans etc. are still in boxes, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and I am hoping that soon I will cook once again…if I remember how.



Ask Tough Questions?

Once upon a time, the media asked tough questions…and they got answers. Would that it were still so. “At 87, Wallace still tells it like it is” is the headline for Suzanne C. Ryan interview with Mike Wallace in today’s Boston Globe. She asked him what he would like to have asked George Bush had he consented to an interview. Here’s Wallace’s question:

What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn’t want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn’t have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

But Wallace was a bit more circumspect when asked what he thought of FOX News:

Well, my son [Chris Wallace] works for them. . . . [Fox News chairman and CEO] Roger Ailes is a man I admire very much. He understood there was a market that was not being served. He was right.

Some say that with age comes the freedom to speak one’s mind, implying that the years (of presumably accumulated wisdom) have earned them the right and/or that being already established or retired they have nothing to lose.

What do you say?

Bravo, Mr. Pinter

“The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.” — Harold Pinter in his Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech; Pinter spoke via video recording from London.