On April 18th Carol Sloane launched her blog SloaneView and she’s on a roll. As a consumate interpreter of a lyric, it’s no surprise that she has a way with words and is an engaging storyteller. (If you’re not hip to Carol’s vocal stylings allow me to reiterate a recommendation I made two years ago this month: get thee to Amazon now! One of my favorites is the 1988 recording Love You Madly, with Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Akira Tana, Art Farmer and Clifford Jordan. It’s one of Carol’s favorites, too. )
Carol’s stories are often humorous. Having been Carmen McRae’s publicist many years ago I am all-too-familiar with her phone manners and laughed myself silly at Carol’s happy birthday story. Her tales are told simply, conversationlly, with unflinching honesty and candor, coupled with a dash of explication for those not in-the-know. But what I really love is that these vignettes always show something about the people that might otherwise not be known. For example, I never knew that Jimmy Rowles was fanatical lover of animals. Okay, it’s not that the revelations are earth-shattering, but that unique perspective from being there allows us a glimpse of facets that make up the whole person — it’s those “telling details” that narrative writers are always talking about.
In addition to memorable career moments, Carol promises also to write about sports and cooking, politics and culture, and something I am very much looking forward to, ” and the occasional screech and holler aimed at knuckle-headedness.” I’ve added SloanView to my list of recommended sites and I will be checking in regularly.