Hugh Hefner on Jazz

Pete C · June-16th-2003, 09:39 PM

Hef shares thoughts on jazz and women

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

By George Varga
POP MUSIC CRITIC

June 13, 2003

LOS ANGELES – Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner can thank his musical shortcomings for propelling him into the worlds of magazine publishing and countless buxom young women, not to mention international fame and fortune.
"It was not something I was talented enough to do full time," said Hefner, 77, as he wistfully recalled his college days as a jazzy singer known as "the boy with bop in his voice."

"I would have loved to have done it full time," he said during an interview last week in the Austin Powers-styled game room of his Playboy mansion. "You know, the notion of being a singer, a troubadour, is like being a rock musician today. It's where the girls are."

Undaunted, Hefner – who in recent years has become a hero of sorts to a new generation – found another way.

"I found a better way!" he chortled. "Who knew? I mean, before Playboy, you certainly didn't become an editor of a magazine to get the ladies."

Hefner, who describes himself as "a very lucky cat," didn't become a magazine publisher-editor to produce a jazz festival, either.

But since 1979, he has lent his publication's name and hefty promotional clout to the Playboy Jazz Festival, which celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow and Sunday. This year's lineup is typically diverse, with artists ranging from Dave Brubeck, Al Jarreau and San Diego sax legend James Moody to the Blind Boys of Alabama, Ozomatli and Boz Scaggs.

Hefner still fondly recalls the first and only Playboy Jazz Festival to be held in Chicago, a 1959 event that featured such greats as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Brubeck and Moody (who performed with longtime musical partner Dizzy Gillespie).

Between 1990 and '97, Hefner attended with his second wife, Kimberly Conrad, from whom he separated a year later and with whom he had two sons – Marston, 13, and Cooper, 11 (both live next door with their mother in an adjacent mansion).

For the past few years, Hefner has attended with his rotating bevy of seven girlfriends – the current crop includes Holly, Renee, Zoe, Izabella, Sheila, Cristal and Bridget – all blond and all twentysomethings. He'll be at the festival again tomorrow with all seven ("my lucky number," he crowed), although not in the silk pajamas and robe he wore during the afternoon interview.

Music, and jazz specifically, has played a leading role throughout Hef's life.

He discussed both in a freewheeling interview that also touched on his Midwestern Methodist upbringing ("There were a lot of ministers in my family background, and they were very, very repressed"); his still-in-progress autobiography ("I don't have any secrets!") and how deeply moved he was by the romantic lyrics to the song "Poor Butterfly" ("The notion of being loved that much was overwhelming for me then; it's very overwhelming for me now.")

Commenting on the magazine he created and the values it promotes, he said: "In the best sense, a good party has always been what Playboy is all about. Playboy, from the beginning, has been a lifestyle magazine and a response to our Puritan heritage. H.L. Mencken, back in the 1920s, had said that: 'A puritan is someone who is convinced that someone, somewhere, is having a good time.' "

QUESTION: What does music, and jazz specifically, mean to you, and what role does it play in your life?

HEFNER: Well, I think music and the movies were the major source of my dreams and fantasies when I was growing up. Music speaks to the heart, and I grew up in a time in which popular music was very much influenced by jazz.

I was born in 1926 and grew up during the Depression Era in the '30s and at the beginning of World War II. And all you had to do was turn on the radio and the airwaves were filled with the wonderful sounds of big-band music and dance music from remotes (broadcasts) from all over the country.

And I think they elicited a lot of dreams that were fulfilled when I began the magazine. I got my first phonograph record when I was in high school and started a 78 rpm record collection that became my pride and joy, like a lot of other young men in that time frame.

... I remember the specific evening when I first heard Billie Holiday on the radio.

What struck you about her that you would still recall it so many years later?

I was driving back from an evening church social with the girl I was going steady with, and the song "Travelin' Light" (played on the radio). There was just something about the voice and that particular tune that struck me ...

Ignoring the remarkable life Holiday lived, I don't know how segregated Chicago was at that point in time...

Very segregated.

So did this open up other cultural and social areas for you?

It was one of the great appeals of jazz for me. Because I was raised in a very liberal home in which bigotry had no meaning. And one of the wonderful things about jazz was that it was not only the first true American art form, but it defied racism.

And of course as I grew older, when I was in some of the clubs on the Southside, it was the only place in the early days where you could actually be in a mixed audience, you know, black and white, or black and tan clubs, as they used to call them, and that had great appeal to me.

And when I first got married (in 1949), we moved out to the Southside, which was already going black, and I found that very stimulating, in part I think because it was sort of anti-establishment.

I think one of the great appeals of jazz when I was young was the fact it was sort of anti-establishment. It was perceived in some quarters as a renegade music, and I knew that in some quarters it was not entirely respectable.

Did you begin buying (the jazz magazines) Downbeat and Metronome?

When I came out of the Army – I went in right after I graduated high school in the spring of 1944, during WWII – and when I came out in '46, I renewed my subscription to Downbeat. (And my) record collection became even more important to me. Some of those records are actually in that old Wurlitzer (jukebox) sitting there in the corner, from my high school and college collection.

And I think that in that period of some alienation that existed after WWII and trying to feel re-connected to the world, and trying to make some sense of it all, the music had an even more important connection for me because I didn't have as many friends or the same kind of peer group I had in high school!

How do jazz and Playboy connect?

It connects first and foremost because the magazine is in many ways an extension of my own dreams and fantasies, and jazz is the music of my childhood and of my dreams. It is also connected with the fact that, from the very beginning, there has always been a retro aspect to Playboy.

I think romance, for me, is synonymous with – in part – retro. Dreams come from yearnings from the past. The magazine began at the end of 1953, and throughout the '50s, while rock 'n' roll was arriving, we were busy doing pieces on jazz.

Given the long and colorful life you've lived, it would seem you'd become reflective as you put your autobiography together. What do you think your strengths are, and what do you think your weaknesses might be?

In terms of what? Doing an autobiography? Oh, as a human being? (pauses) Well, I think my strengths, mmm, it depends on what kind of context you mean. I mean, as a human being, I think my strengths are probably my imagination and my romantic nature, and my weaknesses are probably, uh, my romantic nature!

hornplayer · June-16th-2003, 10:50 PM

"Hefner still fondly recalls the first and only Playboy Jazz Festival to be held in Chicago, a 1959 event that featured such greats as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Brubeck and Moody (who performed with longtime musical partner Dizzy Gillespie)."

Oh wow! I surely do remember that festival! I went to several events, but the one that has stuck with me best was Sarah Vaughan with Count Basie and a trio. I have no recollection of who was on bass or drums.... (I think Papa Jo was on drums, but not sure) but I can still see Sarah and Basie...

jazzy mary · June-17th-2003, 11:53 AM

Hooray for Hef! He's a gas!

clinthopson · June-17th-2003, 11:59 AM

I've thought about wearing pajamas to work, but I don't own any.

Jimmy Cantiello · June-17th-2003, 12:27 PM

I'm sorry, but Hugh Hefner has got to be the biggest dork going. I'll bet he was a hall monitor in grammar school. He probably wore one of those pocket protectors filled with about ten pens and pencils.....................

Brian Olewnick · June-17th-2003, 12:49 PM

Jealousy will get you nowhere, Jimmy.

tippy · June-17th-2003, 12:58 PM

ROFL, Jimmy!!

June, I am shocked, having met you in person, that you could possibly be old enough to have attended a jazz festival in 1959!

Dr Dave · June-17th-2003, 01:14 PM

Hugh Hefner, the King of Un-Sex.

As for jazz, I'm glad for all the players who got paychecks working at his festivals.

hornplayer · June-17th-2003, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tippy
June, I am shocked, having met you in person, that you could possibly be old enough to have attended a jazz festival in 1959!

Let's see, Tip..... I must've been about ..... yeah, that's right! I was four years old! (Actually, Tippy, I'm a 'tad' older than I look.)

Captain Hate · June-18th-2003, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dr Dave
Hugh Hefner, the King of Un-Sex.

I could give a rat's ass if he gets more trim than moi; there's no fool like an old fool!!

Gentle Giant · June-19th-2003, 12:20 PM

Seven blond 20-somethings and a festival to call my own? I'd take it.

Luckiest son of a bitch on earth, and smart, too. He came up with modern marketing's greatest achievement: making it acceptable, even somewhat prestigious, to mass-market photos of naked women. And he probably sampled the whole frickin' batch!

Compare him to Guccione and Flynt, and he seems like both saint and genius.

On the other hand, I wonder how many times he's gotten the clap?

moneyp · June-19th-2003, 02:14 PM

Wouldn't it be funny if it was found out that he was hung like an elephant? Like Bob Barker.

Jimmy Cantiello · June-19th-2003, 02:56 PM

I'm guessing when you have as much money as Hefner it wouldn't matter if he was hung like a gnat....................

Mike Schwartz · June-19th-2003, 02:57 PM

I think there's a typo in the reporter's last name... VIAGRA!!;-)

redmango7 · June-19th-2003, 04:55 PM

He's the quintessential lounge lizard. What intelligent person wants to fuck his life away when there's so much more? I've dated enough beautiful women and no longer feel the need to live what I now realize as a huge waste of time. Hefner looks like an idiot. The only people who respect him are those who dream that they could be wealthy and bang the trashy silicon whores that he does. (Sorry if anyone was insulted here)

shrugs · June-19th-2003, 05:07 PM

Bet he's been laid more in his 70's than some have their entire lives. Wagers?

jazzy mary · June-19th-2003, 05:11 PM

I do think Hef's taste in women in pretty bad. It used to be better. The woman he actually married (his second wife that is )was a lot better looking than these silly ones he hangs with now. And they all look alike--weird. But I don't think he "wasted his life". He built an publishing empire and was a groundbreaker. Besides, the Playboy interviews are good. They interviewed Miles Davis, ya know. I used to always read Playboy when I was a little kid (my Dad read it) and I was AMAZED by the pics and they were pretty tame back then. And the women were NATURAL--SO MUCH BETTER THAN NOW!!!! I always wondered if I would get uh, let's say breasts, like that.

Oh, I read the articles too. Now, I haven't seen or read Playboy in probably a decade or more.

redmango, did you only date beautiful women and what's wrong with that? Beautiful women need love too!

Salvador Dali Lama · June-19th-2003, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by redmango7
He's the quintessential lounge lizard. What intelligent person wants to fuck his life away when there's so much more? I've dated enough beautiful women and no longer feel the need to live what I now realize as a huge waste of time. Hefner looks like an idiot. The only people who respect him are those who dream that they could be wealthy and bang the trashy silicon whores that he does. (Sorry if anyone was insulted here)

thank you

shrugs · June-19th-2003, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Salvador Dali Lama
thank you

so we have two people here that used to have their way with beautiful women and are now retired?

who else?

moneyp · June-19th-2003, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by redmango7
He's the quintessential lounge lizard. What intelligent person wants to fuck his life away when there's so much more? I've dated enough beautiful women and no longer feel the need to live what I now realize as a huge waste of time. Hefner looks like an idiot. The only people who respect him are those who dream that they could be wealthy and bang the trashy silicon whores that he does. (Sorry if anyone was insulted here)

There's also more to life than passing judgment on what people decide to do with their own.

You do realise he's running a publication (among several other enterprises, including a considerable amount of fundraising for charities) well into his 70s. Because the man decides to put forth the image of a hedonistic lifestyle that ties into his product doesn't mean that this is all there is to him.

redmango7 · June-19th-2003, 06:22 PM

Interviews aside, I think Playboy is complete garbage and is geared towards the unsophisticated/unevolved male. What good virtues does it promote? All it does is skew female perceptions in men and trivialize sex. Anyone who considers it a classy publication is of the most rudimentary of our society.

Sergio Zamora · June-19th-2003, 06:24 PM

Yes, I can see how his life sucks.

Salvador Dali Lama · June-19th-2003, 06:47 PM

Its not about that at all shrugs. Its just that theres more to life than busting nuts, thats all.

And I agree with red mango about the magazine too.

Captain Hate · June-19th-2003, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Salvador Dali Lama
Its not about that at all shrugs. Its just that theres more to life than busting nuts, thats all.

And I agree with red mango about the magazine too.

Count me in on this as well. The "Playboy philosophy"; was there anything more banal? Get yer ashes hauled and leave town.

lynn · June-19th-2003, 08:07 PM

Discourse on his sex life aside, didn't he have a TV show in Chicago that featured jazz players?

shrugs · June-19th-2003, 08:12 PM

You guys obviously didn't read the articles and interviews.

Sergio Zamora · June-19th-2003, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shrugs
You guys obviously didn't read the articles and interviews.

I know I sure didn't.

shrugs · June-19th-2003, 08:15 PM

Suit yourselves but there are/were some great interviews.

20 Questions, baby

Sergio Zamora · June-19th-2003, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shrugs
Suit yourselves but there are/were some great interviews.

20 Questions, baby

Dave, that was a joke.

shrugs · June-19th-2003, 08:19 PM

ok. but I found this link:

http://members.cox.net/davehubbard9/...Interviews.doc