Why Down Beat often is a bad joke

The following letter was forwarded to me by a friend who is a major tenor player. It was originally addressed to Marvin Stamm, and it says a lot about Down Beat's editors. From time to time someone here raises a question about the jazz press and why it often does not seem to get it. This, I think, illustrates the validity of such questions.--Chris A

Dear Marv old buddy;

I love your E-letter! You may be interested in this. Downbeat is running a piece on influences on saxophone players (it may have other instrumentalists-I am not sure). When they called me for interview a few weeks ago I told them that my first teacher, Mr. Harvey Larose, was of profound influence on everything I have accomplished. Under separate cover I am sending you an essay I wrote for Sax Journal about this outstanding teacher and friend.

Ted Panken called yesterday and told me that the editor would not run my interview because nobody ever heard of Mr. Larose. They want me to do another one using a famous sax man, like Rudy Wiedoff or Ozzie Nelson. I told them to stick their tacky mag where the sun don't shine. How dare they!! The unsung heroes of our music are the local teachers who help us discover ourselves through their toil. I would like the IAJE to know about this cavalier approach to jazz education and let Deadbeat know how they feel. Could you pass this on to the members at large and tell them of this woeful neglect by a magazine that profits from the work of teachers*like Mr. Harvey Larose? He turned me on to Benny Carter, Johnny Hodges and Charie Parker, plus taught me the American songbook and gave me advanced improvisation lessons when I was 13 years old! I am really upset about this! Please help spread the news to other jazz educators of this travesty. Thank you.

Phil Woods

[Jazzooo]

That's pretty damning, alright. Thanks for sharing it. Yet another example of how the concept of 'celebrity' interferes with common sense.

[Chris D]

What editor would make a decision like that?
As someone who's been in that line of work, spotlighting someone less known makes for a good story, especially when it's Phil Woods saying it!

[graypencil]

It also says a lot about the level of non-expertise with the subject matter that seems rampant in almost all editorial levels of jazz journalism these days.

These days its all about how many glossy pages of advertising you can sell per issue ..

( I had no idea there were so many young beautiful women in varying suggestive modes of dress playing "jazz alto sax" these days ..)

[Jazzooo]

Where are all the hot female baritone players, anyway?

[mjb]

Doug, you must mean Claire Daly.

[Sergio Zamora]

Geez, this is embarassingly bad for them. Reminds me why I haven't bought a glossy in like forever.

[chuckyd4]

Grrrrrr..... this type of shit raises the pressure in my gaskets by a considerable degree. Thanks for posting this, Chris. This magazine has been biding its time for far too long - I for one will be none too sad if it suddenly disappears into its own self-satisfied *poof*.

If anyone here has a personal contact with Mr. Woods, feel free to tell him that my humble site is one place that would be happy to publish any and all articles from him.... I can't beleve there are editors misguided and arrogant enough to make that kind of decision. Well, I can believe it, it's just familiar and discouraging.


On a side note, is anyone here real familiar with Ted Panken? I don't know him personally, but he didn't strike me as the kind of cat who would be happy about this kind of decision.... was he just doing somebody else's dirty work? Or does this square with other people's experiences with him?

Anyway, sad stuff as usual from Downbeat... thanks Chris.

I posted this on Organissimo and one of that board's members e-mailed it to the Editor-in-Chief of down Beat. He received the following reply:

Thanks for forwarding the note. I wish I could get pissed off at this,
but Mr. Woods is spot on. In fact, the letter made me chuckle. If he
weren't so good with the saxophone, he would have been one hell of a
writer.

In short, we surrender!

That said, I winced at his description of DB. It pains me to think
someone like Phil Woods would ever call us, "a tacky little mag." We
put out a great magazine. We love the jazz education community. We work
hard to promote that community.

He's right, of course, Harvey Larose, and every teacher who ever helped
a kid get excited about this music, should have their own Mount
Rushmore. We were just thinking in a different direction for this issue.

But Mr. Woods knocked us upside the head, and we've regained our
senses. Absolutely, his comments on Larose will be a welcome, and
fitting, addition to our July 70th anniversary issue. (Sorry, a
shameless plug.)

Best regards,

Frank Alkyer

[Gordon B]

All's well that end's well.

[Captain Hate]

I'm still pissed off at Downbeat from changing from bi-weekly to monthly immediately after I subscribed for the first (and only) time.

[Jazzooo]

That's a good response. Between this and Bush letting Rice testify under oath, I think we're seeing a trend--pressure from the outside and fear of criticism can effect change.

[clinthopson]

Now if they'd just get off plugging rappers and rockers and stick to jazz and blues, they'd really improve.

Oh yes, and dump the ever predicatibe reviewers to boot.