“Other trumpeters idolised Dizzy Gillespie. But now, more than a decade after his death in 1993, his reputation is in danger of fading away. Miles Davis was in some ways a Gillespie disciple, but one may find 20 of his CDs in a shop to every one of Dizzy’s. What’s more, the trumpeter Jon Faddis, co-leader of the alumni band, has complained about ‘the assertion that Charlie Parker was the sole genius of the bebop era’. Why should this be so? One answer is that Gillespie’s contribution was partly theoretical.”
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The Cartland Book Industry – Death Is No Impediment
Barbara Cartland spent many of her 99 years writing. And she wrote so much, much of it has yet to be published. “Four years after her death, two new Cartland novels trickled on to the market yesterday. And there are 158 more to come, at the rate of one a month – enough to satisfy her admirers for about 13 years.”
Gaudé Wins Goncourt
The Goncourt prize, France’s most prestigious literary prize, has been awarded to Laurent Gaudé for The Sun of the Scortas.
At The Met – Wrong-Way Gelb?
Norman Lebrecht is impressed with the Metropolitan Opera’s choice of Peter Gelb as its new top man. Impressed in the wrong way. “When I tell you that the new man has done more over the past decade to remove classical music and opera from public consumption, you will understand that the simmering scandal at the Met has the gelignite to blow a hole in opera far larger than all the petty mishaps of English, Scottish and French national operas put together.”
Fund Seeks To Fund Bay Area Creativity
“The Ford Foundation’s Leveraging Investments in Creativity initiative, which conveniently spells LINC as an acronym, surveyed Bay Area artists over a 15-year period and came up with some important and distressing findings: Sixty-three percent of artists earned less than $7,000 from their art. Seventy-eight percent of artists worked more than one job, and all artists surveyed had a median gross income from all sources of $35,000. In 2004, artists have less time to spend on their art than they did 15 years ago.”
James: National Book Awards Marginalizes Itself
Why is this year’s National Book Awards shortlist so narrowly defined (in almost every way)? Caryn James writes that “by trying to strong-arm readers’ taste, the judges are guaranteeing that their prize remains marginal. A National Book Award doesn’t vault a writer into the upper reaches of American literature, as the Pulitzer Prize often does, and narrow-minded nominations like these help explain why.”
NEA Expands GI Writing Program
The National Endowment for the Arts is expanding and extending its writing project for military stationed overseas. “The program has been an overwhelming success. I don’t think the NEA fully appreciated the need and demand for the program when we first launched it. We have doubled the size of the program.”
US Theatres Balk At Muslim Movie
The makers of a new animated movie about the live of Muhammad knew it would be a hard sell to get the picture distributed in the US. So when no theatre company would pick up the film, producers decided to rent the theatres themselves and show it. Even then, the theatre chain Loews refrused to rent out its theatres…
TV Stations Fear “Private Ryan” FCC Fines
Dozens of TV stations across the US are pulling out of airing Saving Private Ryan on Veterans Day. “They say they’re afraid the film’s scenes of extreme violence and intense adult language will lead to sanctions by the Federal Communications Commission under its new, supersize anti-indecency standards. Ironically, most of them already aired “Saving Private Ryan” when ABC ran it, unedited, to commemorate Veterans Day in 2001 and 2002.”
The Economics Of Art Theft
Stealing valuable works of art seems like a sucker’s play. With the art world on the lookout for stolen art, selling what you stole is highly problematic. “Nevertheless, art theft can be an extremely lucrative endeavor. Interpol has estimated that it is the fourth most profitable crime in the world, behind drug trafficking, money laundering and illegal arms trading. Recovering stolen art is a tricky endeavor.”