At times, the only thing I find more physically demanding and emotionally exhausting than pursuing a career as a musician has been that of a writer about music. What isn't met with indiscernible apathy and neglect is usually, and very outwardly, criticized--damned to the dusty floor of the internet.
Lowercase, indeed.
And yet, we live these kinds of lives for some sort of fulfillment, some sort of grace and positivity in a most otherwise bleak, trivial and humorless world.
If you haven't already heard the e-bombs exploding, a story was posted on July 31; Sonny Rollins was gifted a most humorous homage by The New Yorker. "The saxophone sounds horrible. Like a scared pig," wrote "Django Gold" (amid my own side-splitting laughter).
Most, albeit not all, sensible readers can scour the Internet--uppercause--and pick up on phoniness, a la Mr. Holden Caulfield. The more crass among us might call it "bull$h!t," in an instant.
Do YOU believe everything you read?
Perhaps not, and those who believed that Sonny Rollins spoke with such derision about a genre of music that he's championed for some fifty-plus albums must either be ignorant to satirical news outlets altogether--be it The Onion or any other site with a suspicious-looking URL in the browsing bar.
Howard Mandel was quite outspoken about the charade, saying, "Ok, call me sensitive."
I will, then, Howard.
"I was read 'The Talk of the Town' as an infant by my parents trying to put me to sleep. I saved my copy of The New Yorker issue containing S.J. Perelman's last story, as well as Salinger's 'Hapworth 16, 1924' and In Cold Blood," Mandel contines.
"I've always wanted to write something that The New Yorker would publish. As a reader and later budding jazz journalist, I admired Whitney Balliett's interviews and sopped up the front-of-the-book squibs on who was playing where," he goes on.
Well, with such sharp retort over a seemingly harmless article, it must mean that Sonny Rollins has voiced his own opinion about TNY's antics.
Right? Yes, last night at 9 p.m. via the famous YouTubber Jazz Video Guy.
In the meantime, turn any and all real aggression on some sultry tunes like "St. Thomas." And like the owner of the article states on his Twitter...
"Thanks for having a sense of humor," Sonny.
