TERRY GROSS, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. I am Terry Gross. That is my first present again in about 2 1/2 weeks. At the moment’s present is all about why. My husband, my accomplice of 47 years, Francis Davis, died after an extended sickness on Monday, April 14. You might learn about Francis from his writing about jazz and standard tradition or from the time he was a jazz critic on FRESH AIR when it was a neighborhood present and within the early days once we went nationwide. Typically once I introduce a visitor, I quote from evaluations and profiles that sum up their contributions higher than I believe I might. To sum up my husband’s place as a author, I will quote from a few the obits.
In The New York Instances, Adam Nossiter wrote, his specialty was teasing which means from the sounds he heard, situating them in America’s historical past, tradition and society. That method and the fluency of his writing made him one of the crucial influential writers on jazz within the Eighties and past. The headline of the NPR obit by Nate Chinen described him as an enormous of jazz criticism. Along with jazz, Francis additionally wrote essays about different types of music, in addition to films, TV and books. For me, studying him is now my finest approach of feeling like I am spending time with him. I have been studying him rather a lot currently.
Earlier than I get again to doing interviews and immersing myself within the lives of my visitors, I need to share a few of Francis with you. On at this time’s present, I will learn you excerpts of some of his essays and play recordings he praised in these items. Alongside the best way, I will additionally inform just a few tales about him, together with the story of how we met and have become a pair. FRESH AIR performed an enormous half in that.
Francis wrote for The Atlantic journal, The New York Instances, The Village Voice, The Philadelphia Inquirer and numerous music magazines. He had seven books and obtained a Guggenheim fellowship. He based and ran The Village Voice annual jazz critics ballot, which, after a number of years, moved to NPR Music and is now on artsfuse.org, the place it is run by Tom Hull, who shall be persevering with the ballot, which he renamed the Annual Francis Davis Jazz Ballot.
Francis additionally received a Grammy for his liner notes to the Miles Davis fiftieth anniversary collector’s version of “Variety Of Blue.” It has been surreal to have that well-known trophy in our dwelling. In his liner notes, Francis wrote, quote, “by way of the place it falls in jazz historical past, ‘Variety Of Blue’ is widely known for being the album that popularized improvising on modes – that’s, improvising within the sparest and starkest of scales as a substitute for bebop’s dense thickets of chord adjustments. However this hardly explains the album’s maintain on three successive generations of listeners. The items on ‘Variety Of Blue’ had been meant to function springboards to improvisation, and did they ever,” unquote. Francis went on to explain John Coltrane’s solo on the observe “Flamenco Sketches.” Quote, “Coltrane worries the notes of every scale as prayerfully as beads on a rosary,” unquote.
I will play an excerpt of that Coltrane solo as a result of it is stunning and since Francis had a contract to write down a e-book about Coltrane. Though he by no means completed the e-book, he was steeped in Coltrane music and analysis and wrote about him in shorter essays. On this solo on “Flamenco Sketches,” you may hear Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Invoice Evans – piano, Paul Chambers – bass, Jimmy Cobb – drums.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS’ “FLAMENCO SKETCHES”)
GROSS: That was an excerpt of John Coltrane’s solo on the observe “Flamenco Sketches” from the Miles Davis album “Variety Of Blue.”
A chunk that was a turning level for Francis was his profile of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins titled “An Improvisor Prepares.” After it was rejected by the journal that greenlighted it, Francis despatched it to the eye of Invoice Whitworth, the revered editor of The Atlantic journal. And though Invoice did not publish it, he needed to see extra. The Atlantic turned Francis’ longest skilled affiliation. He turned a contributing editor, and Invoice turned a treasured good friend. This is how Francis describes Sonny Rollins in that 1984 profile. Quote, “when conjuring up a picture of the quintessential jazz man – heroic, impressed, mystical, obsessed, as typically as not, it’s Rollins we image as a result of no different jazz instrumentalist higher epitomizes the lonely tight rope stroll between spontaneity and group, implicit in taking an improvised solo. Everybody who listens to jazz can inform a narrative of an evening when Rollins might do no incorrect, when concepts poured out of him so effortlessly. The irony is that the nights when Rollins is at wit’s finish will be simply as thrilling for illuminating the perils endemic to improvisation. Rollins is the best residing jazz improviser. No arguments, please. And if we redefine virtuosity to incorporate improvisational crafty in addition to instrumental finesse, he often is the best virtuoso that jazz has ever produced,” unquote. This is Sonny Rollins’ unaccompanied opening on his 1972 recording of “Skylark.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONNY ROLLINS’ “SKYLARK”)
GROSS: That was the opening to Sonny Rollins’ recording of “Skylark.” The music was co-written by Hoagy Carmichael. Francis as soon as wrote that Carmichael, who was from the Midwest, appeared like a Corn Belt Samuel Beckett. Francis and I met by means of music. He was managing the report retailer on the College of Pennsylvania campus, which was just some blocks away from the place WHYY was within the Seventies. I would go to that retailer to select up information I wanted for the present. An in depth good friend of mine who additionally labored there launched me to Francis and informed me that Francis had an enormous report assortment that included lots of out-of-print recordings. This was a long time earlier than you might discover practically something on the web.
On the time, 1978, FRESH AIR was a neighborhood three-hour present 5 days per week, which was approach an excessive amount of time to fill. So I used to be looking out for good options. I assumed, why not attempt a function by which Francis would play and discuss nice however hard-to-find jazz recordings? I requested him to write down a script and report an audition. This was earlier than he’d began his writing profession, and I used to be astonished by the standard of his writing. That is how he began his weekly FRESH AIR function referred to as Interval. I fell in love along with his writing and with him. Music, films, books – these had been passions we shared and beloved speaking about with one another.
I must take a brief break right here. I will proceed this remembrance of my husband, Francis Davis, after a break. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL EVANS’ “SOME OTHER TIME”)
GROSS: That is FRESH AIR. There’s extra I need to let you know about my husband, Francis Davis. He died Monday, April 14, after eight months in dwelling hospice, doing his finest to take care of his power regardless of his enemies, COPD and Parkinson’s. Francis wrote about jazz and different types of music and standard tradition. On this remembrance, I am studying passages from his essays and taking part in associated recordings that he praised.
When PBS was planning to broadcast a three-part sequence on “The Historical past Of The Blues,” Francis was requested to write down the companion e-book. He wrote the e-book, however the sequence was by no means accomplished and by no means broadcast. The standing of the sequence and the way it could have an effect on the e-book was very stress-inducing, and that was along with the strain of writing the e-book.
As he was ending it, he began to not really feel effectively, and after it was executed, he ended up within the hospital with a critical, presumably life-threatening an infection that took days to diagnose. It was terrifying. After he was despatched dwelling, he nonetheless wanted IV antibiotics. I used to be taught briefly the way to administer the medication by means of the IV line and was warned that if there are air bubbles within the tubing, that could possibly be harmful. And I used to be informed that something that touches the opening of the tubing or the medicine might contaminate it. I assumed, are you out of your thoughts, giving me the accountability of doing what educated nurses do? I am proud to say Francis survived my nursing, however I virtually did not. This is a passage from the 1995 e-book, “The Historical past Of The Blues,” the e-book that Francis handed in earlier than the hospital. The passage is about Blind Willie Johnson.
Quote, “he had few equals as a slide guitarist. He used a pocketknife in lieu of a bottleneck. Johnson’s music was charred with purgatorial fireplace. Greater than 60 years later, you’ll be able to nonetheless odor the smoke on it. He was a person of God, maybe even a spiritual fanatic, however he ranted like a person possessed by demons. His life was tragic, even by the merciless requirements of the day. He died in 1947, lengthy after his transient recording profession had come to an finish. He made his residing by taking part in on Texas road corners, a blind man with a guitar and a tin cup, shaking the religion of passers by with absolutely the certainty of his. Had been Johnson alive at this time, he is likely to be furious to seek out his identify in so many books on the blues. He carried out largely conventional hymns, hardly any secular materials. But his fashion had extra in widespread with these of the blues performers of his day than that of any of his fellow guitar evangelists, and nobody was extra authentic. When it comes to its depth alone, its religious ache, there’s nothing else from the interval to match with Johnson’s 1927 recording of ‘Darkish Was The Night time, Chilly Was The Floor’ on which his guitar takes the a part of a preacher and his wordless voice the a part of a wrapped congregation,” unquote.
This is Blind Willie Johnson’s 1927 recording of “Darkish Was The Night time, Chilly Was The Floor.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DARK WAS THE NIGHT, COLD WAS THE GROUND”)
BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON: (Vocalizing).
GROSS: That was Blind Willie Johnson. After Francis’ blues e-book was printed, he obtained a confounding invitation to promote the e-book dwell on TV on the cable dwelling purchasing community QVC. Apparently, one of many hosts was a fan. As I recall, Francis was sandwiched between faux emerald costume jewellery and the Highway Whiz, an early type of GPS that informed you the place the closest eating places, fuel stations, and bogs had been. Let’s simply say the e-book did OK, however the Highway Whiz did an entire lot higher. As I discussed, Francis was hospitalized after handing within the manuscript for “The Historical past Of The Blues.” The essay he wrote after he obtained out of the hospital was titled “An infection.” It was a evaluate of the unique solid recording of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical “Ardour.”
The musical tells the story of an Italian soldier, Giorgio , who’s pressured to depart his stunning, vibrant mistress, Clara, with whom he is deeply in love, after he receives orders that he is being transferred to a faraway garrison. His new commanding officer’s sickly cousin, Fosca, falls in love with Giorgio and turns into obsessive about him. She lives on the planet of the sick and marginalized, and he is wholesome and robust and needs to get away from her. Francis and I beloved the present. This is an excerpt of his essay.
Quote, “just a few days after seeing ‘Ardour’ for the second time, I used to be hospitalized with a 104-degree temperature, a symptom of what was finally identified as a critical bacterial an infection. In a scenario by which a part of my function as a great affected person was to observe my moods and bodily capabilities and dutifully report even the slightest change, I not noticed Fosca’s morbid self-absorption as fairly so absurd. Fosca’s love for Giorgio is meant to be superior to Clara’s by advantage of not being carnal.” Not less than that was what Sondheim and Lapine mentioned in interviews. “No matter Sondheim and Lapine’s authentic intentions, the dichotomy represented onstage wasn’t between physique love and soul love however between well being and infirmity, the pang of happiness and the unaccountable lure of loss of life,” unquote.
This is the music Francis singled out. It is sung by the character Fosca on what could also be her deathbed. She tells Giorgio she desires to dictate a letter for him to write down however to write down it as if he had been writing it to her, confessing his deep emotions for her. The music is “I Want I Might Neglect You,” sung by Donna Murphy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I WISH I COULD FORGET YOU”)
JERE SHEA: (As Giorgio) My dearest Fosca.
DONNA MURPHY: (As Fosca, singing) I want I might overlook you, erase you from my thoughts. However ever since I met you, I discover I can not depart the considered you behind. That does not imply I like you.
SHEA: (As Giorgio, singing) That does not imply I like you.
MURPHY: (As Fosca, singing) I want that I might love you. I do know that I’ve upset you. I do know I have been unkind. I needed you to fade from sight, however now I see you in a distinct mild. And although I can not love you, I want that I might love you, for now I am seeing love like none I’ve ever identified, a love as pure as breath, as everlasting as loss of life, implacable as stone – a love that, like a knife, has minimize right into a life I needed left alone. A love I’ll remorse…
GROSS: That was Donna Murphy from the unique solid recording of “Ardour.” Francis’ essay about “Ardour” was included in his e-book “Bebop And Nothingness: Jazz And Pop At The Finish Of The Century.” The title is a play on Jean-Paul Sartre’s e-book “Being And Nothingness.” Francis was nice at arising with titles. That e-book confirmed up in a confounding place, a Brooks Brothers advert, possibly a web page from the catalog. The photograph was of a 20-something man along with his palms folded across the again of his head, and on his lap, a replica of Francis’ e-book, “Bebop And Nothingness.”
The mannequin was imagined to look dreamy, however I doubt he’d ever dream of studying that e-book. My principle is the e-book was chosen as a prop as a result of the e-book jacket’s eye-catching coloration scheme of blue, crimson and yellow matched the mannequin’s sweater and plaid pants. We framed the advert, and it nonetheless hangs on our wall, baffling anybody who sees it. One among Francis’ coinages additionally confirmed up in a stunning place. In a 1992 essay in regards to the present “Seinfeld,” Francis described Kramer as a hipster doofus. Somebody from the present should’ve learn that as a result of the next 12 months, hipster doofus confirmed up in a few “Seinfeld” episodes. This is Kramer.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “SEINFELD”)
MICHAEL RICHARDS: (As Cosmo Kramer) She dumped me.
JERRY SEINFELD: (As Jerry Seinfeld) She dumped you?
RICHARDS: (As Cosmo Kramer) She dumped me. She rolled proper over me.
(LAUGHTER)
RICHARDS: (As Cosmo Kramer) Stated I used to be a hipster doofus.
(LAUGHTER)
RICHARDS: (As Cosmo Kramer) Am I a hipster doofus?
JASON ALEXANDER: (As George Costanza) No, no.
SEINFELD: (As Jerry Seinfeld) No.
RICHARDS: (As Cosmo Kramer) Stated I am not handsome sufficient for her, not handsome sufficient. Jerry, take a look at me.
GROSS: After we take a brief break, I will conclude my tribute to Francis. And we’ll function my interview with George Clooney, who was simply nominated for a Tony. He is on Broadway starring as journalist Edward R. Murrow within the stage adaptation of Clooney’s 2005 movie “Good Night time, And Good Luck.” Francis beloved and was influenced by movie noir, and he beloved Charlie Haden’s ensemble, Quartet West, and the way it typically evoked movie noir like on this observe, “There In A Dream.” I am Terry Gross, and that is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLIE HADEN QUARTET WEST’S “THERE IN A DREAM (INSTRUMENTAL)”)
GROSS: That is FRESH AIR. I am Terry Gross. Placing collectively a remembrance of my husband, Francis Davis, has been a really useful option to transition again to FRESH AIR after his loss of life practically three weeks in the past. We knew it was coming. He was in dwelling hospice. But it surely’s nothing you’ll be able to actually be ready for. For those who’re simply tuning in, Francis was a jazz critic who wrote about all elements of standard tradition. He was a contributing editor at The Atlantic journal, wrote for The New York Instances, the Village Voice, The Philadelphia Inquirer and numerous music magazines, had seven books, obtained a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received a Grammy for his liner notes for the fiftieth anniversary version of the basic Miles Davis recording “Variety Of Blue.”
We had been collectively 47 years. There’s extra of his writing I need to learn you and extra associated music I need to play. I’ve largely been quoting essays about people who find themselves acknowledged as groundbreaking figures. However Francis additionally wrote extensively about rising musicians and composers and the avant-garde. He helped launch the careers of newcomers and rediscover musicians who’d disappeared or been forgotten. He titled one among his books “Outcats,” a phrase coined by the pianist Paul Knopf and revived by Francis. Knopf described an outcat as, quote, “an outcast and a far-out cat mixed.” Francis wrote about many outcats.
This is how Francis used the phrase. Quote, “by standard stereotype, all jazz musicians are outcats. However these of us inside music acknowledge the outcat as a selected kind, too self-absorbed to be a part of any motion and too idiosyncratic to spearhead one, and too self-reliant to hunt viewers or peer approval, and too marginal within the bigger scheme of issues to elicit a lot. The phrase conveys undertones of exile, rootlessness, alienation and despair,” unquote.
One among my favourite Francis essays was written after Johnny Money’s loss of life and was printed in The Atlantic in March 2004. This is the way it opened. Quote, “in 1956, when he recorded ‘I Stroll The Line’ for Solar Data, Johnny Money turned an in a single day sensation. But it surely was as a few years of singing as if he knew from private expertise all of humankind’s strengths and failings, as if he had each dedicated homicide and been accepted into God’s mild, that made him a favourite of liberals and conservatives, MTV and the Grand Ole Opry, Gary Gilmore and Billy Graham. From music to music, he was a cowboy or a white outcast who rode with Indians, a household man or a drifter, a believer in everlasting life or a condemned assassin with no tomorrows anyplace. His credibility owed as a lot to the ethical effort concerned in endlessly placing himself in others’ footwear because it did to his skilled savvy in placing a music throughout,” unquote.
In one other a part of the essay, Francis describes Money like this. Quote, “he was in his late 30s and already had loads of mileage on him when he was found by tv. Longer hair and the shadows and dents of center age introduced out the character in his face,” unquote. The shadows and dents of center age – that is a picture that has all the time caught with me. One among Francis’ favourite Johnny Money songs is from John Frankenheimer’s 1970 movie “I Stroll The Line,” for which Money wrote the rating. The songs mirror what is going on on in the primary character’s thoughts. Francis wrote, quote, “the film was a flop on the field workplace, however the movie’s music ‘Flesh And Blood,’ maybe the only most stunning music Money ever wrote, and one whose lyrics might stand alone as impressed nature poetry, reached No. 1 on the nation charts,” unquote. This is the music “Flesh And Blood.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FLESH AND BLOOD”)
JOHNNY CASH: (Singing) Beside a singing mountain stream the place the willow grew, the place the silver leaf of maple sparkled within the morning view, I braided twigs of willow, made a string of buckeye beads. However flesh and blood wants flesh and blood, and you are the one I want. Flesh and blood wants flesh and blood, and you are the one I want. I leaned in opposition to a bark of birch, and I breathed the honeydew. I noticed a northbound flock of geese in opposition to a sky of child blue. Beside the lily pads, I carved a whistle from a reed. Mom Nature’s fairly a woman, however you are the one I want. Flesh and blood wants flesh and blood, and you are the one I want.
GROSS: Thanks for listening to this remembrance of my husband, Francis Davis. This has been totally different from something I’ve ever executed on FRESH AIR, however that is as a result of the final 2 1/2 weeks since Francis died have been not like something I’ve ever skilled. Thanks for all of the emails, posts and letters I’ve obtained. Francis, my husband, my finest good friend, thanks for our 47 years collectively. You’ll dwell on in your writing and all the time in my coronary heart.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FLESH AND BLOOD”)
CASH: (Singing) So when the day was ended, I used to be nonetheless not glad, for I knew the whole lot I touched would wither and would die. And love is all that can stay and develop from all these seeds. Mom Nature’s fairly a woman, however you are the one I want. Flesh and blood wants flesh and blood, and you are the one I want.
GROSS: After we take a brief break, we’ll hear my interview with George Clooney, who’s on Broadway starring as journalist Edward R. Murrow within the stage adaptation of Clooney’s 2005 movie “Good Night time, And Good Luck.” He was simply nominated for a Tony. That is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL EVANS’ “B MINOR WALTZ”)
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