June 11th, 2008
Recommended Reading: June 11, 2008
Still cleaning up my backlog of unread online articles, here’s some more stuff I should have told you about last week…
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THE LIBRARY IN THE NEW AGE
nybooks.com—May 27, 2008
Writing in the New York Review of Books, Robert Darnton looks at the Internet and what it means to the future of information: what is to become of the research library when the World Wide Web so famously makes information instantly accessible—and more prone than ever to becoming misinformation? Drawing on examples ranging from his own experience as a cub reporter in the 1950s to the works of Shakespeare and Voltaire, Darnton makes a persuasive argument that information is neither spiraling into instability nor becoming less reliable—because it was never stable or reliable to begin with. Rather, the printed word has always and inevitably been subject to the vicissitudes of interpretation, error, or overt manipulation. Continuing to buck the treds of popular opinion, Darnton then goes on to outine the eight reasons he believes Google and its ilk are making the research library more important than ever.
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WHO KILLED JAZZ AND WHEN?
jazzwax.com—May 30, 2008
Why, in the middle of the 20th century, did jazz suddenly cease to be mainstream music in the United States? Was it the rise of rock & roll, the shift of jazz from entertainment to art music, or something else entirely? Marc Myers pondered these questions on his JazzWax blog a couple of weeks ago, moving the focus from Elvis and the Beatles to an earlier stage, when jump blues and R&B began tearing up the scene in the late 1940s, and arguing that jazz musicians themselves bore much of the responsibility for the fall. As you might expect, the comments on this one are as good as the article.
Today, Myers follows up that post with a broader view, reassessing some of his earlier comments in the context of technological, demographic and cultural shifts. Again, be sure to read the comments.
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BRUBECK AND THE BLACK HAWK
artsjournal.com/rifftides—May 29, 2008
I often regret that I came on the scene too late to experience some of the legendary jazz haunts, like San Francisco’s famed Black Hawk nightclub. Drummer Shelly Manne recorded a series of outstanding sets at the Black Hawk in the late 1950s, and the club was the setting for classic albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Mongo Santamaria soon afterwards.
You can catch a glimpse of the club in this cool YouTube clip of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, filmed for a failed television pilot in 1958 and hosted by Mort Sahl. Introducing the clip on his Rifftides blog, journalist Doug Ramsey waxes nostalgic about the room and provides some nice context.
Read the article »
Watch the video »
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QUICK HITS
- Ben Ratliff reviews Aaron Parks at Smalls (New York Times, May 30)
- A labor of love: producing a Jack Sheldon documentary (Los Angeles Times, May 30)
- Robert Ryan tours Paris for jazz lovers (The Sunday Times, June 1)
« Space, Condensed | Graphic Content: June 12, 2008 »
Previous Comments...
Thanks for the links. I especially liked the piece about research libraries. I appreciate the immediate access which the internet provides, but I’d never take the word of, say, Wikipedia, on anything.
Plus, for me, half the fun of doing research is getting sidetracked. It’s hard to get sidetracked when you don’t actually have a book in your hand. When you type “Richard III” into Google, you get info on Good King Richard. When you pick up a book on the man, you open to a page on Warwick the Kingmaker and get lost reading about him.
I like getting lost.
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