Dan Morgenstern is pictured at Satchmo Summerfest in New Orleans in 2012. Infrogmation of New Orleans/Flickr Artistic Commons disguise caption
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Infrogmation of New Orleans/Flickr Artistic Commons
Jazz critic and historian Dan Morgenstern has died at age 94.
Over the course of seven a long time, Morgenstern helmed main jazz magazines, wrote two books, produced live shows, gained a number of Grammys, taught faculty and oversaw one of many largest jazz archives on the planet.
“He died peacefully yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, together with his household by his facet. He was 94 and died of coronary heart failure,” mentioned his son Josh Morgenstern.
Morgenstern started his profession proper out of faculty, working as a jazz critic on the New York Submit. Within the Sixties, he edited the 2 most influential jazz magazines of the day, Metronome and Downbeat. In 1973, he gained the primary of his eight Grammy Awards for his liner notes to an anthology of Artwork Tatum recordings.
“He would hear issues — subtleties — that can all the time be past me. He was not a musician, however his ear was so nice. And his potential to share that information with folks was simply unparalleled,” mentioned Tad Hershorn, a jazz journalist and archivist on the Rutgers Institute of Jazz research, one of many world’s largest collections of jazz paperwork and recordings.
Dan Morgenstern turned director of the Institute in 1976 and held the submit for greater than three a long time.
Hershorn says Morgenstern’s perspective was distinctive.
“He was there. When you consider mythic issues. When Bud Powell returned from France in 1964 — Dan was there to fulfill him on the airport. You wish to ask about Billie Vacation’s funeral? These are individuals who meant a lot to him.”
Hershorn says that affinity had rather a lot to do with Morgenstern’s background. He was born in Munich in 1929, to Jewish dad and mom who needed to flee from the Nazis. He and his mom made it to Denmark and later Sweden. The household would later reunite in New York Metropolis.
By the point Morgenstern obtained to the U.S. in 1947, he’d already heard Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington on his mom’s phonograph.
“Most individuals, once they come to New York for the primary time, they wish to see the Empire State Constructing, however I wished to see 52nd Avenue,” the hotbed of the jazz scene, he mentioned in a 2007 interview for the Smithsonian Oral Historical past Challenge.
“The golf equipment had been smaller and a bit funkier than I imagined, however as I came upon, that was a part of its attraction. There was a lot occurring on a regular basis,” he informed JerryJazzMusician.com in 2005.
Morgenstern organized a live performance for Artwork Tatum when he attended Brandeis College on the GI Invoice, which he later described as a turning level on his path to changing into a jazz critic — a time period he was uneasy about.
“I’ve been known as a critic, however by no means actually preferred that time period; I a lot choose advocate,” he informed the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts. “It’s a blessing to have been capable of make a dwelling and a life concerned with one thing one loves, and the music has by no means misplaced its magic; I first obtained concerned as a fan and I nonetheless am, of the music, of the great artists who create it, (and so a lot of whom I’ve been fortunate to get to know), and of the valuable legacy that I’ve been privileged to assist accumulate, protect, and share. Jazz brings folks collectively; it’s America’s reward to the world.”
NPR’s James Doubek contributed to this story.
