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Details
STEINBECK, John. ALS ("John") in pencil on lined yellow paper to jazz musician Albert "Eddie" Condon, n.p., n.d., 3 pp., 4o, small tear to bottom edge of last page.
STEINBECK TO JAZZMAN EDDIE CONDON ON THE FOIBLES OF MUSICIANS
In what would later be used as the introduction to Eddie Condon's Scrapbook of Jazz (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1973), Steinbeck lists the qualities of musicians, particularly jazz, that confound those not in their circle. " I have known musicians -- not as you have -- but a little. They are the most confused, childish, vicious, vain people I know. On the other hand they are the most generous.... Their domestic relations are of the mixmaster type.... They almost seem in themselves to live outside ordinary law and common ethics".
Naturally, the author juxtaposes these qualities with more desirable ones, namely honesty ("...they are hard to buy") and the fairness inherent in judging a player by his musicianship. "Let a filthy kid, unknown, unheard of and unbacked sit in -- and if he can do it -- he is recognized and accepted instantly." Jazz great Pee Wee Russell is given as an example of these sometimes conflicting traits: "...Pee Wee who can talk circles around anyone with a clarinet -- is almost without the power of any other communicating speech."
A very American writer on the players, characters, and universality of the great American art. (3)
STEINBECK TO JAZZMAN EDDIE CONDON ON THE FOIBLES OF MUSICIANS
In what would later be used as the introduction to Eddie Condon's Scrapbook of Jazz (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1973), Steinbeck lists the qualities of musicians, particularly jazz, that confound those not in their circle. " I have known musicians -- not as you have -- but a little. They are the most confused, childish, vicious, vain people I know. On the other hand they are the most generous.... Their domestic relations are of the mixmaster type.... They almost seem in themselves to live outside ordinary law and common ethics".
Naturally, the author juxtaposes these qualities with more desirable ones, namely honesty ("...they are hard to buy") and the fairness inherent in judging a player by his musicianship. "Let a filthy kid, unknown, unheard of and unbacked sit in -- and if he can do it -- he is recognized and accepted instantly." Jazz great Pee Wee Russell is given as an example of these sometimes conflicting traits: "...Pee Wee who can talk circles around anyone with a clarinet -- is almost without the power of any other communicating speech."
A very American writer on the players, characters, and universality of the great American art. (3)