Re: JEWISH-MUSIC digest 1278

[farfl's house <farfl...>]

>
> Subject: Mezz Mezzrow
> Date: Sun, 15 Aug 1999 03:56:38 PDT
> From: "Judith Cohen" <judithrc (at) hotmail(dot)com>
> To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>
> Hi, I don't have information about a recording of Mezz Mezzrow that reflects
> his background (re the query in today's Digest), but it reminded me of an
> incident you might enjoy.

I don't believe that any recordings will surface that will reflect Mezzrow's
"true" background, because he actually believed that he was African-American, or
rather he had physically metamorphosized into an African American, and if one
reads his ridiculous autobiography, the fact that he was Jewish was mentioned
only to fill in his early beginnings.

> Years and years ago, in 1971, my first Real
> Hippie-Type Trip Overseas, (aside from the previous summer hitching through
> ex-Yugoslavia) I was in Paris, and a Canadian friend ended up in the
> American Hospital with appendicitis.I went to see him every day for a few
> days, and his room-mate was none other than Mezz Mezzrow!

Your poor, unfortunate friend! Could they not have found a nice, semi-private
stairwell for Mezzrow?

> At the time I
> wasn't particularly interested in klezmer or Sephardi music, and didn't even
> know who he was,

He often didn't know who he was, being so involved in the participation in
various opium dens, and he certainly wasn't too sure, as evidenced by
recordings, which end of the clarinet to affix a reed to.

> but he wasn't timid about rectifying the last-mentioned of
> my various levels of ignorance.

He spewed out so many fictional events for others (paraphrased: "I taught Gene
Krupa how to play drums in the style of the great African-American
drummers......") that he eventually thought them to be the gospel himself.

> Anyway, I had a couple of recorders with me,
> and he asked me to bring them; the nurses were dubious, but he had me play
> medieval and French Canadian tunes for him every day and criticized my level
> of soul.....

Don't take his opinion as having any sort of substance. The only soul he knew
about was that which he had to replace on the bottom of his shoes.

Regards,
Lederman



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