tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21752471.post7985327966827815604..comments2024-02-23T09:03:04.605+00:00Comments on Woody Haut's Blog: Young Bird: Kansas City Lightning by Stanley CrouchWoody Hauthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13837720724248494747noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21752471.post-71896184550052336952015-01-14T21:32:37.721+00:002015-01-14T21:32:37.721+00:00I read Crouch's Charlie Parker book "Kans...I read Crouch's Charlie Parker book "Kansas City Lightning." He is restrained and he does know a lot. I'd even say he has a big<br />picture view of Afro-American music that he put together by building it up by listening to all the various streams. His style is an attempt to catch the zeitgeist and thus it can be very immediate and engaging. He backs up his narrative with interviews of people who knew Bird like other musicians and Bird's family and friends from KC. Crouch likes to let the reader know that he knows more than you by working in the titles of some of the seminal songs that were part<br />of the bebop era. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The man loves alliteration and makes use of Raymond Chandler's similes. Again sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I give him a lot of credit for clearing up a lot of the myths of a life that was built on myth. The narrative ends with Bird's second trip to New York in<br />the early 40's when the revolution still was simmering with a top on.dlwilson26https://www.blogger.com/profile/02443098422005693038noreply@blogger.com