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The Jazz Review

The Jazz Review was one of the most significant mid-century English-language jazz journals. Guided by editors Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams, with publisher Hsio Wen Shih and contributing editor Gunther Schuller, the various contributors – musicians, jazz and cultural critics, historians, musicologists, sociologists, producers, composers, writers, public intellectuals – provide a collective tour d’horizon of jazz in genres, facets, and perspectives. As such, it stands in a prominent position amongst jazz journals: a forum for vibrant discussions of an art during a significant transition.

Nat Hentoff (1925-2017) was a Boston-born son of Russian Jewish immigrants who, through his upbringing and environment, developed a contrarian tendency and a deep love of jazz. He wrote on jazz – for 50 years he was jazz critic for the Village Voice and wrote for many other jazz periodicals – but also on much else, especially themes of civil liberties and politics.  Martin Williams (1924-1992) was a prolific jazz writer who contributed to Down Beat and many other publications; later he would head the Smithsonian Institution’s jazz program in the 1970s where he would become highly influential in jazz historiography.

The initial, formative idea for The Jazz Review is somewhat clouded; Ralph J. Gleason notes he discussed the idea of a serious journal with Hentoff and Williams but he ultimately published his own Berkeley-based journal Jazz: A Quarterly of American Music instead. For the first issue, the editors did not provide a prospectus or statement of purpose; rather, they let the content speak for itself: Gunther Schuller on Sonny Rollins and thematic improvisation, Frank Driggs’ interview of Walter Page, Mimi Clar on the influence of the Negro church in jazz (serialized across many issues), Martin Williams on missing recordings of early “modern” (postwar progressive) jazz, William Russo on criticism, in addition to recording and book reviews by jazz scholars and musicians.  Only in the second issue do Hentoff and Williams supply a modest statement of purpose: “It is written for listeners and musicians (professional and amateur) who have felt a need for a publication that deals with jazz on a level other than that of a ‘fan’ or news magazine.” Early issues of The Jazz Review were well-received; Record Research likened it to “a fine dry wine, which has to be sipped slowly in order to be appreciated.” [November-December 1958: 16]

Their broad, if opinionated approach continued throughout the first complete year of publication. August Blume interviewed John Coltrane; Roger Pryor Dodge wrote on the Cuban Sexteto; Sadik Hakim explored Charlie Parker’s recording of “Ko-Ko” (or Koko); Frank Driggs interviewed Buddy Tate, Andy Kirk, and Ed Lewis; LeRoi Jones wrote on Buddy Tate and Wayne Shorter; Howard Hart surveyed blues lyrics; Gunther Schuller reviewed Thelonious Monk at Town Hall and wrote on early Ellington; Art Hodes reminisced about South Side Chicago blues; Dick Hadlock wrote on the state of Dixieland … these are only a sampling. In addition, Hentoff summarized and criticized recent jazz publications in his “Jazz in Print” column and record reviews were contributed by a rotating selection of writers, along with a “Reconsiderations” column providing new perspectives on old recordings.

Along with the range of content, no shortage of opinions were on offer. For instance, Hentoff attacked George Wein’s Newport Festival, which led to Wein’s publication of a “manifesto” in response. Williams challenged Gil Evans arrangements; Bill Crow criticized Tony Scott (which led to a letter to the editor from Bill Evans). Hentoff’s columns were smart and sarcastic but periodically venomous. These attitudes came in for reader criticism, most notably by the young contributor Dan Morgenstern, who observed “pseduo-Olympian” attitudes: “snobbish, smugly omniscient and oddly reminiscent of Time, the magazine devoid of respect for anything or anyone.” [3, no. 3 (March-April 1960): 3] While in his critique Morgenstern requests the views of musicians themselves, the editors note the difficulties in obtaining such contributions. [Ibid.]

By the end, a total of 23 issues were published on a near-monthly basis. Why The Jazz Review failed is somewhat perplexing. Certainly, commercial factors were often the cause of magazine failures and The Jazz Review did not have a large advertising department. John Cobley, in his assessment of the journal, attributes it to the editors’ “missionary idealism” which, with the critical attitude of the editors and certain contributors, made it increasingly difficult to attract musicians as contributors.

Contributors to The Jazz Review were many and varied in background: Gunther Schuller, Frank Driggs, Mimi Clar, William Russo, Richard (Dick) Katz, Glenn Coulter, Bob Brookmeyer, George Russell, Bill Crow, Larry Gushee, Art Farmer, Guy Waterman, Hsio Wen Shih, Orrin Keepnews, Benny Green, André Hodeir, Bob Wilber, Dick Wellstood, Stanely Dance, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Ralph Berton, Joachim Berendt, Horst Lippmann, Arrigo Polillo, Tupper Saussy, Jimmy Giuffre, Benny Golson, Rudi Blesh, Roger Pryor Dodge, George Wein, LeRoi Jones (later Amiri Baraka), Art Hodes, Neshui Ertegun, Paul Oliver, Gabriel Gersh, Erik Wiedemann, Dan Morgenstern, Zita Carno, Ernest Borneman, Harvey Pekar, and Ira Gitler.

"Founded by Nat Hentoff, Martin Williams, and Hsio Wen Shih in New York in 1958, The Jazz Review was the premier journal of jazz in the United States. Short-lived as it was (1958-1961), it set an enduring standard for criticism.While all of the material is of high quality, several features are particularly distinctive: the regular reviews of musicians' work by other musicians; Hentoff's regular column "Jazz in Print," which deals with the politics of the music business as well as of the nation; and the incorporation of a wide range of musical styles and approaches to discussing jazz."

Jazz Studies Online, The Center for Jazz Studies, Columbia University
(URL, accessed 25 April 2019)

Discography