The President of the Cool
By ISHMAEL REED, NYT
OAKLAND, Calif. — WHEN I lived in New York during the early 1960s, John F. Kennedy was a hero among the downtown art crowd — not because of any legislative or foreign policy achievement, but because he pardoned the jazz pianist Hampton Hawes.
Hawes was a bebop pianist with a right-hand technique so brilliant that he was admired by none other than Art Tatum, widely considered the greatest jazz pianist ever. Hawes had been sentenced to 10 years in a Fort Worth prison for buying drugs from an undercover agent.
“Just after my third Christmas I was watching John Kennedy accept the presidency on the Washington steps,” Hawes wrote later. “Something about him, the voice, the eyes, the way he stood bright and coatless and proud in that cold air ... I thought, that’s the right cat; looks like he got some soul and might listen.” He applied for a pardon, and received one from the president on Aug. 16, 1963.
Democrats have more of an affinity for jazz than Republicans. Even Jimmy Carter, not everybody’s idea of a hipster, invited Dizzy Gillespie to the White House. But among the Democrats, President Obama is the one who comes closest to the style of bebop called “the Cool.”
(More here.)
OAKLAND, Calif. — WHEN I lived in New York during the early 1960s, John F. Kennedy was a hero among the downtown art crowd — not because of any legislative or foreign policy achievement, but because he pardoned the jazz pianist Hampton Hawes.
Hawes was a bebop pianist with a right-hand technique so brilliant that he was admired by none other than Art Tatum, widely considered the greatest jazz pianist ever. Hawes had been sentenced to 10 years in a Fort Worth prison for buying drugs from an undercover agent.
“Just after my third Christmas I was watching John Kennedy accept the presidency on the Washington steps,” Hawes wrote later. “Something about him, the voice, the eyes, the way he stood bright and coatless and proud in that cold air ... I thought, that’s the right cat; looks like he got some soul and might listen.” He applied for a pardon, and received one from the president on Aug. 16, 1963.
Democrats have more of an affinity for jazz than Republicans. Even Jimmy Carter, not everybody’s idea of a hipster, invited Dizzy Gillespie to the White House. But among the Democrats, President Obama is the one who comes closest to the style of bebop called “the Cool.”
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
I suppose President Obama is cool by some standards, especially his approval ratings. I'm shocked that VV has not covered how his 5th year approval rating is trending similar to that of another President who used the IRS for political putposes.
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