George Wein: Premer Producer Of Jazz Events

“The week after our exhilarating Armstrong incident, Big Sid (Catlett) came through once again. Hoagy Carmichael, composer of “Stardust,” and so many other standards, was working at the Copley Plaza Hotel across the square from Storyville. The Plaza had the most elegant music room in the city, and was charging a six-dollar cover for its show — steep by 1950 standards. Sid knew Hoagy, and when he went over to the Plaza, he was able to lure the songwriter back to Storyville, where to everyone’s surprise and delight, Hoagy played and sang an entire forty-minute set. First Pops, and now Hoagy. Who, I wondered, would drop in next?” -George Wein

This JerryJazzMusician interview with George Wein was conducted soon after his autobiography Myself Among Others: A Life In Music was published. In many ways, this lengthy Q & A gives you a more first-hand feel for the man because his spoken responses are transcribed as he said them. The book, on the other hand, is often written from his thought process. Here, you can hear his voice in the truest sense of that phrase.

-Michael Cuscuna

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