Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.
Biography
Feather was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England, into an upper middle-class Jewish family. He learned to play the piano and clarinet without formal training and started writing about jazz and film by his late teens. At the age of twenty-one, Feather made his first visit to the United States, and after working in the UK and the US as a record producer finally settled in New York City in 1939, where he lived until moving to Los Angeles in 1960. Feather was co-editor of ''
Metronome
A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats pe ...
'' magazine and served as chief
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
critic for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' until his death.
Feather made a significant contribution to the development of jazz broadcasting in Britain, first devising three ''Evergreens of Jazz'' programmes broadcast in August and September 1936, using
George Scott-Wood
George Scott-Wood (27 May 1903 – 28 October 1978) was a British pianist, accordionist, arranger and bandleader.
Biography
George Scott Wood (with no hyphen) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and studied classical piano as a child. He gave publ ...
and His Six Swingers. Leonard Feather's ''Swing Time'', which was first broadcast National Service in January 1937, probably derived its programme title from the
1936 American RKO musical film, songs from which were featured in BBC gramophone recitals several times in December 1936. Initially trailed in the ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves ...
'' as a programme of "Gramophone Records of Dance Music (Swing Time)". He also wrote the regular 'Tempo di Jazz' column in the ''Radio Times'' in the mid-1930s.
Feather's compositions have been widely recorded, including "Evil Gal Blues" and "Blowtop Blues" by
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s songs". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performe ...
, and what is possibly his biggest hit, "
How Blue Can You Get?" by blues artists
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...
and
B.B. King.
But it was as a writer on jazz (as a journalist, critic, historian, and campaigner) that he made his biggest mark: "Feather was for a long time the most widely read and most influential writer on jazz." Even jazz enthusiasts who did not read his books and articles would have known him from the liner notes that he wrote for hundreds of jazz albums. He was not always a neutral commentator on the jazz scene: "Feather's skill at writing glowing advance press pieces about artists he was to record, including his own compositions on the session, and then reviewing his own productions as if he were an impartial critic, was almost an art form in itself." He also hosted radio shows including ''Jazz Club'' in the early 1950s and ''Platterbrains'' that aired from 1953 to 1958. Feather organized the first
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...
jazz concerts, the only two jazz concerts at the original
Metropolitan Opera House.
He wrote the lyrics to the jazz song "
Whisper Not", which was recorded by
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
on her 1966
Verve release of the same name.
In 1984, Feather was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
. Feather's archives are part of the International Jazz Collections at the
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The Universit ...
Library.
Feather died from complications of pneumonia in
Encino, Los Angeles
Encino ( Spanish for "oak") is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.
History
In 1769, the Spanish Portolá expedition, first Europeans to see inland areas of California, traveled north through Sepulveda ...
, California, at the age of 80. He was the father of lyricist and songwriter
Lorraine Feather
Lorraine Feather (born Billie Jane Lee Lorraine Feather; September 10, 1948) is an American singer, lyricist, and songwriter.
Early life
A native of Manhattan, she was born to jazz writer Leonard Feather and his wife Jane, a former big band si ...
.
Bibliography
*1955: ''The Encyclopedia of Jazz'', with foreword by
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...
(Horizon Press)
*1956: ''The Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz'' (Horizon)
**''1993 reprint'' (Da Capo)
*1963: ''Laughter from the Hip'' co-written with
Jack Tracy
Jack Tracy (July 27, 1926 in Minneapolis, Minnesota – December 21, 2010 in Nooksack, Washington) was an American jazz producer and journalist.
Early years
Tracy enlisted in the Navy in World War II and served as a medic treating a ...
(Da Capo)
*1966: ''The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties''
*1977: ''Inside Jazz'' (Da Capo)
*1977: ''Pleasures of Jazz'' (Delacorte)
*1987: ''From Satchmo to Miles'' (Da Capo)
*1987: ''Encyclopedic Yearbook of Jazz'' reprint (Da Capo)
*1987: ''The Jazz Years – Earwitness to an Era'' (Da Capo)
*1988: ''Book of Jazz'' (Horizon)
*1999: ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' co-written with
Ira Gitler, second (revised) edition (Oxford University Press)
*2000: ''Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''
Discography
*1937–1945: ''Leonard Feather 1937–1945'' (Classics)
*1951: ''Leonard Feather's Swingin' Swedes'' (Prestige)
*1954: ''Dixieland vs. Birdland'' (MGM)
*1954: ''Cats Vs. Chicks'' (MGM)
*1954: ''
Winter Sequence
''Winter Sequence'' is a 1954 Christmas jazz album from American pianist Ralph Burns and British music critic Leonard Feather with an ad hoc ensemble of musicians, released on MGM Records.
Recording, release, and reception
Feather compos ...
'' (MGM)
*1956: ''West Coast vs. East Coast'' (MGM)
*1956: ''Swingin' on the Vibories'' (MGM)
*1957: ''Hi-Fi Suite'' (MGM)
*1957: ''52nd Street'' (VSOP)
*1958: ''Swingin' Seasons'' (MGM)
*1959: ''Jazz from Two Sides'' (Concept)
*1971: ''Night Blooming Jazzmen'' featuring
Kittie Doswell
Kittie Doswell (April 14, 1939 – May 1, 2011) was an American R&B, soul and jazz vocalist from Houston, Texas, United States, who later in life began a public service career.
Music career
Doswell made a handful of notable, highly collectible ...
(Mainstream)
*1971: ''Freedom Jazz Dance'' (Mainstream)
*1971–1972: ''Night Blooming'' (Mainstream)
*1972: ''All-Stars'' (Mainstream)
*1997: ''Presents Bop'' (Tofrec)
With
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, H ...
*''
Weary Blues'' (MGM, 1959)
References
External links
*
Leonard Featherpianist and producer appearing on Donald H. Gabor's Continental 78 RPM Jazz Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feather, Leonard
1914 births
1994 deaths
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century English composers
20th-century British pianists
Alumni of University College London
Bebop pianists
British emigrants to the United States
Discographers
English blues musicians
English Jews
English jazz composers
English jazz pianists
English male composers
English music journalists
English record producers
Grammy Award winners
Jazz writers
Jewish jazz musicians
Jewish British musicians
Male jazz composers
Swing pianists
British male pianists
20th-century British male musicians
20th-century jazz composers