Leonard Feather | |
|---|---|
 Feather in 1946 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Leonard Geoffrey Feather |
| Born | (1914-09-13)13 September 1914 London, England |
| Died | 22 September 1994(1994-09-22) (aged 80) Encino, California, US |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, composer |
| Instrument | Piano |
| Spouse | Jane Feather |
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-bornjazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.[1]
Feather was born inLondon, 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 ofMetronome magazine[2] and served as chiefjazz critic for theLos Angeles Times until his death.[1]
Feather made a significant contribution to the development of jazz broadcasting in Britain, first devising threeEvergreens of Jazz programmes broadcast in August and September 1936, usingGeorge Scott-Wood and His Six Swingers.[3] Leonard Feather'sSwing Time, which was first broadcast National Service in January 1937, probably derived its programme title from the1936 American RKO musical film, songs from which were featured in BBC gramophone recitals several times in December 1936. Initially trailed in theRadio Times as a programme of "Gramophone Records of Dance Music (Swing Time)".[4] He also wrote the regular 'Tempo di Jazz' column in theRadio Times in the mid-1930s.[5]
Feather's compositions have been widely recorded, including "Evil Gal Blues" and "Blowtop Blues" byDinah Washington, and what is possibly his biggest hit, "How Blue Can You Get?", co-written with his wife Jane,[6][7] recorded by blues artistsLouis Jordan andB.B. King.[1] 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."[8] 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."[9] He also hosted radio shows includingJazz Club in the early 1950s andPlatterbrains that aired from 1953 to 1958. Feather organized the firstCarnegie Hall jazz concerts, the only two jazz concerts at the originalMetropolitan Opera House.[10]
He wrote the lyrics to the jazz song "Whisper Not", which was recorded byElla Fitzgerald on her 1966Verve release of the same name.[1]
In 1984, Feather was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music fromBerklee College of Music.[11] Feather's archives are part of the International Jazz Collections at theUniversity of Idaho Library.[12]
Feather died from complications of pneumonia inEncino, Los Angeles, California, at the age of 80. He was the father of lyricist and songwriterLorraine Feather.[13]
WithLangston Hughes
