Shelly Manne: “Portrait of a Jazz Success” by John Tynan
Shelly Manne: “Portrait of a Jazz Success” by John Tynan
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“52nd Street was a garden – a very special place where you could learn and grow. Young players were reassured and given the courage to be themselves. Competition and the question of race never came up. The players I met were a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. I’m proud the musicians liked what I did. I kept it simple and I didn’t mess up.
These guys took me around; they were my guides; my teachers. Unfortunately, most people don’t do that anymore.”
- Shelly Manne
“The real way to find out how a man plays is to find out the feelings of those who’ve played with him over a long period.”
Shelly Manne
“He was my favorite drummer. He was the most empathetic of all the drummers I had worked with.”
- Russ Freeman, Jazz pianist and composer
“Shelly’s playing was different from anybody else's. His time was better than anybody’s.”
Conte Candoli, Jazz trumpeter
“I want the customer to feel they can drop by for a beer on their way home and listen to a set without it costing them an arm and a leg.”
Shelly Manne, proprietor of The Manne Hole
With sixty-plus years of hindsight since the writing of the article captioned in the above photograph, the words Jazz + Success would seem to be oxymoronic.
But if any Jazz musician was ever more deserving of such a triumph, it would have been Shelly Manne.
The following article published in the July 5, 1962 edition of Down Beat explains many of the reasons why I feel this way.
But our view, and the appreciation of Jazz fans everywhere who experienced Shelly’s Manne Hole aside, after reading this piece, is it any wonder that Shelly’s widow, Flip, always rolled her eyes at the mere mention of the place?
But then, it seems, just about anything to do with Jazz ends up being a labor of love.
The date of this piece - 1962 - also explains the nature of Shelly’s critical remarks later in the piece as there was an influx of many new elements that pushed the music in many different directions, obviously some of which were not compatible with the straight-ahead Jazz that Shelly preferred.
It was the beginning of the total transformation of Jazz which by the end of the decade would see the evolution of styles that were fused with Rock, played on electric instruments and synthesized through a variety of electronic devices.
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