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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, 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'' 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
critic for the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' 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 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'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'' 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, one of the most popular black female recording artists of the 1950s. Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a ...
, and what is possibly his biggest hit, "
How Blue Can You Get?", co-written with his wife Jane, recorded 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 "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the King ...
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, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
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 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 university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...
. 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, United States. Established in 1889 and opened three years later, it was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963.
The un ...
Library.
Feather died from complications of pneumonia in
Encino, Los Angeles, California, at the age of 80. He was the father of lyricist and songwriter
Lorraine Feather.
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 piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life.
Born and raised in Washington, D ...
(
Horizon Press)
*1956: ''The Encyclopedia Yearbook of Jazz'' (Horizon)
**''1993 reprint'' (
Da Capo Press),
*1963: ''Laughter from the Hip'' co-written with
Jack Tracy (Da Capo),
*1966: ''The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties''
*1972: ''From Satchmo to Miles'' (Stein and Day)
**''1987 reprint'' (Da Capo),
*1977: ''Inside Jazz'' (Da Capo),
*1977: ''The Pleasures of Jazz'' (Delacorte),
*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
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
),
*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'' (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 (Mainstream)
*1971: ''Freedom Jazz Dance'' (Mainstream)
*1971–1972: ''Night Blooming'' (Mainstream)
*1972: ''All-Stars'' (Mainstream)
*1997: ''Presents Bop'' (Tofrec)
With
Langston Hughes
*''
Weary Blues'' (MGM, 1959)
References
External links
*
*
Leonard Feather recordingsat Sound Fountain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feather, Leonard
1914 births
1994 deaths
20th-century British classical musicians
20th-century British pianists
20th-century English composers
20th-century English male musicians
20th-century British jazz composers
Alumni of University College London
Bebop pianists
British male jazz composers
British male jazz pianists
Discographers
English blues musicians
English emigrants to the United States
English jazz composers
English jazz pianists
English male composers
English music journalists
English record producers
Grammy Award winners
Jazz writers
Jewish English musicians
Jewish jazz musicians
Swing pianists