Stanley Dance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley Dance(born September 15, 1910 in Braintree, Essex; died February 23, 1999 in San Diego, California) was a noted writer and biographer in jazz. He began writing about the Jazz scene for the French magazine Jazz Hot in 1935 and then moved to the United States in 1937. He wrote for Jazz Journal from 1948 to 1976. In the 1950s he coined the term Mainstream to describe those in between revivalist and modern, or alternatively between Dixieland and Bebop. He is credited with helping lead to a rediscovery of Earl Hines in 1964.
He also contributed Liner notes for a variety of musicians including Duke Ellington and Count Basie. In 1964 he was the co-winner of the first Grammy Award for Best Album Notes. He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999, the year of his death.
His distaste for Bebop, and most innovations in Jazz after it, has made him controversial. That said he is admired as a champion of what he does like and a significant biographer of early jazz greats.
[edit] Partial Bibliography
- Jazz Era the Forties (The Roots of jazz) (Da Capo Press, 1961) ISBN 0306761912
- The World of Count Basie (Da Capo Press, 1985) ISBN 0306802457
- The World of Duke Ellington (Da Capo Press) ISBN 0306810158
- The World of Earl Hines with Earl Hines (Da Capo Paperback, March 1983) ISBN 0306801825
- The World of Swing: An Oral History of Big Band Jazz with Dan Morgenstern (Da Capo Press;Diane Publishing Company re-edition 2003) ISBN 0756766729
