Archives for June 12, 2006

Richard M. Sudhalter, the distinguished trumpeter, biographer, and jazz scholar, needs your help.

Dick (he’s a friend) suffered a stroke three years ago. Though he subsequently recovered from many of its effects, he has now fallen victim to a rare, equally debilitating illness of the nervous system called multiple system atrophy. It’s hitting him hard, and his medical bills are piling up.

Alas, good works don’t always reap financial rewards, and Dick has spent the whole of his long, productive life laboring in important but unrenumerative cultural vineyards. He is the author of such essential works of jazz and popular-music scholarship as Lost Chords and Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael. In addition, he co-wrote Bix: Man and Legend, one of the first truly scholarly jazz biographies, and has played on any number of fine recordings, including two of my favorite jazz albums, The Classic Jazz Quartet: The Complete Recordings and his own Melodies Heard, Melodies Sweet. Needless to say, Dick didn’t make a whole lot of money out of any of these undertakings, but he thought they needed doing, so he did them anyway.

Some of Dick’s friends are organizing an all-star benefit concert to help pay his medical expenses. It will be held at seven p.m. on September 10 at St. Peter’s Church in New York City. Mark your calendar–it should be a memorable evening.

In the meantime, though, Dick is scheduled to go to the Mayo Clinic on August 24, and he needs immediate assistance in order to pay for the trip (among many other urgent things).

As you know, I don’t make a habit of posting appeals like this, but Dick Sudhalter’s case is special. Even if you aren’t familiar with his work, take my word for it–he deserves your help.

To find out what you can do, go here.

Here are the winners of this year’s Tony Awards.

Here are my predictions.

You do the math.

I’ve come down with a horrible summer cold, the kind that makes your head feel like a chunk of moist concrete. Though copious consumption of piping-hot fluids has kept me alive, I can’t claim much more than that: I had to go see Paper Mill Playhouse’s revival of Hello, Dolly! on Saturday night, but all I was good for on Sunday was sitting on the couch and watching old movies.

The good news, of course, is that I have nothing worse than a cold. This is, in fact, the first time I’ve been sick since I got out of the hospital in December. Lousy as I feel–and I do feel lousy–it’s comforting to know that this bug won’t force me to call an ambulance.

For the moment, though, I don’t feel like doing anything but watching TV and pointing you to my contribution to Coudal Partners’ Field-Tested Books series. (For Our Girl’s contribution, go here.)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go blow my nose. I’ll be back when I’m back.

“War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. ‘Art and nothing but art,’ said Nietzsche, ‘we have art in order not to die of the truth.'”

Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus