Book Review: Victory Is Assured, Stanley Crouch

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

When I spent 90 minutes in the presence of Stanley Crouch in 2014, I thought of him mostly as the most prominent advocate of Wynton Marsalis’ usurpation of the jazz establishment and as the author of the recently published Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker.  Knowing what I know now, I would almost certainly have embarrassed myself groveling before the imposing intellectual that day.  

Encountering Crouch’s extended meditation on an unlikely performance by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Disneyland in Victory Is Assured: Uncollected Writings of Stanley Crouch allowed me to belatedly recognize his brilliance.  The new posthumous collection of unpublished and uncollected essays, notes and reviews is an engaging survey of Crouch’s imposing range.

In addition to pieces addressing the familiar Crouch subjects Ellington, Marsalis and Charlie Parker, the survey includes surprising topics including a brief appreciation of the Italian actress Anna Magnani, a scathing takedown of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and a spirited defense of two critically disparaged late-career Marvin Gaye albums.

Although I relished every page of Victory Is Assured, I still don’t buy into a few core Crouch doctrines. Yet the collection allows me to better understand his loathing of rap, disdain for plugged-in crossover jazz and unequivocal endorsement of Marsalis. I only wish I’d come to this more complete understanding during his lifetime.

I'm Down with O.P.P. (Other Peoples' Pulitzers)

Original image of Raven Chacon and Paul Rudy by There Stands the Glass.

For the second time in the last 24 days I’ve attended a performance of a work by a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in the presence of the composer.  On Wednesday, October 26, Raven Chacon, the winner of the 2022 Pulitzer, heard what he estimated was the tenth reading of his “American Ledger no. 1” at Agnes Arts.

I was torn between laughing in appreciative wonder and crying with profound grief in response to the unconventional composition addressing the gradual dispossession of the continent from Native Americans.  An enormous copy of the graphic sheet music allowed the audience of about 150 to follow along with a ten-piece ensemble conducted by Paul Rudy.

With a couple accomplished locally based jazz musicians in the group conducted by Paul Rudy, the composition occasionally contained elements of swing absence from an excellent rendering of “American Ledger no. 1” in Houston.  Here’s my brief but representative video clip from Agnes Arts.

Earlier this month I marveled at sitting near 2011 Pulitzer recipient Zhou Long as his “Spirit of Chimes” was performed at a lightly attended concert in Kansas City.  There weren’t many more people at a 2018 performance of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer-winning “Anthracite Fields” at the Folly Theater.  And yes, Wolfe was in the house.

I’ve attended performances by four additional Pulitzer recipients: Ornette Coleman (2007 award), Kendrick Lamar (2018), Wynton Marsalis (1997) and Caroline Shaw (2013).  Designations give the often esoteric winners prestige they might otherwise not receive, but no one needed validation from Pulitzer voters to recognize they were in the presence of greatness at Agnes Arts on Wednesday.