Barry Ulanov

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Barry Ulanov (born April 10, 1918 in New York City , † May 7, 2000 there ) was an American writer, jazz journalist and professor of English literature.

Life

Ulanov was the son of Nathan Ulanov, the concertmaster of the NBC orchestra under Arturo Toscanini , and initially learned classical violin, but this was ruined by a car accident as a child in which both wrists broke. Until 1939 he studied literature and art history at Columbia University (among others with Franz Boas , Lionel Trilling ), especially to be closer to the Harlem jazz center. While still a student, he was editor of the Columbia Literary Magazines and already wrote about jazz (1939-1941 in Swing, 1941-1943 in Review of Recorded Music, from 1940 to 1942 in lists ), so that it then by George T. Simon publishing the magazine Metronome was offered. From 1943 to 1955 he was the editor of Metronome (at that time still more oriented towards classical music ). During this time he made numerous contacts and supported, together with Leonard Feather , in particular the then newly emerged bebop and Charlie Parker against the resistance of the traditionalists. In 1947 he organized a radio battle between his Metronome All-Stars with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie against the more traditional musicians of Rudi Blesh and his This is Jazz show, and the modernists won in the listeners' vote. Also in the 1940s, he directed jazz programs for US military broadcasters. He then had a regular column in Down Beat from 1955 to 1958 and later wrote numerous articles on a wide variety of cultural topics such as: B. Esquire and Vogue.

In 1955 Ulanov received his PhD from Columbia University on Alberti and perspective. From 1951 to 1953 he taught English literature at Princeton and from 1953 to 1988 at Barnard College at Columbia University , where he was most recently McIntosh Professor of English Literature. At the same time he was adjunct professor of religion at Columbia University. After his retirement he taught at the Union Theological Seminar in New York in the Department of Psychiatry and Religion, where his second wife, the psychotherapist Anne Bedford Ulanov, was also a professor. During his career he has also given guest lectures at numerous universities around the world (he was fluent in over a dozen languages).

In the 1950s, after his conversion from Orthodox to Catholic in 1951, he was also active in intellectual circles of the Catholic Church with his wife Joan Bel Geddes (married 1939 to 1968), as President of the Catholic Renascence and founder of the St. Thomas More Society as well at the Second Vatican Council (where he worked on the translation of the liturgy, among other things).

In addition to jazz books (including the first biography of Duke Ellington , a planned Armstrong biography never came about), which were widely distributed, Ulanov also wrote books (around 50 in total) about theater, art in contemporary American culture (such as Modern culture and the Arts, 1972, with James Hall), Religion, e.g. B. in relation to literature, most recently religion and psychology in particular, with his second wife Ann, with whom he had been married since 1968. He was influenced by Carl Gustav Jung , about whom he also wrote Jung and the Outside World (1992). He also translated from French (including the last essays by Georges Bernanos ).

From 1962 to 1963 he was a Guggenheim Fellow.

He had three children from his first marriage and one child from his second marriage.

Others

Ulanov worked a. a. for the architect IM Pei as acoustics consultant. Lennie Tristano , also promoted by Ulanov in Metronome, dedicated Cooling off with Barry Ulanov to him.

Works about jazz

  • Duke Ellington 1946
  • The Incredible Crosby 1948 (via Bing Crosby )
  • A history of Jazz in America 1952
  • A Handbook of Jazz 1957

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ His engagement earned him the rare praise of Miles Davis in his autobiography for being one of the "handful of white music critics" (he also names Leonard Feather) who knew something about bebop. Miles Davis: Autobiography. Hoffmann and Campe, p. 80
personal data
SURNAME Ulanov, Barry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 2000
Place of death New York City