Nice write up of the Hentoff film by Arnold J. Smith:
After my third viewing of the DVD I distilled a few “Hentoff-ian” notable simpatico to me quotables:
# [When something goes wrong] “I listen to jazz; that always gets me up.”
# [On his religious non-affiliation] “I’m a Jewish atheist; a special edition of the branch.”
# [When he first heard Artie Shaw's "Nightmare" blaring out from a record store in Boston] “It was like a chazan (cantor) singing; a geschrei (scream).”
# [On being fired from Down Beat] “I believe it was because I hired a black secretary who turned out to be Egyptian.” (I used his temperance penchant as a template for my own story ideas for the mag.)
# [On jazz as a discipline] “It has immediacy.”
And finally quoting a mentor: “Take it easy; but take it!”
© arnold jay smith July 2014
