Another Quiz
Doing that quickie quiz earlier today reminded me that when I used to send out a Jazz Collector newsletter back in 2004 and 2005, I used to run a quiz every week. So I looked back in the archives and came up with this one, a little bit tougher than the “Buckshot La Funke.” Here’s the question:
Who was the subject of Leonard Feather’s First Blindfold Test in Downbeat Magazine?
We’ll see who comes up with this one.
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Rudolf guessed George Shearing on another post. That is not correct, but a good guess. Any other guesses? I’ll post a couple of clues later today if no one gets it.
Is this a trick question? Leonard developed the concept first for Metronome, so that would have been Mary Lou Williams. The first for Downbeat, would have been (not certain) Roy Eldridge?
Hi, Jason. It was not a trick question, just a very poorly worded question. I meant to ask who was the subject of the first Blindfold Test in 1946? And you are correct. That was Mary Lou Williams and it was in Metronome. Congratulations. By inadvertently adding the word “Downbeat” I asked a question to which I do not know the answer. I am embarrassed. I know that the first Downbeat Blindfold Test was in March 1951, but I haven’t been able to get the name of the first subject. I’m hoping someone in the audience can help us out – otherwise I’m going to have to march over to my storage place where I have boxes of Downbeats buried 12-deep and I’m going to have to pray that,somewhere in there I can find the full set of March 1951 issues. I had a feeling these quizzes were a bad idea. –al
Not at all. These quizzes are great!
Thanks. The Eldridge answer is interesting, because he did do a fairly famous Blindfold test in Downbeat in 1951, although I don’t think it was the first one. Eldridge was on record as claiming he could easily distinguish between black and white musicians. So Feather tried him out. Turns out, Eldridge had no clue. At one point he famously said: “They could be Eskimos for all I know.”