To the editors:
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For a few years now, I have read the two major jazz critics at the dailies blast WNUA and blame us for everything wrong with jazz and the Chicago Jazz Festival. Even this year, when our profile was low, we continued to get blasted in print. I’ve come to expect it from them, but certainly not from Neil Tesser, someone who, while not agreeing with what we do, understands more than most jazz purists what we do. I was certainly surprised at his quote that we “think” we play jazz, and we don’t play “any” jazz.
The second point first: While WNUA doesn’t play pure acoustic jazz, I know Tesser knows that on Saturday nights WNUA does play a higher percentage of acoustic jazz from 7 PM to 5 AM on the Ramsey Lewis Show, the Sounds of Brazil, Jazz Chicago Style, and my own program. He knows because he was a guest on the Ramsey Lewis Show not long ago, and Tesser got a chance to play what he calls jazz. And if we don’t play “any” jazz, why does he from time to time ask me to come back on the program and why has he sought employment at WNUA? I feel it was irresponsible for Tesser to make that comment. It was also self-serving, something he does know something about. As a friend, I took the slap personally.
I could go on about how I feel the antagonistic attitude of the local press, WBEZ, and certain members of the Jazz Institute of Chicago are ruining not only the Chicago Jazz Festival but fragmenting our very healthy jazz scene. Or why what Dick Buckley plays will outlast everything Larry Smith and Tesser plays. But those are other stories and other letters.
