A. B. Spellman

Alfred Spellman Bennett ( born August 12, 1935 in Nixonton at Elizabeth City, North Carolina) is an American jazz writer, music critic and lyricist.

Life and work

Spellman is the son of teachers and studied in 1952 at Howard University, where in 1956 he made the bachelor's degree in political science and history. Even at the university, where he belonged to the university choir, he began writing about music. In 1958 he moved to New York City, where he wrote poetry, law courses attended, worked in bookstores, from 1959 reviews for Down Beat and Metronome wrote and early 1960s a radio program ' Where It 's at " at WBAI had. Characteristic of him this was his special openness of the emergent avant-garde at this time. He also wrote poetry. In 1964 his poetry collection " The Beautiful Days". In 1966 his book " Four Lives in the Bebop Business ," in which he portrayed the (colored) jazz musician Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Nichols and Jackie McLean. In 1967 he toured "black" colleges and universities in the U.S. with other black poets. 1968/1969 he wrote political columns ( and poems ) for " Rhythm Magazine". He also lectured at various U.S. universities (such as Emory ). From 1972 to 1975 he was professor of African American Studies at Harvard University. After that, he was until 2005 a senior position with the NEA in Washington, DC, the U.S. public cultural funding. In addition to his activities at the NEA, where he particularly promoted the jazz music, he was also an advisor to the African-American Museum of the Smithsonian Institute.

Writings

• Four Jazz Lives, University of Michigan Press 2004 (new edition of " Four Lives in the Bebop Business ", New York, Pantheon Books, 1966)
• Art Tatum, series Giants of Jazz, Time-Life 1982
• Beautiful Days Poems, New York, Poet 's Press, 1965 ( Introduction Frank O'Hara )
• Things i must have known. Poetry. Minneapolis, Coffee House Press 2008