#Stanley Crouch, Jazz Historian and Critic, Dead at 74

Stanley Crouch, the author best known for his critical writing in the world of jazz, died today after years of health issues, NPR reports. His wife Gloria Nixon-Crouch announced the news. He was 74.

Crouch became a staff writer for The Village Voice in 1979 and was there until 1988. He was published by numerous publications, including Harper’s, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. He was a founder of the Lincoln Jazz Center.

He was the recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant and named an NEA Jazz Master in 2019. He was an advisor and frequent presence in Ken Burns’ Jazz. He wrote the liner notes for dozens of iconic jazz albums, including releases by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, and Chick Corea. His books include Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews, 1979-1989, a biography of Charlie Parker called Kansas City Lightning,  and the collection Considering Genius: Writings on Jazz. He wrote two novels and multiple plays.

“Each generation has a moment, or an embodiment, of hard-earned integrity and the keenest insight,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. once wrote. “Among our generation of writers, Stanley Crouch is that moment.”