The historian and intellectual Eric Hobsbawm died earlier today at the age of 95.
His writings about jazz – both in his own name and under the name of Francis Newton – made a substantial contribution over many years to keeping the flame alive.
He wrote about this in a short memoir in 2010 for the London Review of Books. It is a touching piece, chronicling the joys which the association with jazz brought him. In sadness. RIP.
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Tony Dudley-Evans writes:
I would like to pay tribute to Eric Hobsbawn whose pieces I used to read in the New Statesman.
His book The Jazz Scene has a very comprehensive and fascinating description of the jazz audience of the 1960s. I recently re-read it and was very interested in how different today's audience is.
I also enjoyed his autobiography, which includes a wonderful description of his upbringing in Vienna immediately after The First World War.
thanks for sharing..
Tony Haynes writes:
I was pleased to see your blog note the passing of ‘Francis Newton’ last week, and was moved to a remiscence of my own, which to my delight the Guardian published in its Letters page on Saturday.
In case it may interest you, here’s the link.