I was hired by Dan in January of 1970 as Associate Editor (there were, in reality, only two full-time editorial staffers at the Chicago headquarters--and birthplace--of Down Beat). I had just been discharged after 4 years with the Air Force Band of the Midwest (clarinet, tenor, flute) and worked a grand total of three weeks at the Chicago Tribune when the DB spot opened up. I had to take it!
When Ira Gitler, who manned the NY office, was fired about six months later, it was decided to move Dan to NY where the DB editor always should have been--and leave the bulk of the editorial production to me and give me the title of Managing Editor. Somehow it worked, with daily phone calls and page proofs sent by overnight express mail. (Sometimes they never arrived in NY until the mag went to press, so it was all up to me and me alone to give the pages one final look!)
I loved that man, learned a ton from him, valued his high degree of trust in me, and on the last day of 1972--our last phone call before I left to return to the Chicago Tribune--he was in tears. My successor's inadequacy so stressed him that he left about 4-5 months later to take, I believe, the Rutgers gig. I thought he'd be DB editor for life (one of the reasons I accepted the Tribune offer to return), but many things in life turn out quite differently than we think.
How many people can say they worked closely with a man who was once invited to Louis Armstrong's house in Queens as Pops' sole dinner guest and with Pops doing the cooking (N'awlins style, of course). If that doesn't tell you the esteem in which he was held by the royalty of jazz, nothing will.
Dan Morgenstern's father was a childhood friend of the Austrian novelist and journalist, Joseph Roth. Roth was an interesting character whose work foretold the coming of WW2 and the Holocaust. Morgenstern met Roth when he was a child and was probably the last living person who knew Roth personally.
Blogger Michael Steinman at jazzlives.blogspot.com has over the last several years done a series of interviews with Dan which I encourage people to check out.
I was hired by Dan in January of 1970 as Associate Editor (there were, in reality, only two full-time editorial staffers at the Chicago headquarters--and birthplace--of Down Beat). I had just been discharged after 4 years with the Air Force Band of the Midwest (clarinet, tenor, flute) and worked a grand total of three weeks at the Chicago Tribune when the DB spot opened up. I had to take it!
When Ira Gitler, who manned the NY office, was fired about six months later, it was decided to move Dan to NY where the DB editor always should have been--and leave the bulk of the editorial production to me and give me the title of Managing Editor. Somehow it worked, with daily phone calls and page proofs sent by overnight express mail. (Sometimes they never arrived in NY until the mag went to press, so it was all up to me and me alone to give the pages one final look!)
I loved that man, learned a ton from him, valued his high degree of trust in me, and on the last day of 1972--our last phone call before I left to return to the Chicago Tribune--he was in tears. My successor's inadequacy so stressed him that he left about 4-5 months later to take, I believe, the Rutgers gig. I thought he'd be DB editor for life (one of the reasons I accepted the Tribune offer to return), but many things in life turn out quite differently than we think.
How many people can say they worked closely with a man who was once invited to Louis Armstrong's house in Queens as Pops' sole dinner guest and with Pops doing the cooking (N'awlins style, of course). If that doesn't tell you the esteem in which he was held by the royalty of jazz, nothing will.
R.I.P., my good friend and mentor!
Jim Szantor
Lake Barrington, IL
What a great memory of Dan, giving us a window into another part of his life--THANK YOU JIM!
Dan Morgenstern's father was a childhood friend of the Austrian novelist and journalist, Joseph Roth. Roth was an interesting character whose work foretold the coming of WW2 and the Holocaust. Morgenstern met Roth when he was a child and was probably the last living person who knew Roth personally.
Very interesting! Dan was very proud of his father and showed me the six-volume complete works of Soma Morgenstern in German. THANK YOU DAVID
Nice tribute Lewis!
I'll say a lot more about Dan, probably in 2025. Thank you Gerard!
His achievements as a jazz scholar inspired me to try to be as influential a figure as he was in his field in the non-fiction topics I write about.
That's quite a tribute--THANK YOU DAVID
Blogger Michael Steinman at jazzlives.blogspot.com has over the last several years done a series of interviews with Dan which I encourage people to check out.
Yes, there's a total of MANY hours there, in 15 minute segments, but I think this is the current link:
https://jazzlives.wordpress.com/2023/10/24/thank-you-dan-mister-morgenstern-turns-94-today/
THANK YOIU!