Dick Sudhalter
| Dick Sudhalter | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Richard Sudhalter |
| Born |
December 28, 1938 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 19, 2008 (aged 69) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Trumpeter, author |
| Instruments | Trumpet, cornet |
| Years active | 1964–2003 |
| Associated acts | New York Jazz Repertory Company New Paul Whiteman Band Classic Jazz Quartet |
Richard "Dick" Sudhalter (December 28, 1938 – September 19, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter, scholar, critic, and album annotator.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Sudhalter was inspired to pursue a musical career by his father Al Sudhalter, a noted Boston-area saxophone soloist. He began playing the cornet at 12 and within a few years was performing professionally. After graduating from Oberlin College, he moved to Europe in 1964, later becoming a United Press International correspondent. In 1968 he covered the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia from Prague for UPI and was subsequently assigned the role of Manager for Eastern Europe. During his twelve years living in Europe and the UK, he also wrote under the pseudonym "Art Napoleon." He wrote jazz criticism for the New York Post from 1978 to 1984.
In 1974 Sudhalter and Philip R. Evans co-wrote Bix: Man and Legend, the standard biography of jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and the first jazz biography ever to be nominated for a National Book Award. Music critic Terry Teachout has called the book "a 'landmark of jazz scholarship' and the 'first jazz biography written to the standards' of a serious study of a classical composer or other major historical figure." Sudhalter's other books are Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945 (1999) and Stardust Melody (2002), the first full-length biography of Hoagy Carmichael. Lost Chords ignited some controversy for its assertion that jazz was shaped by both black and white musicians. Sudhalter received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Citation for Excellence for Lost Chords, and a Grammy Award in 1983 for his liner notes for Bunny Berigan: Giants of Jazz.
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