George Frazier (journalist)

George Francis Frazier Jr. (June 10, 1911 – June 13, 1974) was an American journalist.

Early life

Frazier was raised in South Boston, attended the Boston Latin School, and was graduated from Harvard College (where he won the Boylston Prize for Rhetoric) in 1932.

Career

He wrote for the Boston newspapers and for Esquire magazine, as well as many other venues, including the New York papers. Beginning as a jazz critic, his Sweet and Low Down column, debuting in the Boston Herald on January 27, 1942, was the first regular jazz column in an American big-city daily. He soon left jazz criticism for general journalism. He concluded his career as a much-revered columnist for The Boston Globe. Called "Acidmouth" by his publishers at Down Beat, he was known for his arch style, acerbic wit, erudite Olympian pronouncements on men's fashion, and general je ne sais quoi.

Frazier wrote the song "Harvard Blues" (music by Tab Smith), recorded in 1941 by Count Basie and included on the compilation The Count Basie Story, Disc 3 - Harvard Blues (2001, Proper Records).

Thanks to his writing, Frazier earned a place on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

Quotes

It feels like snow, he said, and it was all there, all the sadness and all the silveryness in a single sentence.

— George Frazier, 1960s column in the Boston Herald

All I'm trying to say, really, is that most boutique customers should be lined up before a firing squad at dawn and that there should be a minute of silence to thank God for the existence of people like Miles Davis.

— George Frazier, liner notes for 1965 album Miles Davis' Greatest Hits

Duende was George Frazier's favorite word. It is, of course, the precise word to describe his life and his writings: roughly translated—grace, wit and class.

— Studs Terkel

Links to writings by Frazier

• "The Art of Wearing Clothes", article by George Frazier, Esquire magazine, September 1960
• "Whose Civil Rights", column by George Frazier, Boston Herald, August 30, 1963
• Small sample of Frazier's jazz criticism from 1942, JazzBoston
• "Warlord of the Weejuns", Frazier's liner notes for the 1965 album Miles Davis' Greatest Hits (reprinted in Ivy Style, May 10, 2010)

References

• Fountain, Charles (1984). Another Man's Poison: The Life and Writings of Columnist George Frazier. Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 0-87106-857-5.
• Whitman, Alden (June 15, 1974). "George Frazier, Writer, 63, Dies; Columnist for Boston Globe, Life Editor, Jazz Critic Fond of Nantucket Wrote Monthly Column"". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
• Rodricks, Dan (August 13, 1990). "So just who has duende?". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
• Vacca, Richard. "Of Datelines and Down Beats: Jazz, George Frazier, and Late-Night Boston". JazzBoston. Archived from the original on May 30, 2010. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
• Negri, Gloria (June 27, 2008). "Mimsi Harbach, 87; former wife, partner of columnist George Frazier". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
• Maroney , Edward F. (March 12, 2010). "(Untitled)". The Barnstable Patriot. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
• Fountain, Charles (June 12, 2011). "George Frazier's duende". The Boston Globe. Retrieved June 16, 2011.