Wishes upon the stars

September 30, 2008

Pannonica de Koenigswarter is a jazz legend, but not for any virtuosity on an instrument. She is famous for having befriended scores of musicians as a high-powered patron of jazz. She had an especially close association with both Thelonious Monk and his wife. Charlie Parker died in her apartment.

Now we have a new window onto de Koenigswarter's life. What we didn't know: She had undertaken a little project in which she asked every musician she knew to write down their three wishes. And she took Polaroids of them - in her apartment, in clubs. Here are the fruits of her labor, 20 years after her death: " Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats," a wonderfully voyeuristic book released tomorrow that offers little snapshots into the psyches of some of jazz's biggest (and smallest) names.

The things we see and learn! There's Monk dancing around de Koenigswarter's apartment (above) in a series of candid photos. There's a haunting shot of Miles Davis, whose list of wishes contains just one: "To be white."

Many musicians wish for money, which is not so much a symbol of greed as it is a symptom of the substandard pay musicians were earning. A lot of them wish for happiness or greater recognition of jazz as high art.

Some wishes are heartbreaking. (Art Farmer: "There is only one: to like myself.") Some are bizarre. (Sun Ra: "A flexible instrument which could reflect every mood of any being, even a cat or a bird's.") Some are surprisingly humble. (Andrew Hill: "To learn how to be a man.") And some are just messing with you. (Dexter Gordon: "The things I want you can't put in your book.")

Well, Dexter, she finally did. [Steve Greenlee]