George Frazier (journalist)

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.mmone.org/frankie-newton/ |title=Frankie Newton |author=Con Chapmam |date= |publisher=Music Museum of New England |accessdate=March 18, 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/sprezzatura |title=Sprezzatura |author=Roger Angell |date=March 3, 2015 |work=The New Yorker |accessdate=March 18, 2021}}

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.

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

|2=George Frazier, 1960s column in the Boston Herald}}

{{quote|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.

|2=George Frazier, liner notes for 1965 album Miles Davis' Greatest Hits}}

{{quote|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.

|2=Studs Terkel{{cite web |url=http://underthemarchsun.com/about-the-author/previous-books/another-mans-poison/ |title=Another Man's Poison |author=Fountain, Charles |date=January 30, 2009 |accessdate=June 6, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717154247/http://underthemarchsun.com/about-the-author/previous-books/another-mans-poison/ |archive-date=July 17, 2011 |url-status=dead }}}}

• [http://www.dandyism.net/the-art-of-wearing-clothes/ "The Art of Wearing Clothes"], article by George Frazier, Esquire magazine, September 1960
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20020612192715/http://www.bobdylanroots.com/whose.html "Whose Civil Rights"]}}, column by George Frazier, Boston Herald, August 30, 1963
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100530111647/http://www.jazzboston.org/scene/history-frazier.asp Small sample of Frazier's jazz criticism from 1942, JazzBoston]
• [http://www.ivy-style.com/category/jazz "Warlord of the Weejuns", Frazier's liner notes for the 1965 album Miles Davis' Greatest Hits (reprinted in Ivy Style, May 10, 2010)]

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• {{cite book |title=Another Man's Poison: The Life and Writings of Columnist George Frazier |last=Fountain |first=Charles |year=1984 |publisher=Globe Pequot Press |isbn=0-87106-857-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/anothermanspoiso00foun|url-access=registration }}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/15/archives/george-frazier-writer-63-dies-columnist-for-boston-globe-life.html|author=Whitman, Alden |date=June 15, 1974 |title=George Frazier, Writer, 63, Dies; Columnist for Boston Globe, Life Editor, Jazz Critic Fond of Nantucket Wrote Monthly Column". |work=The New York Times|accessdate=February 7, 2017}}
• {{cite web |url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/keyword/george-frazier |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180928/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/keyword/george-frazier |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |title=So just who has duende? |author=Rodricks, Dan |date=August 13, 1990 |work=The Baltimore Sun |accessdate=June 6, 2010}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.jazzboston.org/scene/history-downbeats.asp |title=Of Datelines and Down Beats: Jazz, George Frazier, and Late-Night Boston |author=Vacca, Richard |publisher=JazzBoston |accessdate=June 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530111642/http://www.jazzboston.org/scene/history-downbeats.asp |archivedate=May 30, 2010 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/06/27/mimsi_harbach_87_former_wife_partner_of_columnist_george_frazier/ |title=Mimsi Harbach, 87; former wife, partner of columnist George Frazier |author=Negri, Gloria |date=June 27, 2008 |work=The Boston Globe |accessdate=June 6, 2010}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20552&Itemid=32 |title=(Untitled) |author=Maroney , Edward F. |date=March 12, 2010 |work=The Barnstable Patriot |accessdate=June 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707213658/http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20552&Itemid=32 |archivedate=July 7, 2011 }}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/06/12/george_fraziers_duende/ |title=George Frazier's duende |author=Fountain, Charles |date=June 12, 2011 |work=The Boston Globe |accessdate=June 16, 2011}}

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Category:1911 births

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American male journalists

Category:American columnists

Category:Jazz writers

Category:Obituary writers

Category:1974 deaths

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:The Boston Globe people