R.I.P. Stanley Crouch

The jazz critic and writer Stanley Crouch has died. He was 74. He published widely, including essays, novels, plays and poetry – but he is best known for his music criticism. And within that jazz. He was a rigid purist. He hated hip-hop, he was in vocal opposition to rap and its tendencies to lead astray the black youth – and he got that wrong. And soun…