Guardian 27,608 – Paul

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No doubt about whether there was a theme here, with many references to “2 great”. I got a couple of the linked answers first, which revealed what 2d had to be, and the rest followed quite smoothly. All the “greats” are very well known in the relevant field, and clearly clued, but perhaps some will be unfamiliar to non-aficionados. Thanks to Paul.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
7. LET ALONE The French story about working much less (3,5)
LE + ON (working) in TALE
9. PARKER 2 great in coat, did you say? (6)
A homophone of “parka” for the first of the JAZZ greats, the saxophonist Charlie Parker
10. GETZ 2 great understands sounds (4)
Another homophone, of “gets” (understands), for Stan Getz, another saxophonist
11. MILES DAVIS 2 great calls bird for Spooner? (5,5)
Spoonerism of “dials mavis”, mavis being another name for the song thrush
12. USEFUL Fuse blown at centre of bulb — that’s handy (6)
FUSE* in [b]UL[b]
14. SCAVENGE No stomach for chase, vegans sabotaged hunt (8)
Anagram of C[has]E + VEGANS
15. NOTICE Spot something warmer then? (6)
Something warmer could be NOT ICE
17. SELDOM Labour leader wearing retro styles rarely (6)
L[abour] in reverse of MODES
20. PEGGY LEE 2 great, tall climbing plant for Spooner? (5,3)
We don’t often see two spoonerisms in a puzzle: this one is of “leggy pea”, Peggy Lee’s real name was Norma Deloris Egstrom
22. MINGUS 2 great into jamming, usually (6)
Hidden in jamMING Usually – Charlie Mingus, bassist and pianist
23. HAIRDRIERS Those blowing hot and cold in Scottish town right to invade Outer Hebrides (10)
AIRDRIE + R in the outer letters of HebrideS
24. MEEK Submissive man evidently embarrassing kids, initially (4)
Initial letters of Man Evidently Embarrassing Kids
25. MERLIN Sheep almost swallowing large falcon (6)
L in MERIN[o]
26. STEINWAY Mug with method, his work instrumental? (8)
STEIN (beer mug) + WAY for the famous manufacturer of pianos – as played by some of the “2 greats”
Down
1. PETERSON 2 great continues to fade? (8)
PETERS ON – Oscar Peterson, Canadian pianist
2. JAZZ Stuff and nonsense noted? (4)
Two non-musical definitions of jazz from Chambers: “to have sexual intercourse (with)”, which is also a slang meaning of “stuff”; and “insincere or lying talk, nonsense (slang, esp. US)”, with “noted” to hint at the musical meaning. Or maybe the “stuff” is, more innocently, as in “all that jazz”.
3. FORMAL Stiff examination encapsulating misery primarily, fellow gets over it (6)
F + M[isery] in ORAL. This reminds me of the famous cryptic definition “A stiff examination” for POST MORTEM
4. APOSTATE Deserter, say, beneath a river (8)
A PO (river) STATE (say)
5. ARMAGEDDON A dictator finally gone mad, end of world catastrophically? (10)
A + [dictato]R + anagram of (GONE MAD [worl]D), with some overlap of wordplay and definition (or maybe an &lit, though I don’t think it really works as one)
6. SEWING Inject 2 with energy using a needle (6)
E in SWING (jazz, perhaps a little loosely)
8. ENLIST Over the way, priest welcoming new recruit (6)
N in ELI (priest in the book of Samuel) + ST
13. FITZGERALD Character last seen breaking into improvisation of rag, lifted 2 great (10)
Z (“character last”) in (RAG LIFTED)* – singer Ella Fitzgerald
16. COLTRANE Horse galloped over line finally, to see 2 great (8)
COLT + RAN + [lin]E. John Coltrane, another sax man
18. MOUSE PAD Flower given to head of promotions in Barking, IT director onto it? (5,3)
OUSE (river, “flower”) + P in MAD (barking). A computer mouse might be described as an “IT director”
19. RECESS Holiday bay (6)
Double definition
21. ENAMEL European title ending for rival, tough finish! (6)
E + NAME + [riva]L
22. MISLED Taken in the wrong direction, one sliding down the motorway? (6)
M1 SLED
24. MONK 2 great in prayer (4)
Double definition, the second to be read as pray-er, and we end the jazz greats with Thelonious Monk

54 comments on “Guardian 27,608 – Paul”

  2. Thanks Paul and Andrew.  Very enjoyable.

    I got into the theme via 22a, which could in fact be an &lit.  I really liked the two Spooner clues (though I would have expected something a bit more Paul-ish for the PEGGY LEE one).

    Of the non-themers I thought HAIRDRIERS and MOUSE PAD were great.

    My only real doubts were about the key clue itself, 2d.  JAZZ can indeed mean nonsense according to Chambers, but that’s rather an obscure sense.  As for “noted”, if that means “written down in musical notation” then that’s surely the opposite of what jazz is (or was).  But I suppose it could just mean “composed of notes” (at a stretch).

  3. Thanks Andrew and Paul – great fun. Though I wasn’t familiar with all the players, I only had recourse to a list to confirm my guesses.

     

    Just one thing, Andrew: 16d requires RAN in full, rather than just R

  4. I’m usually not fond of themed puzzles nor of spoonerisms but I really enjoyed this. Both spoonerisms raised a smile. HAIRDRIERS was troublesome as I spent far too long trying to find blowers of wind instruments – no doubt as Paul intended. Airdrie took me back to Saturday evenings listening to the football results and checking my dad’s football pools with those Scottish teams with such interesting names – Airdrieonians, Partick Thistle, Queen Of The South, Heart Of Midlothian. In those days of course football happened at 3 pm on a Saturday everywhere. But I digress…

  5. Sorry not to see the proper jazz greats like King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong et al, but an enjoyable puzzle nonetheless. I also admired the clue for 23a. I tried hard to get PM into the solution for 3d, thinking back to the classic clue mentioned byPeter.

  6. Another of those you don’t realise stuff you know until it turns up in a themed crossword days.

    D’oh moment of the day goes to the extremely long time it took me to see what might blow hot and cold

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  9. Strangely enough, my first thought for 3d was AUTOPSY, but obviously there were too many letters, so I wasted a lot of time looking for a shorter synonym.

    I cracked the theme through 6d SEWING, which couldn’t really be anything else, and it only took a little while and a couple of themed answers to redirect myself from SWING to JAZZ.

    At 2d, I took “JAZZ” to mean “stuff” as in “all that jazz” = “all that stuff”. I should have known Paul would find a dirty meaning!

    I rather enjoyed it, especially as I am in no way a jazz aficionado so could pat myself on the back for getting most of the themed answers. The one small fly in the ointment was 25a – although I liked that the definition was a falcon rather than a wizard, I am not a great fan of “guess the sheep” clues.

    Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

  10. That was quite fun, after expecting my very ad hoc jazz knowledge to be a handicap. Knew them all, including Stan Getz, tho I’m sure I’d fail an aural identification test for many of them. And completely forgot jazz as verb, hence missed stuff as same, simply thinking ‘all that jazz’= ‘all that [stuff and] nonsense’. Hey ho. Given the setter, perhaps should have been more alert.

    The Leggy Pea got a grin, was very slow to get recess (nicely distant synonym from both key words), and took ages to stop thinking something like ‘hesitaters’ and get LOI hairdryers.

    Thanks to Andrew and Paul

  11. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    I enjoyed this, though it didn’t take long after I saw the theme as I was familiar with all the greats. My way in was MILES DAVIS, one of my favourite clues, even though I don’t generally like spoonerisms. Other favourites were SCAVENGE for the great surface, and HAIRDRIERS.

    A DNF in fact, as I had carelessly put an unparsed MAT instead of PAD.

    I hope coltranesax does this one!

  14. Oops quel horreur, spelling mistake, hairdriers; long over the yardarm here, but no excuse. As for sheep, Tris, the word is almost synonymous with merino in early Oz history, hence a write-in for elderly Aussies.

  15. My way in was also SEWING then MEEK which led to MONK then the theme became apparent. I’m no jazz afficiando but all the greats were fairly clued and the one I hadn’t heard of was easy enough to GETZ. I liked HAIRDRIERS (a pdm) and SCAVENGE and the Spoonerisms. I didn’t know that mavis was a name for a thrush and that does away with my reservation over the bird being Mavis. Thanks to Andrew for that and the rest of the blog and to Paul for the puzzle.

  16. Thanks Paul for an interesting crossword. Ronald @1, ditto.

    Thanks Andrew for a good blog. I didn’t think to check in Chambers for JAZZ; pretty obscure slang meanings.

    I liked the leggy pea and the HAIR DRIERS. I took the clue for ARMAGEDDON as an &lit.

  18. Great fun. Thank you Paul and Andrew.
    You cannot mention Ella without Billie, so I’m glad she got a
    look in at 19d.
    (Andrew, I’ve left you a thought on yesterday’s blog.)
    Another thought on Wednesday’s Crucible:
    A couple of local sailors here were over three quarters
    of the way round the world when they were upended and de-masted
    in the Pacific, leaving them not only in the drink, but also in
    the soup and something else I won’t specify !

  19. And again, Andrew this time, dnk and totally missed mavis the song thrush. A tilt and a wdf (will doubtless forget).

  23. Thanks grantinfreo@14, this “elderly Aussie” aged 64 got the Merino reference for MERLIN at 25a.
    All went well though slowly throughout, but no matter how hard I tried I could not crack 23a HAIRDRIERS, so it was a DNF for me.
    Thanks to Paul, Andrew and others who commented. Jazz is not my thing, but I knew the “greats”, which was reassuring.

  25. grantinfreo @14 – yes, I thought 25a might be kinder to Aussies than to Brits. But why not, once in a while?

  28. Further thoughts on 2d JAZZ.  I would agree with Trismegistus @9 that “stuff” is meant as in “all that jazz” / “all that stuff” rather than Andrew’s suggestion.  It’s fairly well known that the original meaning of JAZZ (though it may originally have been “jass”*) was sexual (cf rock and roll), but surely as a noun.  I know Chambers does have the verb meaning “to have sexual intercourse (with)” but this seems even more obscure than the “nonsense” meaning, if indeed Chambers hasn’t just made it up.

    (By the way, does anyone actually say “sexual intercourse” any more?  A horrible phrase, which used to make me squirm with embarrassment as a child.)

    *Humphrey Lyttelton says in his book “The Best of Jazz”: “… the original spelling ‘jass’ was changed by the band [The Original Dixieland Jazz Band] because children, as well as a few impish adults, could not resist the temptation to obliterate the letter ‘j’ from their posters.”

  29. Thank you Paul and Andrew.

    I enjoyed the puzzle even though I know little about JAZZ, as is clear from my posts above.   The clues for MOUSE PAD, HAIRDRYERS and SCAVENGE were great as were those for the SPOONERISMS!

  32. Like trismegistus@3 and White King@15 I also cracked it through SWING, but MINGUS would have been the easiest way in. I’m a non-aficionado jazz-wise, so had to rack my brains a bit. Loved HAIRDRIERS and MILES DAVIS. Many thanks to the ever-witty Paul and to Andrew.

  33. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. Generally struggled with this. My knowledge of jazz is quite minuscule. I got in, like others, through sewing and then realising the theme I knew I was going to struggle. Thankfully Paul’s cluing allowed me to get most of it (some were even familiar). However a DNF for me because I stuck an unparsed Mann (Herbie) for 24d. However pleased to have got as far as I did and hey ho ” horses for course”. I loved hairdriers and thanks again to Paul and Andrew.

  34. Held myself up slightly because the first two themers I had were FITZGERALD and PARKER, which made me think writers, but once that hurdle was cleared this was fairly straightforward and entertaining. Favourite was MILES DAVIS. RECESS was last in.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  35. I loved this, mainly because I actually finished it without resorting to any outside aids, a rare event for me. Also, my late husband was a huge jazz fan, so the names were all very familiar. MINGUS was my way in to the theme too. Favourtie clues were MILES DAVIS (though I thought of Mavis as bird as in girlfriend) and HAIRDRIERS. It may be an old chestnut, but I really like Outer Hebrides for HS.
    Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  36. I thoroughly enjoyed this and for once the theme was right up my street.  My two all time favourite Jazz musicians were included COLTRANE and FITZGERALD.  And, all the other themed musicians deserved to be there. Sorry muffin and Eileen but the two spoonerisms brought a smile.  I did not parse 4d but once Andrew had ahown me the way I thought it was the COD.  STEINWAY held me up for far to long as I was looking for an instrumental player rather than a manufacturer.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  39. Hi S. Panza @36

    I don’t mind Spoonerisms –  even two in one puzzle – so long as both halves make a meaningful phrase, as here. I particularly liked MILES DAVIS.

    Thanks to Andrew and Paul

  40. I’m a bit more picky than Eileen on Spoonerisms. I agree that they must make sense both ways round. I thought MILES DAVIS was a peach, but the other was just OK for me.

  41. As a non-aficionado with only a rudimentary knowledge of the theme I still enjoyed this as I had at least heard of all of the names. As other JAZZ greats who are well known to the man in the street I was waiting for ‘Brubeck’ or ‘Satchmo’ to make an appearance but obviously no room to fit them in.

    I’m not usually a great fan of Spoonerisms but the two today both bought a smile.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  42. Wonderful crossword for me as I am a great fan of jazz of that era. Only problem was no Freddie Hubbard, no Cannonball Adderley, John Lewis, Art Blakey et al. So, Paul, I reckon another “jazz greats” crossword would be welcome by a lot of us at some future date.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  44. Thanks both,

    Thought I’d finished but, in my enthusiasm to come here, I forgot I hadn’t cracked 21d. For some reason I  think of Peggy Lee and Ella as popular singers rather than jazz singers. Well up to Paul’s high standards overall. CoD for me was 5d despite the overlapping definition and wordplay.

    OED has separate meanings for ‘jazz’ as both ‘stuff'(things)  and ‘nonsense’.

     

  45. My choice of Jazz to listen to is quite limited, but I knew all nine of these greats. I thought the way Paul constructed and clued this puzzle, with such a prominent theme, was just about perfect.
    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  46. A bonus for me as a jazzer of long standing but I got JAZZ via MILES DAVIS which we’ve had before as a Spoonerism and I think it was in a PAUL puzzle. Not that long ago but I’m sure someone will tell me. I wondered if someone would query who can be considered a ‘great’. Some seem to think that Jazz stopped around 1929 and others that it only started with Charlie Parker. Me,I love it all!
    Thanks Paul.

  47. Like Muffin@11, DNF – with unparsed MOUSE MAT – disappointing. But as my partner and I are big jazz fans, this was a most enjoyable puzzle. MINGUS was our gateway too. Many thanks, Paul and Andrew.

  49. Great Friday fun from Paul!  I loved the jazz themed clues, especially the two Spoonerism clues and (even more especially) the homophone PARKER.  Other favorites for me today included HAIRDRIERS, the &litt-ish ARMAGEDDON, and I can’t fail to mention APOSTATE, for providing us with the latest appearance of one of The Three Most Important Rivers etc. (which is not in this instance a flower).

    Lord Jim @28, thanks for your interesting comments about the origins of the word JAZZ.

    Upon solving FITZGERALD, I was immediately put in mind of my favorite Ella recording (although, to be clear, my knowledge of her complete body of work probably falls in the range of 4%, if even that much), in which she proves that a great singer can deliver an immensely entertaining performance without being tethered to anything as mundane as remembering the “correct” lyrics.  Just try listening to this without a smile on your face.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew and the other commenters.  Have a nice weekend, all.  (And Happy New Year to those celebrating the holiday.)

  50. PARKER was my way in and that quickly gave JAZZ, as Thunderbirds wouldn’t fit. PEGGY LEE was the least well known for me. Found it hard to spot STEINWAY, my LOI. Pretty sure I’ve seen it done this way before too. No really outstanding clues but a most enjoyable solve overall.
    Thanks, Andrew and Paul

  52. We did this in 2.5 hours – but as we didn’t start till 17.30 over a late cup of tea this may be the last posting. Working together helped, though took a while to get Jazz – after that it all got easier (especially with a list of possibles – how about Bix Bierderbecke in the next Jazz Greats?) . Really liked HAIRDRIERS and I always enjoy spoonerisms even though they don’t seem very popular with everyone else.
    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  53. Themed puzzles like this one are slightly problematic, in my opinion, because they clearly border on GK.

    Earlier this week I made clear that musicals are not my type of music, and today I can add jazz  – never understood why classcial music magazines and radio stations take the genre on board.  But I knew all the musicals and I also knew who these jazz greats are/were.  How different it was for my solving partner who perhaps knew three or four of them and therefore being rather put off by the theme.  Indeed, it would have been so much nicer if Fitzgerald, Getz, Mingus et al had their own definitions, making this a crossword with a ghost theme. However, I can see that that’s hardly possible with people like Miles Davis, Stan Getz or Peggy Lee.

    For me, the theme was cracked after only three clues and what followed was an easy ride.

    But I do understand (and feel sympathy for) solvers like my solving partner who didn’t find this fun (despite the puzzle being well-clued). They seem to be in the minority today – lucky Paul.

    Many thanks Andrew & Paul.

  54. SimonS@48. Belated thanks for the info- that was the one I remembered. I wonder if it’s been used before?

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