Stanley Crouch has long been one of the more powerful — and controversial — figures in jazz criticism. He’s also a highly visible (and therefore easy) target for free-floating opprobrium…and of this, I’ve sometimes been as guilty as anyone.

The problem is that Crouch’s occasional wrongheaded B.S. — as in his ill-informed, unforgivable comments about Dave Douglas in his inflammatory, pernicious essay "Putting the White Man in Charge" — projected and enforced by his legendary bellicosity, sometimes makes it virtually impossible to remember his gift of illuminating the art of jazz performance at the highest of levels.

And that is precisely what makes this long, long interview conducted by Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus such completely mandatory reading for anyone with even the least interest in jazz — not to mention race relations and American society.

Hats off, Ethan — I know I couldn’t have done it.