Bataki

There is a fine Swedish stamp, with the value SEK 1.80, picturing Lars Gullin playing his baritone sax. It's based on a photo by Christer Landergren, and the engraving is made by Czeslaw Slania in 1983 (Lars Gullin himself died in 1976).

JohnS, thank you for your kind comment on Peter Gullin. You said that you had wanted to try one of Peter's CD's. Here is a suggestion: "Tenderness" from 1992, Dragon DRCD 222, the one which awarded Peter the Golden Disc of Orkesterjournalen for 1992. If you want more, here is the address of Dragon's distributor in the U.S.A.: North Country Distributors, Cadence Building, Redwood, N.Y. 13679, U.S.A. Talk to Bob Rusch. Since Dragon is one of the best jazz labels of Sweden, you can of course find lots of other Swedish jazz artists there, both locally known and internationally known. Another good label for Swedish jazz is Prophone Records in Stockholm.

Peter Gullin died last week. I myself have lost a close friend, and Sweden and Europe have lost one of its foremost baritone saxophonists and composers. Peter got his cancer diagnosis about one year ago, and he tried to live with this the best way he could, continuing his work as a composer and as a performer at jazz clubs as a very fine baritone saxophonist. Of course he was worried about the cancer, but for a time things seemed to develop in a rather good way. But, a metastasis was detected, and finally, on October 7th, 2003, his body could not take any more, and he died peacefully in a hospital here in Uppsala, Sweden, only 44 years old, surrounded by his dearest. Peter Gullin's funeral service will be held on October 28th here in Uppsala, and lots of friends and musicians from Sweden and Europe will be attending, and afterwards we will gather at the jazz club Katalin here in Uppsala, where Peter had so many fine gigs, from 1986 onward, to talk about him, remembering him. If somebody else out there has listened to Peter's music, or has something to tell us about Peter Gullin, please post your thoughts here. As fast as possible after the memorial evening, I'll come back here with a full obituary and discography of my friend Peter Gullin. Bataki (aka Stefan Wijkström)

"New York Jazz" was the first LP I bought in my life. I think it must have been 1956 or 1957, I'm not sure. Before I had heard some tunes from Stitt's work on Roost, with the Quincy Jones material. Anyway, I was around 15 years old, and SEK 27 (the price tag is still on the cover) was a hell of a lot of money those days for a teenager, equalling about US $ 3 today. Definitely this record made me a jazz fan and a Sonny Stitt admirer for life. Some hundreds of LPs later, I still count New York Jazz as one of my best records, and in any case perhaps the best Stitt has recorded. I lived in Stockholm during the 1960's, and Sonny Stitt played at Gyllene Cirkeln (the Golden Circle) in 1966 for 13 nights in a row (March 7 to 19) and I was there at his feet every night. His fellow musicians were Lars Sjösten, Roman Dylag and Tootie Heath. JSngry's lines about Stitt in this topic were very interesting to read, and pretty much sum up my own thoughts about Sonny. Finally, "Live at the Left Bank" is mentioned a couple of times in this topic. How does this fit into the discussion?, asks an ignorant young man.

John Tapscott: You’re right, it was not Gregory Herbert at those concerts at the Uppsala City Theatre. I should have consulted the female colleague I referred to in my post, before I started writing. I asked her yesterday about this, and she says she’s pretty shure that it was Gary Anderson at least one of the nights, and she added, that she was astonished by the fact that my Alzheimerish brain didn’t even rembember which one of the musicians who, affected by drugs in some way, mistook her for another women, and started to abuse her verbally. She won’t say who it was, which makes her a lot wiser person than I myself was, when I posted. So, the only thing we agreed on, was that the Woody Herman orchestra made a deep inpression on us both, those nights. And I myself just have to admit, that my posting about Herbert was a mistake, a worthless pile of words, that did not add anything to the knowledge of Gregory Herbert.

I saw Gregory Herbert on two occasions here in Uppsala, Sweden, with Woody Herman's orchestra, the first time on March 1, 1976 and the second time 25th October, 1977. Those times I think he was among the most featured soloists of Woody's band, and he really was a hot tenor player. I still remember his battles with Frank Tiberi. Also I was to interview Woody for a couple of papers, but he disappeared quickly from the scene, so I tried to catch Gregory Herbert instead. To interview this dazzling tenor player was completely impossible. He was high as a scyscraper, and started to imagine something, and attacked a female colleague of mine. RIP, Gregory.

My favorite pianist, Ed Higgins, is not on this list. Even if he had been, I wouldn't have voted, because I'm tired of these polls. What's the use?

jpmosu you have totally misunderstood what I'm saying in my post, because you didn't read it too well. I'm not talking about a definite Holy Trinity of piano players in the world, I'm saying that Bud Powell, who was the artist on the Golden Circle's opening night 1962, Bill Evans, who practicly lived at the Circle for weeks under his stints there and the truly great Keith Jarrett were the three greatest pianists who played at this famous jazz club in Stockholm, and really got the Golden Circle going. They were not alone though; about 200 of the world's most wellknown jazz musicians played at the Circle during the years 1962-1969. But, since you mentioned him, Thelonious Monk never played at the Circle, he and his quartet just visited the club one spring night in 1964, to listen to Idrees Sulieman. And although both McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock are great musicians, they never came to play at Gyllene Cirkeln (The Golden Circle), and I don't know why. Should you, or anyone for that matter, want to know more about the Golden Circle or about Swedish jazz, don't hesitate to ask me.

As most of you know, Keith Jarrett today, on the 12th of May, 2003, receives The Polar Music Prize from the hands of His Majesty the King of Sweden, in the Berwald Hall in Stockholm. Here you can read the prize committee’s citation, and after that, I’ll say something about my own personal experiences of Keith Jarrett from The Golden Circle in Stockholm, during the 1960’s, hoping that all of you who also have personal experieces of him would like to reply to this post. The prize committee´s citation for: Keith Jarrett ”The Polar Music Prize for 2003 is being awarded to the American musician, Keith Jarrett, pianist, composer and master of the field of improvisational music. Keith Jarrett’s musical artistry is characterised by his ability to effortlessly cross boundaries in the world of music. Keith Jarrett began playing the piano at the tender age of three. He gave his first solo concerts as a child, touring with both classical works and his own compositions. His musical journeys have always transcended borders, as in his early trio recordings with their influences from blues, ragtime, gospel, folk music, pop and art music. In the late 1960’s, his pioneering efforts with the Charles Lloyd Quartet contributed towards breaking down the barriers between jazz and rock music. He followed up this musical fusion as a member of Miles Davis’ ground-breaking band, mthis time in a more electrified form. In “Spirits” (1985), in which all the instruments are played by Jarrett himself, the music moves into a limitless landscape of tones from distant times and worlds. Keith Jarrett, who has found his natural home on the ECM label since the 1970’s, has expressed himself over the years in the context of both jazz and compositions for various chamber music ensembles and orchestra. Through a series of brilliant solo performances and recordings that demonstrate his utterly spontaneous creativity, Keith Jarrett has simultaneously lifted piano improvisation as an art form to new, unimaginable heights. In the 1980’s, Keith Jarrett worked with his trio project, “Standards”, and turned the spotlight on “The Great American Songbook”. Together with bass player, Gary Peacock, and drummer, Jack DeJohnette, his further development of the art of group improvisation, in what can only be described as chamber music forms, has been completely outstanding. As a classical interpreter, Keith Jarrett has given us masterly versions of J.S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Shostakovich and Pärt. As a pianist, he is unique in his position of being one of the foremost in both the worlds of jazz and classical music”. The three masters of the piano who more than anyone else touched up the Golden Circle were Bud Powell, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Bud Powell set the tone and the rythm. Bill Evans made the piano sing, and the supremely gifted Keith Jarrett made the music flow over all boundaries. In April 1966 the Charles Lloyd Quartet came to the Golden Circle. Except for Lloyd there was Cecil McBee on bass and the 17 year old Jack DeJohnette on drums, and last but not least, the white Keith Jarrett, in afro hair style! The group’s performance on the stage included sound experiments, dances, invocations of higher powers etc. Lloyd conjured up an extatic mood, that fascinated us, and the young Jarrett started his musical express train. It was unbelievable! Wen the keyboard wasn’t sufficent, he used the strings, and what a swinger he was! He seemed to master everything. The quartet played at the Golden Circle in April, July and October of 1966, and I sat there at their feet everyone of these 15-16 nights (and an amazed Erroll Garner did, one night). In October though, Ron McClure had replaced McBee on the bass. By 1968 Jarrett formed his trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, and a Europe tour was planned, so the trio was engaged for a two weeks' stint at the Golden Circle in August 1969, but Haden and Motian never showed up, so Gus Nemeth and Bob Ventrello replaced them. It didn’t matter so much, because Jarrett was in superb form. Again I was there every night at the Golden Circle. Jarrett then used flutes, soprano sax, piano, percussion and some other instruments, also including an oil drum, if I remember rightly. Personally I have seen Keith Jarrett playing about 15 different instruments, I think. With the ECM LP ”Facing you” from 1971 Jarrett started his career as solo pianist, and as such he gave a fascinating concert in Stockholm in 1972. Later, in 1976, he also gave an organ concert in the church of the Old Town in Stockholm. But so, in 1983 I think, he resumed his cooperation with Jack DeJohnette and together with Gary Peacock an excellent piano trio was formed. And the rest is history.... as they say. But I would want everyone who has listened to Keith Jarrett live, to tell us his impressions of him. Here are a couple of links: Keith Jarrett's web page The Polar Music Prize

Really sad news. I listened to him in clubs in Paris a couple of times in the 80's. He played in Sweden quite a lot, and here he is remembered not just for being a great tenor player, but also for his friendly and nice ways with people.

Thanks for the link to this fascinating interview. It was the some of the most interesting lines about music I have read for a long, long time.

Last48 hours: Frank Capp/Nat Pierce's Juggernaut live concerts, especially those with Eddie Andrews or Joe Williams.

As far as I know, Carson Smith died in Las Vegas on November 2nd, 1997, only 66 years old.

It's not exactly a battle, but I really enjoy Frank Foster and Frank Wess together on the album "Frankly Speaking", Concord 1984, with Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Marvin "Smitty" Smith.

I like Jack Sheldon very much, both as a trumpeter and as a singer. A fine example of both these sides of Jack can be heard on "The Jack Sheldon Quintet - Hollywood Heroes". There are seven tracks on this Concord LP from 1976, and he sings on five of them. The tunes are: The Joint Is Jumping, Pardon My Southern Accent, Poor Butterfly, Lover, Rosetta, I Thought About You, I Want To Be Happy, and the other musicians are Gene Estes dr, Doug Macdonald g, Ray Sherman p and Dave Stone on bass. If somebody hasn't heard Jack Sheldon before, I recommend this one. I also have another exciting old Concord LP with Bill Berry's LA Big Band: "Hello Rev" whith Jack in the trumpet section, and in "Tulip or Turnip" he performs one of his raps: Be Your Own Best Friend, before his trumpet solo. A great guy! And the cover photo of Hollywood Heroes is worth a chapter of its own.....