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bigtiny
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Posts posted by bigtiny
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while listening to the judy garland carnegie hall concert album a few days ago, i noticed that mort lindsey was a prominent musical figure, musical director, bandleader of the time.
mort lindsey has passed away.
Also Merv Griffin's bandeader for years. I never saw too much of the NY based show, but in LA, he had a great band that included Jack Sheldon, Plas Johnson, and a bunch of other LA heavies....
bigtiny
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As a young trumpet player in the early 70's who knew NOTHING about jazz, two things happened:
-my new band director played Maynard Ferguson's 'MF Horn II' for me
-my mother, bless her heart, who knew nothing about jazz, knew that I played trumpet and was getting interested in it (via the Maynard incident above) so she
bought me an album from her Columbia Record Club subscription -- Freddie Hubbard's 'First Light', still one of my favorite albums. Yeah, it's 'produced', but
the production and playing are excellent and Freddie just plays his ass off on it.
bigtiny
There were other factors too....the above mentioned band director got me into jazz band, sent me to my first live jazz concert (Stan Kenton 1972), which just killed me, and basically
introduced me to the world of jazz. The next year, I moved onto high school and got a new band director -- he had played bass for Duke Ellington for six years and taught a host
of young players including Stanley Clarke and Jon Lee. His name is John Lamb. After the jump start I'd gotten the previous year, hanging out with Mr. Lamb and hearing stories about
playing with Ellington and life on the road.....well, I was a goner, let's put it that way =:-)
bigtiny
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As a young trumpet player in the early 70's who knew NOTHING about jazz, two things happened:
-my new band director played Maynard Ferguson's 'MF Horn II' for me
-my mother, bless her heart, who knew nothing about jazz, knew that I played trumpet and was getting interested in it (via the Maynard incident above) so she
bought me an album from her Columbia Record Club subscription -- Freddie Hubbard's 'First Light', still one of my favorite albums. Yeah, it's 'produced', but
the production and playing are excellent and Freddie just plays his ass off on it.
bigtiny
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I was playing in a soukous band in Florida and before a show one day, our sound man was playing this crazy music through the pa before our set.
It was definitely Carribean flavored music, then right in the middle of the tune, a tenor player starts soloing like Coleman Hawkins! That was my
introduction to the Skatalites. I was fortunate enough to see them live a couple of years later and they were great!
Alas, the core members (original members) of the group are getting on in years....
bigtiny
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Sometime around 1979-80 I saw a concert and clinic by a quartet led by Jimmy Owens.
Personnel (if I remember correctly) was
Owens - trumpet and flugel
Kenny Barron - piano
Buster Williams - bass
Billy Hart -drums
I seem to remember it having really kicked ass!
bigtiny
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Wow, there have been so many over the years. I'll just list a few:
-Stan Kenton 1972 - first time I'd ever heard a jazz band or a live band or a big band. They were awesome....
-Maynard Ferguson - I saw him several times in the late 70s. Yeah he played some wanky fusoid stuff, but man, he ALWAYS had a cranking' band, and balance the crap with some great arrangements.
-Weather Report - several times. Probably the best show was the tour for Heavy Weather.
-Ornette and Prime Time -I've seen them several times. Excellent energy and they were LOUD! =:-)
-Wayne Shjorter quartet- awesome band and Wayne is one of my favorite musicians
-Frank Zappa - I was lucky to catch one of the first shows of his last tour before they got to Europe and he disbanded. 5 horns and 7 or 8 other guys -- the music was a combination of Zappa's work and other classics and went from Thing Fish to Stolen Moments to L'Histoire du Soldat. It was scarily well done.
Buena Vista Social Club - the whole big band plus 4 or 5 people out front singing and playing. Bad ass cuban music and I don't think anybody on stage was under 60.
Miles Davis - at Kix. I had never seen Miles and thought I wouldn't when he retired. When the Kix shows were announced I bought tickets for the second set on Saturday, but I was first there at the beginning of the first show. I fully expected Miles to blow a note or two and spend most of the night banging on an organ and scowling. When the first show started there was a tractor trailer in front and the doors swung open to reveal Teo Macero inside what was a mobile studio. They had the monitors on pretty loud so I heard the first show and saw the second one....and I was amazed -- Miles was playing his ass off!
Peter Gabriel - the 'Up' tour. I had been wanting to see him for years and I was NOT disappointed. Best/most interestingly staged show I've every seen. And I really dig the music.
bigtiny
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This must be the same Joel DiBartolo who played in one of the early Chuck Mangione groups (while still in Rochester) and later with the Tonight Show band, right?
Excellent player....
bigtiny
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Thanks for the update, Chuck.
Yeah, likewise. It's a drag when you hear someone's in serious shape then hear nothing until the obituary.
I'm glad to hear that he sounds better than expected....I hope he recovers fully. I can't wait to hear what he does next....
bigtiny
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I have the Mosaic set, but I caved and ordered this one too. I couldn't resist hearing some of the additional 'Stepping Stones' material. I've always suspected there was more stuff from those gigs lying around, and even with this release I'm betting there's still more. I want to hear it, and I don't care if he's playing standards or not....the Woody Shaw quintet of that time (Shaw, Jefferson, Onaje , Houston, and Lewis) was a nasty, scary, inspiring thing....
bigtiny
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I reserve the right to call who I want a 'jazz' singer!!! =:-)
Nonetheless, I wouldn't call Elis Regina a jazz singer. Leny Andrade, yes.
I knew that was the one I'd get dinged on...and it had to be YOU! =:-)
bigtiny
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I hate trying to pick 'x' number of favorites, and three is just impossible! I'll do 10, not in any particular order.
Oh, and I reserve the right to call who I want a 'jazz' singer!!! =:-)
Anita O'day
Betty Carter
Ella Fitzgerald
Mel Torme
Frank Sinatra
Nat Cole
Jon Hendriks
Sarah Vaughn
Elis Regina
Billie Holiday
bigtiny
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Good work on one or more of Andrew Hill's Blue Notes as well. I heard RTF at Rutgers in the early 70s in a small auditorium, presumably before they were famous. Airto on kit as I recall, Joe cooking. A great gig.
I LOVE Airto's kit work. He's just got this really organic feel that knocks me out. What a great natural musician.....
bigtiny
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I was just talking with a friend and discussing synthesizer players who don't use it merely as another keyboard in jazz, and I mentioned that Muhal, Patric Gleeson and Tucker Martine (on the Postcards album with Rivers & Priester) fit in this category. Then I did a search on Martine and found this concert with Rivers & Priester:
http://www.archive.org/details/OM5PriesterRiversUntitled3
I'd add Pete Levin to that list....
bigtiny
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Add the one preceding "Outback" called "Joe Farrell Quartet"
The CD is hard to find and often very expensive. The original CTI LP is probably easier to find. It was also reissued in a cheaper-looking edition under the title "Song of the Wind" (one of the tunes on the album and one of Chick Corea's more haunting compositions, here done as a piano-oboe duet).
What's funny is that it's actually mostly a quintet album . You won't regretting getting it, but IMO Farrell never sounded better than on the two first RTF albums. (BTW, the Fender Rhodes as an instrument never sounded better than on 'Light as a Feather'!) But the albums with Elvin Jones are nice as well.
Yeah not only does the Rhodes sound great, Corea's performance on LAAF is exemplery. Plus it's a textbook example of how to comp behind soloists. Period.
bigtiny
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Kai came to my high school and did a clinic when I was a senior (which would have been in 1976). I wasn't real familiar with him at the time, but he was a very impressive player and clinician. I immediately went out and bought
some of his records.....Mosaic should do a box of all the J and K stuff...
bigtiny
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I saw Coleman in the mid-80's at Jonathan Swift's in Harvard Square with a one-off band.
Coleman, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, and I think Louis Hayes on drums.
At one point, they were playing some burning ass tune with lots of changes. During his solo Coleman starting modulating around into
all sorts of keys (something he's known for) and Kenny Barron was just kind of laughing and shaking his head while trying to keep up.
It was pretty funny and keep up he did!
bigtiny
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I saw this band....first it was George Adams and Joe Ford on the front line. Then Blake joined and I think for a while it was all three. Then Adams left and it was Ford and Blake.
The bass player in 1980 when I saw them was Charles Fambrough. Ronnie Burrage was on drums.
bigtiny
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Roy and Diz.....
bigtiny
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This is not associated with Mosaic Records, right? Just using the word "Mosaic' . . . .
Exactly.
I believe that 'Mosaic' is also the name of the latest Terri Lynne record (maybe Ms. Allen and Spaulding are on it ... dunno)
keith
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I can't download to my mac, but given the personnel, and that personnel's existence in the Shaw timeline, I'd guess Carter Jefferson....
bigtiny
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I saw Bruce many times during the 70s with Maynard....he was one of my favorite players in the band.
I also remember a couple of albums by a funk-fusion band he had with some other ex-Maynard sidemen called 'New York Mary'.
Kind of small Brecker Brothers-esque group. I recall them being really good. I think they had two albums on Arista.
I wish somebody would reissue them on CD (or MP3).
Stay Loose with Bruce!!! =:-)
bigtiny
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I know who Brignola was, had heard many of his records, but didn't know a LOT about him. A couple of years ago I was stunned when browsing at Stereo Jack's, a record was playing featuring a really nice soprano player. I asked Jack who it was and he replied "Nick Brignola'.
I had never heard Brignola play soprano....I had never OF him playing soprano, but he had a beautiful sound and concept on the instrument...
bigtiny
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Henri Texier
Tecks-yeah
I've always heard it:
ohnree techs-i-ay
bigtiny
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Hal's a great trombonist and musician. He's also a great arranger.
When I was at Berklee, I would occasionally walk by a practice room
and catch him 'practicing', which in those instance was him just
improvising extemporaneously. He's a monster! =:-)
He HAS written several books about improvisation, and in my opinion has the
only viable approach out there for truly enabling the improvisor. He teaches
in Mass. (besides his teaching at Berklee) and is very good at it.
Very impressive guy.
Miles in Japan with Sam Rivers
in Artists
Posted
It's well known that MIles was after Wayne for several years...and he was right. Wayne was the perfect sax player (and composer) for Miles' quintet.
Given that, I think River's was probably the most interesting and best suited of the pre-Wayne players in the quintet. Not to knock the other guys...
there were some formidable players, but Rivers combined the mastery, the writing skills, and the modern cutting edge sensibilities that the others didn't, and
Wayne would use to make the quintet one of the greatest bands ever....
bigtiny