Resolution: Jazz From Rehab on "Night Lights"

[ghost of miles]

"Resolution: Jazz From Rehab" focuses on two unique early-1960s albums made by guitarist Joe Pass and pianist Elmo Hope. Pass' 1961 Pacific Jazz LP SOUNDS OF SYNANON was his debut as a leader; although he'd begun to play professionally as a teenager in the late 1940s, stays in prison and rehabilitation centers for drug addiction had hampered his career throughout the 1950s. All the personnel on the album were residents at Synanon, a Santa Monica, California recovery center that had been featured earlier in the year in Downbeat. Other jazz musicians that would pass through its program in the next few years would include Charlie Haden and Art Pepper, who wrote at length about Synanon in his autobiography STRAIGHT LIFE. Despite the program's success in treating addicts, from the late 1970s on it began to succumb to ever-increasing managerial authoritarianism, criminal charges, and loss of its tax-emption status. More information on the history of the Synanon program can be found here.

Pictures of Joe Pass giving a copy of the LP to Steve Allen and playing with the Sounds of Synanon band can be seen on this web-page.

SOUNDS FROM RIKER'S ISLAND was a 1963 album project conceived by vibraphonist Walt Dickerson and a producer named Sid Frey. The ensemble, led by pianist Elmo Hope, consisted primarily of musicians who had struggled in one way or another with addiction; it included drummer Philly Jo Jones and tenor saxophonist John Gilmore (making one of his rare appearances away from Sun Ra's Arkestra). Nat Hentoff's liner notes argued for a more humane treatment of musician-addicts; the title was an allusion to the place where such artists usually found themselves if arrested for narcotics violations in New York City. Both albums now stand as early social documents of recovery culture in the United States, at a time when addicted jazz musicians were routinely stigmatized and condemned by the media and society.

You can listen to the program, which was originally broadcast on WFIU on January 1, 2005, by clicking here.

Edited January 8, 2005 by ghost of miles

[brownie]

Tuned in to Jazz from Rehab on 'Night Lights'

Excellent program!

Also digging in the sides from the 'Sounds From Synanon' album. Will be looking for that one!

[ghost of miles]

Tuned in to Jazz from Rehab on 'Night Lights'

Excellent program!

Also digging in the sides from the 'Sounds From Synanon' album. Will be looking for that one!

Glad you're enjoying it, Brownie! I got the Pass a couple years back from Mr. Tanno... the CD adds a bonus track to the original LP.

[ghost of miles]

A re-recorded version of this program, with the commentary tightened a bit and James Moody's "Last Train From Overbrook" added to the set-list, will air this evening at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU, at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville, and at 10 p.m. EST Sunday evening on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. The new version will be posted Monday afternoon in the Night Lights archives.

Next week: "The Best Tenor You Never Heard: J.R. Monterose."

[ghost of miles]

The re-recorded version of this program is now archived.

[Niko]

btw, in the liner notes to Elmo Hope Trio and Quintet it says that "Carvin the Rock" is referring to Riker's Island (The Rock) as well...