Ronnie Singer, jazz guitarist

[birdanddizzy]

Hello everybody,

I recently received a recording of the late guitarist Ronnie Singer. Jimmy Gourley had it on a cassette.

Jimmy says that Ronnie Singer died very young (24 years old).

It's a live recording, probably in New York at the beginning of the 50s. One can hear Ronnie Singer with a nice band (the 4/4 with the trumpet player are just fabulous) playing like Jimmy Raney, even better !

My question : Do you know/have recordings (private tapes/broadcastings) of Ronnie Singer ?

Thanks

Steven

Paris, France

[Larry Kart]

You've got something precious. I've heard about Gourley's Singer tapes but assumed that after all this time there was primal barrier to their emergence. Singer was a Chicagoan; he and Raney came up on the same scene there (along with Gourley), and those who heard Singer later on in NY (Ira Gitler most notably, also Dan Morgenstern) have told me that Singer was his own man and just amazing. He and his wife committed suicide together, stuck their heads in a gas oven. Sorry about the bluntness of that, but that's the story. Clearly theirs was not a happy family.

[eurovic]

Hello everybody,

I recently received a recording of the late guitarist Ronnie Singer. Jimmy Gourley had it on a cassette.

Jimmy says that Ronnie Singer died very young (24 years old).

It's a live recording, probably in New York at the beginning of the 50s. One can hear Ronnie Singer with a nice band (the 4/4 with the trumpet player are just fabulous) playing like Jimmy Raney, even better !

My question : Do you know/have recordings (private tapes/broadcastings) of Ronnie Singer ?

Thanks

Steven

Paris, France

[eurovic]

Hi Steven,

I would like to know if it is at all possible to purchase a copy of the Ronnie Singer tape that you currently possess. My email address is eurovic@hotmail.com Hope to hear from you. Good luck with your further searches regarding Ronnie Singer.

Vic

[Niko]

apparently the ronnie singer tape was available for download for some time but not anymore? (or does this link work for anybody else:

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/

for me the whole site lemerle.fr , website of dominique lemerle and his son félix is down)

did anybody manage to get it and could help me out? thank you!

besides, one tune can still be heard in this great Gourley tribute radio show (by Félix Lemerle)

http://www.radiocampusparis.org/?p=5196

around 1:09 and it sounds great! anybody got an idea who the trumpet player might be?

thought i'd also quote this post by larry kart, about the largest chunk of singer information on the web:

Wonder what, if anything, Gourley's passing means about the fate of the tapes he was supposed to have of otherwise unrecorded genius Chicago guitarist Ronnie Singer, who committed suicide with his wife in the early '50s. See pp. 268-9 of Ira Gitler's "Swing To Bop." Gitler heard him and was very impressed. The last time I heard of the tapes, a year or two ago, it sounded for a while like there was a strong lead there -- that Gourley did have them and was negotiating to have them released -- but nothing since.

Comments on Singer:

"Fantastic. Great talent. He would have been one of the all-time greats." (Lou Levy)

'...a great player. He was saying as much as Jimmy [Raney] was at the time." (Gourley)

"He had a spirit, a sound that reminded me of Charlie Christian, that kind of raw sound and power." (Gitler)

'...he had something special." (Lee Konitz)

Edited January 22, 2010 by Niko

[Niko]

so, after some searching i got the now broken links to the files (google and archive didn't have them but bing had cached the site...) anybody got an idea how to get the files from here on? archive doesn't work...

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/01%20Tea%20For%20Two.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/02%20Donna%20Lee.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/03%20Shine.mp3

also found another bit from a gourley (?) interview (jazz forum 80-81, guess there are one or two more sentences "Ronnie went to new York after Jimmy [Raney] did. He worked with Artie Shaw a bit. But he was terribly strung out. Couldn't get off it. A nice guy, man. Beautiful guy. He finally married a chick who was using and they committedd suicide."

Edited January 22, 2010 by Niko

[Trumpet Guy]

so, after some searching i got the now broken links to the files (google and archive didn't have them but bing had cached the site...) anybody got an idea how to get the files from here on? archive doesn't work...

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/01%20Tea%20For%20Two.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/02%20Donna%20Lee.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/03%20Shine.mp3

also found another bit from a gourley (?) interview (jazz forum 80-81, guess there are one or two more sentences "Ronnie went to new York after Jimmy [Raney] did. He worked with Artie Shaw a bit. But he was terribly strung out. Couldn't get off it. A nice guy, man. Beautiful guy. He finally married a chick who was using and they committedd suicide."

I am dying to hear this version of "Shine" ! Has it worked for anyone???

[Niko]

so, after some searching i got the now broken links to the files (google and archive didn't have them but bing had cached the site...) anybody got an idea how to get the files from here on? archive doesn't work...

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/01%20Tea%20For%20Two.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/02%20Donna%20Lee.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/03%20Shine.mp3

also found another bit from a gourley (?) interview (jazz forum 80-81, guess there are one or two more sentences "Ronnie went to new York after Jimmy [Raney] did. He worked with Artie Shaw a bit. But he was terribly strung out. Couldn't get off it. A nice guy, man. Beautiful guy. He finally married a chick who was using and they committedd suicide."

I am dying to hear this version of "Shine" ! Has it worked for anyone???

see the link in my first post, i.e.

http://www.radiocampusparis.org/?p=5196

there's a play button at the bottom of the page and Shine is around 1:09 to 1:20

works for me and it's gorgeous - now i really like to hear the rest... (and i'd really be interested in your guess of the trumpet player...)

Edited January 23, 2010 by Niko

[Trumpet Guy]

so, after some searching i got the now broken links to the files (google and archive didn't have them but bing had cached the site...) anybody got an idea how to get the files from here on? archive doesn't work...

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/01%20Tea%20For%20Two.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/02%20Donna%20Lee.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/03%20Shine.mp3

also found another bit from a gourley (?) interview (jazz forum 80-81, guess there are one or two more sentences "Ronnie went to new York after Jimmy [Raney] did. He worked with Artie Shaw a bit. But he was terribly strung out. Couldn't get off it. A nice guy, man. Beautiful guy. He finally married a chick who was using and they committedd suicide."

I am dying to hear this version of "Shine" ! Has it worked for anyone???

see the link in my first post, i.e.

http://www.radiocampusparis.org/?p=5196

there's a play button at the bottom of the page and Shine is around 1:09 to 1:20

works for me and it's gorgeous - now i really like to hear the rest... (and i'd really be interested in your guess of the trumpet player...)

Thank you Niko, but I still am not seeing this "play button"; when I click on "Shine" the page will not load and times out. Is this the page I need to hear it?

Thanks VERY much!

[Niko]

so, after some searching i got the now broken links to the files (google and archive didn't have them but bing had cached the site...) anybody got an idea how to get the files from here on? archive doesn't work...

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/01%20Tea%20For%20Two.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/02%20Donna%20Lee.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/03%20Shine.mp3

also found another bit from a gourley (?) interview (jazz forum 80-81, guess there are one or two more sentences "Ronnie went to new York after Jimmy [Raney] did. He worked with Artie Shaw a bit. But he was terribly strung out. Couldn't get off it. A nice guy, man. Beautiful guy. He finally married a chick who was using and they committedd suicide."

I am dying to hear this version of "Shine" ! Has it worked for anyone???

see the link in my first post, i.e.

http://www.radiocampusparis.org/?p=5196

there's a play button at the bottom of the page and Shine is around 1:09 to 1:20

works for me and it's gorgeous - now i really like to hear the rest... (and i'd really be interested in your guess of the trumpet player...)

Thank you Niko, but I still am not seeing this "play button"; when I click on "Shine" the page will not load and times out. Is this the page I need to hear it?

Thanks VERY much!

this is the right page, for me the play button is at the bottom of the page between that charlie parker entry "(batterie)" and "Jimmy Gourley Retrospective"; there you can play the whole show and around 1:09 the ronnie singer track begins

[Larry Kart]

The trick is that by 1:09 Niko means the one-hour-and-nine-minute mark, not the one-minute-and-nine-seconds mark. Advance the counter to that point and voila! Pretty astonishing stuff. My first reaction is that his lines sound so "suspended" -- rhythmically, harmonically and melodically -- more so than is the case with any soloist I can think of from that time and not until "sheets of sound" Coltrane, if then. Raney, perhaps, if he'd wanted to do it that way, but his temperament and inclinations were somewhat different when it came to the shapes he liked to make. Likewise, perhaps, with Warne. And Bird of course. Otherwise...

[Trumpet Guy]

anybody got an idea who the trumpet player might be?

My guess, as I leave for the gig, after listening and thinking far too much--Is(early) Don Fagerquist!

Maybe Don Ferrara/ When did he hit NYC?

[JSngry]

That's an intriguing performance...I like how the trumpet at one point takes 8 instead of 4 to shift around what they're each playing over in the exchanges...never heard anybody do that before, but it's such an obvious tact...DOH!

How much more of this guy was Gourley supposed to have had?

Too bad Singer didn't have an all-electric kitchen.

[Larry Kart]

That's an intriguing performance...I like how the trumpet at one point takes 8 instead of 4 to shift around what they're each playing over in the exchanges...never heard anybody do that before, but it's such an obvious tact...DOH!

How much more of this guy was Gourley supposed to have had?

AFAIK, just "Tea for Two" and "Donna Lee," as linked to in post #6, but those links aren't working right now. Niko has said that he's working on trying to iron this out.

In the notes to the Tony Fruscella-Brew Moore Spotlite LP, "Fru 'n' Brew," recorded at the Open Door in NYC, Dan Morgenstern mentions hearing Singer at that grungy bar and being greatly impressed. My guess is that "Shine" and the other two Singer performances were recorded there.

[Jim R]

so, after some searching i got the now broken links to the files (google and archive didn't have them but bing had cached the site...) anybody got an idea how to get the files from here on? archive doesn't work...

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/01%20Tea%20For%20Two.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/02%20Donna%20Lee.mp3

http://lemerle.fr/ronniesinger/03%20Shine.mp3

also found another bit from a gourley (?) interview (jazz forum 80-81, guess there are one or two more sentences "Ronnie went to new York after Jimmy [Raney] did. He worked with Artie Shaw a bit. But he was terribly strung out. Couldn't get off it. A nice guy, man. Beautiful guy. He finally married a chick who was using and they committedd suicide."

I am dying to hear this version of "Shine" ! Has it worked for anyone???

see the link in my first post, i.e.

http://www.radiocampusparis.org/?p=5196

there's a play button at the bottom of the page and Shine is around 1:09 to 1:20

works for me and it's gorgeous - now i really like to hear the rest... (and i'd really be interested in your guess of the trumpet player...)

Thank you Niko, but I still am not seeing this "play button"; when I click on "Shine" the page will not load and times out. Is this the page I need to hear it?

Thanks VERY much!

this is the right page, for me the play button is at the bottom of the page between that charlie parker entry "(batterie)" and "Jimmy Gourley Retrospective"; there you can play the whole show and around 1:09 the ronnie singer track begins

Well, I finally broke the code. I was looking all over for the a link that worked (the lemerle.fr links don't seem to work at all). Finally, I tried the embedded (flash?) audio player near the bottom of the http://www.radiocampusparis.org/?p=5196 page. I guess I should have tried it sooner, but due to its location, I had thought that it was just Bird playing "Another Hair-Do" (it should have been labeled to indicate that it contains every recording on the page, right?). "batterie" is not the "Charlie Parker entry", it is of course the term indicating that Max Roach was at the drums on the Bird track. But what really threw me was the "Jimmy Gourley Retrospective" reference. That label is found at the top of the page as well as the bottom, since it's the theme of the entire group of material. I was looking for a specific recording link associated with that term. At any rate, for anybody who has had or may have trouble finding the music, just look toward the bottom and click on the unlabeled audio player immediately following "Max Roach (batterie)". Then, as Larry pointed out, scan forward to the 1 hr 9 min mark. Maybe it was just me.

Listening to Singer's fluid lines and authoritative tone, it really is sad that he didn't live long enough to become better known and develop his style and reputation.

I'm quite sure I had heard or seen his name come up many years ago, but I don't recall ever reading much about him. Now I see why at the very least he still is not completely forgotten after all these years. Really an impressive player. Somewhere in my stacks of guitar literature, I have a feeling I may have more information on this guy. The challenge will be locating something, as it will likely be a brief reference in an article or interview devoted to someone else.

Thanks for providing this little window into the past.

[Niko]

Larry, did you get my message? the other two tunes are shorter, 3 or 4 minutes each;

my best guess was fagerquist, too, they also both worked with Artie Shaw around that time

Edited January 30, 2010 by Niko

[brownie]

Steven, the thread originator, used to contribute to shows on that Radio Campus station.

He hasn't shown up here for a long, long time

[Niko]

Steven, the thread originator, used to contribute to shows on that Radio Campus station.

He hasn't shown up here for a long, long time

had written Steven an email concerning the tapes - apparently he's travelling the world for his Elek Bacsik research :-) (but i briefly herad from him)... miss his contributions, too

[Larry Kart]

Larry, did you get my message? the other two tunes are shorter, 3 or 4 minutes each;

my best guess was fagerquist, too, they also both worked with Artie Shaw around that time

Yes -- thanks.

[Niko]

anybody got an idea who the trumpet player might be?

My guess, as I leave for the gig, after listening and thinking far too much--Is(early) Don Fagerquist!

Maybe Don Ferrara/ When did he hit NYC?

actually, ferrara hit new york in 1928 (when he was born), he became a professional musician in 1945 with Jerry Wald's band apparently...

ferrara interview

[Trumpet Guy]

anybody got an idea who the trumpet player might be?

My guess, as I leave for the gig, after listening and thinking far too much--Is(early) Don Fagerquist!

Maybe Don Ferrara/ When did he hit NYC?

actually, ferrara hit new york in 1928 (when he was born), he became a professional musician in 1945 with Jerry Wald's band apparently...

ferrara interview

Very cool, Niko! Thanks for that interview! I believe Don Ferrara is still alive in San Diego area...True?

[Niko]

(not my doings but) the Ronnie Singer tape now found a new home here:

http://www.archive.org/details/RonnieSingerLiveInNewYorkEarly1950s

[brownie]

Thanks, Niko!

The sound is better too!

[Niko]

Félix Lemerle has continued his Ronnie Singer research, there are two photos now, the tape speed is corrected and it's all collected on this fine website:

http://ronniesinger.blogspot.com/

I'm wondering: Can anyone identify anyone on the picture from the blow linked to below? (I guess Félix has already asked around, Jon Raney has seen it (see his blog for a bit more on Singer, link), so there isn't a big chance of anything but who knows...)

link to picture

Edited March 19, 2011 by Niko

[Niko]

another round of googling for rs revealed that a considerably longer version of the ronnie singer tape was made available by guitarist Axel Hagen (via the tape of Jimmy Stewart [of Gabor Szabo fame])

http://axelhagen.com...the-recordings/

Edited February 3, 2013 by Niko