First Concert

[A Lark Ascending]

Opening act was called PFM, I think, and I remember absolutely nothing more about them. God, what a show...

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=289

I recall a buzz about them at the time as Italy's answer to Prog Rock but never had their records. Must have heard them on the radio.

Edited March 29, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[jeffcrom]

Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Atlanta in 1974, I think.

Same band, Savannah GA. I thought it was '73, but you are probably right. Opening act was called PFM, I think, and I remember absolutely nothing more about them. God, what a show...

My memory for dates is terrible. If you think it was 1973, you're probably right. And I don't remember anything about the opening act.

[mjazzg]

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band at hammersmith Odeon, London. October 1977.

On the journey to the gig we read in the evening paper of the airplane crash that killed members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I remember a poignant recognition of this from the stage. Great gig. Haven't listened to his mucic in years now

[tjluke68]

Supposedly my mom went to see Santana when I was about 3-4 years old and took me along - would've been about 1971-1972. AFter that, the first concert that I went to when I was around 14 years old was (don't laugh) ADAM ANT in 1982/83 in at the Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ.

[Guest Bill Barton]

The first "big name" concert for me was The Duke Ellington Orchestra at Dartmouth College's Spaulding Auditorium in late 1971 or early 1972. I got tickets way early and found out how they were going to set-up the band on-stage, so had a front-row seat directly in front of Harry Carney. An amazing experience!

Before that I heard tons of local and regional Bluegrass and C&W, which I grew up on before getting bitten by the jazz bug at around age 12. The most memorable show out of those was sometime in the late 1950s (?) when I heard young Lenny Breau playing guitar with his mom and dad, Hal "Lone" Pine & Betty Cody, in Southern New Hampshire.

[PHILLYQ]

August 1970, Santana at the Fillmore East. Opening act- Rahsaan Roland Kirk!!!(I thought he was just weird with the multiple horns, etc. Two years later I thought he was brilliant!)

[kenny weir]

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band at hammersmith Odeon, London. October 1977.

[Hot Ptah]

I saw the group Chase in the auditorium at Wausau West High School, Wausau, Wisconsin, in 1972. I remember that the concert started with the first song on their first album, "Open Up Wide". On the record it begins with a solo by trumpeter Bill Chase. At the concert I was shocked that his opening solo went on longer, and contained improvisation, that was not on the album. I remember thinking, "hey! this isn't on the record!"

I also remember that the guitarist, first name Angel, played a fast, distorted rock guitar solo near the end of the concert, which ended with him wildly throwing his guitar backwards over his head. It landed hard behind him on the stage. This generated an explosion of applause and screaming from the crowd.

[okierambler]

First concert was Mountain with Black Oak Arkansas at the Oklahoma City Civic Center in 1970 or 1971. My ears rang for a week.

My first jazz-ish concert was John McLaughlin with one of the later versions of Mahavishnu Orchestra opening for Boz Scaggs (pre-Silk Degrees) and the Guess Who at the OKC Fairgrounds arena in 1974(?). McLaughlin's amp blew about 30 seconds into the set and Jean-Luc Ponty had to cover most of the solos. John just stood there and vamped with a very embarrassed look on his face. I'd guess that 90-percent of the audience was not paying attention to McLaughlin's set anyway. The same with Boz Scaggs, who had a smoking band that night. My friends and I were standing right in front of the stage during both sets, but when the Guess Who came on we turned around and saw a sea of 12-year-olds and their moms surging forward. Needless to say we beat a hasty retreat.

Unless you count Zappa or Santana during his "Love, Devotion, and Surrender" phase, my first "pure" jazz concert was either Sam Rivers and Dave Holland or Jack DeJohnette's New Directions. Both were pretty sweet.

Edited March 31, 2010 by okierambler

[Niko]

my first concert was the Don Byron Quartet with Uri Caine and Billy Kilson at Stadtgarten, Cologne; guess this was sometime in 1995 when I was 14...

[paul secor]

1963, Buffalo, NY - An afternoon outdoor concert - Don Menza with Sam Noto, Joe Romano, Clarence Becton, & one or two others. Only a vague memory now, but a good one.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

First saw the Mothers in 1968, had a personal invite to speak with Frank and he was a complete asshole, trying to drive a wedge between me and Roscoe Mitchell and Lester Bowie, because I was a "white businessman". I will never forget this.

that sounds pretty arrogant of him, im sure he knew nothing of your work with them!

I did an interview with Zappa and the Mothers for Down Beat at about that time (they were playing the Ravina Festival). Not only was he an asshole, but it also was clear that some members of the band (Don Preston, for one) thought he was an asshole.

that is also interesting

We may have done this at some point, but if we have, I can't recall. Anyhow, this question popped up three times on my Facebook account today and I thought it might fun to kick around here. I'm not talking about jazz, just the first show you ever saw that featured a famous band.

For me, it was The Beach Boys in Corvallis, Oregon. I looked up the date of the concert on the internet tonight. It was March 6, 1966.

dave james, i think youve told me about that before,...i think........amazing location, amazing concert!

[mikeweil]

Must have been either the Oscar Peterson Trio with Sam Jones and Bobby Durham in Munich or the Herbie Mann Quintet with Steve Marcus, Sonny Sharrock, Miroslav Vitous & Bruno Carr in Frankfurt, both in 1970.

[Michael Weiss]

On March 28, 2010 at 0:30 PM, kh1958 said:

Charles Mingus--Southern Methodist University, McFarlin Auditorium, November 19, 1974. Second jazz concert, Dizzy Gillespie at Mother Blues, 1975. (Also, James Clay and Marchel Ivery at the Recovery Room in this time frame).

I was at both of those concerts. Mingus at SMU - We were probably two out of maybe a total of twenty people there in the whole auditorium, which probably seated at least 2,000. I remember Mingus stopping in mid-tune and walking off stage. Dizzy - I remember him playing Olinga. Roker, Ben Brown, and Al Gafa, IIRC. My first concert was a triple bill at Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, 1972: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dr. John, Allman Brothers Band.

[kh1958]

2 hours ago, Michael Weiss said:

I was at both of those concerts. Mingus at SMU - We were probably two out of maybe a total of twenty people there in the whole auditorium, which probably seated at least 2,000. I remember Mingus stopping in mid-tune and walking off stage. Dizzy - I remember him playing Olinga. Roker, Ben Brown, and Al Gafa, IIRC. My first concert was a triple bill at Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, 1972: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dr. John, Allman Brothers Band.

It's a small Jazz World.

[Michael Weiss]

1 hour ago, kh1958 said:

It's a small Jazz World.

Yeah, in Dallas.

[Rooster_Ties]

First ever concert: Julian Lennon - July 1st, 1986 - Muny outdoor concert series, St. Louis (I was age 17).

(My family regularly attended community band concerts, including the local military band out of Scott Air Force Base.  And the local Belleville Philharmonic, and occasionally the St. Louis Symphony (maybe once a year, tops).  And my mom liked musicals, and we went to hear 4-5 shows every summer at the Muny in St. Louis, which had free(!) seats in the very back 25 rows, farthest from the stage.  But until I finally ventured out on my own, gingerly my senior year of high school, I rarely went to hear anything else.)

First ever real jazz show that I claim: Either/Orchestra, in a bar in Galesburg, IL in 1990 (my junior year of college). Years later learned then unknown drummer Matt Wilson had recently joined the band, and he was originally from the next town over, and the band also included then unknown John Medeski on Fender Rhodes (bar didn't have a piano). Dug it mightily!

First ever actual jazz concert with a named artist (a few weeks before the E/O gig above): The Ed Shaughnessy Tonight Show All Stars (no idea who else was in the group, all then current Tonight Show band members, before Johnny retired a year or two later).

First "real" symphony concert (that wasn't Handel's Messiah, or a Christmas Concert, or a college/community orchestra): Chicago Symphony, circa 1991, with Mahler's First on the program (forget the rest of the program).

Edited September 8, 2017 by Rooster_Ties

[soulpope]

Leaving some earlier classical concerts with/because of my parents aside, my first encounter was Pink Floyd on their "Dark Side Of The Moon Tour" in 1973 ....

[Hardbopjazz]

First concert for me was Chicago at Aqueduct Race Trace in New York 1972. 

First Jazz concert Count Basie and his Orchestra 1981 at the New Savoy Ball Room. Basie was in a wheel chair at this point but he still played the Count Basie we all know. 

[kh1958]

9 hours ago, Michael Weiss said:

Yeah, in Dallas.

That Mingus concert/band was such a vivid experience for me. Yes, it was very lightly attended. Mingus was huge and dressed in black. He played piano a bit before the concert started. I recollect he made a joke about Alan Ginsburg, who was speaking on the SMU campus for the same festival (Poets of the Cities). George Adams, eyes rolled back in his head, and Don Pullen, whose hands I could not see from my seat, were both mind-blowing. Jack Walrath, I felt sympathy for him, he was good, but my goodness, compared to the rest of the band...

Edited September 8, 2017 by kh1958

[Kevin Bresnahan]

My first concert was Kiss at the Springfield Civic Center in 1978 or 1979. It's a little hazy which one it was. I'm guessing January of 1978 because there were other concerts at that venue in 1978 that I'm almost positive I saw. I sat next to the stage so I got to see Simmons set up all the staged action. I saw him put the packet of blood in his mouth (how stupid was that?) and I saw him drink the flammable liquid that he used to shoot flames into the air (how much more stupid can you get?). Funniest thing was seeing him sprint back off stage to get the stuff out of his mouth after each performance.

My first Jazz show was a tenor sax player who I've never heard of again (and can't remember his name) that I saw because he had Curtis Fuller in the band and I wanted to see Curtis. It would have been late in 1990 because it was right after Art Blakey died. I believe that the sax player was Curtis's student and I heard that he made a living playing the cruise lines afterward. I wonder if he still plays?

[paul secor]

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2010 at 11:31 AM, Chuck Nessa said:

Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines - probably 1957.

Out of all the first concerts listed here, this has to be the coolest -at least the one I'd have liked to have attended..

[David Ayers]

On 27/03/2010 at 11:12 AM, The Magnificent Goldberg said:

I think it was The Platters - at the Odeon, Bradford in 1957.

 

I thought they were wonderful. And I still think they were unbeatable at what they did.

 

MG

 

Oh! Are you from Bradford?

[JSngry]

Dizzy @ Mother Blues, hey I was there too! Fine band, good show. Mickey Roker. I remember for sure, not sure who was on guitar or bass...John Lee maybe? Al Gaifa on guitar? I remember Dizzy being surrounded by women every moment he was off the stand. And Dizzy was a master MC, he knew how to present a set and engage an audience, onstage and off.

[HutchFan]

One of the earliest -- and possibly the very first -- jazz concerts that I attended was the Atlanta Festival in the mid-80s.  IIRC, the festival at that time was usually held in Grant Park.  But it was raining, so they moved the festival indoors.  I think it was held in an auditorium on the Georgia Tech campus. I remember two acts clearly: the Michel Petrucciani Trio and the Bazooka Ants -- with our very own Jeff Crompton!

I have vivid memories of the Bazooka Ant's fantastic rendition of James Brown's "Mother Popcorn"!

I remember liking Petrucciani's music. But much of it was over my head at the time.  . . .Later on, I fell in love with his playing.