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left bank jazz society


Mark Stryker

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I was listening to Sam Rivers' "A New Jazz Conception" this morning via the Mosaic set and the notes say the same quartet (Hal Galper, Herbie Lewis, Steve Ellington) played the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore 12 days after the recording session. Does anyone know if a tape exists? The date appears to be Oct. 23, 1966. A little searching led me to this listing of Left Bank concerts passed along by Ellery Eskelin. http://home.earthlin...n/leftbank.html

Many of these concerts look remarkable, of course. I'm especially wondering if tapes exist for any of the following:

May 23, 1965: Herbie Hancock, Sam Rivers, Ron Carter, Tony Williams (two days after the "Contour" session for Blue Note)

July 7, 1965: Roy Haynes, Wayner Shorter, Albert Dailey, Larry Ridley

August 22, 1965: Jackie McLean, Charles Tolliver, Larry Wills, Wilber Little, Jack DeJohnette (one month before the "Jacknife" session for BN)

May 15, 1966: Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Ronnie Matthews, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones

June 5, 1966: McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Herbie Lewis, Jack DeJohnette

Dec. 4, 1966: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette

A few notes:

An exhaustive Joe Henderson discography on the web says there's no known tape of the June 5, 1966, session led by McCoy; also says that Henry Grimes was the bassist rather than Lewis.)

Eskelin's intro says that a 5/7/67 appearance by John Coltrane (Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Donald Garrett, Rashied Ali) did in fact take place,

though speculation had been that it was cancelled. If it did take place, it would have been Trane's last concert. Lewis Porter's biography of Coltrane says that concert was cancelled. Any evidence to suggest that it actually did happen?

Those are some mouth watering gigs for sure. I almost fell off my chair when I read those on Ellery's site years ago.

I talked to Joel Dorn numerous times when he was going through the tapes as I was involved in the release of the Freddie Hubbard material.

I definitely asked about some of the ones mentioned above and about certain artists in general and don't recall all his answers now.

One big issue was clearances. If it involved big names like Hancock, Shorter, Tyner or Rollins then it was going to be too cost prohibitive for him to release.

I was particularly intrigued with

May 23, 1965: Herbie Hancock, Sam Rivers, Ron Carter, Tony Williams

July 7, 1965: Roy Haynes, Wayner Shorter, Albert Dailey, Larry Ridley

May 15, 1966: Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Ronnie Matthews, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones

Dec. 4, 1966: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette

Especially the Shorter/Haynes thing but again this one would have been too cost prohibitive to release.

There were also sound quality issues. Some were recorded much better then others. I remember asking about a Lee Morgan one and being told there was no bass audible on the recording.

The rights reverted back to whomever licensed them to Dorn years ago.

Someone else could license them and see what is there but the best ones are going to be costly to release.

I have a program similar to Ellery's that I just acquired but this is a later one that lists concerts up to 12/15/74

There is nothing as jaw dropping as what is mentioned above but there is some interesting stuff.

The Coltrane concert in question is still listed.

Other stuff of interest

Max Roach with Charles Tolliver and Odean Pope

Art Blakey with Curtis Fuller back in the band with Woody Shaw 6/1/69

Lee Morgan with Billy Higgins subbing for Freddie Waits 1/24/71

Art Blakey with three tenor players Ramon Morris, Buddy Terry and Denny Marouse? 4/9/72

Art Blakey with Dizzy Reece 1/21/73

Elvin Jones with Hank Jones and Azar Lawrence and Steve Grossman 4/1/73

Thanks for the details. I get that there's a distinction between what may exist and what's releasable when you factor in payment cost for artists and sound quality issues. But I gather at this point that not even any unauthorized bootleg cassettes of any of the particularly mouth-watering gigs listed above have ever surfaced, correct?

Not to my knowledge.....

There doesn't seem to be any logic to what gets out in the world and what doesn't even if it is from the same venue.

The engineer could like a particular performance and make a copy of it and take it home, play it for his friends and they want copies etc etc. is one scenario I'm familiar with but I'm sure there are many possibilities.

Another potential holy grail for me is a tour that took place in Japan in 1964 featuring Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Dorham, Jackie McLean, Benny Golson, Cedar Walton, Reggie Workman and Roy Haynes. A Japanese photographer gave me his book last time I was in Japan that had photos from these concerts and he told me they were recorded (he didn't have copies though). I would like to hear that one.

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I remember asking about a Lee Morgan one and being told there was no bass audible on the recording.

How many people would feel ripped off if a live Lee Morgan set was released and the bass was nowhere to be heard? How many people would snap such a release up if it showed up on that Andorran "Rare Live Recordings" label?

I can understand the financial implication of releasing certain tapes being a huge hindrance but aside from massive over-saturation of the tape, I don't really see why audio quality should be that much of an impediment.

You've exposed an interesting paradox Dan....

The legitimate labels that want to put these sort of things out correctly and rightly compensate everyone involved are very concerned about sound quality. Part of the reason is with this sort of investment, they want to put out a quality product that will appeal to a larger fan base that includes people who have concerns about sound quality.

The bootleggers don't have these concerns so putting out a tape with no audible bass that is worthwhile musically and historically to them is not an issue.

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  • 6 months later...

Talking about the Left Bank Jazz Society tapes... some others were noted, I think by David Weiss. "Max Roach with Charles Tolliver and Odean Pope; Art Blakey with Curtis Fuller back in the band with Woody Shaw 6/1/69; Lee Morgan with Billy Higgins subbing for Freddie Waits 1/24/71; Art Blakey with three tenor players Ramon Morris, Buddy Terry and Denny Marouse? 4/9/72; Art Blakey with Dizzy Reece 1/21/73; Elvin Jones with Hank Jones and Azar Lawrence and Steve Grossman 4/1/73."

I'm trying to put an exact date on a show played by Herbie Hancock and the Mwandishi band during Spring or Summer 1971. Is there a way to access the post-1967 list of shows and find out this information? This was the night when Bennie Maupin first played with the band.

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One wonders if perhaps Tyrone Washington ever appeared at the Left Bank -- certainly not as a leader, but perhaps as a sideman (he was in the Messengers in early '69 for maybe a couple months, SOURCE, scroll down to April '69), or perhaps with Horace Silver and the Jody Grind band. That post-'67 list would be interesting to see, especially if it included sidemen. Maybe Tyrone appeared with Stanley Cowell?

FWIW, that same source I linked to above, has Blakey at the Left Bank thusly...

June 25, 1967: Bill Hardman-tpt; Billy Harper-tsx; Slide Hampton-tbn; McCoy Tyner-p; Juni Booth-b

- Left Bank Jazz Society, Baltimore, MD (June 25, 1967) [db 7/27/67 p.42, db 8/10/67 p.43]

1970: Woody Shaw-tpt; Ramon Morris-tsx; Albert Dailey-p; Mickey Bass-b [RFJ 9/79 p.17]

* Left Bank Jazz Society, Baltimore, MD (September 13, 1970) [db 11/12/70 p.46]

Left Bank Jazz Society, Baltimore, MD (January 21, 1973) [db 5/29/73 p.37] [lineup unknown]

December 12, 1976: Frank Gordon-tpt; David Schnitter-tsx; Walter Davis, Jr.-p; Cameron Brown-b

* Left Bank Jazz Society, Famous Ballroom, Baltimore, MD (December 12, 1976) [Coda 2/77 p.35, -GC]

And one or two after that in the 80's.

Edited by Rooster_Ties
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1) The Lee Morgan Live In Baltimore '68 is not from Baltimore. It was recorded at the Royal Arms Restaurant in Hyattsville, MD, on July, 1968. The concert was organized by the Left Bank Jazz Society of Washington, D.C., not the LBJS of Baltimore. This information is in the Morgan discography that appears on the University of Michigan Press web site and is affiliated with Jeff McMillan's book. I lived in Hyattsville in 1989-1990 when I went to UMD...

2) I saw this book today:

http://www.apprenticehouse.com/index.cfm?p=catalog&id=32

The appendix has the most complete LBJS concert listing I have yet to see, culled from 4 yearbooks. There are still some holes (like 68-71) but we are getting closer. Some mouth-watering stuff. Tons of Woody Shaw in the 70s and 80s...

Bertrand.

Edited by bertrand
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This section also includes a map of the old Pennsylvania Avenue clubs and a comprehensive list of Left Bank Jazz Society concerts held during its existence

This statement does not begin capture the wealth of info actually contained in the book. You have to see it in person. This is one of the many reasons I will miss brick-and-mortar stores.

Bertrand.

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Zev is live right now and i asked him about Hank 5-15-66 and he said he has a lot of those tapes in his house but was wishy washy if he actually has that one- he needs to be a little less legit and a little more like honeydew and plop that out there:  May 15, 1966: Freddie Hubbard, Hank Mobley, Ronnie Matthews, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones

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