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First live jazz you ever heard


mikeweil

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The first live jazz I ever heard was the Oscar Peterson Trio with Sam Jones and Bobby Durham, must have been around 1971.

Second was Herbie Mann's Quintet with Steve Marcus, Sonny Sharrock, Miroslav Vitous and Bruno Carr, the following year.

Most impressive was Herbie Hancock's Headhunters in 1974, with Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson, Mike Clark and Bill Summers.

Edited by mikeweil
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The first live jazz I saw was accidental. In 1970, at age 14, I went to the Fillmore East to see Santana play, and the opening act was Rahsaan Roland Kirk. I couldn't figure what was going on, and the sight of this blind guy playing two or three horns at once was weird to a 14 year old kid who'd never heard jazz before. About three years later, when I 'got it' and dug jazz, I saw him again at the Village Vanguard and was completely blown away!

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Count Basie w/Lockjaw, Eric Dixon, Marshall Royal, and Norman Jones, Shreveport, Louisiana, Sunday, December 13, 1970. The trip to Shreveport to see the band was a birthday present. I was about to turn 15 and had been into jazz for about 4 months. Didn't know who anybody was but Basie. My Dad recognized "April In Paris".

The whole experience freaked me out. Ths shit was LOUD! The musicians were cooler and hipper in demenor in comportment than anything I had yet to even begin to imagine. And I thought that Dixon & Jaws were the weirdest (in the best possible way) shit that I had ever heard, weirder than Zappa, Hendryx, & "Revolution 9" rolled into one. STILL think that about Lockjaw... ;) Oh, to have a time machine and be able to hear what I heard then with the benefit of what I know now...

During that concert, what had begun as an enthusiastic curiosity became a purpose in life. Two weeks later, I bought my first jazz album. A few days later, I bought my next. Three weeks later, I got my first solo in Stage Band. And so it went.

And goes.

Edited by JSngry
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1984. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. That they came to my (relatively) small hometown at all now seems fairly amazing. Somewhere between 60-80 people crammed into this small performance hall, and the band were crammed on the stage. The messengers at that time were:

Donald Harrison

Terence Blanchard

Mulgrew Miller

Lonnie Plaxico

I was 14 and missed the second set because of my curfew. I didn't know exactly what I was hearing, but I did know that the musicians up there had paid some dues. It would take about 2 more years before I finally got it and started buying records.

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My very first concert was in early 1953 at a French radio jazz concert. A Sunday morning concert with French musicians. Can't recall who was playing except for the Tony Prouteau big band.

But my second concert I remember some of it quite clearly. Same year but in September. That was the Lionel Hampton big band on their initial European tour. THAT band with Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Jimmy Cleveland, Tony Ortega, Gigi Gryce, Clifford Scott, Alan Dawson etc.

George Wallington and Annie Ross were already out of the band by the time it hit Paris.

I loved the Hampton antics then. The vibes, drums and piano bits by the Master. And I loved it when the musicians marched through the aisles of the Palais de Chaillot concert hall during one of their numbers (probably 'Flying Home').

I know now that the musicians hated all those antics and those parade through the hall. But for the kid I was, this was enthralling...

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Nobody real famous. My mom was a singer (classically trained soprano) but she did a lot of gigs where she sang show tunes. There was always a jazz combo on the bill and as a kid I would hang around the jazz musicians. BeBop was the standard fare, and I liked it. I gave up the piano and trumpet and concentrated on the drums, I saw a lot of small local club acts, and a few of the big band acts like Gene Krupa, but but my first live hard bop show was the Miles Davis Quintet ca.1965. It seemed bizarre to me then and I couldn't deal with the broken lines and how open it was and it wasn't until a couple of years later that I really fell in love with it. That whole sense of suggested lines and implied closure, I suddenly got it.

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Count Basie w/Lockjaw, Eric Dixon, Marshall Royal, and Norman Jones, Shreveport, Louisiana, Sunday, December 13, 1970. The trip to Shreveport to see the band was a birthday present. I was about to turn 15 and had been into jazz for about 4 months. Didn't know who anybody was but Basie. My Dad recognized "April In Paris".

The whole experience freaked me out. Ths shit was LOUD! The musicians were cooler and hipper in demenor in comportment than anything I had yet to even begin to imagine. And I thought that Dixon & Jaws were the weirdest (in the best possible way) shit that I had ever heard, weirder than Zappa, Hendryx, & "Revolution 9" rolled into one. STILL think that about Lockjaw... ;) Oh, to have a time machine and be able to hear what I heard then with the benefit of what I know now...

During that concert, what had begun as an enthusiastic curiosity became a purpose in life. Two weeks later, I bought my first jazz album. A few days later, I bought my next. Three weeks later, I got my first solo in Stage Band. And so it went.

And goes.

I'm jealous! Count Basie played a dance at my college during I think the '69-'70 school year. I didn't go, and of course now I regret it.

Did he record for Solid State then? I believe that I once saw a '69 recording of his on the Groove Merchant label.

Anyway, I have looked but am unaware of any albums currently available which were recorded by Basie at that time.

Any suggestions?

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In '67 I went to Al Hirt's club on Bourbon Street to see Mongo Santamaria. One guy in the band impressed me, and he went on to become famous - Hubert Laws.

Shortly thereafter, I went to a jam session at a parish/grammar school gymnasium featuring Roland Kirk, backed up by local musicians including Ellis Marsalis and Alvin Batiste.

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Some Basie 1969/1970 albums:

Standing Ovation, Dot - rec. January 1969

Evergreens, Groove Merchant - rec. October 1969

Basie on the Beatles, Happy Tiger - rec. December 1969

High Voltage, MPS - rec. February 1970

Afrique, Flying Dutchman - rec. December 1970

I know only the first of these, a nice live album, deserves a completed reissue.

Edited by mikeweil
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Very few opportunities for an Iowa farm kid but the first was Shearing's quintet at the KRNT Theater.

The first "real" jazz group was Shelly Manne with Conte, Kamuca, Freeman and Budwig. Next was Brubeck.

Conte Candoli invited me to the hotel to give me his Crown lp and Brubeck invited me to a party at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Brubeck soon asked me to go with him to a steak house, to escape the "socialites" of DM.

The extraordinary kindness of these men (and Duke E shortly thereafter) cemented my relationship with the music.

Somewhere in there, the Four Freshmen were favorites.

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Hard to be sure, actually, but I think it was the John Scofield Quartet, w/ Lovano, Bill Stewart and Dennis Irwin in '92.

That was a great band Joe. I saw them in London and it was one of the most memorable concerts I've ever attended. Great tunes great playing from a group that realy communicated.

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