Live recordings you were in attendance

[mjzee]

Oh yeah, I was at this:

[BFrank]

I was at Montreux in 1978, and there were a fair number of albums that came out of that festival. I honestly don't remember which shows I saw, but pretty sure I saw some of the Xanadu sets (there were 4 albums), and also Muhal Richard Abrams.

[Caravan]

Coltrane Quartet, Comblain-la-Tour, 1 August 1965:

http://youtu.be/jj0HTcSKX1Q?t=57m16s

[AllenLowe]

at the knitting factory with Hemphill: http://www.allenlowe.com/albums/new-tango/

[sidewinder]

Bill Evans trio, Ronnie Scotts, 1980

[mjzee]

Just found a used copy of this in a Half Price Books for $1. This concert was the day of my high school graduation; I stepped out of the party my parents threw to attend it.

[relyles]

Most of the great shows I've seen over the years have been at Tonic, The Stone and Cornelia Street Cafe

Very, very few recordings of anyone for whatever reason have been released of anyone from these venues

I was at the Dennis Gonzalez show at Tonic with a quartet that also featured Ellery Eskelin, Mark Helias and Michael T.A. Thompson. I am fairly certain portions of that concert were subsequently released by Gonzalez.

[Larry Kart]

Three I was at. Chuck Nessa not only was at the last of these but also IIRC played a key role in its being recorded:

http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Lives-Ira-Sullivan/dp/B000A3PMPU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1382386828&sr=1-1&keywords=ira+sullivan+charlie+parker

http://www.allmusic.com/album/charlie-parker-memorial-concert-mw0000313619

http://www.amazon.com/Chase-Ammons/dp/B000000ZF1

[BFrank]

One more

[A Lark Ascending]

Edited October 22, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[JohnJ]

[John Litweiler]

Three I was at. Chuck Nessa not only was at the last of these but also IIRC played a key role in its being recorded:

http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Lives-Ira-Sullivan/dp/B000A3PMPU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1382386828&sr=1-1&keywords=ira+sullivan+charlie+parker

http://www.allmusic.com/album/charlie-parker-memorial-concert-mw0000313619

http://www.amazon.com/Chase-Ammons/dp/B000000ZF1

I was with Leon Kelert while he was recording the Jug and Dexter set for Prestige - Steve McCall, drums, I believe. Don Byas, before he began playing, came over to us to insist that Leon turn off the recorder. Wilbur Campbell played drums for that last set. Larry, do you remember, after the music, the 3 tenor players walking together across the street into the Lincoln Park night?

[Larry Kart]

Three I was at. Chuck Nessa not only was at the last of these but also IIRC played a key role in its being recorded:

http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Lives-Ira-Sullivan/dp/B000A3PMPU/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1382386828&sr=1-1&keywords=ira+sullivan+charlie+parker

http://www.allmusic.com/album/charlie-parker-memorial-concert-mw0000313619

http://www.amazon.com/Chase-Ammons/dp/B000000ZF1

I was with Leon Kelert while he was recording the Jug and Dexter set for Prestige - Steve McCall, drums, I believe. Don Byas, before he began playing, came over to us to insist that Leon turn off the recorder. Wilbur Campbell played drums for that last set. Larry, do you remember, after the music, the 3 tenor players walking together across the street into the Lincoln Park night?

Don't remember that part, but it was a pretty long time ago. I do recall Byas being fairly wound up.

[7/4]

Jefferson Starship in Central Park, WNEW-FM

May 1975, I was 15.

Just came out on CD, no plans on buying it.

[A Lark Ascending]

And I'm there for bits of 3 of the Freezone Appleby discs from the mid-noughties - not sure which bits!

Edited October 23, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[mjzee]

I was at one of these shows (the late show of the last night, where, he announced to the audience, he needed to reperform The Purple Lagoon to get it correct for the record).

[PHILLYQ]

I forgot about this one. This was Cecil Taylor Tony Oxley show at the Village Vanguard in July 2008. It was recorded and released as an LP by Ben Stein. He is the program directory of WKCR. I am not sure which set, but I was at all 12 sets that week.

I'm at the bottom of this New York Times photo. Cecil is a genius. Maybe a new word needs to created be to describe his genius.

Cecil finished one set after only 40 minutes and Lorraine yelled, get back up there and play. Cecil just walked up the steps to have a smoke. I don't thinks he has been back since.

I was at one of those shows myself and I could've stayed for a second set, but I was spent from listening to CT.

[mjzee]

Oh yeah. I was at this one:

What a silly concert.

Was also at this one:

I do not like Cecil Taylor.

Curious why you went to the concerts. To hear Mary Lou and Max?

As I recall, Cecil was all over NYC at that time. Gary Giddins praising him to high heavens, the New World releases getting wide acclaim, all these Japanese Trio releases hitting our shores (like Akisakila), etc. I kinda knew what Cecil was about, but it doesn't hurt to experience it for yourself. At least I thought it wouldn't hurt. The Cecil/Max concert was the worst. Max is a great drummer, and I could always focus on him when the going got rough, but I thought Cecil's music was pure aggression, sort of the piano pummeling my head for however long the concert lasted. It felt like punishment.

I remember when the Cecil/Mary Lou concert was announced, Mary Lou saying there was enough common ground in their music and in the jazz tradition to make for an enjoyable, enlightening concert. I kinda suspected it would be a train wreck, albeit perhaps an enjoyable one. It was even more of a hoot to see Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker as the rhythm section. This would make sense as a Mary Lou rhythm section, but they had no insight, affinity, connection with what Cecil was playing. It was so weird to hear Mary Lou w/bass and drums playing something traditional, only to hear Cecil chattering away concurrently, almost like Unit Structures and Earl Hines played at the same time. It was nice to see and hear Mary Lou; that's about all I can say. The recording's around in case anyone wants to check my impressions.

It's still remarkable to me to see how many people profess a love for Cecil's music; the most recent one is in the Bill Cosby article I posted. Perhaps someday I'll "get it"; that why, every so often, I'll try again. But I think I'd rather bash my head against a wall than hear another Cecil concert.

Bob Cranshaw's recollection (from the Do The Math interview):

BC: Yeah.

I remember when Mary Lou did a concert at Carnegie Hall and she had Cecil Taylor. I guess it was just going to be her and Cecil Taylor, but Cecil was out, so she called me and Mickey to help her.

She got pissed at us at the end of the gig, because there was no way we could control Cecil Taylor. When he went out, he was gone. There wasn’t nothing we could do about it.

EI: I must admit, I was so excited. I remember in high school, I thought, “Oh my God! Mary Lou Williams and Cecil Taylor did a record together. I can’t wait to hear this.”

BC: I never heard it because it was so out.

EI: Cecil doesn’t really let up his thing. It’s too bad.

BC: She thought that we would be able to control it, so when we got through, I just remember Mickey saying to Mary Lou. She said, “Well, I thought you all…!” Mickey said to her, “Look…” The only way we could help her with it is, I grab one arm and Mickey grab the other arm and carry him off the stage. There was nothing that we could do musically to be able to help.

EI: She thought that you guys would help.

BC: Yes, she thought we would be able to help whatever, but it was as strange and as new to us as it was to her.

EI: Maybe she thought if there were some good, solid swing from Cranshaw and Roker, he would hear that and change. 


BC: But we couldn’t change it. We didn’t know what was happening. I just remember him playing. We took an intermission. He went backstage, and they had a piano backstage at Carnegie Hall. He played through the whole [intermission]. Backstage, he was still playing; it was like he never stopped.

EI: Wow. It sounds like he didn’t talk any of the other musicians about working out how to make this quartet concert more successful.

BC: No. He was into his thing and there was no way out.

EI: Interesting.

BC: It’s humorous to me because we tried to control it while it was happening. It was nutty. I have the CD. I asked Mickey the same thing; he never played it. He had it, but he said no. It wasn’t a happy experience when we were there, so I wouldn’t listen to it.

[soulpope]

[sgcim]

As a kid, I went to the "Guitar Album" concert at Town Hall in NYC.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Album-featuring-Guitarists/dp/B0013ZH1WQ

It was a pretty eclectic concert with people like Tiny Grimes, Chuck Wayne (he had an electric bass player, and I didn't know what they were doing), John McLaughlin (with his wife playing autoharp; they were both dressed in white robes), Joe Beck, George Barnes and Bucky Pizzarelli, and Charlie Byrd.

[Steve Reynolds]

The In Order to Survive show from 2012 on the William Parker Wood Flute Songs box set

[duaneiac]

I was at the first of 2 nights of recording for these CDs. I don't know how much of the first set may have been used because during the intermission guys came out and rearranged the mikes around the drum kit. I don't know if they were having audio problems with the recording, but the sound was fine (as usual) in Yoshi's.

I was disappointed by the concert and never sought out the CD. I guess that was the last time I saw McCoy Tyner.

Dick Conte is a pianist/radio host in the SF area. Drummer Bill Moody was also the author of the Evan Horne series of jazz detective novels.

[marcello]

As a kid, I went to the "Guitar Album" concert at Town Hall in NYC.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Album-featuring-Guitarists/dp/B0013ZH1WQ

It was a pretty eclectic concert with people like Tiny Grimes, Chuck Wayne (he had an electric bass player, and I didn't know what they were doing), John McLaughlin (with his wife playing autoharp; they were both dressed in white robes), Joe Beck, George Barnes and Bucky Pizzarelli, and Charlie Byrd.

I used to have that one!

[ejp626]

I've been at a few concerts that they claimed were being recorded but then I've never seen the output. One was at the Montreal Jazz Fest in 1994 with Milton Nascimento, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin. I'm sure there are boots of this, but I've never seen a legit edition. And a few other NYC concerts that never saw the light of day.

[BillF]

Bill Evans trio, Ronnie Scotts, 1980

Were they recording the night I was there? I don't know, but as this was a one-off at the Free Trade Hall, I know for certain I was in the audience :-)