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Roy Campbell RIP


Hardbopjazz

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Wow, that's shocking news - horrible.

I had a lengthy chat with him when I heard him play in duo with Joëlle Léandre in Paris in front of a handful of (lucky!) people at Sept Lézards ... since there was virtually nobody there that Friday night, they invited me to come back (for free) on Saturday.

Here's my recollection from a while later, but with a much fresher memory than I have now:


Took me a while to dig Roy, but had a very, very nice personal encounter with him in Paris.
He played (the now defunct, I think) "Sept Lezards" club with Joelle Leandre - just the two of them. There was hardly an audience - the top floor was a bar/restaurant, in the cellar there was a horrible little room for music. Some of the dining folks came down but they quickly disappeared again... I got to chat with the lady next to me, and turns out she's Roy's girlfriend. I mention having a disc or two of Roy's, and then in the break she told him and he was very pleased to find a fan in the room (well, an acquaintance of Joelle Leandre's was there, too, makes two of us... the rest of the audience consisted of three or four people).
Roy was great to talk to.... very knowledgeable and thoughtful person, seems he payed plenty of dues and knows quite well where he's going and what he's doing, musically. (I find many musicians lacking as far as reflecting their own art goes... lacking may be too negative a word as an artist doesn't have to be a critic/historian at the same time, but I still find it irritating rather often.)

Anyway, they invited me over for the second night, and of course I went back - and yes, I felt bad being on the guest list, while there were just... four or five? paying customers that night as well.

The music they performed was great, a mix of various styles that somehow turned out very well. Leandre did all that wild stuff, including frantic bowing and some of her weird singing, and Campbell played the trumpet (and/or a cornet, can't remember) as well as the flute (regular one), and brought plenty of roots into the mix. In some of his solos, I thought I could virtually hear the whole history of jazz trumpet playing... but he's working and playing with it, reflecting it, turning it into his own, personal statement, not merely recycling it.

Here's the link to the programme of Oct 2007:

http://www.7lezards.com/programme/10-2007.htm

Friday night after the concert, around midnight or so, while taking a casual stroll back to my generous host brownie's place, right through the center or Paris, the atmosphere was amazing - France hosted the rugby world cup that year and had just beaten the Kiwi's 20 to 18.

spinning this very good disc right now:

MI0000308418.jpg

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I saw him a few times--once in a small theater in New York in a group with Zane Massey similar to his two hard boppish Delmark releases, another time at the Knitting Factory, with a quartet he called Shades of Trane, which played all Coltrane compositions, and in a quartet with Lee Rozie, William Parker and Hamid Drake--these were all very enjoyable performances; I'm sorry to hear this news.

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That's too bad. I've been to a number of his concerts, to the point he would stop and chat a bit. Very personable. He could definitely bring it in performance. Last saw him at 2013 Vision Fest and he did not look or play like his usual self. RIP Roy.

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I don't know his own music but have enjoyed his contributions to Billy Bang and William Parker discs I have greatly enjoyed. On Carlos 1 with Bang the whole band has a great groove. That disc was IIRC the very first contemporary jazz disc I ever bought ( i.e. not a reissue )

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Has this actually been confirmed?

Always loved his playing with ODIM.

Yes! That was the group. Other Dimensions in Music. Roy's work in tandem with Daniel Carter was exemplary. Many fine sets through the years.

Roy was a kind and friendly soul. Hadn't seen him in a year and a half. I will surely miss him. R.I.P Roy.

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I used to regularly see Roy at The Lenox Lounge. Some nights were musically sublime and other nights (when things weren't quite clicking) his company along with the hipness of the room made the night.

I also saw him downtown with his own groups, Other Dimensions, and with William Parker's led groups. He gave so much to every performance.
This is a major loss.

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I'm not one to say "died too young" or "died too soon", because,you know, there are no guarantees, no pre-configured maturation dates, but this is one guy I just expected to have around for a while longer to keep things going, and...guess not, which is something that sure seems to me to be too soon.

Cosmos, explain yourself on this one. That's the least you can do. We give you most of the rest of them, not much else we can do, so the least you can do is explain yourself on this one, dammit - explain yourself.

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