Jump to content

sgcim

Recommended Posts

Reading the Dennard thread got me thinking about other obscure pianists.

Last night, I did a gig in NYC with a pianist I never heard of before named Johnny Morris. It turned out he played on some small group Buddy Rich sessions back in the 60s, "Playtime" and "Blues Caravan", and went on a State Dept. tour with BR.

i found this on youtube:

He still plays classic swing piano, and I found myself thinking of Teddy Wilson during his solos.

Another guy that I used to work with a lot who's still around is Mike Alterman, a fine musician.

He played on the Woody Herman LP "East Meets West", and has a great solo on an up tempo blues.

He went on the road with Chet Baker for eight months, and it was so traumatic, he refused to talk about it.

I played with the great bass player, Frank Tate, also last night, and he mentioned a guy named Bill Rubenstein (Rubinstein?), whom he described as playing like Bill Evans, before BE started playing like BE.

I did a search on him, and the only recordings he played on were a few Chris Connor LPs, and a Carol Sloane LP, "Live on 30th St."

Anyone familiar with him?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I played with the great bass player, Frank Tate, also last night, and he mentioned a guy named Bill Rubenstein (Rubinstein?), whom he described as playing like Bill Evans, before BE started playing like BE.

I did a search on him, and the only recordings he played on were a few Chris Connor LPs, and a Carol Sloane LP, "Live on 30th St."

Anyone familiar with him?

http://www.buddyrich.se/leshin.htm

There`s a picture near the bottom of the page featuring him........

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nico Bunink, perhaps most famous here for his brief stint with Charles Mingus.

http://en.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/entry/Nico+Bunink

Choice quote: "In an interview with Dutch jazz magazine Jazz Nu the pianist says that he considers Mingus's timing to be somewhat rigid, even like 'the German army'. The best rhythm section he ever played with, so he says in the same interview, consisted of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nadi Qamar (used to be known as Spaulding Givens)...still alive and/or playing?

Mingus really chewed through pianists in the 50s didn't he?

Not sure if he is still alive and / or playing, but I could swear he did a long CADENCE interview in the past decade.

Also, this looks like it merits further investigation:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/nadi-qamar/mama-likembi-instruction-record-thumb-piano/islamica-music-instruction/album/smithsonian

EDIT: Like! http://www.facebook.com/NadiQamarSpauldingGivensOfficialPage

And this recent release on what I presume to be Qamar's private label: http://www.worldcat.org/title/from-spaulding-givens-to-nadi-qamar/oclc/741515919

Edited by Joe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nadi Qamar (used to be known as Spaulding Givens)...still alive and/or playing?

Mingus really chewed through pianists in the 50s didn't he?

Not sure if he is still alive and / or playing, but I could swear he did a long CADENCE interview in the past decade.

Also, this looks like it merits further investigation:

http://www.folkways.si.edu/nadi-qamar/mama-likembi-instruction-record-thumb-piano/islamica-music-instruction/album/smithsonian

EDIT: Like! http://www.facebook.com/NadiQamarSpauldingGivensOfficialPage

And this recent release on what I presume to be Qamar's private label: http://www.worldcat.org/title/from-spaulding-givens-to-nadi-qamar/oclc/741515919

There was a long interview in Cadence - done by Bill Dixon. I transcribed it and it was long because I didn't feel that it was my right to cut anything. So it was printed as it was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Gilmore, formerly of Chicago, now plays piano in Mendocino, CA. He was a very fine pianist here in the 1960s when he played with Anthony Braxton, Kalaparusha, Alvin Fielder, and other AACM folk, and with the Brecker brothers. From later years there are at least two recordings, one of him playing inside solos in a supper club, the other (probably a private recording) of him improvising ingenious outside duets with Rafael Garrett. He certainly deserves to be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Larry - was Billy Wallace the pianist on that session with Coltrane on Roulette? If he was, I remember him as a very interesting and percussive player.

It was John Maher who was the pianist with Coltrane on the Roulette session.

Another rather obscure pianist is Billy Gardner.I always enjoyed his playing with Charlie Rouse on his recording on Epic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Mehegan. Interesting career; I was aware of his role in "Streetcar Named Desire" but not aware of the HUAC connection (further research required).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mehegan

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/05/obituaries/john-mehegan-jazz-pianist-wrote-4-volume-textbook.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgamzc6eIrY

Edited by Joe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...