Thoughts on Teddy Kotick?

[mjzee]

Listening now to "Further Explorations By The Horace Silver Quintet" and started thinking about Teddy Kotick.  Not much has been written here about him.  He seemed to be everywhere in the late '40's - late '50's, was said to be Bird's favorite bassist.  Had a big sound and nice sense of time.  Thoughts here about him?  Favorite sessions?

Also found this weird little mention here, where Hod O'Brien mentions "playing a set with Dizzy, Ornette, Ed Blackwell, and Teddy Kotick."  Huh?  Trying to imagine what that sounded like...

 

[king ubu]

Couldn't say I'm a fan but yes, fine bass player for sure.From an Ethan Iverson interview with Charlie Haden:

EI:  Is there another 50’s bassist you want to mention?

CH:  Teddy Kotick.

EI:  Oh? I’ve never really listened to him carefully.

CH:  You’ve got to listen to “Kim” with Bird, Hank Jones and Max Roach. Also, he’s on the first Bill Evans album with Paul Motian, New Jazz Conceptions. Great intonation, great sound, gut strings. He died too young.

https://ethaniverson.com/interviews/interview-with-charlie-haden/

[jlhoots]

New Jazz Conceptions is a great album IMO.

[king ubu]

And Herbie Nichols of course! He and Max Roach ... not too shabby

[BillF]

After a great deal of work with celebrated players in the later 50s, he disappeared off the scene, dying almost 30 years later in 1986. Did his playing, like that of other Bird bassists, Curly Russell and Tommy Potter, become outdated in the face of technically more accomplished bass playing styles? 

Edited May 20, 2018 by BillF

[king ubu]

I don't think so ... and would strongly consider him a much more interesting, involving and characterful player than Potter or Russell ... funny enough that the other really good Bird/40s bop bassist, Al McKibbon, is on the other Nichols sessions for Blue Note.

[Gheorghe]

I always liked those strong bass players who are best known for their hard work in the 40´s and 50´s. Their were no amplifiers and underwood pickups or low and soft strings. They had to cut through the band for entire nights. Hard work.

Mingus once stated that "the young bass players don´t have no chops, and he pointed to his bass and said it went through Bird, Bud, Duke....."

Teddy Kotick sounds wonderful and steady, besides his studio work I love to hear his strong sound on serveral live sessions of Bird.

And sure: "Further Explorations" is great and has there is a rare session photo of Teddy Kotick on it, where he looks a bit like an unmade bed. On some photos from the book "To Bird with Love" he´s dressed very formal with suit and tie and looks almost like a waiter from a restaurant.

Tommy Potter at least was still playing sporadically in the mid 60´s on Bird Memorial events, and he made a remarcable album of his own "Hard Funk in Sweden"....

[sidewinder]

Ha - that photo of Teddy with the comb-over on ‘Further Explorations’ caught my eye too. Great, solid bassist.

[BillF]

12 hours ago, king ubu said:

I don't think so ... and would strongly consider him a much more interesting, involving and characterful player than Potter or Russell ... funny enough that the other really good Bird/40s bop bassist, Al McKibbon, is on the other Nichols sessions for Blue Note.

In that case, were there health/"lifestyle" problems that would account for his disappearance?

Edited May 21, 2018 by BillF

[Brad]

There’s a moderately extended discussion about him in Talkbass.com. See Teddy Kotick

[BillF]

1 hour ago, Brad said:

There’s a moderately extended discussion about him in Talkbass.com. See Teddy Kotick

Thanks for the link. I see the answer to my question is yes.

[paul secor]

My musician friend Bill Morrison sent me a couple of short emails on Teddy Kotick:

"He was on a Hod O'Brien LP - Bits and Pieces - 1982.  At that time, I think he was living in Lowell, gigging around town, and playing, I think, in the Lowell Symphony as well.  (He was born in Haverhill, a few miles north of Lowell.) I used to occasionally sub at the Bostonian Hotel down near Faneuil Hall, and although our paths never crossed, I'm pretty sure he played there from time to time with one of the pianists I worked with. This would have been early-mid '80s.  He died of cancer in '86.  But why he went off the scene I really don't know."

"This was probably about the last thing Kotick recorded--released in '87,  but recorded in mid-1983.  The label was trying to interest Rounder in distributing it; they passed, as they didn't tend to have much luck with one-release labels; I got the LP.  Zano's another one of those guys who had a lot of respect among musicians, but never got much public recognition." 

 

https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Zano-In-Retrospect/release/10284440

 

I (Paul) should also add that Teddy Kotick recorded on J.R. Monterose's Welcome Back, J.R.! LP in 1979.

 

 

 

[T.D.]

Teddy Kotick is the "Unknown Jazz Musician" of Hod O'Brien's tune and album Fanfare (for the Unknown Jazz Musician). Japanese release, worth a listen if you like O'Brien.

[Daniel A]

Kotick is on the Martial Solal Newport album from 1963 (with Paul Motian), which would probably make it his last recording before the "disappearance". The bass could be better recorded, but the playing on the demanding material is fine.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Daniel A