Interesting Chuck Israels interview

[Larry Kart]

https://www.jazzwax.com/2019/02/interview-chuck-israels.html?fbclid=IwAR10QXnKi84giseE9aZZBc97MB0gBHpi9n86gF3Qrr4S9OkIrcrhMbrgwMY

 

 

 

[Mark Stryker]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

https://www.jazzwax.com/2019/02/interview-chuck-israels.html?fbclid=IwAR10QXnKi84giseE9aZZBc97MB0gBHpi9n86gF3Qrr4S9OkIrcrhMbrgwMY

 

 

 

Thanks for the tip. Chuck is a smart, interesting guy. I was struck by this quote: "That's how the music sounds when you have an opportunity to play a defined repertoire for months until the performances become ultra-confident and refined. When you think you might be bored, that's when you dig deep into discovering refreshing ideas."

I was around Chuck for several days in Urbana around 1985 and I learned a lot just being  in his presence and hearing him talk about this and that. He and John Garvey, who led the U of I band, had grown close and Chuck was writing a lot of material for John's band when I was in it . 

[sgcim]

3 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

https://www.jazzwax.com/2019/02/interview-chuck-israels.html?fbclid=IwAR10QXnKi84giseE9aZZBc97MB0gBHpi9n86gF3Qrr4S9OkIrcrhMbrgwMY

 

 

 

Thanks for posting that link. According to Perry Robinson's autobiography, Chuck was gigging on guitar at that summer camp they met at, until Steve Kuhn and Arnie Wise needed a bass player for a trio gig they had.

Arnie Wise also complained how little Bill Evans paid his sidemen; that's why he surprised Bill and quit the trio. Evans told him, "You realize you'll be carrying around the stigma of having worked with me for the rest of your life".Probably the money Israels and Wise should have gotten was going into Evans' arm...never trust a jazz pianist, junkie with money. The West Coast jazz pianist, junkie Bob Harris used to tell his sidemen that the gig paid 50 beans. At the end of the gig, he'd open up a can of dried beans, and pay them 50 'beans'!

The description of the Bill Evans/Herbie Mann album as a business deal was quite apt. All of the LPs Evans made with people outside the trio were set up by Helen Keane, who took care of every aspect of Evans' career, if not life...

 

[JSngry]

2 hours ago, sgcim said:

 The West Coast jazz pianist, junkie Bob Harris used to tell his sidemen that the gig paid 50 beans. At the end of the gig, he'd open up a can of dried beans, and pay them 50 'beans'!

There are people who will fuck you up for pulling shit like that.

How did that motherfucker die?

[Larry Kart]

A response from a friend of mine:

"I read with special interest the account of hearing about LaFaro's death.  When [name of my friend's wife] and I had dinner with Israels and his wife (a mediocre singer, can't remember her name), we got one part of the same as his telling here.  He was sitting in a café (I assumed Rome, but it was Spoleto) when he first got the news.  And he did mention the double emotion of sadness at the loss and elation at the possibility of taking over the Evans bass chair.  But what he doesn't mention in the interview is that, in addition to getting LaFaro's job, he also got BOTH of LaFaro's girlfriends.  He related this with barely contained glee.  He's also an egomaniac."

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

There are people who will fuck you up for pulling shit like that.

Remember the Stan Levey-Sonny Stitt story?

The story, via Charlie Shoemake:

'Conte Candoli told me that Stitt was the one that had given Stan up to the drug police in order to save himself, thus sending Stan to prison. When I asked Stan about it he said that it was true and that when he got out he took a notorious Philadelphia hit man that he knew from his boxing days to where Sonny Stitt was playing and they sat in the front row causing Sonny Stitt to turn ashen. I said to Stan…"but those recordings you made with him years after that, what was that like?” Stan said they never spoke but every once in a while he would see Sonny glance over at him very nervously. Stan also said that going to prison actually saved his life because he got completely clean and married a beautiful girl, Angela, who was a wonderful person and a steady rock for him the rest of his life.’

[sgcim]

Born in September 1943 in Los Angeles, California, he was the son of Maurice Harris, a trumpet player in The Tonight Show Band led by Doc Severinsen. He worked as a jazz pianist in clubs in the Los Angeles area. In 1966 he married singer-songwriter Judee Sill. Harris wrote orchestral arrangements with Don Bagley for Sill's debut album in 1971. He also played as a pianist for The Turtles. Harris later wrote arrangements for recordings by The Friends of Distinction and Jack Jones. He also performed backing vocals and lead vocals on Steve Vai's "Flex-Able"

Harris joined jazz guitarist Gábor Szabó in 1970 and was a member of Frank Zappa's band The Mothers for a short time in 1971. He appeared on the Zappa album Fillmore East – June 1971. Recordings from the same concerts also appeared on The John Lennon / Yoko Ono album Sometime in New York City. He also appeared on the Zappa album Playground Psychotics where he was a soloist on the Wurlitzer Electric Piano on the song Billy the Mountain.

At the end of the 1970s Harris toured with Ray Charles. He died in 2001 from the effects of a drug overdose.

Discography

All of the above is true, except for the part about Steve Vai; they were talking about the other Bob Harris that became Zappa's keyboard player 15 or 20 years after BH(1)'s short stint with Zappa in 1971. 

Harris was the pot dealer for The Leaves, when he met Jim Pons, their bass player. When the Leaves broke up, Pons got BH and Judee Sill involved with The Turtles. Sill wrote the beautiful tune "Lady-O" for the Turtles, and Harris did the string quartet arrangement, that is also featured on Judee Sill's definitive version of the song on the first record that David Geffen put out on his new label, Asylum Records. Harris had such a notorious rep in LA for being a junkster, he wasn't even allowed in the studio by Geffen and his partner (?), but he did most of the other arrangements on the LP, except for the cornier stuff that Don Bagley did.

When I discovered Sill's music, it really struck a chord in me, and I listened to it every day for a year. I even got in contact with 'Flo' from the Turtles, who badmouthed Sill (it turned out he was rebuffed by her), but sang the praises of Harris. Harris was was busted for writing bad checks and drugs, and did some time, but he got to play with his idol, Ray Charles (whom he called "that genius N-word') on the road. He dug the jazz that came out of Detroit. 

He wound up getting a gig playing at a hotel lounge in Mexico for the remainder of his years, which was probably good for him,because he would've just wound up doing a lot of time due to the three strikes you're out law.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

YEA HES ZAPPA BOB HARRIS #1 NOT BOB HARRIS #2

50 BEANS, ROTFL