BillF

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Agreed, not to mention the musical education of playing in big bands and/or rhythm and blues outfits which was the experience of so many great jazz musicians of the past. Playing jazz has moved, like so many other skills, from learning on the job to doing a course at college.

Ira Gitler?

Of course, learning from the records is nothing new. I recall that Scott Hamilton's father's record collection was an important influence on him. Joe Harriott told me in the 1960s that he'd learned his Charlie Parker (his major influence) from records. He never heard him live.

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So many of the old faces have disappeared ( Magnificent Goldberg, alocispepraluger, Paul Secor and Lark Ascending are the first to come to mind) and new faces don't seem to have become established to replace them. However, there are exceptions. We need more people like Gheorghe (who by my standards seems like a new face.)

Winner!

There have been claims of even earlier murderers of jazz than Bird. As a studious 17 year old in the 1950s I read Jazz by Rex Harris who claimed that by the time Ellington emerged in the 1920s what he was playing was no longer jazz. Harris was a New Orleans jazz purist whose ideas misled me for a while. It took Bird whom I discovered at the age of 18 to tell me Harris was wrong. I recall that Sidewinder also came across Mr Harris' book - in his school library.

Amazing to find Bird as a crossword theme. I still find that most people have only the vaguest idea about who he was.

No good at cryptic crosswords, but think 21 Across is DIAL.

Yeah, lovely!

Nice, Peter. I have watched some Smalls streaming. The problem is the 5 hour time difference between there and here. I'm not particularly a night bird!

A perennial favourite since I bought it as a 10" LP:

Nice to hear from you, John and Peter. To change direction slightly in this thread for a moment, I recently discovered that my friend Malcolm Frazer had had Grant Stewart playing in his front room and had forgotten (?) to include me in his invitation list. Particularly disappointing as Grant has long been top of my "would-like-to-see" list. At least I, like you, can watch these videos that Malcolm made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU9pDQR9ZhU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDBHAjP-TVs

Have you read about how they escaped the clutches of Hamp to make those sessions? Great anecdotes!

Fascinating playing through some of these clips, David. Highly astute commentary by Mark.

Wow! Yes! Unheard Bird! And very good too.

So Eric's position in the present day galaxy of jazz stars is completely misplaced? All those record company executives who helped him make scores of albums were wrong? A seasoned jazz listener with 63 years experience like me hasn't got a clue? I'm confident I'd score 100% on a name-the-tenorman blindfold test featuring Eric and George Coleman. Yes, of course Coleman is an influence, but also others like Dexter, Coltrane, Bird and Eddie Harris, whom Eric names. And after that there is of course Eric. A couple of phrases and I know it's him and can say that of very few of today's people. Let's hope your new record purchase will lift the veil from your eyes (ears rather).