Ted O'Reilly

I'm pretty sure of my guess that Erroll went into a studio, in an hour or two knocked off an album's worth of music with the trio and went home. The producer asked Sebesky to add a "Brass Bed" that Erroll knew nothing about and never slept in...

That's something I've always wondered about -- the relative dearth of Chicago airchecks, compared to New York and even Boston. Given that Chicago was a very important broadcasting centre for dramas, soap operas, etc. there isn't much music documented. I'm now wondering if I have ever heard the Earl Hines band from the Grand Terrace, though there must be something out there. As to Chicago recordings, Ellington especially liked the RCA studios there, and did wonderful sides there.

Almost 7 decades ago, but still sounds fine!

Through Arild Wideroe and John Norris of Sackville I met the pianist. His name-pronunciation was as I mentioned. He was a Swiss-French citizen (from Geneva), so perhaps that accounts for the variation... He was a very fine swing/stride pianist, both as a soloist and bandsman...knew lots of tunes, led bands of varying sizes. Active from the mid-40s till his death in the late 90s. Played and recorded with lots of folks, including Sidney Bechet, Albert Nicholas, Bill Coleman, Oscar Klein, Stuff Smith, Buck Clayton, Rex Stewart, Ben Webster, Benny Carter and of course, many well-known Euro artists.

Probably the Swiss pianist Henri Chaix. (On-ree Shecks) I'd say it's from the "Jive At Five" release from Sackville SKCD2-2035. Arild Wideroe is a Swiss concert promoter and producer who is a big fan of the late Chaix, and recorded that concert. Wideroe has assembled an indispensable discography of Swiss jazz.

Just finished that one. A bit facile, but seems to capture the post-war Britain that's in my mind. I'm a fan of the beautiful Keeley Hawes, and am impressed that for her role, she's been made to look so dowdy...

The Imperial Pub in downtown Toronto, where a gang of Old Jazz Guys meet up for lunch weekly, has long featured a juke box filled with jazz 45s. It's wired into the whole sound system which plays a satellite jazz station, over-riding that signal whenever a quarter is dropped into the machine. Anyone recall the old song "I'd Give A Dollar For A Dime"? The guy wants to play the jukebox! (Joe Williams did a nice version...)

Some really good Bill Evans on here, along with the leader and Wendell Marshall and Paul Motian.

I don't think the Levitt "42nd Street" has ever been issued on CD. And the other two albums he did for them has been handled in a piece-meal fashion by RCA, though some of it came out on a Spanish bootleg if I recall. The Riverside Levitt was handled properly... I've always thought they were terrific releases: good writing, good playing.

Flaxen Hair: Flaccid Air

Amusing, Peter.... Do you consider this "non-jazz", or "non-classical"? Some might think it's "Classic Jazz"!

YOU were the one listener! Thanks, Joe... Yeah, I started doing the evenings in May of '65, and the Saturday mornings were to be a fill-in for a bit, but by the end of May were 'left alone', rather than ever 'permanized'. I just kept doing it, for 37 years, and time was added on and on, soon to be from 6 am to Noon, garnering the biggest audience on the station. Who'da thought jazz would work on a Saturday morning? But it's still there, though the station is having many many problems...

coda is not online that I'm aware of... though it could be. Not in my ken. I did a jazz programme at CJRT-FM radio in Toronto from May of 1965 til April of 2002. For the last couple of years, what had been a wide-ranging educational radio station turned itself into an all-jazz (well, y'know...) outlet. I left, dissatisfied with pretty much everything, but left behind all the interviews and recordings-for-broadcast I had done for those 37 years. (I had done 24 hours a week of live night time programming, never doing a re-run: every show was new. No repeats, other than the interviews: heard live maybe on a Tuesday when the artist came to town and replayed on my Saturday AM show. A couple of years after I left, the station got a grant to put that archive of interviews and broadcasts on a heritage website which the new management controlled. Fair, because I was always an employee and the station owns the material and I guess they can do what they want with it. But my name, and voice and all identification that it was me ( the only jazz person for 37 years there ) was the person who created all this material. I was a touch p-o'd with that, so I have never gone to the site, but I'm told that NOT the whole thing, but someone's opinion of what was 'essential' is included, so perhaps Ed's interview is there. You can check at http://www.canadianjazzarchive.org/en/interviews.html but I can't be bothered. I'm just angered ( though after nearly two decades of retirement it's waning ) that current listeners are not getting the whole picture. Rant over. It's spring-ish here in Toronto today, and I've just spent a couple of days with both my youngest grandson AND the marvelous Guido Basso, and am trying to be happy. Thanks for the reference to Ed Bickert, who was the object of so much of the dinner with Guido last night...

I agree with you that Ed was a great guitarist... But comparing him in pretty much any way with Dave Brubeck is beyond my comprehension. They're poles apart, I'd say.

Steve Wallace worked with Ed from the time Steve was a teenager, and has written his remembrance, with Ed as a mentor and as a colleague and as a friend. And an icon... https://wallacebass.com/so-long-ed-a-remembrance/?unapproved=27366&moderation-hash=499672fe2b9e25d3d73b69b31458ec01#comment-27366

Now that I think of it, perhaps the whole series of chats with his son Jeff (from about 5 years back) should be seen. You can see, even with his son, that Ed was a quiet and contemplative man... Not really done as video, but as recording information from Ed as information for a possible book, so his hesitancy is 'amplified'... https://vimeo.com/user25681287

That picture comes from a video that Ed did with his son. Early on, he recalls an interaction I had with him about this guitar, then goes on to talk about his instrument(s).

Nope, never saw that. He had a case that had some of those little stick-on letters, marking it as EIB. (Edward Isaac Bickert). I had occasion to carry it a few times. Given how careful and meticulous he was regarding his strings, and his tuning, it's unlikely the instrument was abused, just used. And used. And used....once he started with the Telecaster it was pretty much all he ever played.

Hmmm....road-worn guitar, yes. Ed certainly aged (don't we all!), but not road-worn. He rarely left town, and that's why he was never as widely known as he should have been. He turned down LOTS of opportunities to play with famous international bands and leaders, but had a lovely wife, four kids and a nice house in the suburbs with a garden he worked, and a pool for the kids. He was the A-list guy in the then-busy Toronto studios, so why take the strain? Also, I wonder if "under-appreciated" is quite the way to put it. Under-recognized for sure, but anyone with ears certainly appreciated him, once heard.

Someone sent me this Youtube link... It was a CBC profile of Ed. I was the off-screen interviewer for the talk bits, edited out, of course! You could do a whole course on Ed's harmony alone:

True, but he did lovely work with EVERYbody. Ed was sort of a sideman-superstar. He really didn't like being the centre of attention -- didn't have that Leader personality, but boy, did he have the chops. And a wry, quiet sense of humor: I recorded Ed with Lee Konitz around 1983, and a year or so back found it on a shelf and passed it on to Ed. He looked at the song list (Indian Summer, My Old Flame, Sometime Ago...and Invitation). With a Bickertian eyebrow raise (prodigious brows, BTW) he mused "Should have been Intonation." Oh, just remembered, the homegrown Canadian Grammy awards are called the Junos. One year Ed was on four of the five records nominated for Best Of The Year. When I remarked on that, his response was simple: "That's me -- Ed Biquitous."

Sad day. One of the good guys, one of the great players. Over the last (at least) 50 years, a musician I heard at least as often as any other, live or recorded. Toronto photographer (and occasional singer) Pat LaCroix and I published a limited-edition book last year Toronto Jazz Treasures, presenting Pat's portraits of one hundred of the city's great jazz players, accompanied by my mini-bios and an overview. Pat has agreed to allow me to present the picture of Ed, and I'll do so if I can figure out how to get it on here...

Covers with flipped images can drive me crazy! But the music makes me feel better...

I already had this one, but found another copy at a used record store for $4 (Canadian!) and couldn't resist. What's wrong with having 2 copies of the same thing, anyway...

I had the good chance to record Junior several times, and that occasion was the best... He was really "on". And for someone so blues-drenched, the range he exhibited on that night was revealing. Earthy, yet sophisticated, and always swinging. His reading of Eliington's 'Single Petal Of A Rose' is exquisite. I thank the late John Norris for pushing Junior to perform as a soloist. He was reluctant to do so, and it was quite late in his career before he did, and I for one preferred Junior that way.