Gheorghe

Thank you all for your most interesting answers, Well, the thing is that during his lifetime I was a huge fan of Dexter, it just jumped on the Dexter hype that started with his comeback to the States. We were just a bunch of guys who went everywhere to see him live and buy all his current albums and the albums from the past. It was his sound, and that strange laidback playing that fascinated us, and last not least his personality, He even made us smile, when he was drunk, somehow he made a funny show out of it, even if it became funky in later years.... But now after years I´m a bit more critical and that ever creasing playing very much behind the beat somehow starts to get on my nerves. I have memories about a special event in early spring 1980 when we had that huge festival, 3 days starring Dexter, Max Roach, Sun Ra, McCoy Tyner, Sam Rivers, Chet Baker and many others at Tehnical University. Just one day before, Sonny Stitt played at an other venue "Porrhaus" with Fritz Pauer, Aladár Pege and Fritz Ozmec. So I heard Stitt first, and 3 days later Dexter who was scheduled on the third day of the festival. As some of you said, it was Dexter being himself, that he was meant to become more famous than Stitt. He was good for a hero story, a surviver, and being so tall and with that deep voice and slow speaking... It´s natural that Dexter was chosen for the film, and not Stitt. As you said, Stitt was a lonesome guy, who traveled lot as a single.

Yes, a wild life. But after his comeback he cut everything out, I thought. Didn´t smoke, didn´t drink, did health food and so on, that´s what I have read. He had changed his live after a mild stroke and after they found out that he has diabetes, no ? I read the book by Jo Gelber and it seems that he wasn´t hanging out anymore, Only in the hotel room or so....

just got a mail from amazon that the publishing is again delated , are they kiddin´ us ?

I think those rumors were allready in 1988 when he had a bout with pneumony, but Miles himself wrote in his biografy that it was some gossip paper that issued that story and in spring 1989 he made his best album after years, using a playing band again, and he was in very good form when he went on tour after that.....

Yes, maybe that was the reason. But about Sonny Stitt as a copycat, of course I have heard and read that stuff also, but Stitt had another sound and other phrasing, and on tenor he was definitly his own. I think, the tenor had become his main instrument anyway. And as early as 1949 on the first Prestige session with Bud he plays some of the best bop tenor of his generation. He is top on "Giants of Jazz" and all his albums for Muse are very exiting. Recently I have listened to his 70´s album "12" and I think there is more playing and more repertoir than Dexter did in all the years after his "comeback". That´s it, Dexter used his "charisma" more than the music. I was one of his biggest fans during lifetime, but listening over and over again I got to a more critical point.....

Late 70´s /early 80s

Recently I listened to some Muse recordings of Stitt. He really had it all. Such a great musician. I also saw him live. And...... I have been a live-long fan of Dexter Gordon and saw him live many many times, but now I see it in a more critical way. That constantly playing behind the beat and all. What was the reason that their was so much tam tam about Dexter, as a hero coming back to the States, while Stitt has lived their all his live and played some of the best tenor and alto. I saw Stitt in 1980 touring Europe as a single with local players and smaller halls, while Dexter had his own quartet and did the big gigs. Well, Stitt had "his cups" sometimes, but Dexter? I think he was always drunk. Did those who managed Dexter think that he would make a better "story", a better "legend" and better press photos than Stitt ? What are your opinions ?

I don´t have the DVD but I wondered why this was not the next CD release posthum by Warner Brothers. He was under contract with Warner Brothers, and after his death they released "Miles Around the World" and the other looking back in the past "Montreux with Quincy Jones" with all the Gil Evans stuff. Then, I still wondered how Miles managed to play a little on the old stuff like " Boplicity" and so on. Did Miles know that he would die soon ? I thought it was a stroke and such things happen suddenly, when you don´t expect them.....

Yeah,those ro ro ro books then. I had lot of them, they were cheap and good stuff to read. Yeah, Albert Camus also was a favourite of mine, especially when I was 17,18 or so.

I remember "Impressions" from 1978, that was about the time. But my personal contacts to Fritz Novotny were mostly from 1982-85. I saw the RAU live in 1985 at Hollabrunn Festival. And I heard his tapes mostly at his place, especially the encounter with Burton Green. I don´t remember the place, it was in the fancy first district of Vienna, there were some places where the performed "Alte Schmiede" where I have been, or Café Brückl I think.... The tape with Burton Green was very fine. Burton played Novotny´s Pannonian flower with very much feeling, and then called "Crepuscule with Nellie". It´s 40 years ago and Fritz Novotny died few years ago. He also had a weekly radio show presenting avantgarde, stuff like Archie Shepp, Clifford Thornton, Bill Dixon and many others, and his own stuff. It was on Ö1 I think, while the more straight ahead radio-shows "Jazz-Shop (Herwig Wurzer) and "Vokal Instrumental International" (Walter Richard Langer) were on Ö3.

Yes that´s better. As you say, in january 1983 I saw the whole band, it was a bill of Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin and Woody Shaw (not together, each with his own band), and Woody was the highlight of the evening. Fantastic, and a great leader also and very articulate towards the audience, presenting the group, announcing the tunes and everything. His drummer Tony Reedus was fantastic !!!! The "Paris All Stars" I think was the "Paris Reunion".

I also love bop, hardbop, modal, free and rock-jazz, so it´s really a large span. But the way how I got acquainted to so called "free jazz" or "New Thing" was more in the chronological manner. It was through Mingus´ band from 1964 that I became very very interested in Eric Dolphy and the next thing was to get as much as I could of Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, late Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler etc etc. So I think my tastes for Free Jazz and further developements like "Prime Time" is exclusivly based on the american side of it. Though I´m European, I can understand american music better and if I listen to a free playing guy from let´s say those I mentioned, and some others of course, I can hear where they come from, I can hear their story and can dig their music, maybe not every day, but sometimes for an entire week, especially in the colder season, when evenings are long and I can sit down, close my eyes and really LISTEN and figure out what they doin, where they comin from and where they will go further..... I have really difficulties with European Free Music, at least with very much of it, it doesn´t really touch me and it doesn´t tell me the stories I hear in American Free Jazz. Maybe with one exception, and that would be Austrian Free Music Pioneer Fritz Novotny ("Reform Art Unit"). I was lucky there were periods I saw him almost every day and we discussed music, he explained me what he does, and we´d go to his place, he played "Let´s Freedom Ring", "Old and New Gospels" and other things to show me what music impressed him, and than we´d listen to his latest album "Pannonian Flower", really a master piece, and his encounter with Burton Green. Well, Pannonian Flower is influenced from places I come from, so I really can dig what he created here.... He even wanted to try me out for his projects, but I had to decline. If I was a horn player maybe I would have found a way into it, but not as a piano player. Anyway, for "New Thing" I prefer it without piano, and Cecil Taylor only with the Unit.......

Very interesting to discuss ! I saw the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band and it was the greatest Big Band Experience I ever had. Then, in March 1980 we had a 3 Days Jazz Festival in Vienna with fantastic players (Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker , Sam Rivers, Johnny Griffin, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra, Max Roach and the Mel Lewis Big Band after Thad Jones had left). I was really lookin forward to hear the Mel Lewis Big Band since Mel was a fantastic musician and really cooked. The Band startet with two really fine selections that reminded me of the days with Thad Jones, but then...... Mel announced Bob Brookmeyer . I don´t want to offend guys who like Bob Brookmeyer, but from that point on, the performance was a big disappointment, not only for me, but for all the guys I knew and saw too. There was nothing happening. Later I read the great book "Sounds" from Max Bolleman (studio in Monster, Netherlands, Timeless Records etc.) and he tells the story about a session with Bob Brookmeyer: Brookmeyer told from the start on that in no way it should "swing". When some of the musicians, who maybe were bored, started to swing or groove a little, Brookmeyer interrupted the proceedings saying that "it´s going into the wrong direction".....well that´s enough for me.... Black Market, of course was really the thing during my youth. We were such a great community at school, the jazz fans listened to fusion also, the fusion fans listend to jazz also, and even the shlager fans would listen to "our music", and we, out of fun, sang and imitated some shlager singers, making money at those kind of weddings in small country villages.... Woody Shaw still could play fantastic on that record, but he had lost his steady group (one of the best things I ever heard....that with Steve Turré , Mulgrew Miller ) . I was shocked when I read the story of Bolleman about this session with the Tone Janșa Quartet. I didn´t know Woody could have been such a mean guy, uncooperative and all, though through a miracle the session turned out to be really great. I was shocked when I saw Woody Shaw in 1987 !!!! It was one of the saddest and most embarrassing evenings I ever saw....

Yes, Atlantic´s demand to add fusion guitarists, and Mingus´ first responded negatively. Nevertheless, on his 1977 tours he used only his core quintet and played material from "Three or Four Shades of Blues" and "Cumbia". But it would have gone further into fusion. We already had the scheduled tour with the fusion guitarists Larry Coryell etc for late Nov. 1977 in some German towns and wanted to travel to Germany (Dortmund I think). It was advertised in "Jazz Podium", and then the big disappointment that it was chancelled. And Atlantic´s next project would have been a meeting of Mingus with co-Atlantic artist Stanley Clark. I think, Mingus again had the same doubts, But it might have been interesting, since Clark really can play everything from straight ahead to funk. I have read in the footnotes of some books, that Mingus did some interviews with Jay Arnold Smith for Downbeat in 1977/78 were he also refers to that project with Stanley Clark, but since I became a DownBeat subscriber only from 1979 on, I really miss that. Maybe anyone can post it here ?????

I love this very much !

Okay, from that point of view I understand it. And yeah, the Mingus I saw in 76/77 must have been paid better than ever, and his "Three or Four Shades of Blues" sold very well. So of course, as a person who loves Mingus, I´m glad that he made much money. But as a reading experience, and I have many jazz books, it was strange for me to read it so much into details that I think it might be interesting for an accountant (thank you Big Beat Steve !) . Maybe my own attitude explains this, since I never talk about money to else people than the guys from the autority for financial affairs and taxes. It´s their job, they get paid for it...

The last classical music I "heard" was yesterday when I was "forced" to play a piece. We had a visit, and my wife said why don´t you play a little for us all, and I played a few stuff that they might like, "Con Alma" "When I fall in Love", and then my wife says "but can you play a classic piece, any....? I said you are kiddin we married for 25 years and I never played anything other than so called "jazz". But they insisted and so I was in a big dillemma. Then some "Chopin Valse" that I once heard somewhere came to my mind and I played it from ear and thought it´s terrible, because I don´t really know to form classic chords, not speaking about classic touch. The chords sure was not the original Chopin Chords everywhere, it might have sounded a bit "Monkish", but SURPRISE, they said "GEE THAT WAS GREAT". My luck it was not a classic listening audience anyway, the non-jazz lovers go more for "shlager" and stuff.....

you are right, I was not searching for those detail, they stumbled across them all the time... I just read the most part of it and come towards the end. He describes the last European Tour and another strange thing is, he always writes how much money he made (in dollars and cents !!!!!) , how much taxes he paid and so on. As if he was the one who made Mingus´ (don´t know the english word for contabilitate or in german Buchhaltung) financial and tax affairs...., I don´t know if this stuff is interesting for Mingus fans, who want to learn more secrets about his music and so....

Yes, and then I saw the band again, after Danny Mixon was replaced by Bob Neloms. I don´t know the reasons, if there were clashes with Mixon or what was the reason, but Bob Neloms was great. There is a piano solo section in "Cumbia" just before that two-beat stomping with the Mingus rap on "Shortnin´ Bread", and it´s with that spanish tinge and Neloms did that really great, with some quotes of spanish flamenco music to the delight of the spanish audience that summer 1977, and he did some great stride on "Noddin´ya Head Blues" . Really a great choice of Mingus.

It was much better than some bands before from the mid 80´s . Then, they had two keyboard players, almost non existent sax players and so on. His last band was a smaller band. Nobody would have thought that it was near the end. Miles looked like ever since his comeback, maybe that his hair should have been otherwise. I don´t know who was his stylist, but they made a comic figure out of him. I love normal kinky afro like Miles had it in the 70´s and Mingus had it in the 70´s , but the later Miles looked like a poodle and had too wide trousers, which made him look shorter.

I love the Jack Johnson stuff, wonderful music. And the cover here is really fitting to the music and the times. But exactly this cover was on a Prestige Double Album from the late 70´s , which featured the sessions from 1953-54 (you know, cut from the original albums "Miles and Horns" "Walking", "Blue Haze") and then I thought if they were crazy, how can they use for an album of early 50´s Miles a photo of Miles from the 70´s ?????

One of my favourites from Horace Parlan. It came out the same time I saw him live. Me and my then girlfried set in the front row and at some point Horace Parlan spotted us and said with a sly grin "the next tune is "Like Someone in Love" ..... Very great trio here, I saw Jesper Lundgard first with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Bigband..... Danny Richmond of course many many times, he is one of my favourites. I love that trio, since it´s not like other trios, it really works together and you can HEAR the drummer, which is most important for me. When I saw Horace Parlan, his bassist was Isla Eckinger, another very very fine european bassist from Elvetia, and maybe Fritz Ozmec on drums....

I mean, 3 Viennese fans here and as it seems, the same musical tastes, we might meet together some time....

"Black Saint" ? I´m here for several years but can´t remember ..... I got my Mythic Sound set from Claude Schlouch, and after Paudras´ death another set from Carl Smith

And how was it (Free Music Production) ? I wonder what day I might choose to dip into this..... I like some of the Free Jazz, but only thinks like Ornette, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor Unit (not solo), late Trane, Pharoah and so on, and was already on the scene when Europeans played Free Music. It was a certain clique then in those years 1976-78. Somehow, though I´m European, I can´t really get with it if it´s European "Free Jazz" because I can´t feel the roots. And the guys and girls who did those "free music meetings", I doubt most of them could play something with written chords and a song structure. Sometimes one of them tried to sit in on a session and we played something simple, let´s say "Straight No Chaser" or "Tenor Madness" and when his turn came, he would go completly out and never stopped..... There are still kind of folks like that. Last year (in the few weeks between lock-downs) we played a few gigs with one set and jam session as the second set and there came a girl, I don´t know what stuff she had smoked before and wanted to sit in on piano and when we asked here, what tune she would like to play, she says "let´s improvise". She was not invited on stage....