Gheorghe

Can it be said that "Eastern Rebellion" was the next step after the "Magic Triangle feat. Clifford Jordan"? This must have been in ´75, really strong music, but I think it was reported that during the end of the Jordan-Walton/Jones/Higgins collaboration some problems had appeared. George Coleman was great in any surroundings. He must have been an ideal partner for Cedar Walton. I didn´t hear the formation with Bob Berg, but I´m sure it was great and would be a nice choice to purchase. George Coleman Quartet with Hilton Ruiz.......I remember that well, must have been in late ´78, ´79, yes with Billy Higgins and I think Ray Drummond. They did a very fine album "Amsterdam at Dark" on Timeless, I think they did the tour after that album and played tunes from that album. I remember it well.

I remember his Name as on the cover of some orchestral thing that was called "Dave Pell´s Prez Conference". This was during the Super-Sax Era. You remember Super Sax: That was en vogue, everybody had that. Bird´s stuff orchestrated, and because it sounded more "modern" than the old poor recorded Bird records, people even heard it more than the "original". Even me , if I was exhausted I´d relax listening to Super Sax. It was some fashion, it was just that era of the late 70´s when there was a renewed interest in acoustic jazz. And so, as I had some Super Sax recordings, the record dealer once handed me that "Dave Pell Prez Conference" and said look, that could be something for you. And I bought it. Strange, since I got a turntable again, 2 years ago, I got it some spinning. I don´t know who of the guys was Dave Pell, since they play in ensemble, but also with Supersax I never knew who´s the leader, the only known man on it was Warne Marsh.

Really strange stories about him. Heard him on so many of those live albums Montreux 77 that I almost forgot to be aware about him. Strange that he played with all those who had top billing (Diz and all of them) just to become relativley obscure. Well, Japan must be a heaven for jazz traditionalists, they seem to have their Satch, their Bird, everything. And not forget all the reissues, they seem to love that music so it must be heaven for jazz musicians and jazz lovers to be their.

But later in the early 60´s Tadd Dameron, he himself one of the key figures of so called "bop" wrote some charts for him, for a tour to Russia if I remember right. And it´s reported, that even Louis Armstrong seemed to like one track that was played for him on a Blindfold Test if I remember right, it was "John´s Delight", from the Tadd Dameron band of early 1949, when Miles had replaced Fats. I must admit, this "Johns Delight" is some easy listenin tune, so I can imagine how Louis Armstrong said something nice about it. About Benny Goodman: I think first of all he didn´t like that others got more writings and more gigs, when Billie Eckstine´s Bigband and later Dizzy´s Bigband got top billing. I think Benny Goodman was a business man too. Otherwise, musically ......., let me see........"Airmail Special" sounds outright hip. It´s modern for it´s time and towards be-bop. That stuff can go as "bop", hear Billie Eckstine´s band cookin on that, with Fats, one of his best solos....... Where end´s swing and where start´s bop ? Some of so called tunes on those Savoy sides made by first hand boppers Dex and JJ Johnson don´t sound much more modern like old swing riff´s (Dexter Dig´s In), all those many many Savoy tunes based on rhythm changes, other 32 bar changes and so on, that´s called bop but every pre-bopper could play that.....

I think it was Woody Shaw who had persuaded Dexter to return to the States. I think all material of Dexter with and without Woody should get legal pressing, it´s of historic importance and should not be limited to bootleg recordings. As the once announced Dexter Bio, I´m still waiting to see it published. Dexter was a main figure in late 70´s early 80´s acoustic jazz (that´s my opinion out from the point of view when I was the young guy of that generation listening to all that stuff). Dexter was the old master, once leading the scene of the 40´s together on stage with Bird, Diz, Bud, Max, Fats, Mr. B. , Tadd, and so on, and playing in a more modern way in the late 70´s early 80´s. And Woody was the young lion, the one who made us believe that jazz is going on, that there is something new after Diz, Miles, and someone who might scare Freddy Hubbard, a great and still young trumpet player himself then......

Many people say Louis Armstrong didn´t like bop and maybe that was so. I think Curtis Fuller once told that he would have liked to play with Louis but he said "too much bebop" . But I think Louis was hip enough to dig good music and good musicians even if they was from the modern section. He got Dexter Gordon to play with him. I think he told Dexter something like "kid, I like your sound". I think, many of the musicians from the older generation had ambivalent feelings about that bebop, fearing that they get much publicity. Same with Benny Goodman. He had harsh words about the boppers, but later made a side with Fats and Wardell Gray. And dig that session Bird with Miles and Kai Winding and the old style trumpetist Max Kaminsky. Miles and Kaminsky trading 4´s , sharing the stage, you can imagine that. I think if it happened or not, it might not have been impossible, if Louis and Clifford Brown would have played together once......

Such a great musician ! Saw him live on several occasions. My favourit album of his own is "Parade". I love that !Beside his immense recording activity in the 60´s , much more than his longtime collaboration with Miles, he was THE acoustic bassist in my youth, the ´70s when acustic jazz was a smaller part of the game. But all those great VSOP records and concerts, that was the thing, that huge sound he had, the tricky use of glissando, giving the bass a more up to date listening experience than the old school bassists. He was something like a Mr. Hip. We kids from that generation including those who dug more the Stanley Clark fender bass and the Michael Henderson electric bass with Miles, fell in love with what Ron Carter did........ That´s something I would have liked to tell him if I could send him my congratulations........

But it is strange. There are so many videos about musicians from the much older generation, and Hank....let´s say he lived in a period when most musicians from his generation appeared on TV. But it is strange. There are so many videos about musicians from the much older generation, and Hank....let´s say he lived in a period when most musicians from his generation appeared on TV.

Can you tell us how it was, bertrand ?

I´m so glad I caught her live and can say I don´t know her only from records. Imagine, Ella and Diz 100 years old, and I saw them every year they did Europe, the usual festival-routine. So you could catch Ella and Diz every year. And sometimes it seems to me it was yesterday, time flies. The last time I saw her was in 1983 and she still had it all, beautiful voice, fantastic..... ! But I saw a very late version of "You are the sunshine of your life", very near the end of her life, but it´s amazing how beautiful she does it, just wonderful, and believe me I had to cry when I saw and heard it, it really moved me. Anyway, Ella and Diz are among my favourites. It was my time......

I just wondered why the name sounds familiar to me but I don´t have no idea who it might be. That´s it: Saw the name on some BlueNote album , this one with "Gil Melle". I remember I bought it just to fill a hole in my BN discography. The music never really became very familiar to me. I´m sure it´s good and hard to play stuff, but it really sounds strange to my ears, somehow more like some "western avantgarde" or if some students who are into western 20th century music, want to try out what they think is "jazz".

Really interesting to read what you say, Big Beat Steve. Yeah, the 70´s. A lot of guys where into that fusion thing and some into the free jazz thing, but it´s strange music, or LP collections allways had some Bird and 50´s Miles, and I´m talkin about the hard core listeners, those who where involved in Free Spirit Projects and stuff. Bird, Diz, Bop, and that includes Tadd Dameron was considered "hip". It even didn´t care how badly it was recorded. Each long-haired and beardy "freak" like myself had to have that "Bird is Free", the one with that white bird on blue sky. Badly recorded, little or wrong liner infos, but you had to dig that and say wow that´s got the same power like Dolphy, like Shepp, like Albert Ayler and what was considered music not for the merrygoround folks.... So, listening to some lousy recorded stuff, broadcasts from Birdland, from Royal Roost was the thing, and Tadd Dameron was a key figure of it. I think most of the stuff was reissued on a Milestone CD , but sorry to say minus the tracks with Kenny Pancho Haggood, listed as "unknown" on the original Musidisc LP. "The Kitchenette across the Hall"....... I think Tadd not only composed it, he rote the lyrics too. At school we had been taught about the difference between a novel, an anecdote and a joke (long reading, shorter reading, and .... just a very short thing, a joke).So, this little thing run´s only a minute and a few seconds. Stuff like "Naima" on Trane´s "At Village Vanguard Again" runs a whole LP-side. So that was the novel, and "Kitchenette" was the "joke". Other boys might come to my place and sip some beer and say at one point "hey Geo´, play the "Joke", which meant "Kitchenette". We sang along with it, ....... than one day she lost the key, gee that was a drag for me...... hahahaha....... but look, that kind of arrangement behind that little tune, and that boppish closing from the band. And oh boy....... the way Dameron played behind "Pennies from Heaven". That´s pure beauty, if I could sing, that might be the way I´d like to have the piano to support me.......

Thank you so much and it´s a great honour for me, if you share my post with Mr. Combs. And sure, I have his book and love it ! Best wishes Gheorghe

Too bad that I´m not in DC. Love Tadd, his compositions, his voicings, and damn yeah, his piano playing. One little thing we wore out when we were kids was that Royal Roost stuff with Fats Navarro. It´s strange I "discovered" him only after I had purchased that Miles Davis - Tadd Dameron Paris 1949" when it came out. Hadn´t heard of Tadd but read on the liner notes that whole Paris eagerly awaited him to show them those "new chords". Heard his stuff and purchased that "Tadd Dameron-John Coltrane" and next day I went to school and told them guys "hey you must get to know Tadd Dameron, he played with Miles AND with Trane, and the youngsters said "well, then he must be something", and we all got together and listend and learned to hum his tunes. We were a crazy bunch of guys, gee boy that was some high school......, imagine it today, kids comin together to discuss that music. And well someone said "but he´s not so sharp on piano like Bud !" Others, the more moderate guys said "well he´s NOT Oscar Peterson or Errol Garner (the guys who liked more "happy easy listenin jazz"). And we spread the word: Look, Tadd knows better than all them others, he led bands with Miles and Trane playin in HIS band, so he damn knows better, he just doesn´t care and plays those short and chordy solos just cause that´s him". I even tried to copy some of his solos, but it´s harder to play than some Powell runs...... Hope somebody who loves Tadd Dameron might read this, the view of a kid of the 70´s about Tadd Dameron......., I think he himself might have liked that.....

If it´s Buster William´s day, I´d prefer to discuss him. He´s one of my favourites, period. And I love his sound, his drive behind the band and his tricky solos. One of the most interesting listening experiences I had with Buster was one occasion when he played the second, the regular bass in Ron Carter´s group. You know, Ron on piccolo bass, Kenny Barron on piano, Buster Williams on double bass and Ben Riley. And with all respect I have for Mr. Carter and I´ll never say else than he´s one of the greatests bassists after Paul Chambers, that piccolo stuff was something that got a bit too much routine. And there was Buster Williams and at one point he had his bass solo and everybody agreed that this was the stuff of the evening. And Buster together with Al Foster (one of my favourites), a dream team. I think if one can have the luck to play with Buster an Al behind him, it must be heaven on earth. I can´t praise him enogh, he is a master !

I have the DVD of the Paris Concert, plus the solo tracks of Monk playing Ellington from Berlin 1969. The greatest moment of the Paris Concert is when Philly J.J. sit´s in. Monk still played very much even if he seemed much more subdued in 1969 and looks older than 52. But the young and unknown drummer just speeds the tempo up and there are tunes which end much faster than they start, that´s not good if a drummer "run´s away". The bassist though I never heard him before, is good. And Rouse still was the best one to interprete Monk´s music. Heard later versions of the quartet with Paul Jeffrey who sure is good but I like Rouse better. Never heard about that Koln Concert, must get that. Monk did really some astonishing stride piano, he played that "Sweetheart of my dreams" as an encore also in Paris. And I like that interview he did with Jacques Hess. Monk is Monk, but he has his humour about it and even smiles. And I like his laconic answers when he is asked some question, like, when he was asked which of his compositions he likes most and he says "I didn´t rate ´em!"....... or on another occasion when he was asked if he thinks the piano should have more than them 88 keys and he says "it´s hard work to play them 88 keys".....

yes , that must be good. Anyway, Wes with Kelly at the Halfnote was one of my favourite LPs , though it also didn´t have all tracks with Wes.

I don´t have to post "RIP" just to raise the number of my posts. And too many persons I don´t have any idea who it was. If it´s about a musician who means something to me I might say why I love his music so much, or remember when I heard him/her live. Anyway, as I grew up with the jazz that was heard then, from post-war bop to 70´s rock-jazz and that´s my listening habits, say from ´45 to late 70´s , most of my idols are gone, from Diz to Alphonse Mouzon...., let´s say, so who´s left just a few....

Thank you, I couldn´t have done it. Yes, the second cover ist the one that was an all the albums for sale when we purchased them in the 70´s. You are right, the first cover looks like a mid fifties Powell, more slim, neatly dressed but of an outworldish character. The second cover shows a Powell who sure enjoyed all the french goodies, the cakes, the pastries and being around friends who loved him. I think if he would have stayed in Europe, he would have become something like a "happy old man". The track "Crosscrane", yes it sounds more boppish, but it seems it was written for the studio and then forgotten, since it never became a classic like other tunes he wrote and played them frequently "live", like "Bouncin´with Bud", "Dance of the Infidels" or the later "Johns Abbey". But this whole album is a big disappointment, even more than some other albums where he mayby fluffed a few runs, even the "Return of Bud Powell" which usually gets low rating , sound more like vintage Bud than this.

I had purchased some of the classic RCA a long time ago, during the LP era. One thing about the mentioned "Strictly Powell". It´s a record that doesn´t get much spinning. I´d say it´s the strangest and most untypical of his records. Well, 1956 was not his strongest year, but he does quite good with some really strong stuff on the Verve album "Blues in the Closet" from the same period and it´s so strange he recorded this completely untypical RCA album, where he sound´s like it might be someone else. It´s not a very exciting record. Even the bass and drums sounds almost as if it was overdubbed later, like the way Tristano would make records at some point. One strange thing was the album cover on the original RCA album, it was a photograph obviously from Paris much later, Bud very very overweight with a relaxed smile, but not a photography related to the time when the record might have been done.... So the title "Strictly Powell" is really strange, cause its further removed from Bud´s style than you might imagine.....

I have read it Hampton Hawes´autobiography "Raise up off me", that he had to go to the bathroom because of his habit and Sonny Clark who was in the studio, did one track. Maybe this one. Anyway , both Hawes and Clark had a habit.

Yes, that´s one of the questions Art Taylor laid on him, if it´s true that he gave up playing for a while and didn´t even touch his saxophone. Must have been after the collaboration with Johnny Griffin. Those "tough Tenors" Griff-Jaws sold very well. Well, Griff went to Paris after that, and maybe Jaws became a booking agent. By the way , that "Oh Gee!" is really nice. As I remember it, it´s a simple medium blues in Ab , he played it often. But otherwise than Lou Donaldson (who also never really changed his style ) , Jaws didn´t seem to play the same numbers at every show. As I remember, his repertoire was quite rich, there were bebop-oriented tunes like "Rifftide", there was wonderful ballads, some bossas, yeah like all great tenorsaxists, he also was a great ballad player. Oh yeah, and my favourite record is a Pablo thing from the 70´s with the Tommy Flanagan Trio, it got some nice tunes on it "On a clear day", "Wave", "Watch what happen´s"". And......... he signed it for me !

So much saxophone he played, I was a bit disappointed about the interview he gave Art Taylor (to be read in "Notes and Tones"). He´s statements read somehow in a blunt manner, but maybe that was his personality, the many times I saw him live he really played some great sax, and maybe had a bit of a businessman-personality, anyway I think he was Count´s road manager for a long time.

Right, I thought about Terence Blanchard, thanks man.

Hi Ted ! You are right ! That´s the club. I was a regular there in the 70´s and even played there some times. The record done at the club is titled "Land of Dreams" if I remember right. The great guitarist Karl Ratzer is on it. Art Farmer played there at least two times every year. His wife was from Vienna. And by the way, as you can see on the foto, it´s a nice fancy place with that old church. Now we also got a nice little club on the other side of the river with some good sessions. When I was a youngster, there was so many clubs in my town, we had "Jazz Freddy" (IMHO the best), "Opus One", "Jazz Gittie´s " "Jazz Spelunke" "Willie´s Rumpelkammer" are only some of them, and there was other joint´s were musicians just met to have some tastes, to hang out. You just might walk the few blocks near the market "Naschmarkt" and might meet some dudes who might say hello what´s up, you come jam with us this night ?