Gheorghe

I saw him with Chet Baker in early spring 1980 in Vienna at "Wiener Jazzfrühling". That was a great 3 days festival with huge stars, besides Chet Baker we had Griffin, Dexter, Max Roach, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra and others. As much as I remember, Lackerschmied didn´t play the whole set. After a few numbers Chet introduced him on stage. Lackerschmied played some duos with Chet, and some stuff with the pianist and the bassist. Great music of course. On another occasion, there was a strange setting with Baker, Lackerschmied, Larry Coryell and Alphonse Mouzon. I heard Mouzon on other occasions with his electric band and wondered how he might fit together with Chet, who played almost all concerts, club dates without drums.

Well as much as I know it was Tony Williams who persuaded Miles to get Sam Rivers into the band. Tony was a big fan of Rivers and loved the more fare out players. I like the record. I think on the first tune there is a mike problem on the start, but nevertheless the band grooves and I enjoy Rivers´ playing very much. But it is possible, that Rivers wouldn´t have stayed longer in the band even if Miles would have asked him, since Rivers was more advanced, wanted to do his own music which he did so well. I admire Sam Rivers very much. I was lucky to hear him with his trio in 1980. Such a great musician !!!! Later in the 80´s he teamed up very often with Dizzy Gillespie. Well Rivers could play all styles, he was one of the most flexible musicians. But his main thing was his own stuff. I was quite astonished that he stayed so much with Dizzy.....

Yeah I remember that EGO LP, it´s with Isla Eckinger and Billy Hart, rite? Strange, just recently I listened to his album "Blues Inside Out" with the working trio with Jimmy Woode and Tony Inzalaco. As at the making of the tune "Spelunke", I somehow witnessed the "Blues Inside Out" also. Fritz played those tunes at "Jazz Freddy", later Johnny Griffin came in and jammed....wonderful times, never in live I´ll forget that.....

Yeah, I remember I was there, when he played "Spelunke" the first time, it was around 1980/81 I think. It´s very "monkish" and was dedicated to the nice little jazz club "Spelunke" in 1060 Viena, a club where he performed often. I remember the sheet music was there in a frame until the club had to close in 1993 I think. This was a small club, live music was only until 10 pm because of noise problems. Many great musicians played there: Eddie Harris, Pat Metheny and Chet Baker/Karl Ratzer. I miss those great days, we had so many clubs, especially in that small neighborhood. You just met musicians on every corner, to shake hands with them, talk to them, drink and jam with them.....

What a great loss. Such a great musician/composer/gentleman, Got the sad news yesterday from a friend, whose wife is Fritz Pauer´s niece. I knew Fritz Pauer quite well during the late 70´s early 80´s when I used to listen him playing many many nights. Just recently I heard some younger musicians perform his "Cherokee Sketches", a fast thing he also played very often with Art Farmer. Actually he was the first jazz pianost I heard life, it was his great trio with Jimmy Woode and Tony Inzalaco. Also in 1978 they performed with Johnny Griffin, great great memories. That trio was THE rhythm section then. Of course, he played very very much with Art Farmer, but I also heard him with giants like Dave Liebman (unforgettable evenings), with Eddie Lockjaw Davis/Harry Sweets Edison, with Kai Winding, Cecil Payne, and of course with hornplayers from Austria like Eric Kleinschuster and Carl Drewo. He had his own unique style, but he could play practically all styles from stride to avantgarde. Heard him play like Bud, like Monk if he felt like that. I´ll never forget him, and those wonderful nights.....

Chet Baker. I always thought that his recordings and live performances (if he did appear!) during the late 70´s and 80´s were much better than the stuff from 53 or 54 when he was so famous. Baker himself stated that he thought that his playing had become better during the later period, than during the early days when he was everybody´s favourite.....

I saw him live with the Ron Carter Quartet. My favourite solos of Kenny Barron I find on "Sphere" from 1982, the group with Charlie Rouse, Buster Williams and Ben Riley playing Monk´s tunes.

I also like the Xanadu live LP very much, the one with Art Farmer and Hampton Hawes. I also like his work as a sideman. Some really great solos of Wardell Gray are on the Charlie Parker album "The Happy Bird" with long and very good tenor solos on "Scrapple from the Apple" and "Lullaby in Rhythm", that´s some of the best Wardell Gray I think.

....... The drummer (Egil Johansen) on all of this is something of a liability - he just refuses to swing.

I´m aware that many people have been turned on to jazz by Dave Brubecks "Time Out". Well here´s my personal aproach to it: When I was a kid and just got a few names, I used to write them down and ask people what they think about those artists. Brubeck was on the list, though I didn´t even know what instrument he plays, just figured out it might be from the same generation like those I already admired: Miles, Mingus, Monk, Bird..... Someone saw my "list" and said "hey kid, get some Brubeck, he´s the greatest. Naive as I was I thought well if he´s the greatest, it might be hot stuff like Mingus, Miles, Bird all together, cookin´like mad. When I finally heard some of it, it didn´t work out for me. Pardon, I´m sure Brubeck was and still is an exceptional musician/composer and all you want, but somehow I couldn´t and still can´t connect...

When I was a kid, someone gave me a sampler "the story of jazz". Most of it was "oldtime" or "traditional" and I didn´t like it that much. Then it sounded to me like music from a comics strip. But the last two tracks on it where Miles Davis "Milestones" and a said "wow", the greatest music I ever heard. And some Mingus from 1959 from "Mingus Ah Um"....those two tracks changed my live forever. I spent my whole money to get as much Miles and Mingus as I could. From those two great musicians I was able to go back to bop and Bird etc. and to the New Thing Ornette etc. . But I´d say Miles and Mingus were the first musicians who made me think in a serious manner about jazz.....

Max Roach

A few days ago I purchased Dizzy "Showtime at Spotlite 1946" together with the Hank Mobley "Newark 1953". Needless to say it´s fantastic. On one track "Convulsions" there is another piano player (Monk is the pianist on all the other tracks). In the liner notes, the great Ira Gitler says he couldn´t identifie the piano player. It might be someone, who got recently into "bop" and plays heavily on the beat. Well I listened more closely to that piano player and think it could be Milt Jackson. He might have switched from the vibes to the piano. I remember Milt Jackson´s piano playing on that Fats Navarro-Howard McGhee album for BlueNote, where Milt plays both vibes and piano and takes a piano solo on "The Skunk". The piano on Dizzy´s "Convulsions" sounds exactly that way: He plays only single notes in a more "stiff" manner. It sounds like someone, who - though he knows exactly where the keys are - doesn´t have the aproach of a pianist. Even the lines he plays and the astute quote of "You´re a Sweetheart" sounds so much like Milt Jackson, that I´m quite sure it´s Milt who plays. Anybody shares my opion? Bop freaks?

Blue and Sentimental is my favourite. Of course, I also like "Soul Samba", but it´s a record that makes me sad, Ike Quebec was very ill, it was at the very end of his career and you can hear it on the record. Blue and Sentimental is just beautiful.

Now I have listened to the second CD also. I especially liked "Pennies From Heaven" the long track, over 16 minutes. Bennie Green is great on all tunes. As "danasgoodstuff" has told, Hank is deeply influenced by Bird, something he once stated himself. On Pennies From Heaven he quotes "Without A Song" and follows with some really astonishing runs. Walter Davis also gets much space and has his unique style full developed. Influences of Bud, but it´s Walter Davis´ unique style. Anyway, this will be one of my favourite live recordings. Hank had that Bird influenced style through most of the 50´s. He changed his style a bit during the mid 60´s. As about Bennie Green: I recently listend to his three BN albums from the late 50´s. But I think I like his playing on this live set even more.

Great album, got it yesterday, listened to the first CD. Great combination of Hank with the "very very slippery Bennie Green". Yeah, Walter Davis was unlucky, bad piano, while he´s such a great player. But I really dug the bass solos of Jimmy Schenck, never heard about him, great bass player, similar to Tommy Potter, who also did a rare ballad solo on "Bird at Cafe Society" (Talk of the Town, if my memorie´s rite, also from a ballad medley). Can´t wait to listen to the second set. Yeah, Keen and Peachy has nothing to do with West Coast Ghost, it was made famous by Woody Herman and as you told, it´s based on Fine and Dandy.... I always loved Hank Mobley. He´s one of my very favourites. I must say I learned to play the piano the way I like to hear it from listenig to Hank´s lines. Without "studying it", just by listening how he treats the chord progressions, I played much better....

Yes Michael, it was in 1995 at "Volkstheater". My hometown Vienna seems to have a special affinitv to the "Jazztet", since all three hornplayers from the original Jazztet performed quite often here: Art Farmer, when he had a time off touring, lived in Vienna and played on many many occasions at Jazzland. Benny Golson also plays her every year, and now Curtis Fuller came back. 1995......that was a time, when they still booked JAZZ artists for the annual Vienna Jazz Festival. Now....if it´s about the festival, there´s no sole musician I´d listen to.

I heard he was ill a few years ago but didn´t know what it was. If it´s really true, that a part of his lung was removed, it´s remarkable how well he did. He is very thin, I remember I saw a video of him from about 2001-2003 with Benny Golson, Mulgrew Miller and Buster Williams. Then, Curtis Fuller was much heavier, but also seemed to be subdued compared with the other players. I heard from somewhere, that he had suffered of athritis, but I don´t know if it´s true. Anyway it´s wonderful that he is still active. He´s always been one of my favourites and I am glad I saw him at "Jazzland" in Vienna, which by coincident is also the venue where I saw Kai Winding in 1978....

Well, no replies, okay, Vienna is far away from most of you. Nevertheless I´d like to say I enjoyed to show very much. Of course, Curtis Fuller at his age can´t be compared with his playing in his prime, it´s like Dizzy in his last years, but his great sound and his nice phrasing using triple notes came thru on medium tempos like "Bag´s Groove". I was glad my wife went with me. I also got my CD "Bone and Bari" signed...... Curtis Fuller is such a nice person.

I´m so glad I´ll have a chance to see him again. Last time it was around 2001 I think with Benny Golson. Curtis Fuller is one of my all time favourits. Of course I don´t know how he plays now, he must be 77 or 78 years old, but just the chance to see him on stage makes me glad. I didn´t remember with whom he will play, it seems to be a quite international sextet with a tenor player from Italy, a bassist from Serbia and on drums the great Joris Dudli, one of my favourite drummers here.... Anyway I think it was Joris Dudli who arranged that Curtis Fuller play in Vienna....

Well, who else but Chet Baker.....? It was in 1983 and he was scheduled to play with Joe Farrell, Joanne Brackeen with her trio. It was called a "Trumpet Summit" with three groups. First was Wynton Marsalis, the should be Chet Baker, when the emcee announced that he didn´t leave Rome, so Joe Farrell played without him, and the last was Diz with Harold Land. The second no-show was Art Blakey in 1988. When I arrived at the venue where he was to play, we got the money for our tickets back, they announced something like he had to go back to the States because some pet of him was ill.... One month later he played at another venue, we didn´t have to pay for the tickets again. Funny thing: I used to play as a semi-professional from the late 70´until the early 90´and the last time I was supposed to play was some kind of local "Thelonious Monk Memorial night". Various musicians, even advertised who would play what tune, if I remember rite. I remember I was supposed to do "Round Midnight" and a few other things, maybe "Off Minor" or stuff like that, but during that time it was winter and so much snow I couldn´t get my car out. Anyway during that time I was sick with all that stuff..... having a day job and a night job started to take it´s toll.....

He doesn't boast about it, but yes, Pullman has uncovered that the Roost recordings were made in 1949, actually after the first Mercury session. F Thank you! I really almost grew up believing that Bud made those sides in 1947.

Until now everything okay with this book, but one thing seems strange to me: Mr. Pullman writes, that Bud made only one recordings sessions in 1947, the side with Bird, but I was sure, and discographies confirm this fact, that the first trio sides were done in january 1947 (the Roost sides). Mr. Pullman mentiones them after the 1949 Mercury sides and before the first Blue Note sides from august 1949. Does he assume, that Bud made the first Roost sides in 1949 instead of ´47 ???

Great! One of the leading avantgarde musicians in my hometown Vienna (Fritz Novotny, founder and leader of the "Reform Art Unit" and a "New Thing Artist" since 1959) also named his son "Ornette". Ornette Coleman is one of my favourites. Love everything he did. The before mentioned album "Ornette at 12" is great. I´m glad I have the LP, and the other Impulse "Crisis" also.

Great idea, BFrank !