Gheorghe

Yeah, still great memories about that one spring festival 1980. My long-time memoriy´s better than my short-time memoriy. It was like „heaven on earth“ especially that month: The 3 day´s festival at the auditory of a Viennes University had on it´s schedule: On the first day: Sam Rivers Trio, Johnny Griffin Quartet (with Ronnie Matthews, Ray Drummond, Kenny Washington), Chet Baker Quartet (drumless, vibes Wolfgang Lackerschmied, with piano possibly Phil Marcovici ….I don´t remember exaxtly) . On the second day: Mel Lewis Big Band (with musical director Bob Brookmeyer, I don´t want to put it down, but somehow it didn´t exite me the way it went 2 years before with Thad Jones still involved.) Max Roach Quartet (with Cecil Bridgewater, Odeon Pope, Calvin Hill), I remember a fast version of „It´s Time“, a Billie Harper composition „Peaceful Heart“ and an extended version of „6 bits Blues“. Sun Ra Archestra: Great, really great, I remember the vocal contributions of June Tyson, the boppish Lady Bird/Half Nelson, and some Fletcher Henderson arrangements. Standing Ovations….. Third Day: First some european stuff (duo guitar-vibes), sure some intellectual stuff, but sorry to say not my alley McCoy Tyner Sextet great with the now identified violin player. I ´m not so hip to violin players but that was some great music Dexter Gordon (with Kirk Leightsey, John Heard, Eddie Gladden: Needless to say, the master himself at the peak of his power and popularity, he sure played for about 2 hours, I remember he played a tune from his homecoming album and announced it as a „CBS plagiat“, never lost his humour, other tune: Fried Bananas, etc. And dig that: Few days before the festival, Sonny Stitt was in town at „Porr House“ And few days after the festival Dizzy was here. Did it really happen? Such great times, and I was lucky do be there…..

I got to get that album "Horizon" Anyway right now I build up a collection of albums recorded by the many real artists I saw live, records mostly from about the time I heard them.

Thank you Pete C. and sidewinder! Yeah, John Blake. And I didn´t know who had completed the front line. But I´m sure on bass was Avery Sharpe, I can´t remember the drummer. But as you say it: This Band was really smoking. Imagine: That was the last day of a 3 days festival (Vienna Jazz Spring March 80) and on schedule on that last evening was first the McCoy Tyner Sextet and then Dexter Gordon. I didn´t see albums with that sextet then, the big runner in record stores was "Super Trios" which I also love.

I remember I saw McCoy live in Vienna (march 1980) with a sextet featuring a violin player. But I don´t know who it was. Does someone have informations about that special group McCoy Tyner had during that period?

Since I finally got myself an LP player again, I can listen to all them wonderful LPs I had collected, among them - needless to say - those two Impulse. Many years I also have wondered why there´s no CD reissue of it. It seems "Impulse" doesn´t have someone like Rudy VanGelder, too much stuff has never been reissued on CD. Anyway, now I can listen to them again. "Crisis" actually was my second or third album of Ornette Coleman (after "The Shape of Jazz to come" and "Empty Foxhole") and it was much harder to listen to me than the before mentioned, because there´s no straight ahead part, on which I could have relaxed, just to "hold on". But I realized it´s fantastic music and it helped me to learn more about free jazz, to learn to listen it without missing that 4/4 time. I don´t know about Denardo bashing. I liked him from the first moment on, on "Foxhole" he even swings on "Good Old Days" and other tunes. "Ornette at 12" I got a little later but I like it very much also, especially the kind of free "ballad" titled "New York" or something like that. I think this composition from "Ornette at 12" was the theme for one later Ornette album only for strings and Denardo on drums, titled "Prime Design, Time Design" or something like that. It might be from 1983 and I loved that string version of the tune from Ornette at 12, though usually I´m not familiar to string quartets.

Thanks for your answer! So many live recordings, you are lucky! Well, I also have been told that he had slowed down at that period. As I said, I saw him live in january 1983 but don´t have no live recordings. I didn´t know he still played in july 1984. Do you remember what tunes he played? There was very little press about him during that time.

From 1980-1983 I heard Dexter Gordon quite often with his working quartet with Kirk Lightsey, Eddie Gladden and (first ) John Heard and (later) David Eubanks. The last time I saw him was in 1983 on an occasion that was titled „be bop supernight“ with first Johnny Griffin quartet, Woody Shaw quinted and Dexter Gordon. It was supposed that all the three leaders would play together at the end but that didn´t happen. Though Dexter on the earlier occasions from 1980-1982 always was in top form and played for almost 2 hours, on the 1983 occasion he only played 4 tunes (Secret Love, More Than You Know, a quite slow Good Bait and Jelly Jelly Jelly on which he „sang“ (with a very hoarse voice, not as good as on Swiss Nights) into the closer LTD. I remember he came on stage only after the rhythm section had played three tunes. I heard he continued touring, I read a long review about a club date in Germany, where the first set was played without him, and later he was not in top form but recovered and played for two hours. I also read he had an extended gig at „Rick´s Cafe“ in Chicago, followed by Billy Eckstine. What happened after that? I read he played in Finland early in 1984 but became ill, and had to play in Marocco, where he actually arrived but I don´t know what happened. Who has seen Dexter live from 1983 – 1984 and how did he sound?

started that thread at your suggestion. on "miscellaneous music".... 0 replies......why?

The discography ends with the festival gigs from july 77 from various places in Europe like Italy, France and Spain. but I think Mingus also played in Tunisia during the summer of 1977. That´s where he got some of his inspirations for his final work "Three Worlds of Drums". And didn´t he tour Arizona in autumn 1977? It is reported that his last concerts took place somewhere near his birthplace. He also intended to visit the "Mingus Mountain". It´s reported Mingus played one of his last concerts in Boulder and wanted to do an encore on piano, but as he sat down and wanted to play, the guy from the soundboard had started a tape of some Wheather Report recording, so Mingus left the stage. No information or track list about those dates. I couldn´t find further informations. What´s sure is, that after the recording date with Lionel Hampton in nov. 1977 Mingus had planned a tour to Europe with Larry Coryell, Phillip Catherine and John Scofield to promote the "Three Shades of Blues" album. I remember it already was announced to public in the German Jazz Magazin "Jazz Podium" but had to be cancelled. so, I think the discography isn´t complete.

Yeah, I also wondered how it might sound. Has something to do with one of those recording bans during 1943...

Weren't there some studio recordings of the orchestra on Savoy, albeit without the biggest "superstars"?. There's also the soundtrack for the film Rhythm in a Riff. You can find clips on YouTube. Here's a very thorough description of the film and its production: http://www.jazz-on-film.com/eckstine.htm Yes, of course I have all the Savoy Studio Recordings plus the soundtrack. But as I said, there could be more, especially live material. Once, when Mister B was still alive I read he told he still has a lot of tapes of that fantastic band.

Yesterday I opened that thread about the Mingus album „Final Work“ with that track „It might as well be spring“which is incorrectly credited to Mingus. @Jsngry had the good idea about a separate thread on that topic, what music makes your wife dance. Well, my wife is not a jazz fan, my kind of music, all that Bird, Dizzy, Bud, Monk, Mingus, Ornette is not her favourite kind of music, but if it´s some track she likes, it makes her feel like dancing. Like: Charlie Parker´s „My Little Suede Shoes“, the happy latin arrangement of „It Might Be As Well Spring“ miscredited to Mingus on that album I mentioned, or „Bye Yah“ that latin tune by Monk from 1952, „Sly Mongoose“ also on the Bird „Rockland Palace“ I recently got from her. Once she bought me the more commercial Bud Powell album „Bud Powell in Paris“ from 1963 and danced along with the swift „How High the Moon“ or „Bud´s Bossa“. She has that natural talent to dance, she´s tall, looks great , really like a woman that loves to dance, she also won medals at dancing contests when she was a teenager. Of course, if we go out to dance, it´s not for the music (at least for me), just for dancing. I´m not a great dancer, but she got that talent, you know, she can move the way you might not notice the mistakes I would do, with just a discret nudge she can „direct“ me so somebody else might figure out that I´m leading. In general, if she feels like dancing to some of the music I listen to, it got to have that swift rhythm, mostly with a latin touch, and it got to have some melody that appeals to her.

For a short time there was a fantastic all star band led by Oscar Pettiford during the late 40´s with virtually all the topnotch musicians like Bud, Kenny Dorham, Fats, Lucky Thompson and all.... It´s told that there was no stage discipline, but for the fantastic solos and the fast tempos it might have be great to have a live recording. Same thing with Billy Eckstine: Only the Airshots issued by Spotlite, but there might be much more recorded material where you really hear what the Band could play....

Thank you very much, John L.! You really helped me a lot. I didn´t know the discografical details, but got "ears" enough to notice that this tune doesn´t belong to the rest of the session. First: The repertory is strictly Mingus compositions. Second: The bass on that "bossa tune" sounds like the typically run off the mill 70´s sound, like all no name guys would play then, not with that special "sharp" thing Mingus got. Well, Mingus during the time of that session was far from his peak and I´m sure it was a suprahuman effort for him to even pick up the bass, since we know how terrible this ALS desease is. So it´s quite a miracle that Mingus managed to play such a good solo on "Peggy´s Blue´s Skylight" and even tries some 4´s with Danny on a short take of "Remember Rockefeller at Attika aka Just for Laughs". But that "smooth" polished bass sound on "It Might As Well be Spring" could be anybody, any advanced bass student could do that, and the electric piano also seemed strange to me in that context. I noticed the good trombone, well if it´s Kai Winding, that´s clear, but I heard him do much better things. Last not least: My wife, who gave me that CD as a chrismas present, usually isn´t too wild about the jazz styles I would listen, with some exceptions she´s indifferent to that music, but when I listened to the CD and the track "It Might As WEll.." started, she jumped into the room, smiled and did some dance steps. P.S.: I also got Bird´s "Rockland Palace" from her: Sure you all know that album and of course "My little Suede Shoes". Guess what happened, I got that CD from her, listened to it the next day, and here starts "My Little Suede Shoes" and she jumps into the room with a big smile and starts to dance, because she likes it, which might not be the case on stuff like "Moose the Mooche"....

My wife bought me the last Mingus album, the one with Lionel Hampton from late 1977, actually the last album on which Mingus plays bass. I´d like to ask who has more informations about the originally unissued track "It Might As Well Be Spring". This one sounds somehow unusual to me. While the other tracks are typical Mingus repertoire from that period, the band augmented by other players like Mulligan, Hamp and Woody Shaw, on that mentioned track it sounds much more like a bossa nova tune played just for fun, but who is playing? The solo seems to be trombone, or is it french horn (since one of the musicians listed on the session plays french horn but I don´t have much idea how that instrument sounds as a solo instrument). On the other hand, it´s electric piano and the only occasion on which I heard some electric piano on a "Mingus Session" is Ken Werner on "Something like a Bird". So my question might be: Is this actually from the same date, is this Mingus playing the bass?

Bird, Bud, Diz, Miles, Monk, Rollins, Mingus, Trane, Ornette to a lesser amount stuff before bop started, and some of the earlier jazz rock/fusion stuff. I must admit, my musical interest stopped around 1980, I don´t really know what happened after that time. Enjoyed the first Miles stuff after his comeback, around 1981-83 when there was still enough "jazz" in it.

He was such a great musician. I love his BlueNote albums as a leader and sideman with Tony Williams and saw him live in 1980 with his trio, and later I was quite astonished to see him together with Diz. He was a highly individual player. I think he was a kind of mentor to Tony Williams and it was Tony who got Miles to use Sam Rivers for the Japan tour, where they recorded live.

Of course I saw the famous interview with Monk and I know he played with Bud in Italy, but I couldn´t find any recordings about it. I remember there was a bootleg once with both Bud and Monk from Italy 1961, but unfortunatly I didn´t purchase it. Some months ago I wondered what had happened to him, since I couldn´t find no sources of later activities.

I once taught a student called Clifford Brown and admit I went out of my way to find opportunities to address him by his full name. I hope this doesn´t get a little bit off topic: Some of you met guys with names like „Charlie Parker“, „Clifford Brown“ etc. When I was a teenager, some friend from a small austrian village told me about a man from his neighborhood, who looks exactly like Mingus. I didn´t believe it, so he suggested we might go and „visit“ that man. His wife opened the door and said „oh you sure want to meet my husband. I tell you , I don´t know nothin´ bout those musicians and neither he does. But all the time some youngsters tell him he looks like some musician.“ She told us he would be at home later and we can come back to look at him“. When he finanlly came home and we met him, I tell you, he really looked exactly like Mingus. But he was Austrian, with no etnic background from other continents. He seemed to be quite amused by the fact that some youngsters came by just to look at him. Here he sat, heavy, Buddha-like, black shirt, the skin a little darker than usual for a „white“ man, a little yellowish, the same beard like Mingus, very black with a few silver in it, and even that beautiful kinky afro, that Mingus had during the 70´s . It really was astonishing. Of course he didn´t really know who Mingus was, his only knowledge about Jazz was that it is that music from America and they had Louis Armstrong…. . But he seemed to be amused by the fact, that it happens all the time that people ask him in english if he was Charles Mingus. We showed him photos of Mingus and before we left he smiled and joked: „fellows, I got to think about that, really! I might learn an instrument, what you think, it´s hard to handle that bass fiddle?“ And his wife also smiled and said „really, do that, go on and become famous and bring some money home“.

Yes, I also got the mail with the sad news. During the years, I purchased a lot of stuff from him, mostly the rare Blue Note albums. I always was very pleased with his service and with his kind answers, if I had questions. He was a great help for me on building up my collection. I´ll really miss him.

I like very much the 1947 WNEW "Saturday Night Swing Session", Roy Eldridge in very fine form with Flips Phillips. On "How High the Moon", Eldridge plays the "Ornithology" theme at the end. Anyway, he was ahead of his time. And his best solo is on "Lover". A great session.

I remember him well, saw him quite often in the late 70´s when I used to be a regular at a famous Jazz Club in Vienna. Heard him many times with Art Farmer, and of course with the great trombonist Erich Kleinschuster, with the exiting piano player Fritz Pauer etc. I´ll never forget the evening in late summer 1978, when Art Farmer was on the bill, Erich Kleinschuster was on drums and.....in walked....: Max Roach!!! He had just arrived because he played the next day at "Kongresshaus". I didn´t realize first, that it´s Max Roach, until somebody announced him and that Erich Bachtraegl would play a solo, a kind of drum composition dedicated to the Master Max Roach. Max was pleased, he got a standing ovation and we all hoped he would sit in, but didn´t ...for contractual reasons I guess. Anyway I saw and heard him the next day and needless to say all the musicians from the day before attended the concert. Max even announced from the stage, that the great Art Farmer is in the audience, and a great drum colleage Eric from Austria also, if I remember right. That was a great time, I loved it....

I got a Don Cherry LP with electric stuff, it´s from around 1985, I think it was done in Paris. I´m looking forward to get an LP player again, since rite now I only have CD player. Will listen to that stuff again. Remember I had a period in the mid 80´s when I was hip to electric stuff, got some kind of sabbatical from my life long loveaffair with Bebop and beyond..... I first heard Prime Time and after that picked up that electric Don Cherry. Maybe I also should purchase some Codona I-III, sure it has some interesting music on it. But my favourite Don Cherry recordings have been and will be those he did for BlueNote, and I love him on that Sonny Rollins stuff from late 1962 early 1963 (european tour)

I think, Rouse was so close to Monk, he even sounds "Monkish" on stuff that has no link to Monk at all. Listen to "Bossa Nova Bacchanal", it´s kind of "Monkish" latin. Very interesting. Rouse had his individual sound and phrasing even before he joined Monk. I like his playing on the Tadd Dameron-Fats Navarro sessions very much.

Such a great musician, I love his recordings. Though he was still very active when I used to go out to listen to live jazz, somehow it never happend. I would have liked to see him live. The first recording I had was „Complete Comunion“, and it remained one of my favourite recordings of the 60´s .