Gheorghe

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 .

I have 2 CDs Vol.1 and 2 , japanese re-issue, with the whole material from 1949 - 1953 (featuring the early quartet stuff with Al Haig, who is in great form there), the sessions with Art Farmer and the later session from 1953 with Teddy Charles on it. Especially from the first session there are many alternate takes (4 or 5 takes on some tunes).

Great to see people who have the same story, the same approach to Bird, or to jazz in general.... Me to, I was 18 when I got the double LP Savoy "Mastertakes", the next was some european "sample": Charlie Parker "Jazz-tracks", it had some of the Dials. Since it was hard to purchase original stuff before the british Spotlite label started all that rare Bird, this was my first occasion to get aqainted with the Dial stuff. (The 3 LP set "Charlie Parker Story" on the french "America Label" would have had the master takes of the dials, but it was out of print. Hard times then, if you wanted something, it sure was OOP....at least 60-70% of it...

Well, the Savoy recordings were the first of Parker I purchased, so they alway will have their important place in my discography. The only fault is, that the drums are not recorded properly. I´d like to hear Max Roach more, it seems that he is barely audible. The Dials have the better drum sound and it seems that the musicians had more time at the studio to work out the stuff. On Verve I might say you got more different surroundings. Bird with combo, Bird with Strings, with Latin Touch, Bird plays Cole Porter etc. The only fault on some of the Verve stuff is, that it´s grossly overproduced (like „Night and Day“, it sounds more like movie scores from the fifties). And they virtually destroyed an otherwise interesting date with the Quintet that went to Paris (with Dorham, Haig, Tommy Potter and Roach), adding that terrible trombone of Tommy Turk. With such a trombone the lines are blurred and the solos sound more like those crowd pleasers from jam sessions. The best of the Verves is „Swedish Schnapps“. „Now is the Time“ that quartet album is also good, a very good Bird from later years…. Hard to choose. I really dig Bird and like almost everything he did.

Thanks for your replies! Yes, I also heard the stuff from 1947 where Buddy Rich was behind Allen Eager. And the WNEW session is great, I think it´s Fats Navarro who announces Buddy Rich for his drum solo on Sweet Georgia Brown. One strange thing happens on the first tune "High on an open Mike": They drop the tempo, I think it´s the piano player (Ralph Burns), who dropped the tempo.

Many of you might know about the famous Verve Album "Bird and Diz", with Thelonious Monk, Curley Russell and Buddy Rich. Most of the critics are not happy with the fact, that Norman Granz chose Buddy Rich for that date, some even say he destroyed the session. When I was younger , I also tended to say it would have been much better with Roy Haynes, or Max Roach etc., but now I think it is an interesting choose. Especially with Monk, Buddy sounds "hand in glove", Monks phrases and rhythmic aproach mix well with Buddy´s more martialic swing. Anyway, Buddy Rich seemed to play more often with Boppers, for example: With Bird on "Jazz Perennial" on the tracks with Hank Jones, Ray Brown. With Bud Powell in July 1950, when he recorded the ultra fast "Tea for Two" and "Hallelujah". Or, on Broadcast sessions: The famous " WNEW Saturday Night Jazz Session" from 1947 with Fats Navarro and Allen Eager together with Charlie Ventura and Bill Harris. And the "Band for Bond´s " also from 1947 with Bird, Fats, Allen Eager, John Laporta, Lenny Tristano, Billy Bauer and Tommy Potter. Sure, Buddy Rich never became a bopper, but later in the 70s he went as far as playing Bud´s "Bouncing with Bud" with his orchestra.

What, no mention of the SWEDISH ALL STARS band that caused quite a stir there? Not even mentioned in the lineup of the "other" bands that appeared there? (I'd say the Swedish headlines almost speak for themselves for us Germans. ) I must admit, I´m not an expert on European jazz. But who were the Swedish musicians who played at that festival. I had a look on the inside cover of my "Miles Davis Tadd DAmeron " LP with the festival program and couldn´t find about swedish musicians on the schedule. Anyway, there were few European musicians. Toots Thielemans trio, Hazy Osterwald quintet. Maybe the "European All Stars", they were on schedule for one evening.....

Will there be a reissue of Pharaoah Sanders "Life at the East"? I loved that LP, but couldnt find a CD. And how about those two "Americans in Europe" with Byas, Sulieman, Bud, Klook etc.?

One thing about Tadd, I think he´s got a highly individual style of piano playing. On medium tempos like "Good Bait", which is also featured on the Paris recordings, he would start with something like an anticlimax as a contrast to the other players, fast companly like Miles, Fats, James Moody, Allen Eager, Wardell Gray etc, then play some single line patterns and at one point, mostly when starting the B section, he would burst into those heavy chords. He has the same way of playing on slow blues, like "Romas" on Mating Call, or "Bula-Beige" on Fontainbleau. On ballads he plays mostly his chord based style, somehow strange how he plays every ballad solo in a kind of rhumba feeling. But it´s a mistake to write off his piano skills. It reminds me of Monk: When someone asked him if he ever played a regular piano, he would do some Tatumesque runs and licks, and stride and everything and would say he can do that but dont need that. Same with Tadd. Listen to his solo on "Eb Pob" from the Savoy sessions with Fats. He plays a hornlike piano, almost like Bud Powell, as if he would have liked to show us, that he can do that, but don´t need it. On the other hand: Try to imitate his style on piano, it´s hard, it´s almost impossible to sound like him. You can get in that Bud Powell groove if you listen much to it, even Monk, many piano players can do some Monkish stuff, but Tadd? The only one, who once came close to it was Walter Davis on "Dial for Beauty" on the Dameronia album, but even he couldn´t do it in that unique way Tadd did. "Arranger´s style"? Nonsens. There´s no arranger´s style, it´s Tadd, the composer, arranger, a n d pianist.....

The above mentioned CD with Miles-Dameron is the one I purchased. It also has the jam session at the end, which I originally heard on "Bird in Paris". I should try to purchase the BN CD "Lost sessions", Tadd Dameron with Sam Rivers sounds interesting, even if the arrangements might be a mess. How does Tadd sound on that?

Yes, the Magic Touch Album is great, but I also missed Tadd´s piano. He did one more session for BlueNote in the early sixties, but it was rejected. They say the arrangements were a mess. Anyway, one time it was issued on the BlueNote Connoisseur series, but I missed to purchase it. Tadd was playing on it. I also like the stuff with John Collins very much. I got a rare book about Tadd Dameron from a british autor Ian McDonald , "Tadd", nice to read, rare fotos etc.

I too like Tadd´s style. As much as I like Bud and Monk, my 3rd favourite on piano might be Tadd Dameron, because it´s just the opposite to Bud. He does nice short "solos" on the Royal Roost stuff with Fats Navarro, and has much more solo space on the Prestige recordings, especially on "Mating Call" with Trane. I must admit, I hadn´t heard about Dameron before I bought that Miles-Dameron Paris 1949 LP (CBS, Contemporary Masters Series, 1977). Then I was about 18 years old and hadn´t heard about else than Miles, Bird, Bud, Monk, Fats, etc., but no Tadd Dameron. But on the album cover text they rote that he´s a very important figure in modern jazz, so I started to pay much attention to him. He´s style is highly individual. People say he couldn´t play the piano and sh..., but I tell you, I can play in the style of Bud, some stuff in the Monkish manner, but Tadd....impossible