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Gheorghe

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Everything posted by Gheorghe

  1. I had to look to find informations about him. Wikipedia only says that he worked with Mingus in the 70´s but I couldn´t find sources (record dates, touring dates etc. ). Being a trombonist I suppose he might have worked in a larger band format for studio recordings, like maybe "Let My Children Hear Musik" or something similar. I only saw touring bands. Then the personnel was Jack Walrath, Ricky Ford, Danny Richmond of course, and piano was on one occasion Danny Mixon and on the other occasion Bob Nelmons. The Adams-Pullen unit I also saw immediatly after Mingus had died. Then, they still performed Mingus repertory. I saw a Mingus-Ghostband only once, and they still had some Mingus musicians in there. George Adams, John Handy as much as I remember. It was conducted by no one less than Jimmy Knepper, but it was very very disappointing and even embarrassing to look at. Jimmy Knepper seemed to be completly uninterested in it and his "conducting" just was like a parody of conducting, and hot players like George Adams and John Handy just sat in their rows and didn´t have the fire they had when really playing with Mingus..... Maybe Jimmy Knepper still was mad with Mingus even posthumous and this uninspired spectacle was his way of paying back for the incident that had happened before the Town Hall Concert. When Jimmy agreed to play trombone on some of Mingus´ last compositions I had thought that they had made peace, since it was Mingus, who had phoned Knepper telling him "Jimmy, please come and help me, they are destroying my music!" So I had thought they had made piece. I don´t have no idea what had happened on that Mingus-Ghost Band. There is another possibility: After Mingus´ death there was an interview with Knepper who refused to comment the posthumous attempts of keeping Mingus´ music alive , stating that "no one could play his music than he himself" ... or something like that. Maybe they offered him a fortune to conduct the Mingus Ghost Band, but maybe money is one thing and thinking as an artist is another thing....
  2. Very fine personnel. I saw Rodney Jones when he was very young. He was the member of the Dizzy Gillespie Quartet, later he was replaced by Ed Cherry. Both very fine guitarists. Then, Dizzy always performed with that pianoless quartet.
  3. I never saw this. I think I have one or two of those JAPT double albums from my youth, especially meant for spinning some long track stuff when some buddies came to my place for drinkin some beer and having a nice evening. All those great musicians, but I can´t stand some of Granz´choices for the trombone chair. Bill Harris and Tommy Turk are very technical players and know their instrument, but I don´t really like their kind of style. They sound "funny" to me. But this also may be the purpose so it´s cool for all who like it.
  4. Before I heard her, I read that very very interesting interview with her in that wonderful book "Notes and Tones" (it´s the great drummer Art Taylor who interviewed a lot of musicians) . The singers interviewed were Nina Simona, Hazel Scott, Leon Thomas, and otherwise mostly instrumentists, like Miles, Sonny, Griff, Blakey, Elvin Jones. But the most bitter interview was done with Hampton Hawes, and with very very ugly words)....
  5. he was one of the leading surviving bop pianists. He must have had a great time in Europe, but strange to say I don´t remember I ever saw him performing in Austria. I prefer records under his name, where horns are added. His style is a bit spare for trio format, that´s my personal impression. He was a fine composer. Though it might be true that in the forties while playing with Bird and Miles his articulation was a bit stiff and his comping a bit rudimentary rhythmically, but he didn´t deserve that ugly words Miles said about him. This was unfair and made Jordan´s last years quite bitter. First you should judge a musician from how he developed himself, not only by some old stuff. I have a Jackie McLean All Star record with Duke Jordan on piano and it´s titled "Birdology". He is also nice on Cecil Payne´s "Bird Get´s the Worm".
  6. Interesting posting. Music related: I´m glad that even in clubs the performers dress better than in the 70´s. I also combine black jeans or grey jeans with a nice shirt and sometimes a nice tie if I wear a sakko. The only thing I don´t do is being "over-dressed". I mean I like 3 piece suits too, but not in a cellar club. The only thing is, indifferent what we wear it must look "hip" and handsome. If I wear a dark three piece suit with tie, I´d combine it on street with cool shades and a pilote style carry luggage (don´t know how you say it exactly in English). But sometimes I feel like wearing let´s say blue jeans, a dark but hip styled dressed sakko but no tie. Fashion is an important aspect for me and as long as I can I do what is possible for not lookin like my grandpa. Well, at 63 you don´t have the fresh face of a 30 year old, but at least I use day and night creams and cover the signs of aged face with cool air.pilote styled shades as much as I can...... I´ve noticed that most young guys also are good dressed on the gig. I know a good bass player who always wears a tie. About Jackie McLean: When I saw him live he wear a light yellow-brown summer suit, and the other musicians (all of them stars ! (Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Lewis, Billy Higgins) wore dark suits, white shirts and ties, very very good lookin.
  7. Just wonderful, I LOVE IT !!!!!! The sound of the alto player reminds me a bit of the sound of Charlie Mariano on Mingus´ "Black Saint and Sinner Lady" Wonderful composition, it has a moving quality and made my day. And really beautiful video. THANK YOU, Allen.
  8. Thanks God the clubs over here in Vienna all have good pianos. We´ll play on 09.03. at "Zwe" with Allan Praskin. They have a very fine baby grand, it was donated by a wonderful guy who is my favourite pianist over here. But for gigs in other federal countries it happens that they don´t have a piano. I manage to get thru with a stage piano with a good acoustic sound.....
  9. Is this Barry Harris ? He was a real keeper of the flame. I think from all who were influenced by Bud , he was the one who was influenced mostly and much of his playing reminded me of the style of the later Bud of the sixties. I have heard that both have met and woodshedded in Nica´s house. The trumpet player I work with had played with Barry Harris. He is astonishing and knows all those bop tunes ! It must be quite interesting to hear the Bud influenced Harris play Tadd Damerons compositions. Bud himself usually did "Hot House" and "Lady Bird" or "If You Could See Me Now". I heard Walter Davis once playing in a manner that copied the original style of Tadd Dameron, which I also like very very much. His short solos are little pieces of art, they make you smile " I never saw a Peterson pic with him with a cigarette in the mouth. The strange thing on that foto or cover art is that on this one he looks very very similar to Bud.
  10. I remember that the BN albums Vol 1 and 2 in the 70´s were quite mixed. I think the tunes with Fats and Sonny (my favourites) were on Vol. 1 , and on Vol. 2 it was mixed with the George Duvivier/Art Taylor tracks and the Curley Russell/Max Roach tracks or so. I was quite annoyed that I had the quintet sides twice, it was also on the Fats Navarro album. In those days when money was scarce and the need of buying records was high, something like that was a great disappointment of "lost money". It sure is interesting. My very very first jazz lp was "Steamin´" and I think I knew each note of it and could have sung along with the record......, Late I think I had a japanese pressed LP "Blue Haze" and in the inner side of the cover was a paper with little fotos of all of Miles´ Prestige recordings, even the one where he plays piano only on one track of a Sonny Rollins album. but let´s say the first version of "Walkin´ " I heard when I was a kid was the fast one with the "second quintet" and I was quite disappointed when I heard the wonderful original track, it sounded too slow and too quiet to me then, because as a kid I wanted to hear Philly J.J or most of all Tony Williams..... A wonderful live set, I have not listened to it for many many years, I remember it really swung. But is it possible that on the first track the did speed up and ended much faster than they had started ? ? .
  11. Gheorghe

    Teddy Charles

    Interesting remark. I also heard some of his playing on some 50´s Prestige albums, it´s different from the usual Prestige pianists like let´s say Red Garland or Wynton Kelly or who was playing piano. But the best early Mal I ever heard was on Max Roach´s "Speak Brother Speak". On the other hand a few days ago I was a little disappointed when I just listened to one ballad track "These Foolish Things" by Jackie McLean where I didn´t like Mal´s piano intro very much. By the way: I have read some interesting remarks from you on fashion and style, about wearing ties and so on, but couldn´t find it anymore, it must have been last week, I don´t remember on what topic....
  12. Gheorghe

    Sam Noto

    I saw Don Menza quite often here in Europe since he worked much here in Europe. I have heard Sam Noto only on one record that came out on all those Xanadu All Star sessions, I think it was featuring Dex, and had also Al Cohn on it, and I think two trumpets, Blue Mitchell and Sam Noto. I don´t think his name was as well known as the others at that time. But it was during those days when you bought a batch of records, and I fear I have not listened to them for decades.
  13. Sounds interesting. Well I still saw Mingus himself, and the first ghost bands still they all were musicians who had played with him. But in general there are few musicians around who play Mingus compositions. I did it when I was young and we were just a band that rehearsed for the few gigs we had. I remember having to "sing" the "Mingus rap" on "Cumbia" . It would have been supposed that the bassist does the rap, but they said that I have more that snarled voice to get the sound. Oh my god, me and "singin´" , I get hoarse as quick as making announcments ...😀
  14. I did think that Ike Quebec was the BN A&R man in the early 60´s. He brought some of the old masters of the past back to BN, like Dexter Gordon, Leo Parker, and a try to record Tadd Dameron, so it was three key masters of the jazz era of the 40´s . I mean it was during the time when Ike Quebek himself made some albums under his own name. It is possible that all those mentioned musicians still were junkies, and with the exception of Dexter they all died soon afterwards. I think Ike Quebec died before Bud Powell returned to N.Y., if he had lived I´m sure he would have made a record with him. About the fifties.....I´m not sure who was the A&R man. Once I heard that Babs Gonzales brought some artists to BN in the 50´s, among them Jimmy Smith. The difference between BN in the 50´s and the early 60´s was that in the 50´s they recorded all the key figures of hard bop, the most modern style then. In the 60´s it was not so sure in which direction they might go. They still recorded some of the hard bop masters, also made some more "mainstream" stuff like "The Three Sounds" , "Stanley Turrentine" and "Ike Quebec" , some bossa nova dedicated albums, and then the "Boogaloo" type of thing. As the 60´s went on, they got more advanced stuff too, modal into avantgarde, they key figures of the 60´s like Wayne, Sam Rivers , Hubbard, Hancock, and already established masters of the avantgarde like Ornette, Don Cherry and Cecil Taylor....
  15. Happy Birthday to you, dear Mike and thanks for being here with us. "Alles Gute !" "La Mulți Ani !" "Boldog születesnapot" , ......in all languages..... About Nina Simone . I understand everything, but why is this in the Musician´s Forum ? Or do you want to discuss singers in general and how to work with them ?
  16. It´s a rarity anywhere in Europe and to my annoyment sometimes you find only bread that´s already cut , even in good old Eastern Europe. But in my childhood and in general being kids and being sent to buy the bread for the family around the corner, on the way back we would break the crocant upper crust and eat it so the bread was not complete anymore when we came home , very annoying for the adults, sometimes leading to a little "spankin´" 😄 Well, modern factory bread, yeah, but I don´t even have the time to take the tramvai - ride to Mariahilfer Strasse to buy the bread at the "Balkan-Bakery" or to the Turkish "Süpermarket". But "Der Mann" has very good big white bread, it´s not cheap anymore, it is € 3,35 and we need one daily. But it comes at least a bit near to our tastes.
  17. Well, that´s why I never work without an acoustic bass or during the time when I played jazz rock, an electric bass, but the rare occasion where I listen to let´s say "A Date with Jimmy Smith" or "The Sermon" I enjoy the organ bass line.
  18. I remember when I was a Down Beat subscriber for many years, in spring 1983 it was advertised that at "Rick´s Café" in Chicago two giants of bop were on schedule to perform. It was one or two weeks Dexter Gordon, and after him it was Billy Eckstine. I mean, Gordon was one of Mr. B´s most important soloists and his solo on let´s say "Blowin´ the Blues Away" became a trademark "blow Mr. Gene, blow Mr. Dexter too....´cause maybe you can help me blowin´the blues away...." I mean, what a schedule, I would have liked to be there. And Dexter always talked with delight about those years. It´s possible, that during the time of that engagement at Rick´s Café Billy Eckstine was less known to public than Dexter, that´s true.
  19. Bobby Durham....... is it possible he was in one of them Oscar Peterson Trios. I think a not musician youth friend had one album that was titled Tristeza, and I think it was Sam Jones and one Bobby Durham. But I do not know enough to have an opinion how he sounds on drums (drummers mostly the first musician I listen to and look at.....) I´m not an organ fan at all, but have one or two of Jimmy Smith with famous hornplayers like Mobley, Lou Donaldson or Donald Byrd or Lee Morgan. But George Coleman sure sounds nice with anybody. As @felser said, I heard too many Left Bank live sessions with really weak recording sound. Yes, if in general I´m not a big organ fan, at least I like it if a good organist plays the bass lines (I don´t know ..... are they doing it with the foot pedals ? ) . But to combine a hammond organ with a regular bass is strange. I think I heard it once on an Ike Quebec album with something with Blue and Sentimental and nice ballads, but I couldn´t become friend with the organ-acoustic bass combination.
  20. I had quite a collection of the LPs from the French "America" Label, since they were cheap over here (cheaper than let´s say a CBS LP or Atlantic or so on). And since I was a big Mingus fan from the start, "America" having most of the Mingus albums , I almost thought that it´s a label mostly dedicated to the music of Mingus, since even on others where he was not the leader, he still was on it (like Massey Hall, Bud Powell Trio, Four Trombones etc. ) . The 1970 edition was 2 albums: "Pythicantropus Erectus" and "Blue Bird". It has some great music on it, it has Jakie Byard and Danny Richmond back, and Bobby Jones who was quite obscure, sounds great. McPherson too. But I must admit at first listening then when it came out, I was a bit disappointed, since I had expected that after the wild and open things with Eric Dolphy and so on the Mingus of 1970 might be even more into "free" which he wasn´t. The next time where I had the feeling that Mingus is back to his act was in the mid 70´s with George Adams and Don Pullen, this was again some Mingus with all them tensions, them changes of time, with taking the music more outside and all of that......
  21. I must admit I wouldn´t have recognized Art Blakey on this. I always saw him with a first greyish, than almost white "afro" and this spreads from a very long period from the 70´s until his death.
  22. That´s some good bread, and this one is bread with potatoes. That kind of round bread often is called "house bread" . The worst is bread that´s already cut and sold in celofan. The slices are too thin for really hand cut bread, but sometimes it´s the only solution "out of necessity".
  23. Sometimes I like to listen to this one. I think I like the quartet tracks most, but also the All-Star Jam with Dex and Cannonball is very fine. It´s a very fine, boppish session. On the other hand, I think I have a Miles Davis-Stan Getz album from Birdland in the early fifties, where on Side B there is unlisted some Gene Ammons-Sonny Stitt with Tadd Dameron´s rhythm section, which is very very fine and I didn´t find it mentioned in the 2 books about Tadd Dameron.
  24. Ok, personal invention sounds good. I also don´t cook exactly like my grandma did, but I had to make investigations to learn what an organic shop is. I agree with you that too much people eat too much meat. This is not necessary and can destroy sharp looking (șnițel-belly or cementry of șnițel) and especially in summer there can be weeks when I don´t eat meat or only seldom very little of it (gastgarten mit grill) But I couldn´t definite my reduced meat consumption as "rarely" since let´s say if I cook gulaș I dont make it only for one day, you can eat it 3 days and it get´s even better, or the famous "sarmale" (kraut-rulade) you make a big pot of it and if you only 2 persons you have 3 days food. That´s "winter dish" , or a self made bean soup, it has to have onions and it has to have some little pieces of smoked pork in it to have that good taste. At least that´s how I grew up. But all that stuff , if you eat just one portion and not 2 or 3 until you can´t move anymore, it doesn´t do no harm , you remain in good shape and look handsome. Well I don´t know if there is those organic shops over here. I have enough problems with gettin good white bread , many bakers have tons of black bread, and no sendviș and those french baquettes, it gets hard too soon and can not be compared with a good, big, white bread........, especially the good round one. We have one bakery called "The Mann" in our quarter (very nice outer district not far from the park and castle Schonbrunn, but if they close for renovation like they did last summer, I have to get in the not so quiet areas near Vestbahnhof, where there are some "balcan bakeries"......
  25. Fine, but at leat for me the "Lonesome Lover Blues" from the 40´s sounds better, or more interesting, how you´d say it....
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