Gheorghe

I discussed that album last year with a fellow musician and said that the only thing I complain is that there is too little work on the left hand. I mean , you must not bang all them keys only because there are 88 keys, but the left hand should do more rhytmically. The tunes are great, but it´s strange "be bop" is played in C minor rather than F minor, and it suffers from the lack of left hand punctations..... Well, across here I don´t remember there was a big George Shearing following among us musicians and music students. It´s possible that a slightly older generation, who liked comfortable "lounge jazz" liked it. I remember one guy who was more into easy listening jazz praised George Shearing, but in my case my only linke to him is two of his compositions that I have in my repertory: I like to play "Lullaby at Birdland" at a brisc tempo in A minor, or in a more medium tempo in F minor, using block chords in the theme and then building up more and more emotion into the chorusses. And I think I´m one of the few guys around here who do "Conception". Actually there is the original Conception in AABA with 12 bars in the A section, and I play it in Db, which some folks consider a difficult key. Others, like a trumpet player I know play the Miles Davis version in C, with the A section as normal, but a different continuing of the tune with that great pedal point in it. Two listening examples: 1) Conception in Db with the original AABA form: Bud Powell Piano Interpretations, Verve 1955. 2) Conception as done by Miles on "Miles Davis-Stan Getz at Birdland 1950", and "Miles Davis-Tadd Dameron on "Last Bop Session" also at Birdland 1950....

He was one of the greatest, but it´s tragic that he was kind of an unsung hero. I think he was mostly a musicians musician. But everything he did was fantastic, not to forget his great compositions.

I have Prime Design , Time Design. though I am not really into strings other than double bass, I like the theme, the way it is played first by each voice, and then in the harmolodic quartet sound. The Free passages get very much interesting support from the drums, that´s what I like, I always listen based on the drummer´s work. And the ending is also great. The Theme is the same like the "New York" on Ornette at 12.

That´s it. Exactly those two albums are my Wayne Shorter Favourites. I might also add "Schizofrenia" as this was my entry into the music of Wayne when I was a teenie. I don´t have it but as much as I remember it was very late in his live, about 1987. Chet became better and better in the 80´s. I never listened to the albums of the Westcoast and didn´t even know who is Chet until there was an article about him in Jazzpodium in 1978. I saw him the last time late in 1987 and it was the best Chet I ever heard.

This is the only Verve LP of Bird that I really can enjoy, since Norman Granz didn´t interfere with the personnel, it´s a vintage quintet of Bird, very good sound and very fine music. On the others....well "Strings" is not really my thing. The "Bird ´n Diz" , though it has Monk, is also a disappointment with Buddy Rich on drums and the lack of really rehearsed material, the "Perennial" has this Tommy Turk destroying the quintet, the "South of the Border" is somehow....tra la la, and "Cole Porter" is a weak and tired Bird......,

I only heard the "Opening at Caravane of Dreams" one time. Is it out on CD also ? I´ve only heard "Opening at Caravan of Dreams" back then in the 80´s at a friend´s place and it was great. Is it available on CD? I remember there was a lot of fantastic stuff on it, maybe the best Prime Time I ever had heard. There was also one tune where Ornette quoted a Parker theme, maybe "Au Privave" or something like that. And I liked the last track, where he plays violin also. I had that impression that his violin abilities had grown very much since 1965 when he first appeared with it. He almost sounds like a free jazz version of Grapelli. The violin is not my really choice as a jazz instrument, I had known it more as a gipsy instrument, but here it is great.

Great news. I must purchase it.

Yes, that´s some great Brew Moore at his best. Personally I would have preferred another pianist, who has more "melody", it would have fitted more to Brew´s slightly Lestorian style. Let´s say someone like Kenny Drew. Bass and drums very good, Benny Nielsen died too early, William Schiöpffe was a bit older than the others, a very fine drummer who also worked with Bud Powell.

Yeah man ! It´s a wonderful album. I´m lookin´ forward playing with Allan Praskin again in the near future. He is the master ! From the album, I would have liked to hear the last track "There is no one" much longer, cause that´s the thing, really up tempo, based on "It´s You or No One", I love to play such rapid tunes.

I have a Black Lion Ben Webster album with Kenny Drew on piano, which is very very nice.

I once bought a CD titled "Bean´n the Boys" since I love that tune and play it often but there is a lot of young guys who don´t "have" the changes of "Lover Come Back To Me" in their head or were not taught them. The version I have, but I think I spinned it only once, also has "Eddie Costa" on piano. I never had heard his name, it seems he was not very much mentioned here in Europe. I have another Hawk LP with Tommy Flanagan, well that´s of course a piano player I know and apreciate very much. But Hawk really was lightyears ahead of his generation. And that "Bean´n the Boys" is a first class vehicle, nice key in Ab, supposed to be played at a brisc tempo, wonderful with the rite musicians who know it.....

I love to listen to it if I´m really exhausted and need some unpretencious swinging stuff. It´s nothing were you can learn very much from, but it swings and has a happy jam with Cannonball and Dex also. The Rhythm section is funny, the bop veteran Klook with Hampton Haws on Fenderpiano and Bob Cranshaw on fenderbass. It annoyed a lot of acoustic purists, but it was part of the time, there were so much Fender-Rhodes and Fenderbass even for straight ahead jazz. Cranshaw played a lot of Fender with Rollins too, but IMHO he never was an electric bassist, he just played "acoustic" style on Fender. If I hear Fender I prefer musicians who really USE those instruments, not just play it as a replacement for an acoustic instrument. But good Idea, I´ll spin it eventually, only my time is scarce and I listen more to stuff I can "study" if I don´t play myself.....

Yes, Roman had lived in Germany , I think after his tenur with the VAO, and then returned to Elveția . For that occasion he composed a tune, it´s a waltz with many many changes, and it´s titled "Some Changes to Make". He played it tuesday night. Really some tricky changes, I must admit I wouldn´t be able to check that "ad hoc" without studying the changes before a gig. When I had the occasion to play for him in a 3-Tenors Unit this summer it was only standard tunes, so it was easy. I love what he plays so much, he and austrian tenorist Thomas Kugi are among my favourites here in Viena.

I went to the Roman Schwaller quartet tuesday night. Roman Schwaller is one of the leading saxophonists here in Europe. He´s from Elvetia but lives in Viena. He recorded with name musicians like Johnny Griffin and hundrets of others and is a great composer and arranger also. The first time I had heard him was jammin with Sonny Stitt, when Roman still was very young and had played with the Viena Art Orchestra. He had a very talented young bassist from Serbia, my favourite Oliver Kent on piano and my favourite Mario Gonzi on drums. Interesting, they did a lot of Monk tunes that evening, like "Trinkle Tinkle" and so on. And an astonishing medium tempo swing version of "For Heaven´s Sake" which is usually done as a ballad, at least that´s how I had played it once. After the show Roman told me that he had heard Joe Lovano doing it that way. If I go to a show just for my pleasure for listening, I always sit as near to the drummer as possible, because I love to hear the drums loud and also feel it from the bottom....

The interesting thing is that the first "Walkin" I heard was one of the live versions of the "2nd Quintet" that means with Herbie, Ron, Tony, which I played over and over again when I was a kid. So when I bought a then available Prestige Double album of pre-first-quintet Davis recordings I was kinda puzzled that it´s such a relaxed medium tempo. Then, in my early youth I didn´t find it as exiting as the herbie-tony-ron-thing. As I said, that´s a generation thing..... The "second quintet" walkin´ seemed to be a hit of my generation, everybody hummed it and said it´s fast and strong. Once when I lived with my 10years elder sister she had called a craftman to fix something in the 1st floor and I was up in my room and had Davis second quintet, maybe just "Walkin" spinnin and as always during that time, very very loud. And later my sister came up and said "that craftman said "wow, great music you are spinnin´" I asked her "why didn´t you send him up ?"

Fantastic, I love Dave Liebman. When I was a teenager, Dave Liebman, after Johnny Griffin was the second great saxophonist I saw live and somehow, during that time it is not impossible I was even more impressed by what Dave had played. I think the Quest started around 1980, and I heard Lieb again shortly before he formed Quest, I think it was a pre-Quest formation with Terumaso Hino, John Scofield, Ron McLure and Adam Nussbaum, very fine. This could have been in the late seventies...... (the first occasion was the Lookout Farm stuff). last night, during intermission I had a discussion with a bass player whom I praised for his strong bass sound. We discussed Eddie Gomez also, the thing that some bass players around 1980 had their strings very down to get a guitar like sound, which was not a pure bass sound. Nowadays it seems bass players got back to their roots. The have strong hands and even if the bass speaker has a technical problem, you still hear ´em . Like Mingus said, you had to cut through a band, you had to have chops to produce a sound.

Side one with Red Garland on piano, yeah. There was another Bird album curiously issued on BN, from about the same time, but with a less interesting rhythm section, I think I gave it only one listening....

Those Affinity albums in the late 70´s, all with the same cover design. I think it was some live recordings, like I have George Coleman-Wynton Kelly at the "Left Bank" in Baltimore.....

Terumasa Hino.... he sometimes played cornet or pocket trumpet, right ? Some influences of Don Cherry if I remember. I heard him with a Dave Liebman Allstar Group featuring Adam Nussbaum on drums, Ron McLure on bass, John Scofield on guitar. I think it was in the late 70´s.

That reads like a dream team ! ten to Two blues......there was one album of Dusko that was titled "After Hours" and as much as I remember it had also a stellar band. But I had only two tunes taped on casetofon from radio, back then in 1977 or so. I wanted to buy the CD some years ago, but it´s for an astronomic price......., well I still think I have the music in mind, one of it might have be a blues, and one was "Those were the Days", I think that´s what I had on the casetofon.

Thank you ! I´ve just had a look at some of the links you both posted. In the older days those "Just the chords would have been enough , but it didn´t make me a better musician just only to know the chords, because for good comping I like to know the inside of the music. Many tunes I just had to hear them once or twice and can play them, others it´s good if I also see the music notes, if at least I had heard the song before. (I can read lead sheet best if I´ve already heard the tune and just want to check if my memorie´s right. You know: You are on stage and if a tune is called you can´t just say "well if someone has a lead sheet for me" or so. You got to know it, so the best way to not be embarrased on stage is to know as many tunes as possible. On the other hand, the little amount of experience at least made me a good listener. If it happens they call a tune I think I´ve heard somewhere but could not be sure if I know it excatly, I get into it just by listening careful and checking the right chords and it´s astonishing that sometimes those become the best results. Sure I can transcribe the chords into another key, but it´s annoying if you hear all the guys around the world play a tune in a certain jazz key and then you find lead sheet in another key or with too corny chords....

I had heard about that festival in Belgia I think there was a track of Bud with some local musicians, playing his eternal "I Remember Clifford" which appeared at almost each of his discs in his last 5 or 6 years. But this would be more for collectors. But I love that tune and once there was a little private jazz party at the place of a former jazz club owner, who had weekly "Jazz in the Living Room" for 15 Euro including drinks and a vegetables soup. That guy said to the musicians on stand he want´s to hear "I Remember Clifford" and they didn´t know it (???!). I was semi inactive at that time and jumped up to the piano and played it to the great pleasure of the guy who had that request. Really a deep tune, you can make so much out of it, working with different dynamics, to let it come out of the heart and soul....

So my memory´s right and it is "Lover Come Back to Me". I love that tune and often perform Hawk´s first class bop line on it "Bean ´n the Boys" at a brisk tempo. I´ll have to listen to that track eventually. For Bird and for Brew ! Maybe Ed Shaughnessy is not really my idea of a drummer for Bird´s music. I heard a lot of great Bird who sounds great in spite of some not adecvate drummer, but I can´t really enjoy it if it´s not Klook, Roach, Roy Haynes, Art Taylor etc. since I prefer to hear Bird in a perfect bop-context, even if the solos are shorter.

This is a rare ESP Disk album by the not too well known drummer James Zitro. It is a wonderful example of typical NY so called "Free Jazz" , recorded in 1967. I have a special affinity to this because it´s the first recording of one my prime musical inspirations here in Europe, the American in Europe Allan Praskin (as). This is 60´s avantgarde jazz at it´s best and all the musicians are great. Warren Gale (tp), Bert Wilson (ts) have great skills , the bass is superb and almost reaches the heights of inspiration of Henry Grimes. And the leader himself, drummer James Zitro is fascinating. It´s really a good recording sound, you really hear what the drummer plays, he is amazing. Allan Praskin already had his wonderful sound on as, the kind of alto sound I love most, as much as I like to listen to Jackie McLean or to Jimmy Lyons with Cecil Taylor. Pianist Michael Cohen is superb. That´s the way it should sound. Those are musicians, who know exactly what they do and where they are at. There should have been more.

Yes , that´s it.