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Would like to read something about it. Since I was audience only. Usually the shows started with "For Harry Carney" and it was a fantastic contrast between the quiet parts and a growing tension, each soloist playing duets with Danny, and Mingus´ solo was up into the highest register of the bass, really very impressive....

So many great answers @sgcim: Dominican Republic.... My wife and me have been there many many times, but didn´t know that they get so heavy drunk to live music. We liked the music, but maybe because we both have to avoid stress and not want anything other than relax and enjoy the beachs, the palms and the water, the warm weather, for the last 10 or more years we never went outside the huge hotel complexes were we have everything, good food, swimming, sunbath, and from evening on dancing and so on... Irish weddings.....I didn´t get so much in contact with irish people, most of them in Dominican Republic, where many tourists did "St. Patrick´s Day", most of the tourists from Canada, with all of ´em dressed in green and drinkin ´ too much. Strict catolics I heard....., well I only one time played at a confessional weddings and to my astonishment it was Baptists, heard that they are in the States but didn´t even know they are here in Europe too, but it was a smooth thing, playing standards, good food, peaceful atmosphere, good payment so why not. I must admit I don´t really know much about religions. Over here, during my kid years and my teenie and twen years in big cities with leftie government it was not a point. But I think there might be some God since when my wife got ill and needed operation I said to God just in my mind "please help my wife" and after she recovered I said "if you the one who made her healthy again , I wanna thank you".... but I never understood why people should tell me when to eat meat or what meat is okay and what is "forbidden", or if I´m not allowed to sleep with a girl before gettin ´ married and so on...., @JSngry : Wedding Parties, yeah. I did that for one or two years, but it was not my best time. Divorce after the first short marriage, money was short, career was just starting to get settled, some jazz clubs closed and less audience than in the 70´s /early 80´s .... We mostly tried to make a compromis playing easy listening standards, stuff like "Someday Your Prince Will Come" "There will never be another you" "Your´s my heart only" and so on and the money would be okay. But I have three occasions with a lot of stress: a) Playing a wedding where the female singer got drunk (will tell the story later) b) Playing a wedding where we had to stay over night at the hotel and had a verbal fight who will share the room with the only lady (a stunning slim and tall blonde)... c) Playing my only non-jazz gig of shlagers, waltzes, polkas and been forced by the "bandleader" to sing a song.....

I don´t know how he acted then. With Mingus I don´t think he had time or possiblility to act like a primadonna. He was very articulate then, and they did all those great tunes live (Cumbia, Three or Four Shades of the Blues, Noddin Ya Head Blues, For Harry Carney ) , which sounded much better than the overproduced Atlantic Studio recordings. Jack Walrath and Ricky Ford, and on piano first in 1976 Danny Mixon (Viena and Switzerland "Willisau") and Bob Neloms 1977 (Italy). Ricky and Jack had the role of that call-response on "Cumbia" while on the studio it was also oboe and bassoon and trombone. So Ricky and Jack had to carry all the load but did a great job on that. And on that rap passage (Mama´s lil baby don´t like no shortnin´ bread....) all those honks on tenor. He was really strong, and I think he was very very young then, in his early twenties. The first time I heard him in 1976 first I was a bit disappointed that it was no more George Adams, that´s how it started.... But as for Mingus sideman it´s interesting I have albums of Adams-Pullen, but don´t have individual albums of Walrath, Ricky, Neloms or so.

Brad, DB with PD must have something, especially their "Take Five". Why are , or were so many people who otherwise didn´t like or know jazz but loved Take Five. Same with my wife: Some weeks ago the original "Take Five" was on a commercial or as a background music for a film, and she said, "that sounds fantastic". Let´s say, the alto sound really is fantastic, it´s something else than my usual Jackie McLean, Dolphy, Lyons, Donald Harrison, and of course Bird .... The only time I played "Take Five" was with a very very strange male singer with a quite hoarse and shouting voice but it worked for the more jazz rock oriented audience and he demanded "Take Five" in a Reggae groove. This was during my few years deeply into electric jazz, but it sounded fine and I felt good...

No, Tete was not on it, it was pianoless , just the four mentioned musicians. And I found it also on youtube from Italy for RAI television. Same tunes, but only the first three, Salt Peanuts misses. About Tete: Sorry to say I saw him only once, and that could have been in 1980 with Joe Henderson. I remember this because we all very not pleased at all with the bass and the drums, they just didn´t lit the fire and at one moment Tete "rescued" the evening by waving torward the bass and drum to lay out and played the walking line himself with the left hand and finally it grooved. I don´t remember who the drummer and the bassist were, I heard Joe on many occasions, allways fantastic, But without Tete at that certain date he would have been lost....

Yes, that´s it. In books about jazz in the 40´s like Ira Gitler´s book and others, the "Bop for the people" wasn´t mentioned very much. See, for dudes from Europe who were born after the 40´s , we didn´t know very much about groups that may have had a short time fame, but nevertheless the "Bop for the People" is something I had heard about. And that tune "High on an Open Mike" was for eternity through the 1947 "Saturday Night Jazz Session" which we all bought in the 70´s mostly for the participation of Fats Navarro. I remember my English was very weak and depended on my understanding of the liner notes. But the title "High on an Open Mike" was ununderstandable for me then. "Mike" was the english name for "Mihail" or "Michael" how I knew it and I translated it in "Hoch auf einem offenen Michael" (I think only Google-Translate can do worse), but it is an interesting Ventura original with some "swing to bop" elements. The A part is based on "If I had You" and the bridge is a descending chord thing, very very nice to play really...... Benny Green is really cool, but I think on that WNEW Saturday Night stuff it was Bill Harris on tb, who sounds more old fashioned for our understanding, a bit more Dixieland style if I´m right.

I saw Mraz in 1985 with Flanagan and Art Taylor at Holabrunn Festival and thanks God he had got rid of that "guitar like" shit than and really played bass. But those two basses on "Me Myself" sound like "Dünnschiss".....

It´s possible that Jackie Cain and Roy Kral were not as well known in Austria.... I have read about them as being part of Charlie Ventura´s "Bop for the People" project. Is that true ?

The interesting thing is that so many Dexter live in Copenhagen came out after the first series (those from 1964). I had and still have those "I want more", "King Neptune" "Cheesecake" and to a lesser amount the first one "Cry me a River" (where I only liked the title ballad, since "April" sounds very weak, and the side without Dexter didn´t really interest me). But I eventually stopped collecting them. I had invited an american jazz musician with whom I had the honour to play, to have dinner at my home and when when he browsed through my "collection" and said "Dexter, Dexter, Dexter, Dexter" he told me that a few significant Dexter albums is very fine, but with the money you might also get others to study them and to enlarge my horizont, I thought he is right and so I didn´t continue. Maybe I lost the trace, but is it true that the later Steeplechase albums were not as well advertised as the first one had been ? Right now my Dexter Collection is the Savoy 45-47, the Dial with Wardell Gray, the BN´s "Go" and "Man in Paris", the CBS "Homecoming" and "Manhattan Symphony" ....

@sgcim Thank you so much for that story, which is really a scary thing. You say a duo gig with a piano player.... what instrument you playing, bass ? I really enjoyed reading it and hope you did like my story too. And I want to thank you not only for your great story, but also that you decided to write it. And I also hate to see a thread without any posts. I was really confused, when I didn´t see any post after almost a week. I had thought it is best placed in the musicians forum, but would be interesting for non musicians too, since many of them like "jazz stories". I could write dozens of them (with the limitations of my knowledge of english, which I mostly learned from reading liner notes and jazz books) . Maybe we can invite others to post here too, and so our efforts to write more stuff will not be in vein.

I remember Ray Drummond was one of the most busy young bass players in the late 70´s early 80´s . I saw him very often with different great stars, until he became Johnny Griffin´s permanent bassist. And he, together with Stafford James played the bass in a very forceful manner, not like those who got the strings lower down to play faster (guitar like) without the real "bass sound". Everytime when I listend to Mingus´ "Me Myself an Eye" with Gomez and Mraz sharing the bass part, I wonder how it would have sounded if they would have had Ray Drummond and Stafford James.....much better I suppose.

Great music and some of the all time best musicians involved. But though I like a to smoke a cigarette myself while having coffee or after dinner or after ...... ( ) ........ I wouldn´t bite the filtru that way Is this Cecil Bridgewater ? Who is the else ? The only Bridgewaters I saw live and admired were Cecil and Dee Dee....

oh yes, just listened to some tracks on it on youtube. Sounds great. Very very nice. Brad I really can understand you and can follow your thoughts in an obiective manner. Sure I didn´t remain at the mind of a teenager and became the busy and successful man I have been for the last 40 years and every day I learn and study something new and have a wonderful wife whom I repect and love . But maybe on non business manners some seeds were already settled then. And it seems that many dudes of my generation, many fellow musicians and mentors of mine had the same experience in musical tastes, at least over here. We all dug Miles, Trane etc. and 70´s electric jazz , and from Miles, Trane etc we might get back to bop, so most the guys I know had and have the same tastes that spread from Bop over Modal and Free to Rockjazz and Funk and so called "post bop" or neo bop" of the young generation. I haven´t seen one of them who at one point might get more inside Brubeck´s music. Some things in my early live never changed: Jazz, Fishing and at 13 I would dream to find a woman who looks sharp and has long hair and heels and all, tall and slim and a stunning appearance , and though you get mature and look for much more important things, the caracter, the personality, but this old stuff of the physically attraction remained the same..... Please forgive me if the stuff I wrote is a very subiective point of view , I didn´t have the intention to hurt you, and though you might not change my musical tastes never think you are speaking only for yourself. I really hear you.

Well okay, I´m sure Paul Desmond really knew his instrument and had a unique sound, but as it happens, maybe he is too much associated with Brubeck. From those with a lighter sound I think I listened more to Lee Konitz thru Tristano and Birth of the Cool and some other albums under his own name. He is the one I like more from that period and from the so called "cool jazz" which is not my strongest point. Maybe I had another start for jazz: The first alto I ever heard was Dolphy, followed by Bird and then culminating in Jackie McLean. I know some don´t really like McLeans sound and quite sharp intonation, but I am an addict of his sound. Then, let me see..... Jimmy Lion is great, Arthur Blythe.... Well the one who told me how great Brubeck is gave me "Time Out" to listen. I think one of the tunes other than Take Five was Blue Rondo a la Turk. I was listening to that album and tried to find something that would fascinate me like the only three jazz albums I had then (Mingus with Dolphy in Paris, Miles Davis Steamin, and Bitches Brew). I would like to mention I was about 13,14 at that time, and even my mother (born 1921) said "Meditations on Integration" is some of the greatest things she ever heard (and she was not a jazz listener), and later loved Ornette Coleman´s "Lonley Woman", well, she was somewhere around and then came into my room when I was "listening" as recommanded to the borrowed Dave Brubeck album, my mother asked "What´s happenin´, what´s that KITSCH you listenin to?" . And later, gettin in touch with playing musicians I don´t think one of them recommanded me Brubeck. I must say that the only three persons who wanted to pull my coat to Brubeck were listeners , but not players. Bill Smith: I heard to pieces of him on the Impulse Album "Americans in Europe" from Koblenz 1963 and though it´s another music than what I usually listen to, I like it, it´s okay.

I mostly like the slower tracks on it. That version of "I Can´t Get Started" with the wonderful bass solo of Mingus, and the tune that originally was recorded as "Love X" on Impulse. This is one of the most beautiful ballads I know.

At Wiesen Jazz Festival 1983 (Austria) Timeless All-Stars was scheduled, but actually the musicians who played were others than scheduled. I think it was scheduled with Bobby Hutcherson and Curtis Fuller or so, and actually the band that played was: Jackie McLean - Bobby Hutcherson - Herbie Lewis - Billy Higgins . What a great group and some of the best sets I ever heard, each of them a very favourite of mine, and they played "Blue´n Boogie, "What´s New", "Star Eyes" and "Salt Peanuts". I´ll never forget this. But it seemed to be more a "Blue Note All Stars" than a "Timeless All Stars". But when a critic wrote a review of the festival at Jazz Podium, he still mentioned "Timeless All Stars" with the schedules personnel, not even mentioning Jackie McLean it was very annoying. Enrico Rava was a favourite of the DC at a now defunkt very small jazz clubs in the 70´s (Jazz Spelunke). I think he was en vogue by a certain group of listeners who also listend to lets say Jan Garbarek, those more european sounding players then.... Warne Marsh with Lou Levy might be interesting, I had heard Marsh only in context with Lennie Tristano. Lou Levy was a great bop pianist, I saw him with Art Pepper 1981. Abdullah Ibrahim then was "Dollar Brand". I only saw him for few minutes in 1979 with some kind of african orchestra, but somehow it was not my music...., he was conducting then or at least stood in front of the orchestra with his back turned to the audience like conductors do.... Michel Petrucciani I already commented. First hearing "wow", but even then I detected a more classical approach in his playing.

Oh, in Viena, my home town.........must have been high moon for those who were from that certain kind of jazz fans who were older than me and most of them definitly middle class. I somehow never could connect to Brubeck since when I was a complete starter on listening and playing the music with my heroes being Miles, Mingus, Ornette and Bird and still not knowing all the others , one of the older guys told me that I must listen to Brubeck, that he is the very best of "jazz". From my point of view that meant "better than Mingus, better than Miles ???", and after one half side of an album I realized that it does not touch me. So, talkin about Brubeck I definitly had the wrong start.

I think it´s from the same session or about the same time as "Idle Moments". Very fine playing. I think once in two, three years I feel like listening to both of them. Person, Cranshaw Harewood is a very fine rhythm section, but I discovered that I´m listening less and less to those more "smooth" rhythm section. Even if it´s straight ahead jazz, I like it a bit more "pushed" with more challenging drummers like Tony Williams, Joe Chambers or Philly J.J. and a lot of others....., and Herbie or Andrew Hill on piano..... But no question, very fine music. Only I think it was in the vaults for long time, maybe Lion and Wolff thought it´s too similar to "Idle Moments".

Somehow it never got an entry in my collection. Maybe when I saw it I just didn´t want to by another "piano trio" album. About beer at sessions, I couldn´t do it. It slows you down. After a session of a gig it was fine. One good drafted beer and a cigarette to relax. But for some years I haven´t been drinkin an alcoolic beer, I got used to non-alcoolic beer. Only the cigarette after the gig remained. Never took drugs so I don´t have any idea how you react to it. Once a guy shared a reefer with me, but I couldn´t feel nothing special about it. I think it made me somehow depressed or not so optimistic feelin and after that half reefer I saw no reason why to smoke this instead of a cigarette.... About Hampton Hawes on piano: I don´t have very very much of him on record. I like his solos on a Wardell Gray live album from the early 50´s were they play mostly bop standards like Donna Lee and so on. But something about his playing is more straight hammered on this. Hampton said he was the nearest thing to Bud Powell, but I don´t hear that. He´s got a helluva technique but I don´t hear something as special as I heard in other pianists. Strange to say, I really like his fender rhodes playing on the 1973 Montreux Things with Dexter and Gene Ammons....

Interesting statements about the more radical scene of certain groups of youngsters during the time, when I myself was at high school ! But the jazz friends I had at school or got to know who mostly were some years older, never talked against american jazz. The other way round, artists like Miles, Mingus, Ornette, Rollins and back to Bird were our idols. I knew there was also some radical folks who were against everything. I was not interested in those kinds of matters, never demonstrated for or against something. I liked Monk´s statement in a Valerie Vilmer interview were she tries to get some "political" statements from him and he only said "I don´t let that bug me".

I´m not sure now but I think I heard an excerpt of one tune of it (Timmon´s Dat There I think) on a commercial. Love that record. I love this Hutcherson album very much. He was such a flexible musician, from mainstream to avantgarde, and the occasion when I saw him together with Jackie McLean AND Billy Higgins was one of the greatest concerts I remember....

Wonderful ! I wish Lester Young also would have made a record with the Red Garland Trio.

I love to read reviews from users, much more than just posting an album cover and if time permits it, I try to make similar efforts. I think, I purchased "Black Saint" a bit later than my first Mingus LPs (the Paris Concert with Dolphy) and the 1960 Blues and Roots. This was somewhere in the mid 70´s. Maybe I was still a bit too young at that time, since I missed some bass solos (for me, besides being the great composer he was, Mingus for me was the bassist that impressed me mostly and when I picked up bass as a second instrument I tried to get some stuff from his way to play a solo) . And maybe a was a bit too young to dig this kind of Mingus´ soul, and in my case the alto of Mariano still sounded completly strange since the kind I knew alto was Bird, McLean, Dolphy, Jimmy Lylons....) . For years, and sure at that moment when I bought "Black Saint" his two great quintets (the one from 1964 and the one from the 70´s with Adams/Pullen) those two impressions somehow had spoiled me on other more albums with more written parts..., I saw Mingus after Adams had left and was replaced by Ricky Ford, still very very hot stuff....) But some years later I gave "Black Saint" more listening and really enjoy it now. It seems I must have been more mature to dig it.

I listen very often to those two, love everything about it. Mr. B is my favourite singer, together with Earl Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Kenny Hagood. If there would be more airshots of the Eckstine Band discovered I´d be glad. Once while he was still alive he stated that he still has unussued material of that period. I like those combinations of Singer and hip Orchestra (dig Tadd Dameron´s arrangements ) and if I don´t listen to jazz, I like Max Raabe and his Palast Orchestra because it has that sly irony in the way he sings with that vacant look and hip voice and hip dressed, and there´s a lot of space for the soloists of the orchestra too.

I´m sure some of you, during their playing career had to play gigs that are memorable not necessarly for the music, but for strange cirumstances and I invite you to share those stories here. I want to tell you a true story, the people involved are quite famous, though sorry to say the two musicians who played that gig are no longer among us. In the early 80s I knew a guy who was the brother of the remarkable Austrian author and journalist Conrad Seidl (best known as „Beer Pope“ since he wrote a book about beer). That guy who was the younger brother of Conrad told me that his brother will marry soon and thinking about the music for the wedding party he thought that some jazz would be cool, and if I could get a small group together and play, it would be some good money. So I asked him where the event will take place and he said at the Theater of the Otto Wagner Hospital (psychiatric hospital in Viena, better known as „Steinhof“). I said „you kiddin´“ , we are supposed to play on the grounds of the nuthouse ???? He told me that it is because his brother Conrad is a fan of the Art Nuveau Style and the hospital grounds are famous for their art nuveau church and theater building. Do they have a piano I asked and learned that there is no piano. Shit….. because at that time I didn´t own a portable keyboard. But I wanted the gig because money was cool, so I told him „look, I also play the bass fiddle, so fix it and I´ll get the other musicians so you will have your band. During that time if you wanted to meet musicians to fix a gig you just had to found them at two jazz bars in the 6th district „Café Einhorn“ (run by former saxophonist Uzzi Förster) or on the other side of the street „Jazz Spelunke“. So when I came in, the great late trumpet player Karl „Bumi“ Fian (best known for his tenure with the „Vienna Art Orchestra) was sittin at the bar and greeted me and I said „look, Bumi, I have that gig, it´s the wedding of Conrad Seidl but there´s no piano so I must play the bass fiddle“. He said sure let´s do it. And we get Walter Grossrubatscher (former with Woody Shaw, Conte Candoli, Junior Mance) on drums. „You want to play just with trumpet, bass and drums?“ Quite a thin instrumentation really, but anyway….. We didn´t need to rehearse, since we would play standards only. So the gig was fixed and we were told to get early enough to the theater to set the drums, check the sound and start to play when the party gets inside. And we should wear dark suits and white shirts. Okay, the day of the event arrived and I was supposed to be the first there to check how the surroundings are. So I drove to the place with my old Citroen 2CV (popular name: „duck“), with the neck of the bass fiddle stickin out of the roll-off mobile roof of the car. From the parking area to the theater there was a few steps and since it was a hot day in July I had taken off my jacket and wore only the trousers and the white shirt. Strange feeling steppin on the grounds of a nuthouse I thought, and above all, the door of the theater was locked. I banged at the door and the windows ….. no reaction. Then two muscular guys with shaved heads and white hospital clothes came torwards me, started grinnin´ and sayin „hey nuts what you doin´, move on! “ I answerd „no no, I´m a musician and have to play here“ The two guys from the staff (mental nurses you say ?) started to laugh in an ugly manner and said „Gee, you a musician, that´s mighty fine, you got some other stories too ? I tried to tell them „But I´m not kiddin´, I´m really a musician and have to play here !“ It didn´t help, they really thought I´m nuts and started to grab me. I yelled „I can proove it, come along with me up to the parking area, you see my Citroen with the bass fiddle stickin´ out of the roof !“ They laughed and really thought I´m one of the insanes of the hospital, they grabbed me and I´m sure they wanted to bring me back to some closed ward. Thanks God, at that moment the guy who had booked us came down and saw what happend and explained that I´m one of there musicians for the wedding party. The two guardians let me go, but not without shoutin at me why I didn´t say that earlier….(I really did , but maybe if you are at a nuthouse and tell somebody from the staff that you are a musician and have a bass fiddle in the car, it sounds weird….). Finally my two fellow musicians arrived and we played the gig. I don´t remember much, but Bumi and Walter were great as ever and I had a hard job to cover the lack of a chord instrument, especially on ballads I got a lot to do and I mean I´m a piano player and just had picked up the bass fiddle in 1978 when I bought one for rehearsals at home until I started to practise and after one, two years I had mastered it well enough to fill in on bass if somebody called for a bass player….. I still have the bass fiddle at home but haven´t touched it for decades, concentrating on piano only, but it is a very good instrument (someone who didn´t know better and sold it from about 550 Euro (7500 austrian shillings then) but it´s really an old and wonderful sounding instrument and about the same time I got an offer from the great austrian bassist Johannes Strasser (former with Art Farmer, Chet Baker) , but didn´t want to sell it. Maybe when I´ll be retired I might try it again. You don´t forget to play an instrument, you only have to build up some chops and will have blisters at the beginning….. I hope you like my story and will contribute some other stories about „strange or even scary gigs“…...