Gheorghe

oh you really flexible. I think when I was young I also could leastening to completly different music. Now I couldn´t listen to Fats Waller AFTER Weather Report. Sure I love both of them. Maybe Fats Waller in my case was more for "studying" the tehnique of stride. I mean I first heard Jakie Byard on Mingus64 when I was 14,15, and later other pianists of his generation like Bud and Monk and both liked some stride sections in it, so I bought two Art Tatum albums, and a RCa-2-LP set of Fats Waller. Sure I never could have the left hand of Fats Waller, but at least it´s a good lesson because many Bop and Hard imitators became single handed pianists so I wanted to overcome that weakness.

I have them all with the cover of the Newport Rebels, but to my surprise it also has the other two Candid Albums. That was a good choice by my wife for Chrismas. I didn´t have them. As for "Faubus". It´s okay but the really "Faubus" I loved from first hearing when I was a teenager was with Dolphy, Byard in Paris. I noticed I knew some tunes from other albums. I heard Hora Decubitus and imediatly I knew it is "A´s flat E´s flat Too" from Blues´n Roots. But very nice music. And my admiration for the veterans Eldrige and Papa Jones. They really fit in and Eldrige anyway was thousends of miles ahead of his time. And Joe Jones really plays much more modern than other drummers of his generation. An yes, it´s a pity there is no Ornette and Cherry recorded....

Never thought about the colours of the cover. But I love very much what Clifford Jordan does on it. Cliff and Art Farmer, if I remember right, and from God knows from where, the former Bird bassist Teddy Kotick. My favourite Horace Silver albums of the 50´s are 6 Pieces of Silver, the Stylings of Silver and this one.

Nice pics of the room. Is this 50´s style ? My first radio and turntable (I think I got grandma´s , after she died in the early 70´s , was also those old wooden radios, and an old late 60´s early 70´s tape recorder. About Prestige: Prestige records were easy to purchase here in Austria. It was mainly the label from which we "learned" about the music of our idols Miles, Trane, Rollins, Monk. Those classic RVG sessions. The next Prestige I saw was some early 70´s Dexter Gordon when I wondered that Prestige still existed. We also had heard that they didn´t pay a lot of money so we wondered why Dexter made a deal with them. But those two "Tangerin" and "Capurange" are nice...

I knew that I wanted to read your point of view in this thread. The interesting thing is, that in those late 70´s there was such a Dexter Gordon hype that I and some friends of mine really jumped on that train. "Manhattan Symphony" was wonderful. Sure we witnessed great moments, some great concerts here in Austria with the exception of the last time in february 1983 which was a mess..... A friend from Cehoslovacia went to NY in 1978 and taped two shows of Dexter on July 4th 1978 at Vanguard. I don´t know HOW he could do that, because it was not only a small casetofon with integrated mike, it was recorded with 2 mikes in stereo. When he came back, we heard it on revox or how you called those big things....., this was very good. But later, and mostly after reading your critical point of view I gave it a thought and started to listen back to some stuff from then, from another perspective, and started to understand what you mean. "Tangerine" sounded much better on the 1972 Prestige album with the same title. Here it seems that Dexter really was loaded. And it´s just too long tracks, to long solos. And somehow it sounds that you wanted when comes the point where it falls a piece. "Strollin´".... I never head a concert in which this tune would have been in the repertory, but it sounds much better than Tangerine. But I never heard or read about a Dexter-Horace Silver connection..... "More than you know" and "Backstage" was almost on every concert. "More than you know" just too slow for my tastes, and Backstage....well everybody here knows how much I like drum solos, but it was always too long.. STITT: Wow I didn´t know about this reason.....refusing to transpose tunes when switching from tenor to alto. I can play in any key but I am a very weak reader. I got perfect pitch and can play in any key, but if I "read" a G flat or an E-flat, it has to be a G flat or E-flat.

I have the BN CD but have not spinned it for years. If I remember right, because I´m not such a fan of Dave Burns or Stanley Turrentine. Don´t ask me why......

Thank you so much !

Just wonderful ! I never had thought that Lee Morgan performed with the Oscar Peterson Trio. The Messengers All Star Band is phantastic. I only saw an excerpt of it on the Blue Note documentary film. Does a DVD of the whole event exist ? Once I also saw on you tube some shortages of a Japanes BN Festival at the Mount Fuji, but I don´t know if it exists as whole performances, CD or DVD....

I´m so glad you are back. I had your critical point of view about the later style of Dexter Gordon, when I started this topic:

Just got a mail from Viena Concerthaus with jazz in spring schedule. I saw the names "Billy Childs" and "Branford Marsalis Concert". Billy Childs, wasn´t he that great keyboardist who played in the 70´s , I think with Freddie Hubbard, and with J.J. Johnson at Yokohama ? But the guy on the photo looks younger than I thought.... Would it be interesting to see the Branford Marsalis Quartet. I saw Branford only with VSOP II in 1983 and he was great. What kind of music are they playing ?

oh yes, we did that also, my wife and me. On the same occasions. We cook together and have joke-hassles who will be the chef cook (bucătar șef) and the "șef" would be the first to take a break and have a glass of wine

I saw Art Taylor in 1985 with Tommy Flanagan and George Mraz, really an all star trio. The strange thing was, that Flanagan and Mraz started and there was no Taylor. He came on stage late, in the middle of a tune played by Flanagan and Mraz, and slowly started to settle his drum set, and while doing that, he slowly began to play with them, first only the hi hat, while continuing to get his traps fixed, and at least we had the complete Art Taylor. I don´t know what was the cause, did they travel with different airoplanes, or was it a worse reason ? His book Notes and Tones is wonderful, I bought it in 1982. He was such a Bird and Bud lover that he asked all the artists he interviewed about their impression of Bird and Bud.

I also say first I´ll see what the issue. If it is 1973-75....I already have the Dark Magus, Aghartha and Pangeea, all of them live albums, but Dark Magus I like most. And I have the 1973 Vienna, which I saw on TV at that time. 1974 in Brasilia could be interesting, maybe. I´d like to hear another good live performance from 1981. We Want Miles is the greatest, but almost all the good stuff is from the club gig at KIX in Boston. I think 2 years ago my wife bought me a bootleg of Miles 1981 at Hollywood Bowl, were he is celebrated with "Miles Davis Day". But to my disappointment , other than at the KIX club, he plays mostly muted and barely audible. I like the strong open Horn from the KIX. I saw some TV of Miles in Japan in octombrie 1981 too, but it´s again almost only muted in pianissimo.....

Yes, in 1982 it must have been very good and still the working band of 1981. I have read somewhere that in late 1981 Miles had a stroke and was slowly reconvalescencig in 1982, so maybe he walked with a cane. In April 1983 he was top fit and played much and even gave an encore, I think in 1984 he walked with a cane again, hip operation like many before. Miles always took care to look handsome, but from 1986 on they kind of made him look like a parody of himself. I saw him for the last time in 1989 and that was a much better band than those from 85-88, they played the newer stuff from "Amandla" and had Kai Akagi on keyboard and this was not only a keyboardist, but a hell of a soloist too. Again it sounded a bit more "jazz-like" as did the Amandla - Album.... He was in Viena in 1991 also, but I was not in town....

Yes, Stablemate was the album, I think it was with Horace Parlan...., as I said I lost the trace, I have some of the 1964 Montmatre (Cheese Cake or something), and from the 70´s I have that Dexter-McLean at Montmatre 1973 which is really fine. If you like Dexter. He played in Viena Jazzland in 1976 I think, it must have been before his return to the States. But I never understood, why Axel (the club owner), who wrote such great memories about musicians who played there, didn´t write a story about Dexter. It´s interesting that he had a story about Ben Webster, but no Dexter. On the other hand, Axel or Freddy, each of them had their own artists. Griffin played only at Freddy´s place, and Axel had "his" Art Farmer. But both clubs also booked locals, I played in both clubs, I think there were more too: After Freddy had closed, they had Opus One also in Vienna, they had "Jazz Gittie", all of those are places where we could play..... If you like my writing, I would suggest to write a story in the "Musicians Forum" about strange or even scary circumstances at gigs, because I had some...., is that okay for you ?

Such a great person, and so nice ! My thoughts to his family. And strange as it is. During last week I played some CDs I had got from him. The Mini LP format CDs and the older editions

Stimmt, er war sehr schön ! Ich habe leider keinen Schäferhund gehabt, weil wir viel reisen. Ich habe eine Katze gehabt, die ist 20 Jahre alt geworden. Woher kannst Du so gut deutsch ?

Several couples of wine ? Would it make hard for me to speak and move and thing coherently. About quitting everything, quitting to have one beer on friday evening, refusing to smoke a cigarette to my morning coffee, after dinner and after makin love, refusing to eat a little piece of ciocolată if I feel I would like to taste something sweet....., It´s just enjoying my day when I relax. Everything done to excess is a no go for me. A good coffee, which I enjoy with smokin a cigarette. A good dish Maybe once on weekend, after driving home about 1,5 hour after fishing in the mountains...... a 0,3l beer, really cold... Why should I "punish" myself ? But maybe I´m not a personality inclined to be an addict. I don´t like to do things to the excess,

Again about "Schizophrenia". I never read liner notes while listening to the music, usually I read them after listening to the music. But the first thing written here, something that Wayne tries to explain about as I supose interaction between musicians, sounds really abstract. Anyway in most of the cases I say the music speaks for itself, so I´m not unhappy if there is no liner notes.....

Yeah, I think that´s why I didn´t see him anymore after 78. Very fine drummer and anyway, I was and still am a piano player who maybe was born into some drummers mind or how you say things like that, I´m not spirituistic......, anyway. The first person I look for if I have to organize a band is the drummer, and studio records where the producer reduce the volume of the drums because they consider the drummer is just a time keeper, annoys me. I´m no Gordon completist, but didn´t Inzalaco make a Steeplechase record with Dex ? But, by the way: any more reminiscences about clubs like the one I described in my very personal story ????? I think my story is not strictly Vienna bound, clubs, musicians and audiences and bizarre personalities might have existed everywhere where jazz was played.

Oh, I don´t remember now, if Miles played so much organ at that time. He played both trumpet and organ at eastertime 1983 with the band that had both Sco and Stern, and thanks God still Al Foster. About parking at Miles concerts in summer 1985. I went to the festival, and as I usually did for years on several festivals that were in rural areas, I drove my car into a field lane, put a military camping bed and sleeping sack, and sleep under the sky in the fresh air. Shortly after I had fallen asleep I heard some voices screaming and still more asleep than wake I hear "oh here is a dead cadaver lying", I opened my eys, and said what you doin ? and saw two young country guys with two really scared girls. One of the guys said to me: "Man you scared us, we thought you dead. They went home from some province disco and took the shorter way home , thru the lane....

oh me too ! But mostly the first series with Tobias Moretti. But it´s great and has a lot of Viennese humour in it, Maybe you would also like "Kottan". That´s really some typical Viennese scenes of the early 70´s Vienna and that incredible Police President who always has fights with the coffee automat. And I think the oldest one was titled "Mord in der Hartlgasse". That´s really great. That´s how it was when I was a youngster. And when older people still didn´t know how to say to a homosexual . That old woman says about her younger neighbour "he is , he is....I think he is...a "Dee Dee Dee". Once my wife picked up a T-Shirt for me with some more rosé colours and said this is cool, and I said "isn´t that a bit too "dee dee dee" ?

Yeah, I also saw the band play the material in July 1985. I liked that bass and drums ostinato at the beginning, it is the same you have on "Jack Johnson" and it´s played also as "Theme from Jack Johnson" on Agharta. That´s really some great stuff. Well I remember it was the first time Miles didn´t wear a hat or a cap, he had his long hair slicked back, a bit like a modern version of Liszt Ferenc. I had heard Miss Morrisine, a great tune already the year before in Wiesen. Sure, the girl friends I had then, liked "Time after Time" and "Human Nature" most. They also played a great live version of keybordist´s Bob Irvin III "Code M.D." from the before 1984 album "Decoy". I saw Miles again in November 1985, they played about the same stuff plus some then unknown compositions that might have been on "Rubber Band" which was not out then. And then they had Mike Stern back again on guitar. I liked Stern more than Scofield, who played more in a laid back manner (ok his style ) . And there was a female percussionist also. I like it mostly for the live stuff with the band with Keith in it. Funny to say, I didn´t associate Keith with his long solo albums, those Koln Concerts and stuff, but really got exited on that Fender Rhodes- Yamaha Organ combination. That band was in Viena in 1971. I was too young but my older friends (about 1955 born while I´m 1959 born) still talk with enthusiasm about that band. Few years later a rich kid, who had two pianos at home told me he is a big Keith Jarrett fan and asked me to come by and let´s do some 2 piano stuff á la Keith Jarrett. I said, well Keith Jarrett, than I better get a cab and bring my Fender Rhodes and the then new little Yamaha synthie . It took me some time to learn that the new Keith was totally else than what I had heard first......

Thanks for sharing, really wonderful to read.

Sad to say I´m not a collector, I once purchased some Cedar Walton Trio with Cliff Jordan, and sure heard the later edition with Bob Berg, who was great, but I think I heard he died young. The only low point was, when Berg joined the Miles Organisation in the late 80´s and poor Bob Berg didn´t have much to play in those bands. He just stood there for the most time, quite bored because the whole stuff was boring. He must have got much money for it, but sure it was nothing that would have inspired Bob. Gone were the days where great saxists like Liebman and then the young Bill Evans were in the bands.