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The Donald Byrd albums with Pepper on it, mostly the double album live at the Half Note I think.....

It´s a simple blues riff, like the one medium tempo blues on side 1 of "Bud!" Vol. 3 BN, so I think it was just done ad hoc for the session and forgotten after that. It´s sure not a blues line that would have gotten famous like Monk´s "Straight No Chaser" or Bird´s "Billy´s Bounce" and "Relaxin´ at Camarillo". I find the session less interesting than a live date from the same time which also features Monk tunes "At Café Blue Note" for ESP. Both were released in 1965 I think. Also the Eb rhythm changes based "Squatty" is nothing too exiting, not to compare with "John´s Abbey" in the same key....

Reminds me of an old book from East Germany from the 70´s "Notenkarussell" written as a young peoples guide to music. There was one single phrase about jazz which I try to translate: "If young people like to listen to jazz, that´s mighty fine. But with jazz it´s like drugs. If you take a small quantity of morphine, the next time you will take more until it get´s out of control. But we socialists must not leave our wit in the cloakroom........." Worse still, in the western world in the late 70´s early 80´s their was a book about "the fenomen of jazz" written by a guy who never might have listened to jazz. It was mostly about anthroposofical philosophy and the essence was something with more or less hidden or even obvious racism, that white people should listen to classical music and listen with using their brain, while "jazz" (which he didn´t explain what he thought that it is "jazz") is just something from the abdomen..... The red book is the Western European book from the late 70´s early 80´s, and the violet book is the GDR book for young people.....

Thank you for those links. Maybe he played a bit better in Netherlands or he had more friendly critics, since what I had to witness in the same time (same tour) was so weak it is one of the saddest memories I had in an entire live of jazz listening. It came near to Bird´s "Lover Man" session from 1946 or Bud´s painful performance at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and it was difficult to listen to and to look at Dexter on that occasion. I´d like to mention that on this evening three stars of modern jazz were booked, each with his own group (first Johnny Griffin, second Woody Shaw, third Dexter Gordon) and was promised that after the Gordon set, Shaw and Griffin will re-apear on stage to do a three all stars jam, which didn´t happen after Dexter´s desastrous "performance". A similar painful event was a completly drunk Sonny Stitt in 1980 (followed the next day by a splendid Dexter Gordon performance). In 1983 Woody Shaw was the highlight of the evening and some of the greatest musical impressions I ever had. Four years later in 1987 I saw him in a small club as a single artist booked with locals and it was similar painful as Dexter´s 1983 performance. Again it was due to excessive input of alcool (before the gig, Woody drank many many of those little bottles of "Underberg" and lot of beer) and it was painful to see the former hero looking "down and out".... In 2005 I saw Griffin for the last time. This time it was not due to abuse of substances, he just was a frail old man and had to sit during the performance and had a very thin tone. It must have been an enormous effort for him to stand through a performance, but Griffin still had some of his positive energy....

The early 1983 dates must have been from the same tour when I witnessed that embarrising performance, late ianuarie or early februarie 1983. In Amsterdam, yes I heard about that gig at the Bimhuis, but I also heard, that Dexter would have been scheduled for a Timeless recording together with Chet Baker. But Dexter couldn not be found , so Dexters rhythm section recorded and Chet sang and played on 2 numbers. A review from Jazz Podium from that time, I think it was in Köln at a famous club, was also very reveiling. I remember they wrote that for the first set Dexter was missing and only the trio played. During intermissions everybody might have asked where is Dexter and finally he came on stage, terribly drunk and shabbily dressed. He had glimpses of his old style and mighty sounds, but his pharasing was incoerent and his announcements were ununderstandable and the writer stated, that the end of Dexter´s career might be near. I might really wonder if that gig at Burghausen in 1984 took place. I doubt it, because I never saw something advertised or scheduled, and since it´s near to the Austrian borderline we might have gone there to try it out if he was in better form. But maybe it was cancelled before it would have been scheduled.....

I think it was a radio recording or a soundboard recording. I also don´t know about other recordings after the birthday celebration. Maxine writes that it was the last time he played until his playing in the film and a handful of performances in public after the film. So Stan Britt´s story in his book "Long Tall Dexter" about his gig early in 1984 in Finnland and later in Marocco maybe were just "fiction" like the "Night in Brussel" in Ross Russell´s book "Bird" ? I don´t know whom I should believe. The only source of later activities is a 2 weeks gig of Dexter in Mai 1983 at "Rick´s Café" in Chicago, (in the spring edition of Down Beat from that year). 2 weeks Dexter followed by 2 weeks Billy Eckstine !). Maybe some users from Chicago might know more about it, or was it chancelled.... In 1984 during a gig I remember that some of the playing or visiting musicians told a story that he "went to Mexico and married the former wife of Woody Shaw", this story really sounded strange to me, especially the story about the marriage. I´m not necessarly the reader of "love stories", but Maxine´s by somebody her described writing style as being "workman-like" doesn´t reveal anything about the romantic side of it. It sound´s much more like a business relation.....

I heard it first in the 70´s on a brown Bellaphone album from the series "Jazz Tracks" featuring this session (with the tracks splitted in 2 Parts, maybe from 78 RMP sides. Great ! My aims was to play Dizzy Athmosphere at that tempo, really a challenge

Yesterday I listened to this in the car, while I was drivin to the lake for fishing after work. It was always one of my favourite Chet Baker records, especially for the participation of Karl Ratzer, he is such a great guitarist, my favourite and I had the honour to play with him on several occasions in my youth. Baker is in top form, and the drummer Al Levitt is very very fine. But I´m not so fond of the flute as an instrument. It would have been enough as a quartet, Chet, Karl, the bass player Ricardo and Al Levitt..... But don´t misunderstand me: Nicola Stilo is a FANTASCTIC musician and his solos are great and most interesting , but I just have problems with flutes, especially in the high register. If the same lines would have been played on sax, it would sound great for me.

From all those records LD made for BN in 55-57, I like this one most. For the musicians involved and the set list. I love this. And other Sarah Vaughan I like is the 1946 session with Lover Man and If you could see me now" , and the sides she did with Miles Davis in 1950. Strange, you see the cover and think about Miles in the 40´s with Bird or Tadd or his own Birdland Broadcasts around 1950/51 I think the only Musician I have ever heard of here is Robin Eubanks, he´s the trombonist who played with the Messengers, right ?

I always said that Bud was too often recorded in a trio format. From the early days on he was at his very best, when he performed or recorded with horn players. The sides with Dexter and J.J. Johnson, with Sonny Stitt, with Fats Navarro and Sonny Rollins, the live dates with Bird and Diz or Fats IMHO are the best records from 1946-1953. Then, the not long ago discovered Birdland 57 material with Donald Byrd and Phil Woods, and the side B with Curtis Fuller on the BN studio album. And in the 60´s the many occasions of encounters with great hornplayers: With Blakey and the Jazzmessengers with Lee and Wayne in 1959 and again in 1959 with Clark Terry, with Hawk in 1960, with Don Byas in 1961, with Zoot Sims, with "Americans in Europe in 1963" as well with Dexter "Our Man in Paris", with Dizzy and the Double Six in the same year, with Johnny Griffin in 1964, they all are much more interesting than many trio settings. That must be a great memory, do you remember more about that evening, what they played or so ?

I remember I listened once to a Black Lion LP of Milt Buckner with Illinois Jaquet, I think the title was "the king". The other thing was one version of "Groovin High" with Charlie Parker on "Summit Meeting at Birdland". I think I also saw a video of him with Hamp. It seems that Milt Buckner was very small, and bobbin up and down on the piano chair

Yes, Bud didn´t tour the UK. I heard that many fans from UK traveled to Paris to hear him. The british author Alan Shipton who wrote a book about Bud had gone to Paris to see him live. Too bad that my parents were not jazz fans. In the summer of 1964 we were on holiday in the Italian Riviera and made also a trip in France. During exactly that time Bud had played in Edenville on the French beach. Sometimes I "dream" my parents would have gone there and I would have heard him, since this was no night club, it was open air in the garden of a restaurant. From the surviving Bop stars who were key figures in Ira Gitler´s book, I saw Diz, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Dex, Max Roach, Roy Haynes to mention some....

You will like it. I like ist very much, because it is first hand information. Ira Gitler saw them all live, all of them and the book was writtten, when many of them (with the exception of Bird and Fats) still lived and performed. Even Bud was still alive and performed when the book came out for the first time (mid sixties).

I love it. From the 40´s I like the Savoy sides more than the Dial sides Dexter made. Somehow the Savoy sides have more fire . My favourite tune is "Dexter Dig´s In" especially here in the original key Db. We also played this on some gigs, of course in that key that I love. Dexter re-recorded it later. In 1973 with Jackie McLean in Bb, and in 1979 with Eddie Jefferson in G .....Eddie Jefferson scats the same line as Dexters original solo on that tune, only in another key (G).

Yes, I also was astonished it has so short playing time. But I liked the drive on it, Percy Heath I like much more than the other soft and long tone bassists . And yeah, Maxine didn´t mention a lot of things in her book. And there is some contradictory between british author Stan Britt who wrote a very fine book on Dexter, Maxine tells, that in the night of his 60th birthday and Vanguard it was the last time he played. I saw Dexter scheduled for a two weeks gig and Rick´s Café in Chicago few month later, and Britt describes a gig in Finlanda in early 1984 with a Radio Orchestra, where Dexter became sick and had to fly home, and later the band flew to Marocco, were they didn´t get paid and Dexter was too sick to get through a whole set, and that would have been the time when he disbanded.....

Thank you so much for your review. I love to read things like that, So for example on "Laura" you have about the same impressions I have, as on "How Intensitive" .... Yeah, the swing tunes, maybe "Red Top" is a good simple tune for some big band arrangment at the one here is not bad, the choose of the chords on the band sections, but on "Bananas" the original form (length of bars) is augmented, which busts the form of the song which anyway is an easy thing, based on "It could Happen to You" .. About Rufus Reid: Yes, I can understand many people like his sound, because there is a great deal of musicians and audiences who like a very soft, long sounding bass. Art Pepper loved those kinds of basses, Chet Baker liked them, it fitted to the music of Chet Baker very very well. What I like more, is the more percussive style, like Stafford James on "Homecoming" and Percy Heath on "Gotham", I mean the soft bass sounds of a Rufus Reid sounded more like "doo doo doo doo" and I like it if I hear the sound of plucking the strings, like "doop doop doop doop". Gotham City has a special meaning to me: It lasted a bit longer between "Great Encounters" and "Gotham City". Gotham City was advertised with a lot of flyin papers you could see in jazz profile record shops and clubs, something like "next Dexter album will be in stock soon, and with praising that he plays with Blakey and so on...." I phoned every day my record dealer and when he finally told me it is there, I hurried to the shop and was about the first one to buy it. And then I went to the "Jazz Spelunke" were they played records when they didnt have live music, and they asked me "you got it ?", and then we spinned it and listened to it. What problems were in the studio ? I never heard any stories about that recording, and Maxine does not mention nothing in her book....

Thank you very much !

Must look to find those two BN´s "Double Talk" and "Eternal Triangle". They must be highlights and I hope they are on CD, since some strange things happened at BN , that they didn´t put some of their 80´s stuff on CD. Same with the great "Jackie McLean - McCoy -It´s about Time"....... You mention this was one of the last times when Hubbard was in full power before his lip ailment. How does Woody sound ? I saw him for the last time also in 1987 booked only with a local rhythm section and playing standards, I couldn´t believe it, he was not in the same shape as in 1983 and it is a painful memory....., such a tragedy what happened to those to greatest trumpet players....

In my collection, the "Fiesta" "Bird and Diz", "Swedish Schnapps", and "Cole Porter" have the same album covers, the others were Vol. 1 "Night and Day", Vol. 2 "Strings", Vol. 3 "Now´s the Time", Vol. 7 "Jazz Perennial"....so on, I don´t know who gave them the vol. numbers, since it´s not chronological. I think it is 8 volumes, it was Japanese LPs. I think the one I listened most too is "Swedish Schnapps".

You mean Wynton´s statements in that direction. Okay, will be heaven on earth for those who only like acoustic jazz. But let´s say, from my point of view: I was born in 1959, Wynton I think is 3 years younger. 1959 born means I kinda grew up in the period when Fender and rock beat was just the style of the decade, just as bop was in the 40´s and Free was in the 60´s . And I remember when an "acoustic only fan" once approached alto player Allan Praskin (who had recorded for ESP in the 60´s and moved in Europe to stay and play and teach) and told him that Diz (referring to his then current quartets with el-guitar, el-bass and drums, playing some backbeat stuff like "Unicorn" "Land of Milk and Honey" etc. ) doesn´t play bebop anymore, and Mr. Praskin answered "Dizzy IS Bebop, he doesn´t have to "play bebop, he IS bebop.....period !". So for me as part of the 70´s movements in jazz and only 3 years older than Wynton it sounds strange to me if a guy comes up and makes such stubborn statements....., I think there was an interview with both Wynton and Branford in DB at that time, and Branford had a more tolerant approach towards beyond acoustic movements......though he is a year or two older than Wynton.....

I also think so. And the blue suit, that was something from 1970´71 I think I saw on some cover. Though the face and the hair doesn´t look like Miles, I think it´s quite sure that the inspiration would have been Miles....

As I stated somewhere else I´m not really the greatest fan of female vocals, but you must be right with the comparation with Jimmy Rushing. I heard her ony twice.... and coincidally, first time on the Diz film from 1946, where she sings some blues with the band, and the other one is on a Dexter 4 LP collection I have with Dex in the bop years, all the Savoy and Dial material and a very obscure 1950 date with Helen Humes, which is only blues, slower, faster, all in the same key , As much as I remember it´s quite a soprano voice.....if I must hear female vocal at least it should be a lower range.

to Wynton´s annoyment...Sure he must have been annoyed if he couldn´t lecture Hub and Faddis about what is jazz. I think he even would have lectured Diz about bop and that what he played in the 70´s 80´s "is not jazz, because he dared to use fender bass and would play "Alma" with a rock beat......). Wynton as I have the impression would have liked to be the "jazz police", the one who tells the others what´s jazz and what not...

John Heard the bass player ? Saw him with Dexter in March 1980. It seems he was a shorter repacement between Reid and Eubanks. But he was the best, he drove the band. Art Farmer had his home in Vienna and lived here when he was not touring. And he would play every year two or three times at Jazzland for some nights. So I can´t count the nights I saw him. Once, Max Roach came by. Saw Woody with a fantastic Herd in 1979 and with an Allstar Octet in 85. The others are a bit before my time. With Billy Taylor I had the wrong start. I had confused him with Cecil Taylor and had a Bellaphone 2 LP album "Echoes of and Era" with Tatum, Erroll, Bud, Taylor each on one side. After Side C with Bud I thought now there must be something new for me, placed the needle and close my eyes to concentrate on my first "Cecil Taylor Experience" and was disappointed when I heard some more conservative mainstream piano....., Heard some Billy Taylor again on a Philips LP "Charlie Parker Memorial Concert" with Diz, Roy, Hawk, and again there was Billy Taylor....but he played such a strange piano, sometimes trying to play fugues or how you call that Bach Style....., I had wondered why they had chosen Billy Taylor instead of a piano player who recorded with Bird (Bud who still lived, or Bishop or Haig) ..... With Desmond I also had a wrong start: When I started to become a jazz fan, someone told me I must get a Brubeck album because he is the greatest....., I borrowed one and thought well if he is the greatest, might he top Miles or Mingus (the only jazz I knew then), and he did not....., and above all, my mother (born 1921) who had listened to "Meditations on Integration" (Mingus) and said it is fantastic, and how fell in love with Ornette Coleman´s "Lonely Woman" ...... well she came in my boy´s room for I don´t know what, and by the way heard that Brubeck, I think it was Blue Rondo a la Turk and said "oh no, what´s that KITSCH you listenin´ to !!!!???. Never spinned it again.....

I must admit the first two is completely unknown to me.