Gheorghe

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.

I have them all, this one is the concert where Ornette sits in , right ?

oh yeah. All those title tunes to police films then. And my wife and me like to see such police series and when we talk about our youth, there is so much in common, we both loved "Streets of San Francisco" and above all "Kojak", and those german police series with the "good cops" like "Derrik" "Kommissar" and so. And if we watch police series, we always have a ball "shouting" the title melody and often we have to laugh as much that we "forget" the further action.

Anyway, she lived in Paris in the 60´s. Once I got some unissued private Bud and there is a duo of Hazel Scott with Bud. There were quite close. Hazel Scott did a long interview with Art Taylor in the early 70´s , it´s in the book "Notes and Tones".

Yes, that was the first occasion I saw Miles after his comeback. He did a few towns in Europe in spring 1982 but to far away for me at that time since I was working.... (Londra, some town in Germany). So the first was Miles with both Stern and Scofield , sadly with a less known bassist than Marcus Miller (Tom Barney), and thanks god still with Al Foster. This was still a real band playing the music. Some like Scofield more, I liked Mike Stern more. Later Mike Stern returned for a tour in late 1985, I saw that too, it had a female percussionist from Danemarca, But really; I love the 1973-74 bands very much, they got me into listening to Dave Liebman, who became an all time favourite of mine. And yeah: Mike Henderson, Al Foster, Mtume....heaven on earth...., it was our time, our heroes

Well this must have been better times. I caught a week night , booze is the answer...., when he left he even would have forgot his horn, we had to yell at him to take his horn...

@soulpope @HutchFan and all who would like to read my story . It´s on board now "Mike´s Blues" or: Remembering the jazz club scene in the 70´s - Miscellaneous Music - organissimo forums

Hello Friends ! After reading the „George Wein Allstars“ line up with Jimmy Woode on bass, and remembering Jimmy Woode, I decided to write a little story about the „scene“ back then. I think every fan or musician of my generation has great memories about certain jazz clubs they frequented, to listen to music or play or spend the evening discussing with other musicians and check out the scene and possible gigs or jamsessions... In my case it was the legendary „Jazz by Freddy“, run by it´s owner, the DJ and ocasionally bassist Alfred Kobler. There was a lot of live music, not only locals, but also international stars like Johnny Griffin, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, most time with the great trio of Fritz Pauer (piano), Jimmy Woode (bass) and Tony Inzalaco (drums) and also a great chance for youngsters to get on stage and do their first gigs in public. On nights when there was no live music, Freddy was the DJ and we listened to all them great records. Usually the records that were more interesting for me, were spinned maybe until 1 o clock. Later, in the small hours he spinned more „danceable stuff“ at a quite loud volume, it was things like „Hamp´s Boogie“ or some „JATP“ and a lot of people of the night came in and danced and shouted. Ironically somewhere was written „Tanzen verboten“. But it seems that the purpose was swing- and boogie dancing. I must admit, during that period, at the beginning maybe I was still underage but „covered“ my youth with really long hair, leather jacked and maybe the first growing of a „moustage“ , and dancing was not my thing, and it was quite strange characters around. People you wouldn´t see during daylight. I remember one of them, maybe the most dominant of them was an almost white-blonde guy in his 40´s, always dressed in black and a bit lookin´like a pimp. Some said he is a cab driver. Anyway, his nick was „Mike“. And one evening when the great Fritz Pauer was playing with his trio or other soloists added, he announced he will play a new composition, dedicated to „Mike“, and it´s titled „Mike´s Blues“. This was a swingin´ very danceable blues in Db. Mike shouted with enthusiasm, but naive as I was, I had thought that a tune „Mike´s Blues“ allready existed and that Fritz might have stolen the title (not the tune), because around that time there were cheap LPs (maybe Bootlegs) from Italy, seria „Kings of Jazz“ , and I had one red Miles Davis album from that series „Here is Miles Davis at his rare of all rarest performances“, with no liner notes. Actually it was the 1951 Birdland Gig with Jay Jay Johnson, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Drew, Tommy Potter and Art Blakey and the second tune was mistitled „Mike´s Blues“, while the correct title is „Down“. But we kids liked the tune and knew it as „Mike´s Blues“ and hummed it always and among us, that album was just called „The Red Miles Davis album“. So I really believed, that Fritz might have stolen the title „Mike´s Blues“. Once, the famous Viennese songwriter, pianist, acordeonist and Radio/Television moderator Karl Hodina came to the club while Fritz Pauer played „Mike´s Blues“. Pauer shouted to Hodina to come on stage and take over at the piano chair, but Hodina refused, but Pauer insisted and finally he modulated the Db key into F, so it might be easier to play, and Hodina sat in and played a second solo, just in F. I remember I was a bit pissed off since I, still a „kid“ could play Db like any other key but was too shy to prove it. The greatest thing is, that „Jazz Freddy“ (Alfred Kobler) trusted us youngsters and helped us a lot: He said during day time we can rehearse at the club, we just had to ask for the key at a near coffee house and in we went and rehearsed ! The piano was there, a set of drums was there, s But few weeks after that I had the courage to talk to Fritz Pauer during intermission and I told him about me learing all them bop tunes and playing them with fellow youngsters, and really, once when there was really fast company, Allen Praskin on alto and Karl Ratzer on guitar, Fritz Pauer asked me to sit in for the first tune of the 2nd set. Oh Boy, Heaven on Earth…… And many many years later, „Jazz Freddie“, who was also a part time bass player, asked me to play with him and a bunch of guys on a special occasion, it was the opening evening for a new Newspaper. I don´t remember what we played, but it was a big party with lot of champagne and we had to be neatly dressed for the event. Anyway, this was no extraordinary gig, but the best paid gig I ever had…... I´m glad I had such a great time during the high school years, school was okay, many nights I hung around the clubs and got to know name musicians and got the occasion to learn and play some music…. Photos: The legendary „Red Miles Davis Album“, and the great Fritz Pauer Trio with Jimmy Woode and Tony Inzalaco.

It seems that over here, or from the generation I´m from or having learned „my stuff“ mostly from playing musicians, it seems that George Shearing as a player was less mentioned. The only „touch“ I ever had was, when I was browsing through Wes Montgomery albums, since from the older style of guitar I loved and still love Wes and Kenny Burrell. So I bought this one, without knowing who is George Shearing. I think I sold it shortly afterwards, since it didn´t exite me the same way "So Much Guitar" or "The Incredible Guitar for Wes Montgomery" exited me. My constant "touch" with Shearing is two of his compositions: "Conception" and "Lullaby of Birdland". I did "Conception" in the changed form Miles Davis wrote, with that pedal point in it, in the key of C, if I played it with horns, or in the AABA form in Db if I played it trio or solo. Nice tune, nice changes, easy to play. Or "Lullaby" as a set closer, or in f minor with horns or singer, or in a minor in trio....

After two days of hard work that let me tired, when I listened to some easy listenig stuff (Dizzy Reece "Soundin´ Off", Jackie McLean "Swing Swang Swingin" and Archie Shepp "Bird Fire", I really wanted to dig some more demanding music and one of my all time favourites is Cecil Taylor´s "Unit Structures". Such a wealth of music, so much power and beauty. Jimmy Lions is one of the greatest voices on alto, his imagination, his sound..... This is an album I really can listen to very intensly, enjoying every aspect of it. You have those powerful passages and then some really soft sounding stuff. Andrew Cyrille´s drums, the addition of Ken McIntyre, the two basses with their different roles, the omnipresence of Master Cecil Taylor, and the new and interesting voice of young Eddie Gale Steven. And then that beautiful quiet ending with Tales-8 Wishes. By the way: I somewhere heard or read (maybe memories by Eddie Gale Steven, that shortly before this session, he got a lot of verbal help and encoragement by the late Bud Powell. Bud lived on 37 Kingston Avenue, and Eddie Gale Steven just around the corner and even if Bud was fatally ill at that point, he still had the power to "hear" something in that young trumpeter, giving him such kind of encouragement. Gene Santoro would have written as he did hundreds of times in his Mingus Book "he was closing circles everywhere...." About the liner notes: Though I understand the music and enjoy every note, every beat, all the modulations it has, if I try to read the liner notes, since I tried years ago, I understand only "Bahnhof" (as we say in Austria if we don´t understand nothing). There is only one phrase torwards the end: "Where is Bud?", without any context to the other heavy and for me un-understandable written stuff...., but yeah. Bud and Cecil met on several occasions, that´s for sure. Anyway, though Bud wouldn´t change his style, he had much contact to leading free jazz artists in his last two years: Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and discovering Eddie Gale Steven....., maybe it was through Bernard Stollman...

I mentioned it on the thread about the death of Lee Morgan 50 years ago. As I said, if I want to hear a Lee Morgan album from the 50´s, "Cooker" is my choice. Others I purchase once and spinned them one, two times, but the Cooker is the one I have listened to more often.

The last time I saw him, which was also the best Baker I ever heard in my live, was with Graillier, Nicola Stilo (flute and guitar), and our great Austrian bass player Hans Strasser . It was at a strange place named "Fritz". But Baker was very articulate, didn´t show up late, was on time, announced a short intermission of 15 minutes and was back exactly after those 15 minutes. On too many other ocasions he was late or didn´t show up or disappeard during intermission..... The music was wonderful, Night Bird was on schedule, some new stuff that I think was titled "black and white", a kind of slow bossa...., Stella by Starlight played in G (that´s the key I like to play or hear Stella, not the too often played Bb)......., I think this was only a handful of months before he died....

I don´t know Jean Genet, but to see Mingus always was fantastic. I was too young to see him in the 60´s , but had two occasions in the late 70´s . When did you see him ? I have some of his 50´s leader dates, but if I want to listen to one 50´s Morgan as a leader, I always listen to "The Cooker" with Pepper Adams, Philly J.J, that fantastic version of Tunisia and Lover Man.... The earlier dates are not so inspiring for me. I have them as cardboard mini LP editions, but I´m not sure which is which, some have Lee as the leaders, others have Mobley as the leader, one is a ballad album (I think "Candy")....., but really my favourite from that period is "Cooker".