sgcim

I think they influenced some rockers to appreciate jazz a bit more. BTW, they did cop the groove on "Gaucho" from the Jarrett tune "ALAYLY", but Fagen did compose a great, original piece of music based on that groove. I used to listen to it and I thought the lyrics were some type of tribute to Borges. When i went online to a SD website, I found out what it's really about- not that there's anything wrong with that... IMHO, Fagen hit songwriting bliss on Aja,Gaucho and Nitefly, but was never able to get back there, including his new one, "Sunken Condos".

A friend and I worshipped Phil Woods back when we were in high school. We went to a concert he did at the Jazz Museum back in the 70s. My friend knew Phil spoke French, so he kept going up to Phil on the break and saying French stock phrases to him, and Phil asked him, "You speak French?", and my friend said, "No", and Phil looked at him, disgustedly. After the concert, my friend was under the impression that Phil was now his friend, and he brought me backstage to meet his new "friend". He burst in there dragging me along (reluctantly) saying, "Phil, this is my friend, he's a great jazz player!" Phil was downing a beer, and when he saw me and my friend, he yelled out, "Get the f-ck outta here!" and flung a beer can at me!

We used to play "Diane" a lot; without the introduction. It's just the same changes as "You Are the Sunburn on my Ass- I mean Sunshine of my Life" ; - ). A friend of mine said Mingus ripped off some things from Jack Walrath towards the end of his life. Some of his tunes were so closely associated with Eric Dolphy, it just feels weird playing them without him- "Fables of Faubus, Folk Form #1, etc...

Just picked up a Pioneer PL1150 (or D?) for $85 with a free setup from my local used record store, and been mainlinin' me some rare, cheap vinyl. Manny Albam "West Side Story"- It's hard to believe NYC was once a real jazz city before the current Marsaylis plague, and we got names like Quill, Brookmeyer, Costa, and Cohn swingin' up a storm on this one. Mike Elliot "atrio" - How Johnny Smith might have sounded if he hadn't hung it up in the 60s. Lalo Schifrin- "Brilliance" Rare Raney

Here's another obscure, yet very talented musician I just thought I'd name check here. Born in Cal.,1941, son of Maurice Harris, a trumpet player with the Tonight Show Orchestra. Worked as a jazz pianist in clubs in the LA area, where he soon became a lifelong, legendary junkster. He married the singer/songwriter Judee Sill in the 60s, whom he converted into the junkster faith, and he did the beautiful orchestral arrangements on her first LP (along with Don Bagley), and played piano for The Turtles.. Played as a sideman with Gabor Szabo for a while, then joined Frank Zappa and The Mothers in 1971 for a short time (he played on the 1971, "Live at the Fillmore East LP- you can hear his great Wurlitzer solo on "Billy the Mountain", from the "Playground Psychotics" CD). Later in the 70s, he went on the road with Ray Charles (his idol, who he called "that genius n-word"), and then did arranging for artists such as The Friends of Distinction, Jack Jones, and others. He was part of the lesser known jazz scene back then which featured players like Tommy Peltier, Bill Plummer and Lynn Blessing. Being a Judee Sill fan, I became obsessed with this guy's arrangements on her first LP, and wound up getting a private recording of him playing in a jazz group featuring Jim Crutcher, a trumpet player. Harris was a very good, Bud-Powell-influenced jazz pianist. Ring any bells?

Thanks for the info. Sure sounded like Tal, but HR used to copy Tal a lot back then. This reminds me of the Ralph Burns Quartet LP where Tal was listed, but it turned out to be J. Raney.

I came across this vinyl yesterday, and the liner notes completely screwed up the personnel, but someone (it was at a used record store) had written in the corrected personnel. I was able to listen to it at the store, and the info written in was correct. This was DeFranco's Quintet with Sonny Clark and Tal Farlow. This was at Farlow's zenith (it was all downhill after 1959), and his discography has no sideman credits for the year the liner notes said it was recorded, 1957. The person that wrote on the LP said that it was taken from a Californian TV show, but didn't give the date. This wasn't on the Mosaic DeFranco collection. The sides this group recorded in the studio were done in either '55 or 56. Anyone know anything about this LP? There were only three cuts by DeFranco's group on it: "Fascinatin' Rhythm", "I Loves You, Porgy", and "Concerto for the Machine Age" (actually an uptempo version of "Now's The Time").

I treasure all their acapella recordings, but other than McConnell's LP, never liked them with bands as much. I recently read an interview with Puerling, done towards the end of his life, and he sounded completely fed up with the business. He voiced the opinion that the concept of beauty in music, was extinct.

Yeah, looking back, they must have been yuppies, slumming or something. This was in the Slope in the early 90s. My gf said the owner was a schizophrenic. Another seafood restaurant I played at in another Borough was owned by the scariest looking guy I've ever seen in my life. He had the same LOVE HATE written on his fingers like DeNiro did in that Mitchum remake,Cape Fear, and he sat there, staring at us when we played. My friend, the pianist on the gig, said he was able to buy the place through some pretty nasty deeds. It had fine, Italian marble all over the place, and was quite elegant. When we finished, and were waiting to be paid, there was a lot of screaming, and we saw him chasing a woman (his gf) and then beating the crap out of her. I just got out of there and waited for my friend outside. I never played there again, but my idiot friend kept playing there. One night, a band we played in was booked to play at a party where someone named Gotti was the guest of honor, and my friend had to cancel the restaurant gig. The owner said something to him that kept him in his house for an entire month- out of fear.

I once went to a place with a rather disturbed young woman in Brooklyn, and she introduced me to the owner, who was an even more disturbed older woman. The place was packed with used junk that had no rhyme or reason. I honestly don't remember what (if anything) they served, but when I said I had to go to the bathroom, they pointed me towards an odd looking room. I went in said room, and found there were no urinals or toilets- just a place on the floor with a grilled opening which you apparently had to piss in. I've had many dreams (nightmares?) about that urination since. As we sat on used, broken chairs, an incredibly untalented fellow was on some type of makeshift stage, trying to sing "Dock of the Bay". A homeless Rasta mon walked in and asked, "Is this the dock of the bay?", and the crowd yelled at him to leave. The young woman i was with took it upon herself to twist his arms behind his back, and literally kick the chap into the street. The entire crowd gave her a standing ovation.

In the George Russell biography, they said Miles couldn't cut the head, so they gave him an easy counter line to play. Then he tried to sneak out of the session before it was over, and Russell's wife had to block the door to stop him from trying to score.

I forgot to mention the Hank Jones show, which was absolutely unbelievable! At the very top of his game. I did a search on it, and there were 37 shows altogether. I was able to find the Joe Pass show on youtube.

I was looking at some old video cassettes that I used to tape music from the TV on (when they used to have stuff worth taping), and I came across a bunch of shows from this San Diego series. It's hard to believe PBS used to broadcast stuff like this, when all we get today is the same Wynton crap over and over. A few of the players weren't the greatest, but most were incredible. It took place at Elario's Restaurant and Jazz Nightclub in La Jolla, on KPBS, and lasted 30 minutes. On most of the sessions Bob Magnusson and Jim Plank were the house rhythm section, but a few guys brought their own RS. On just one tape, I had these sessions: Kenny Barron Trio w/ Chas. McPherson on one tune- Great!! Cedar Walton Trio w/ Billy Higgins and Tony Dumas- Great!! Buddy Collette Quartet w/ Larry Nash, Richard Reed, I forgot who the drummer was: Great! Red Rodney Quintet w/ Frank Strazzeri, Gary Lefevre (sax)- Excellent Kenny Burrell Trio - Good, until he tried to play acoustic guitar. Mundell Lowe Trio- Well, I wasn't expecting much , but at least Bob Cooper sounded good. Charles McPherson Quartet w/ Kenny Barron sitting in on one tune.- CM sounded like he was having an off night. Anita O'Day- I never cared for her anyway, but she sounded like Phyllis Diller on quaaludes A search here turned up nothing- does anyone remember this great series? Were there any other artists I didn't mention?

My hippie older sister used to babysit for his kid back around 1970. Then she bought a bass, and started studying with him. I still have the manuscript book with some of his lessons. He stressed learning tetra-chords. He used to tell my sister that he loved to go over 100mph in his car to open up the engine.

One of the few pianists whose LPs I'd buy without a second thought. I found him more interesting to listen to than Oscar, because he played more percussively (I wonder if Eddie Costa listened to him?) and more irregular phrases than OP. He'd always show some classical influence on his LPs. I bought his brother's CD, hoping to hear the equivalent of PN on the guitar, but it wasn't happening.

Very sad to hear. We used to see him play at local libraries (back when this country actually seemed to care about its culture)when we were in high school. He was a big, happy, friendly cat who would talk about music with us. When he found out we were aspiring jazz musicians, he'd invite us over to his hotel room to help us get our thing together.

Thanks, Stonewall! I'm definitely picking this one up. There wasn't anything about Dillard in the radio doc. on Nocturne Records, but it's a definite possibilty.

Here's a cut from the LP I found on the tube. For the more sensitive among you, forgive me for the ex-penal colonist narration, Red "bang dem planks Nerdvo, and Mundell Lowe content: Does Dillard get enough blowing time on the rest of the LP to make it worth buying?

No, that's the trumpet player with the same name. I emailed a GB cat who knows someone who's got the LP, so I'm still waiting. He's going to tell me who the cellist is, too. The guy plays with too much balls to be Fred Katz, and I don't know if OP was on the West Coast back then, but it's probably a bass player who also played the cello (Red Mitchell?). Here's an actual picture of Dillard that was supplied by his nephew. He's the dude sitting on the bottom right with the guitar. Makes a strong case for birth control if this is his family

No, that's the trumpet player with the same name. I emailed a GB cat who knows someone who's got the LP, so I'm still waiting. He's going to tell me who the cellist is, too. The guy plays with too much balls to be Fred Katz, and I don't know if OP was on the West Coast back then, but it's probably a bass player who also played the cello (Red Mitchell?).

Yes, that's the track that got me interested in Dillard. He was a little out of tune on "Whoopie", but sounded great on a track I heard from the Norvo Quintet LP he played on "Vibe-rations in Hi-Fi", rec'd in 1956. Very Tal-like. "Nocturne", according to someone on the web, was a limited press; less than 100 copies made.

I've spent my life trying to track down the work of artists that interest me. It used to be pretty difficult, but the Internest has made it much easier. However, I've had some difficulty finding this LP: Bill Dillard, "Nocturne". Not the trumpet player. This guy was a West Coast guitarist who took the place of Tal Farlow in the Red Norvo Trio in 1956, and recorded one LP with the Norvo Quintet. Sadly, he died in a fire at the age of 23 (smoking cigarettes in bed).

Don't be afraid, my little friend, it will only hurt for a minute... I don't know what I want. Don't worry, we have ways of treating things like that... As for Circus Maximus' psych influences, Bruno has stories of tripping while being the house band at The Electric Circus, and "seeing" all kinds of strange things. OTOH, he also has stories of tripping while playing upright bass for famous, mainstream swing players back in the 60s. "Neverland Revisited", CM's second LP, has more psych/free jazz influences than the first one. The first one had a folk-rock, jangly guitars, early Byrds type of sound; probably because Jerry Jeff Walker was one of the founding members. Circus Maximus(primarily Bruno) also became known for collaborating with composer Morton Subotnik in a concert in NYC that bridged 20th Cent. classical music with rock.

We have a winner! He also played the guitar solo, the piano solo, and was one of the first to bring elements of jazz into rock and/or roll. Bruno was actually a jazz pianist/brass player/upright bass player/composer/vocalist who played piano in Noah Howard's free jazz group (featuring Rashied Ali) on the live LP they recorded in the early 70s at The Vanguard. He also used to jam with Jimi Hendrix and Larry Young at the studio they both recorded at in the late 60s. Check out his web site(s); there is enough of his music and painting there to keep you busy for the next few weeks!

Don't be afraid, my little friend, it will only hurt for a minute...