sgcim

Joe Masters was another obscure, white pianist who played a few gigs with Art Blakey. He recounted the story of his first gig with AB in one of his taped interviews in The Jazz Loft Project. JM said he'd take the gig, but he couldn't handle any of the burning tempos that were characteristic of the AB Quintet at that time. AB said not to worry about that, because he wouldn't call any fast tempos that night. On the night of the gig, the first tune AB called was off the metronome! Masters turned around to look at AB, and AB had a big smile on his face, and said, "I was lying..."

You could say that Bill Evans' choice to take the gig with Miles Davis was proof that EH probably made the right decision. Sure, it put him on the map as an important jazz musician, but the racism he encountered from black audiences, and even members of the band, made the gig unbearable. He could only last about nine months before he had to split the band, but not before acquiring a habit he never really recovered from...

Maybe we've found the problem with jazz today; Bird's not around to recommend anyone anymore!

Johnny Smith- "The Man With The Blue Guitar"

He wrote a nice tune with Chico called 'Autumn Landscape' on one of CH's records. I always got it confused with another tune when i played it with my trio eons ago. Whichever tune I played, I called it AL, because it sounded more artistic, and ya wanna sound artistic when your 18 years old...

I'm still looking for one track OP played with Eddie Costa, "Taking a Chance On Love", although I doubt it's on this compilation. I know it's on OP's LP, "Discoveries", but that has only been released on vinyl, and it's both hard to find, and very expensive, considering I just want ONE track. I've heard it was an extra track from the "Winner's Circle" LP, which I finally found. It would be ideal if someone put that out on CD with the extra Costa/Pettiford track, because the sound on the LP is terrible.

There's a great you tube video of the Master live with his old buddy Johnny Smith, plus Ray Pizzi, Alan Dawson, Bobby Shew, and Larry Lappin. Just enter Johnny Smith Live, and look for the 27 minute version of a great jazz clinic concert they had, back when Wynton didn't have to approve you to teach jazz... Twenty minutes into it, George is featured playing a composition of his called 'E.K.E's Blues, written for Duke, and originally played by Harry Carney.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It's great to see that he's still doing jazz gigs in London, and playing concerts with Caravan at the age of 79!

I just heard Jimmy Hastings' great flute solo on 'Binoculars' on the National Health album, 'Of Queues and Cures'. I was able to find one song by Caravan (Love Song with Flute) that featured JH on flute, but are there any other albums by Caravan or preferably more jazz-oriented people like Phil Moore, Dave Stewart, Humphrey Lyttleton or any others that featured JH on flute? TIA

I found a copy of Winners Circle for $3 at Planet 9 in Richmond VA. It has some great playing by Trane, Donald Byrd, Rolf Kuhn, Kenny Burrell, Eddie Costa, Oscar Pettiford,, Philly Jo, Frank Rehak and Gene Quill. Supposedly, a trio recording of 'Taking a Chance on Love' featuring Costa, Pettiford and one of the two drummers on the session, Ed Thigpen or Philly Jo, came out of this session. It's available on Pettiford's "Discoveries", but that's a hard one to find. I also picked up Philadelphia legend's Joe Sgro LP, "A Guitar and a Girl", which features a picture of a nude woman with a classical guitar covering her privates on the cover. She is looking straight at me, promising me many pleasures of the flesh, yet they have failed to materialize yet... Sgro, a devout Jehovah's Witness, plays with only vibes, bass and drums. He plays a few standards, and then some of his semi-classical arrangements of things he calls 'Rachmaninoff and You', Tchaikovsky After Hours', Ravel After Hours, Tcaikovsky Sits In, and The Lady Likes Chopin. He plays solely in what guitarists call 'chord melody' style without any single string improvisation, with the vibes doubling the melody in octaves; a variant of the 'Shearing Style', as if to say, "We don't need no steenking piano". On Harlem Nocturne, the last number, he finally lets loose with some single string improvisation, and sound quite capable. Another $3 special.

You can say that again! Paul Shaffer said in a recent interview that Letterman told him not to play any jazz, because he (DL) hated it. You can say that again! Paul Shaffer said in a recent interview that Letterman told him not to play any jazz, because he (DL) hated it.

No man, it didn't happen; it's all in your mind. No man, it didn't happen; it's all in your mind.

Some jerk re-used the tape that had all the great jazz musicians Steve Allen had on the first season, and wiped it out. My obsession is to find any video of Tal Farlow in the period 1954-59, his peak period IMHO (maybe some Eddie Costa, too). There are some Norvo trio tapes on you tube, but they're just accompanying singers in film shorts. The one exception is "Keep It Cool", a 1955 short film featuring several bands.The Norvo trio with Tal and Red Mitchell play one tune , How Am I To Know?.

Yes, Atlantic City.

Benny Golson was there, and describes the event in detail in his autobiography.

I liked the fact that a great guitarist like Dick Garcia only made one record as a leader. Then he got into a Zen Buddhism thing, and has been in seclusion for the last 50 years.

Cinderella was definitely the better player of the two, but Mecca was the 'go to guy' for a back adjustment. Cinderella appeared with Vinnie Burke and Matt Matthews on some record, maybe Chis Connors'. He got involved with the NYC studio scene, and did jingles, TV etc... I played with some organist who was doing a club gig with Joe in NJ. He switched to playing solo piano at lounges in Atlantic City. On the 2002 album, he plays an 8-string guitar that was tuned in 3rds and 4ths, and plays a lot of chord things that you could only play on piano. He passed a few years ago.

He became a chiropractor. ATTYA was good, but I don't remember, being too impressed with the rest of it.

I am back with a definitive answer from a jazz guitar website. Within half an hour the guys unanimously agreed that it was.................RON ESCHETE!!!!!

I'm taking this to the highest authorities, sir, and we'll have an answer for you very soon.

Yeah, that's gotta be Ulf. OP probably hooked him up with Bags and Ray.

Nervous breakdown. He was in charge of a very expensive apartment complex in Boston, and the pressure was too much for him. He became an alcoholic, and then was 'born-again' . My mother met him at church, and she used to get him to do stuff around the house. When he quoted the price to paint every inch of my co-op apt., I almost broke out laughing! I just signed his little contract as fast as I could. He wound up fixing a whole bunch of other stuff for free. To my credit, I did tip him. Yeah, NY.

From most accounts, Lenny's junk habit, and inability to deal with everyday life, prevented him from being known to the general public outside of Canada. He had a lot of help from Chet Atkins, Johnny Smith wrote a blurb for his first album (he never endorsed anyone back then), and people like Randy Bachman and Gene Lees tried to help him, but he showed up so messed up on H sometimes, that he literally couldn't play. He auditioned for Oscar Peterson in Canada, and OP wasn't impressed. He sat in with Bill Evans in Toronto, and they clashed harmonically. There's a recording of him playing a big concert in Vancouver, where he's so messed up, that he gets on the mic, and babbles on and on about some personal stuff. When he finally tried to play, he literally couldn't.

I guess you're kidding about hooking you up with their numbers, but the guy from Ghana was rec'd by a musician/business owner, who was 'connected', so I guess the guy did such a good job, because I used the 'connected' guy's name. I rec'd him to another musician, who can be a real hard-on, and he hated the guy so much, he left the job half-done, and never came back! The born-again guy also did a great job, but he has literally disappeared. Nobody knows where he is. Brilliant guy, though; he used to handle the huge estate of some billionaire that has a building named after him in NYC.