sgcim

Well put Colin, and you didn't have to type a letter!

RIP. He had universal respect from the thousands of musicians he worked with.

Well, things like that take time... I didn't know you were on this forum, great article! I look forward to reading "There's a Mingus Among Us". As someone who was writing for DB, John, what do you think were the reasons for DB going from a great jazz magazine back then, to what it is today?

I've been reading the Downbeat anthology, "The Great Jazz Interviews" (75th Anniversary), and there's one article on the AEOC entitled, "There Won't Be Any More Music" Roscoe says, "You know, someday soon there won't be any more music. Oh, there'll still be musicians, but they'll only be playing in their homes, in their living rooms, for their families and other friends. Money! That's what it's all about." -Roscoe Mitchell, Oct. 1, 1971

I'm happy to wish the great George Coleman a happy birthday. We were forced to go to some meeting where a woman that had something to do with the Grammy Awards organization told us that George was practically on his deathbed. This was about ten years ago. Does anyone know what she was talking about? Misinformation from the fascist Bloomberg regime was a regular occurrence back then, so I didn't think much about it.

I bought one of Calvin's CDs hoping to hear a guitar equivalent of his brother, but that wasn't the case at all. I don't know what's going on with the Phineas lineage, but there's a Phineas Newborn III who's a Hollywood actor.

Here's two performances of Lush Life by Newborn. The first in 1961 or 1962: The second in 1989:

Silver didn't single out a specific pianist. Rather he said, in Down Beat in 1956, "I can't stand that faggot-type jazz," by which it was understand that he meant the predominant West Coast jazz style of the time. As for Newborn, it's my understanding that he always was a psychologically fragile person, though the "mere virtuosity" putdowns of his playing probably didn't help. I was getting that quote from his autobiography, "Let's Get To the Nitty Gritty". I'll have to check it to see if I got it wrong. Newborn definitely had nervous system issues, but I've never heard his diagnosis. Those West Coast critics didn't help things out, though. He's worthy of a biography. As for those criticisms of Newborn for being too flashy or too indebted to Tatum and what all, I don't recall that they came from West Coast-based critics at all -- if so, they certainly weren't criticizing Newborn from any "West Coast Jazz is the thing" perspective; there was little or nothing about Newborn's playing that was akin to the styles of either coast -- but, IIRC, from guys like John S. Wilson of the NY Times and, maybe even, -- oh, the horror! -- Nat Hentoff. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Nat hadn't compared Newborn unfavorably to that earthy unflashy paragon .... Horace Silver. BTW, whatever happened to Adam Makowicz, who in the '70s received much the same response that Newborn reived in the late '50s? Interestingly, one of Makowicz's chief critical advocates was the typically stern and insightful Max Harrison. I got it from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Newborn,_Jr. It said that it happened when he moved to LA, but it said 'some critics' so i was wrong to assume that that it was West Coast critics. Good proofreading/fact checking Larry; you might want to consider working for a newspaper. I was inspired to read the 1959 DB article on OP after reading what Allen said about Dick Katz' statement that OP had facility- not technique. Some of the article was about OP criticizing other pianists; specifically Horace (too linear), Ahmad Jamal (only uses abstract 'singing' lines) and Errol Garner (He's a stylist, we'll never hear what he would've sounded like if he had studied). He said it was too early to judge Bill Evans. He was criticizing just about all the pianists of that time for not playing the whole piano. Oscar had studied piano technique in depth, and played all the classics, so I don't know about the validity of Katz' critique. OP details his heavy debt to Tatum, but criticizes Tatum for not fitting into a trio situation (overplaying) as well as he did. Hentoff was inspired by the sad demise of Newborn to set up a fund for jazz musicians (mentioned in the Wiki article above) with his issues. There's a very creepy video of one of Newborn's last solo performances. He turns around and stares at the audience after every phrase he plays... I was surprised to find that Newborn played on what is considered by some as the first rock and/or roll record, "Rocket 88" , or at least played on the tour that supported the record. Ike turner is credited on the record.

Silver didn't single out a specific pianist. Rather he said, in Down Beat in 1956, "I can't stand that faggot-type jazz," by which it was understand that he meant the predominant West Coast jazz style of the time. As for Newborn, it's my understanding that he always was a psychologically fragile person, though the "mere virtuosity" putdowns of his playing probably didn't help. I was getting that quote from his autobiography, "Let's Get To the Nitty Gritty". I'll have to check it to see if I got it wrong. Newborn definitely had nervous system issues, but I've never heard his diagnosis. Those West Coast critics didn't help things out, though. He's worthy of a biography.

I think OP became an annoying, trite player around the time he had that horrible TV show from Montreal on cable, but in the 50s and 60s, in rare situations, he still had that drive, swing and sense of note placement that made for great jazz. Dick Katz was another under-recognized giant that always made a strong musical statement in a very subtle way; ie- his solo on "Yesterdays" with Tony Scott.

I'll never forget Horace Silver's characterization of a certain pianist as "He plays like a fuckin' faggot!" There's something about the percussive touch, drive, and placement that pianists like Silver, OP of the 50s and 60s, Eddie Costa(!), and Phineas Newborn(!!) possessed, that just sends me into a type of profound rapture that nothing else comes close to. I agree that OP could sound mechanical (by the late 70s, he literally became some type of horrible machine!), but on those rare instances when he didn't, and he was burning, it was a thing of joy. This same criticism of glib virtuosity haunted the great Phineas Newborn to such an extent, that he wound up in Camarillo State for extended periods of time over those accusations, according to some accounts(!).

I've never been able to forgive KL for destroying the Criss Cross LP, "The Master" by Jimmy Raney. A complete mismatch. Maybe not KL's fault as much as whoever decided to pair this odd couple...

What we're dealing with partly in this thread is the mistrust of virtuosity in jazz, something both Buddy Rich and OP had in common. While I agree that OP could not achieve the 'overall subtlety' that Haig, Jordan or Dodo had, Haig, Jordan and Dodo could not in their wildest dreams achieve the overpowering swing and drive that OP possessed. Do you really think that the records Getz made with Haig and Jordan could compare in terms of overt swing, power and drive with the records Getz made in the 50s with OP? By the same token, OP would have destroyed the wonderful Getz/Raney quintet recordings featuring Jordan and Haig,with his overbearing lack of subtlety. I love both of them for what they are. This hatred of virtuosity that lacks subtlety in jazz seems to be behind the animosity players like EI have towards musicians like Buddy Rich and OP. But along with that hatred, there is a subconscious envy of the superhuman ability of 'freaks' like OP and Rich. The only way that they can deal with the fact that they can never do what OP and BR could do in terms of the superhuman speed these two artists could create at, is to denounce them (or denounce their followers as racist), or dismiss them, like Fred Hersch and EI did so casually with OP on DTM.

Well said JT! I tell all my musician friends that there's a web site called Organissimo where they all hate Oscar Peterson, and they all let out a series of epithets that I would not care to write here. In fact, I just got off the phone with a musician who was on the road with Curtis Fuller in Gates' Band (LH), about the consensus on OP, and his reply was*%($(^$(&$% them!

On the three day Clark Terry Memorial broadcast on WKCR, Phil Schaap played the Count Basie Octet sides where BUDDY RICH was playing drums on some cuts (Gus Johnson on others), along with CT, Charlie Rouse, Buddy DeFranco and Serge Chaloff. Yes sir, that Count Basie must have been some kind of racist!

RIP Mr. Keepnews there's a whole series of interviews with him on youtube:

I love finding these obscure movies made after 1950 that show how the media portrays jazz musicians. This one has Zalman King playing a wealthy bari sax player(!) who owns a huge mansion, where he leads a decadent life style... Richard Pryor has an early role as a junkie jazz drummer. Here are some of the musicians involved (from JITM): Ronnie Lang ghosted bar sax solos for actor Zalman King, accompanied by Conte Candoli, trumpet; Bob Brookmeyer, trombone; Dave Grusin, electric piano; Ray Brown, acoustic double bass; Stan Levey, drums. Source music by Bud Shank plus strings. This was never released on DVD, but did make it to VHS. I read about it on the IMDB, but has anyone seen this?

In listening to a lot of the three day WKCR Memorial Tribute to CT, I was amazed at the amount of Memorial concerts that CT played at, and the effort that he put in to them. They played a few of those concerts that were taped, and CT's playing was good enough to be released as an LP. The Eddie Costa Memorial concert at the Village Gate was released as an LP, but I never heard it before yesterday. CT gave it his all for EC, and Dick Hyman did a fantastic job on piano. They also played another tape from Bill Pemberton's Memorial concert where CT even wrote a blues and played piano on it for BP! I had the honor of performing with CT at the Jimmy Nottingham Memorial concert at the club Storytown in NYC, and CT gave it his all, and yelled out, "Yeah, baby!" after every one of my solos, which made me feel pretty good. But that was what CT was all about...

David Amram mentioned him in "Vibrations" (his first autobiography) as training some of the European musicians he worked with when he was stationed in Europe during his stint in the army.

Listening to Phil Schaap talk about his father right now.

Well, we all knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any less sad. RIP, to one of the greatest people and musicians that ever lived.

It should be noted that Zwerin was a big Dolphy fan, and stuck up for Eric all the way. Dolphy was very upset about being let go.

I've just read a few books that were pretty interesting. I just finished "Lush Life" which had me in tears reading about the end of this great man's life. I always find first person accounts of IMHO the 'golden age of jazz', 1955-65 fascinating, and David Amram's "Vibations" and Michael Zwerin's "Close Enough For Jazz" fit the bill pretty well. Amram's struggle against anti-semitism, and his fight for acceptance in the jazz world as a french horn player, and acceptance in the classical music world as a composer without any academic credentials, were quite inspiring. As someone who was involved in the education of inner-city youth, I was fascinated by Amram's account of the effect of the lack of a male role model on the youth of the war years (1941-45). The fact that white kids were completely out of control during this period, should dispel any notions of race having anything to do with criminal behavior. Zwerin's book offers extremely candid views of a number of jazz groups he played with (Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Maynard Ferguson Band, Orchestra USA, and the Earl Hines group tour of the former Soviet Union), and glimpses of unheralded musicians (Conrad Gozzo, Jimmy Ford, Budd Johnson) that are unavailable elsewhere. He talks about his time with the jazz group Orchestra USA, and there's a great shot of Phil Woods changing his reed, while Eric Dolphy is seated next to him. Zwerin talks about how John Lewis would take all the solos away from Dolphy, and give them to Phil. Maybe Dolphy should have tried to fit the character of the music, rather than ram all his outside stuff into every solo. Dolphy was upset when he eventually got the boot.

Yes, I always do that. I think I get him confused with the poet. The gig fell through anyway.

Oh God, very sad to hear this. Keith was probably the best drummer I ever worked with. He was also a very nice person, always offering words of encouragement. He talked about how he had just finished a tour with Stevie Wonder back then, and was annoyed by how they made him jam with the Rolling Stones without paying him for it. He said that the Stones were piss poor musicians with the exception of Charlie Watts, who he enjoyed playing a two drummer jam with. It feels weird that I was just called for a tentative gig with Percy Brythe, Billy Taylor's first drummer in his trio, still playing in his 90s. At the time i was playing with Keith, he was Billy Taylor's drummer... RIP, Keith- you were both a great person and drummer.