sgcim

We just played a Ted Nash arrangement last night in a Tentet I play in- great writing!

According to a friend of mine who led groups at the real Birdland that featured at different times Eddie or Bill on piano, EC and BE were close friends, and may have had an influence on each other. BE had a more percussive approach, like EC, on the early stuff with Geo. Russell and "New Jazz Conceptions", while EC's last recordings,Shelly Manne's "1-2-3" and the Brookmeyer/Terry LP, featured a more modern BE harmonic approach. Another LP that had the two together was "Jazz Abstractions" which also featured LaFaro, Dolphy and Jim Hall. it don't get much better than that!

My sentiments, exactly. IMHO, there is BE, and then there is everybody else. i can't think of any other musician other than Bird or Trane that has had more recorded tributes to him. There's even a Bill Evans University somewhere in France! And we all know that "Everybody Digs Bill Evans"!!

I tend to agree with Joel's statement. I recently read "Jade Visions", Scott La Faro's bio by his sis, and there's a lot of talk about SL pleading with BE to get off of junk, so it was probably making his playing sluggish, while SL was a freaking dynamo up till his untimely death at 25. Yesterday, Phil Schaap played BE's early recordings with Geo. Russell and the "New Jazz Conceptions" LP, where he was a force of nature considering PS said it was recorded in 1956 (which sounds wrong). There's a tendency to overrate the SL, PM, BE trio, because of the innovation of the freeing of SL's role in the PBD trio, which is understandable, because it did change jazz history. However, as JF said, it was mainly SL's playing that stood out, and BE's playing was much better before and after the SL trio, I asked a pianist who I play with a lot (who jokingly refers to himself as an 'idiot savant BE', because he;s spent almost 50 years studying and copying BE's style) about the SL,PM,BE trio, and he said they were still developing the trio, and hadn't gotten it together yet.

Congrats! Fred's writing for small groups is a pleasure equal to the efforts of Geo. Russell, Manny Albam, Giuffre, John Benson Brooks, Bill Smith and others during that period.

Guy, I seem to have noticed a pattern on this board where you ridicule almost every one of my posts. I usually manage to restrain myself from commenting on your posts, which I rarely agree with, but your knee jerk reactions are getting a little tiresome. Consider yourself to be granted the privilege of being the very first person I've ever placed on my Ignore list, in my sixteen years of participating in forums on the net.

Just finished this one. I read it because I've always been interested in whether Johnny Mac was actually a mainstream (bop) jazz guitarist before he hit the fusion big time. The answer to that came pretty quick, when on page 91, Rick Laird, who certainly was a mainstream jazz player in the 60s, said this: "I never considered John a jazz guitar player. Not in the same sense I'd consider Jim Hall or someone like that... He didn't know the repertoire in the same way that I did, because I'd been exposed to it a lot with Ronnie Scott...He didn't strike me as being a real jazz enthusiast-more individual, and he did become quite individual. I still don't consider him a jazz guitar player...The way I would describe jazz guitar at that time was someone who knew the repertoire of material that was popular at the time, like Miles Davis compositions, all the jazz standards-"ATTYA", Stella By Starlight", those type of standard jazz things. He wasn't very knowledgeable in that area at all. Not a criticism, just an observation. He was an interesting guitar player, but not a jazz guitar player." I've found JM's attempts at mainstream jazz pretty sad- the Bill Evans album debacle,, the corny-ass "Cherokee" performance on the Tonight Show, the poor man's Django attempt on Coryell's "Spaces" LP ('"Rene's Song"). Sure, Johnny Mac has amazing chops, but it takes more than chops to bop. One of the few UK guitarists of that time who could play mainstream jazz well was mentioned a few times in the book, Terry Smith. The author, definitely of a more rock/folk background, seems confounded when Terry Smith won the Melody Maker Poll for Jazz Guitar in 1968 and '69.

The Sons of Anarchy episode in Season One that used Andy Williams' version of this song has become almost legendary:

I'm still not too proud to turn down occasional gigs from a retired school teacher, who should probably be arrested each time he plays a woodwind instrument in public. As soon as he reaches for his clarinet, I know he's about to inflict SOTS on the poor, unsuspecting audience. It's pretty difficult to screw that one up, but this 'artiste' makes it sound like Albert Ayler!

My fave was Ho Jo on Frank Strozier's "Remember Me".

I'm glad you mentioned his uncle, I was always getting confused about which dates he or his uncle played on!

I saw both those guys a very long time ago. Joe Temperley was in the first jazz band I saw - in 1957 at the age of 17 - led by the grand old man of British jazz, Humphrey Lyttelton. Lyttelton had rebelled against the current British fashion for trad/dixieland and had added a three-man sax section with Tony Coe on alto, Jimmy Skidmore on tenor and Temperley on baritone. Two years later, not long after the recording of The Atomic Mr Basie, I sat on the front row of the Free Trade Hall, Manchester right in front of the Basie sax section of Marshall Royal, Frank Wess, Lockjaw Davis(?), Frank Foster and Charlie Fowlkes. Charlie was a heavily built guy who looked like he was bursting out of his pants! The music was fantastic! I'm almost done "Bathed In Lightning", Johnny Mac's bio, and one Bari player who is consistently mentioned is Glenn Hughes. Back when Brian Auger only played jazz piano, he used Hughes in one of his groups, and described him as better than Pepper Adams or Serge Chaloff. unfortunately, he died at an early age. Did he record anything as a leader, or are there any records that feature him as a sideman?

I played a steady theater gig for a couple of years with Charlie Fowlkes. The cat never said a word; just downed a bottle a night and played his part. Joe Temperley used to sub sometimes; completely opposite personality. Loved his accent.

I played with him when he first came to NY on a Local 802 Musicians Trust fund jazz concert. Came in and sight read the first alto book cold, and blew his ass off. I believe he's the son of the great West Coast studio trombonist, Dick Nash. I've enjoyed his work with the West coast vibes player Charlie Shoemake's Sextet.

WKCR played the entire "Introducing The Jimmy Cleveland All-Stars" LP last night, and there was some really enjoyable , relaxed work by everyone involved, especially JC, Lucky Thompson, and bari player Cecil Payne.

It was depressing hearing him sing on his last album. The once great singer of "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and many other great Cream tunes, now sounded like an old, sick man. I kept wondering, why did they release this? Now we know... I wonder how his 'best fiend' Ginger Baker is taking this? JB's music career began when he sat in with a jazz group GB was playing with at a club. GB called something absurdly fast, so they could get rid of this little Scottish punk he had never met before. When Jack smoked the tempo, Ginger realized this kid was something special. That didn't stop Ginger from pulling a knife on Jack, when he came in on one of Ginger's solos in the Graham Bond Organization, and then getting Jack fired from the band because of the incident!

Back when we were all playing in garage bands playing Cream covers, I had no idea Bruce and Baker had such strong jazz backgrounds. Rick Laird was another one who made the same transition Baker and Bruce made. RIP, JB

We just watched four hours straight of Tubbs on youtube. The guy was superhuman! Never knew he played vibes so well.

A rare treat today till 6:00pm, some six hours of Frank Strozier on KCR. Last I heard from the guy that got Frank his science teaching gig, Frank has completely dropped out of the scum-sucking music game, and left NY for RI. Good for him!

Kenny Burrell (as mentioned before) did a lot of R&B session work. I played a recording session with a jazz pianist who did a lot of Motown session work named Al Jabaz Williams. Rudy Williams (Mingus' cousin) was on Tenor sax.

I dunno, but Michael Howell's name pops into my mind....

Donald Fagen wrote a chapter on them in his recent book "Eminent Hipsters".

I just read an amusing story in David Raksin's autobiography about Wozzeck. Raksin was hired to write the music for Abe Polansky's film "Force of Evil", and Polansky told him he wanted something more modern from him, like Berg's Wozzeck. Later, at a party at Raksin's house, Polansky remarked to Raksin about the music that was playing on the phonograph, "Dave, do you think you could turn off that disgusting crap you're playing on the phonograph?" Raksin replied, "Abe, that is Berg's Wozzeck..." Hollywood...

My sis used to work at the Fillmore East, so I got to see a lot of free shows, and the East Village was a very exciting place back then. She said that she saw Miles Davis snorting cocaine in the bathroom at the FE. A friend of mine who lived in the EV said some Ukrainian guy got mad at some guy in a store, so he went to his apt. and got an axe and chopped the guy's hand off! The Hell's Angel's were always hanging out there, but I never saw them bother anyone. BTW, here's my favorite jazz trivia quetion: Which great jazz guitarist was a member of the Hell's Angels, and even had a contract placed on his life by them, because he testified against them in a murder trial?

Just recently, I remembered that PR &TR were the first rock concert I ever attended. It was at some hall on LI, and all I remember was that it didn't sound at all like the record... I remember a priest played "Kicks" for us at Sunday School, and followed it with a lecture on the evils of drugs. .