EKE BBB

Jimmy Smith Trio + Lou Donaldson (Blue Note, 1957)

Not too much Joe Albany output as a leader is available, so this was a very rewarding addition!

Joe Albany - An Evening With (SteepleChase, 1973)

John Coltrane - Coltrane Jazz (Atlantic, 1956-59)

John Coltrane - Plays The Blues (Atlantic, 1960)

John Coltrane - The Believer (Prestige, 1958)

Jon Faddis ‎– Youngblood (Pablo, 1976)

New York Art Quartet (ESP Disk, 1965)

Lou Donaldson With The Three Sounds ‎– LD+3 (Blue Note, 1959)

The Bill Evans Trio ‎– Since We Met (Fantasy, 1974)

Sonny Clark Trio (Blues Mambo) (Time, 1960)

Tommy Flanagan - Thelonica (Enja, 1982)

Miles Davis All Stars ‎– Walkin' (Prestige, 1954)

His truly. This is Vicho (standing, in the center) with Tete and his wife Pilar Morales:

In a nutshell, Perry Robinson's clarinet playing and music approach were simply too modern for the average Spanish jazz critic or aficionado in 1960. Just as an example, Club de Ritmo #167 [March 1960 issue] holds a review of the 3rd Gala Internacional del Jazz at the Teatro Calderón in Barcelona. It was a morning concert starting with Tete Montoliu Y Sus All Stars group, followed by the Barney Wilen Quartet with Kenny Clarke and Oscar Pettiford (though bassist was finally replaced by Paul Rovère). A jam session with Barney Wilen, Tete Montoliu, Kenny Clarke, Paul Rovère, 'Vicho' Vicencio and Perry Robinson closed this concert. This is an excerpt of the aforementioned review by Jorge Vall Escriu (quick and raw translation is mine): "(...) The announced feature was a group led by Barney Wilen and including Kenny Clarke and Oscar Peterson. That was enough to immediately prompt us to reserve our tickets, given the undisputed quality of the latter two musicians, but... (there is always a "but") ...after too much advertisements and publicity, we had to bear with a group led by Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu for the whole first set, and to be sincere, it was way too long. To be noted is the current bad shape of Tete Montoliu, who is becoming an imitator of lowering profile pianists, as is Vicho Vicencio who, despite his nice tone, does not have enough tecnique and strength for the so-called "modern jazz"; on top of that, his numerous mouthpiece clangs didn't go unnoticed. And finally, better not talk about Perry Robinson's clarinet, given that, if you could write one single paragraph on him, it would not be about jazz. He would rather dedicate his time to become a snake charmer (...)". "(...) And as the top of the ice cream, a jam session with TM, Kenny Clarke, Paul Rovère, Barney Wilen, Vicho Vicencio and, to no surprise, Perry Robinson, which resulted in a sort of coffee, milk, sugar and sault... (...)"

Here we go...

Perry Robinson, by then a 21-year old young musician, arrived to Spain in November 1959 and joined Jon Mayer, Chuck Israels and Arnie Wise to form the New Blues Quartet. After some unsuccesful gigs, he met Tete Montoliu on January 2, 1960 and jammed with him and his quartet (by then composed by Vicho Vicencio on tenor, Antonio Vidal on bass and Luis Sangareau on drums). Tete liked his playing and, knowing that Perry's mates were going back to the United States in a few days, he offered him to join his group, expanding it to a quintet. Perry would stay with Tete for almost one year a half, touring Spain -amidst longer stays in the Whisky Jazz in Madrid and the Jamboree in Barcelona- and also doing gigs in Portugal. A few Robinson compositions were included in the repertory, among them "Mingus Pingus" and, later, "Margareta". A concert at the American Air Force Base in Tarrasa was taped. Perry recalls hearing the tape afterwards and it sounded good. Sadly, no trace of this tape has been found after thorough research by Jordi Pujol. To my knowledge, this might be the only recorded evidence of how this quintet sounded like. I have gathered sort of a small collection of anecdotes from this period. I will bring a couple of them here if time allows...

The René Thomas Modern Group (Polydor, 1956)

Ted Curson ‎– Plenty Of Horn (Old Town Records, 1961)

Still on my to-buy list!

Yusef Lateef ‎– Into Something (New Jazz, 1961)

Wade Legge Trio (Modern Music, Vogue, Savoy, Epic / FSR, 1953-55) Fresh Sound Records compilation from the following sources:

The Hodes has: https://www.jazzology.com/item_detail.php?id=ACD-66

Eagerly waiting to check if there is fresh new info on Dexter’s collaborations with Tete. In fact, I provided Maxine with tons of press articles and memorabilia many moons ago... I’m sure she will have made good use of them!