Michael Howell

[mailman]

Does anyone know whatever became of a guitarist named Michael Howell? I have 2 lps that he led for Milestone in the early 1970s.

"Through The Looking Glass"-Milestone 9048 features the Hampton Hawes Trio and was recorded in May of 1973.

"In The Silence"-Milestone 9054 features Bennie Maupin and was recorded in April of 1974. These are both excellent recordings. I know that he led a solo date a few years later for the Catalyst label and he may have played electric bass with Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Also, I have an Art Blakey session on Prestige "Buhaina" Prestige 10067 on which Howell plays on a few tracks.

AMG lists him as a rock musician but they do show the Catalyst date. He was a fine player and I've enjoyed these Milestone sessions for some thirty years now. I'd really like to know what became of him because there was a real talent on these recordings and he seems to have just vanished.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Dan Gould]

In 1995, he appeared as a sideman for David Brooks (older brother of Tina Brooks) Claves Jazz release:

The only current info in the liners is that at the time of the recording he was working freelance in New York. BTW, he doesn't have a tremendous amount of solo space on the CD.

Edited October 11, 2004 by Dan Gould

[JSngry]

There was a Howell cut (from the album w/Maupin) on a BFT that stumped almost everybody.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I have his card here, from when I met him at a NYC memorial for Ted Dunbar (1998). It's a 212 (NYC) number.

Mike

[mailman]

Thanks for the responses. Just one question. What's a BFT?

[mikeweil]

A Blindfold Test.

You're played music without prior knowledge about who and what it is, and comment on it and perhaps guess who it is.

I think it was introduced by Leonard Feather and there is still one each in the monthly issues of Jazz Times and down beat - some are conducted in public.

A group of organissimo members does this by exchanging CDRs - check the Blindfold Test Forum.