Articles on jazz & drug addiction in post-WWII era

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I'm puzzled as to why Frank Morgan has not been mentioned in this thread. 30 years in and out of the joint. Here's an interesting bit from the back of his second Contemporary album (1986):

"Last summer, after recording Easy Living with pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Tony Dumas, and drummer Billy Higgins, Morgan turned himself in to serve four months for parole violation so that he would be on the straight and narrow by its November release date."

The notes also have:

"In the early '60s, he was a member of the all-star San Quentin band that also included alto saxophonist Art Pepper and trumpeter Dupree Bolton. Known as the 'warden's band,' they were allowed to practice every day and, on Saturday nights, a thousand guests from the outside world would come to the maximum-security institution to see them, wearing tuxedos, perform in concert."

Mike

Edited December 29, 2004 by Michael Fitzgerald

[ghost of miles]

For background to your project, I just wondered of you have ever read the novel  "Quartet in H" by Evan Hunter (a.k.a. Ed McBain)?

See the following...

QUARTET IN "H" -- (original Title Was "Second Ending") -

Hunter, Evan. (aka McBain, Ed. )., Illustrated by Tom Dunn Painted Cover!

Price: US$ 10.00 [Convert Currency]

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Book Details

Book Description: USA.: Pocket Books (#C-236). 1957. Soft Cover. Good to Very Good. Second Edition. 16mo - over 5¾" - 6¾" tall. 384 pages. (We have many Evan Hunter & 200 old Ed McBain paperbacks in stock). Story of Andy's life; Golden Trumpet, JAZZ Band, Big-time Combos, now a JUNKIE on Benzedrine, Marijuana, then HEROIN, dope addict, with monkey on his back! Hardcover was titled "Second Ending"! SCARCER under this title! SCARCE in paperback! With an illustration of a HYPO Needle crossing the "H" in the title!. Bookseller Inventory #3179-5

Bookseller: Comic World (Steinbach, MB, Canada)

This was one of those seminal jazz books in my long lost youth .... and, of course, there is always "Man With The Golden Arm" ...

Garth.

Garth,

I've got the novel and soundtrack for MAN WITH A GOLDEN ARM and will probably do a show based around it sometime in the next year. I've heard of QUARTET IN H and will try to hunt it down, based upon your rec--and who was Evan Hunter? Wasn't that a pen name for a leftie-turned-noir writer whose name is escaping me at the moment? I'll have to ransack my Alan Wald essays on the matter when I get home tonight.

P.S. Duh--just saw the Evan Hunter/Ed McBain reference in your post. McBain was known for the "procedural," correct? I think I'm confusing him with someone else I read about in one of Wald's books or essays.

Edited December 29, 2004 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

I also remember the Frank Rehak interview which appeared in the August and September, 1984 issues of Cadence. Rehak gave a very interesting account of his drug-rehabilating stay at Synanon.

Yes, I haven't read that interview, but Pepper mentions playing and recording with Rehak during his time at Synanon. AP says the tapes were later destroyed after Synanon founder Chuck Diedrich decided that jazz was an evil music.

[Randy Twizzle]

In the liner notes to "Elmo Hope The All Star Sessions" J.R. Taylor wrote:

The sextet album, Jazz From Rikers Island, traded heavily on its assertion that most of its musicians had past narcotics problems.  The producer of that session delivered himself at length in his liner notes on such problems,observing that some musicians "become easier vicitms because of the places where they're forced to make a living--and they don't even make a good living."  This same producer also awarded himself co-copyright of the six Hope compositions on the album-- presumably with an eye toward bettering the pianist's living.

I'm curious as to the identity of the producer.

[garthsj]

I also remember the Frank Rehak interview which appeared in the August and September, 1984 issues of Cadence. Rehak gave a very interesting account of his drug-rehabilating stay at Synanon.

Yes, I haven't read that interview, but Pepper mentions playing and recording with Rehak during his time at Synanon. AP says the tapes were later destroyed after Synanon founder Chuck Diedrich decided that jazz was an evil music.

Ghost ... I had the privilege/pleasure of doing a 2-hour interview with Frank Rehak when he moved to Houston to open a rehab clinic here in the mid-80's. This was just a few years before he died from Cancer. I thought those tapes were destroyed when the station went from all jazz to all classical, but recently one of the professors in the music department informed me that a box of tapes of my old shows had been recovered when the station turned their stuff over to the Schoo of Musicl. I need to search through there ... I also had a great interview with Jim Hall as well ...

Anyway, Frank told me some harrowing stories about his addiction, including a funny/sorry story about collapsing on the stage during a Woody Herman performance, and Woody just left him lying there, stepping over him at times ... a sort of "tough love" situation as Herman was sympathetic about Frank's condition and tried to help him at times.

Garth.