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Aggie87

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A few of us tenor geeks around here have a phrase for the Jaws/Griff records, and for Jaws' playing in general - Big Dick Tenor. It just seems....appropriate.

You ever see the Swingtime video of Basie w/Leon Thomas doing "Shake, Rattle, & Roll". This is 65-66 or so, before Leon broke out. Jaws steps up front, plays a totally wicked solo, and then goes back to his seat by stepping over his music stand - backwards, and hardly looking down, if at all. It's as nonchalant a badass move as any I've ever seen.

Big Dick Tenor indeed!

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A few of us tenor geeks around here have a phrase for the Jaws/Griff records, and for Jaws' playing in general - Big Dick Tenor. It just seems....appropriate.

You ever see the Swingtime video of Basie w/Leon Thomas doing "Shake, Rattle, & Roll". This is 65-66 or so, before Leon broke out. Jaws steps up front, plays a totally wicked solo, and then goes back to his seat by stepping over his music stand - backwards, and hardly looking down, if at all. It's as nonchalant a badass move as any I've ever seen.

Big Dick Tenor indeed!

No, I never at that one. Where can it be found?

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More on the "Big Dick" flourish that Jaws did in that clip and that Jim mentioned -- from

http://www.jazzwax.com/2007/08/index.html

Lockjaw Davis was a confident, no-nonsense tenor saxophonist whose sound was infused with a raw, roadhouse sense of the blues. Lockjaw knew only one way—a full, rich, exciting sound that was both relentless and soulful. He also had an entertainer's knack for the dramatic, handling his tenor as though it were made of balsa wood. As Lockjaw explained in Stanley Dance's The World of Count Basie (1980), there was a reason why he always gave his tenor a little heave after every solo:

"I deliberately handle the horn the way I do, to show I'm its master! I've always noticed how delicately so many tenor players handle it, as though it were fragile, as though it commanded them. I try to show that I have command of the horn at all times, whether I'm playing or just holding it. You take charge, it's yours, and I want the audience to feel I'm in complete command. Otherwise you can give the impression the horn is too big for you, whether you play it well or not. The visual impression is quite important."

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A few of us tenor geeks around here have a phrase for the Jaws/Griff records, and for Jaws' playing in general - Big Dick Tenor. It just seems....appropriate.

You ever see the Swingtime video of Basie w/Leon Thomas doing "Shake, Rattle, & Roll". This is 65-66 or so, before Leon broke out. Jaws steps up front, plays a totally wicked solo, and then goes back to his seat by stepping over his music stand - backwards, and hardly looking down, if at all. It's as nonchalant a badass move as any I've ever seen.

Big Dick Tenor indeed!

No, I never at that one. Where can it be found?

Good question.

There was a series of VHS things from the early days of same called The Big Bands, Volume XXX. The company was called, iirc, Swingtime Videos. I've got three of them, and the bands are Basie, Ellington, Lionel Hampton, & Harry James. All clips come form a TV show called (again, iirc) Meet The Bands, and all have the bands playing for Lawrence-Welk-crowd-type dancers. There is no host, at least in these clips, and the bandleaders themself do the emceeing.

This is pretty valuable footage, I think. The bands all are in top form. Ellington in particular is a trip as he pullls numbers that nobody can dance to (the selections from Timon of Athens seem to particularly baffle the crowd...), act like everything's normal, and then goes right back into something danceable. That man was the ultimate...The Ultimate, period. The Basie footage cooms from two different shows, one w/Lockjaw (and as mentioned above, Leon Thomas), and the other with Sal Nistico in the section (and featured on a few numbers). Hamp's band has Ronnie Cuber strretching out all over the place in that wonderfully badass swinging mofo way that he did back then, and James gives you Buddy Rich. an electric piano, band choreography, Uncle Fester on bass (it's really Red Kelley, but it looks like Uncle Fester) and a Thad Jones arrangement of "Tuxedo Junction".

Who, I ask, could ask for anything more?

Now here's the thing - damn near everything has either been YouTubed or DVD-ed by now. But I've never seen this footage anywhere else. Gotta be a story here somewhere, both about the source and the videos. But damned if I've been able to find it.

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There was a series of VHS things from the early days of same called The Big Bands, Volume XXX. The company was called, iirc, Swingtime Videos. I've got three of them, and the bands are Basie, Ellington, Lionel Hampton, & Harry James. All clips come form a TV show called (again, iirc) Meet The Bands, and all have the bands playing for Lawrence-Welk-crowd-type dancers. There is no host, at least in these clips, and the bandleaders themself do the emceeing.

This is pretty valuable footage, I think. The bands all are in top form. Ellington in particular is a trip as he pullls numbers that nobody can dance to (the selections from Timon of Athens seem to particularly baffle the crowd...), act like everything's normal, and then goes right back into something danceable. That man was the ultimate...The Ultimate, period. The Basie footage cooms from two different shows, one w/Lockjaw (and as mentioned above, Leon Thomas), and the other with Sal Nistico in the section (and featured on a few numbers). Hamp's band has Ronnie Cuber strretching out all over the place in that wonderfully badass swinging mofo way that he did back then..

Now here's the thing - damn near everything has either been YouTubed or DVD-ed by now. But I've never seen this footage anywhere else. Gotta be a story here somewhere, both about the source and the videos. But damned if I've been able to find it.

I have both the Ellington and the Hampton on VHS. If I remember correctly, they were made at either The Blue Note or Mr. Kelly's in Chicago.

Thanks for pointing out the music on the Ellington. It has always stuck in my mind.

In the middle of the set, Duke pulls out a couple of his most progressive 60's songs to the total bafflement to the dancers in front of the band. The guy sure had balls! It's great music.

The Hampton is memorable to me because it has Vinnie Ruggiero playing drums, and swinging like mad!

I'll try to find them in the archives.

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