"One of the greatest performances I have ever seen"

[sidewinder]

At what venue did you see them in Toronto? I saw them at The Horseshoe Tavern once.

It was at the O'Keefe Centre - quite a big venue. As part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. John Gilmore and June Tyson were still in the band (Gilmore looked a bit winded at times) but Sun Ra looked (and played) pretty good. Sticking mainly to piano.

The Horseshoe Tavern was not in existence I think during my time in that city - I recall that the 'Top O' The Senator' and 'Bermuda Onion' were the main clubs (both now long gone) and the 'Cafe des Copains' did excellent shows mainly with solo piano/duo acts. The Senator and Bemuda Onion got some really great US groups in - often their first destination after NYC as part of American tours. Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Joe Henderson, Red Rodney, Louis Hayes (with Charles Tolliver), Mongo Santamaria, Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones come to mind (caught all of these ). At the 'Cafe' I remember seeing John Lewis, Pat LaBarbara, Cedar Walton, Sir Charles Thompson, Jay McShann and Joanne Brackeen.

Still kicking myself all those years later for not buying a box full of LPs at that Ra gig.

Edited February 26, 2008 by sidewinder

[Hot Ptah]

At what venue did you see them in Toronto? I saw them at The Horseshoe Tavern once.

It was at the O'Keefe Centre - quite a big venue. As part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. John Gilmore and June Tyson were still in the band (Gilmore looked a bit winded at times) but Sun Ra looked (and played) pretty good. Sticking mainly to piano.

The Horseshoe Tavern was not in existence I think during my time in that city - I recall that the 'Top O' The Senator' and 'Bermuda Onion' were the main clubs (both now long gone) and the 'Cafe des Copains' did excellent shows mainly with solo piano/duo acts. The Senator and Bemuda Onion got some really great US groups in - often their first destination after NYC as part of American tours. Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Joe Henderson, Red Rodney, Louis Hayes (with Charles Tolliver), Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones come to mind (caught all of these ).

Still kicking myself all those years later for not buying a box full of LPs at that Ra gig.

I saw Sun Ra several times in the 1970s and 1980s and rarely bought any of the LPs which they were selling from the stage. Now they go for a lot on ebay.

[sidewinder]

I saw Sun Ra several times in the 1970s and 1980s and rarely bought any of the LPs which they were selling from the stage. Now they go for a lot on ebay.

At the time I had pretty well switched to the new fangled CDs so didn't see the point - I was hoping they did CDs. What a moron !

[medjuck]

In April 1964 I saw Duke Ellington at a club in Montreal. I went didspite having an exam the next night. (I'd learned my lesson the year before when I'd stayed home to study rather than see Bill Evans at a small hall in (I think) one of his first concerts after the death of Scott Lafaro. My roommate went and still says it was one of the greatest concerts he's ever seen. )

I had good seats at the club because I was writing a jazz column for The McGill Daily. The band gradually made their way onstage and played a couple of numbers in a desultory fashion but came alive when Duke arrived at the piano and hit the first chords of A-Train. They began their usual program of historical hits but the audience became very vocal calling out Happy Birthday (It was a few days before EKE's actual birthday) and making requests for a lot of non-Ellington big band hits.

The audience seemed very old to me (they were probably all younger than I am now) and at first I thought they were being very un-hip. Of course they did know the date of Duke's birthday and for all I know they all had copies of Ellington's Lp "Will the Big Bands Ever Come Back?"

But Ellington was a in a great mood and his response was extraordinary. He'd play a few bars of one of the requested songs the rhythm section would join him for rest of the chorus then Hodges, Gonzales or Cootie Williams would join in while sections of the band tentatively tried out some background riffs. By the 3rd chorus the whole band would join in and Duke would call on different members for solos. It became a jam session/ party with the world's greatest jazz band!

Other great concerts: Elvis Costello in a small Edinburgh club in 1976, Bruce Springsteen at Maple Leaf Gardens that same year, Horowitz at Carnegie Hall and Rostropovich at

Massey Hall.

One of the nice things about jazz is that players not in the Pantheon can blow you away. I remember seeing Frank Strozier and Harold Maburn at a club in Montreal before I'd ever really heard of them and just loving it.

[Hot Ptah]

I saw Sun Ra several times in the 1970s and 1980s and rarely bought any of the LPs which they were selling from the stage. Now they go for a lot on ebay.

At the time I had pretty well switched to the new fangled CDs so didn't see the point - I was hoping they did CDs. What a moron !

One of my friends who has worked at music stores in Kansas City for decades tells an even more unfortunate story. Whenever the Arkestra came to Kansas City to play in the 1970s and early 1980s, they would crash in the house of someone who worked at his music store. At night the Arkestra members would sit around in the living room of the store employee and add rudimentary labels and artwork (usually swirls of magic marker art) to large stacks of white label jackets for their albums. There were a great many albums of this sort stacked around the living room. The employees of the record store could have received a complete set of the Saturn label records in exchange for putting the Arkestra up for the night, but they never took any. Who knew?

[clifford_thornton]

Ouch.

[kh1958]

I saw Sun Ra several times in the 1970s and 1980s and rarely bought any of the LPs which they were selling from the stage. Now they go for a lot on ebay.

At the time I had pretty well switched to the new fangled CDs so didn't see the point - I was hoping they did CDs. What a moron !

One of my friends who has worked at music stores in Kansas City for decades tells an even more unfortunate story. Whenever the Arkestra came to Kansas City to play in the 1970s and early 1980s, they would crash in the house of someone who worked at his music store. At night the Arkestra members would sit around in the living room of the store employee and add rudimentary labels and artwork (usually swirls of magic marker art) to large stacks of white label jackets for their albums. There were a great many albums of this sort stacked around the living room. The employees of the record store could have received a complete set of the Saturn label records in exchange for putting the Arkestra up for the night, but they never took any. Who knew?

When Sun Ra played the Caravan of Dreams (twice, in 1987 and 1988, I believe), I bought every LP they had to sell, which was just two or three each time. I asked the bandmember selling the LPs how I could get more, and he gave me the Morton Street address, but I never did mail a check for unspecified LPs to the Arkestra.

But I did get to see eight sets by Sun Ra, and they certainly belong in this thread.

[Adam]

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - September 1, 1996 - Mercer Arena Seattle WA

It turned out to be their final US show ever - I guess they did a few more shows in Japan after this. They played for 3+ hour with no break, they were sounding tight as a motherfucker and it was incredible!

I saw a commercial for some concert in south Florida. Can't even remember who the headliner is but Elvis Costello and The Attractions are opening.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters (not the Attractions) are opening for the Police on the Police's upcoming round of US concerts.

[Guest Bill Barton]

Others that sprang to mind...

Richard Davis & Jayne Cortez at Dartmouth College

Barre Phillips solo bass recital at Dartmouth

Sonny Greenwich on one of the outdoor stages at the Montreal festival

Georg Graewe in Seattle

Rahsaan Roland Kirk tribute concert in Seattle (a band led by Steve Turre and featuring James Carter in one of his less showboat moods)

Von Freeman at Tula's in Seattle

[porcy62]

I am thinking about a new thread: "One of the greatest performances I missed", for lacking of money, lazyness, ignorance, whatever.

Lots.

edit: another thread "One of the greatest performances I have ever seen and I didn't remember because I was too stoned"

Edited February 26, 2008 by porcy62

[Hot Ptah]

I am thinking about a new thread: "One of the greatest performances I missed", for lacking of money, lazyness, ignorance, whatever.

Lots.

edit: another thread "One of the greatest performances I have ever seen and I didn't remember because I was too stoned"

As for the first, I missed seeing Woody Shaw because I confidently strode to the front door of the club on the night after he played there. I was shocked. I simply had the date wrong.

I missed Charles Mingus twice because I was dumb and still into the pop music of the time, and had not had my conversion experience into jazz.

Can't think of any for the second category. I never got THAT impaired when I was young.

[porcy62]

I am thinking about a new thread: "One of the greatest performances I missed", for lacking of money, lazyness, ignorance, whatever.

Lots.

edit: another thread "One of the greatest performances I have ever seen and I didn't remember because I was too stoned"

As for the first, I missed seeing Woody Shaw because I confidently strode to the front door of the club on the night after he played there. I was shocked. I simply had the date wrong.

I missed Charles Mingus twice because I was dumb and still into the pop music of the time, and had not had my conversion experience into jazz.

Can't think of any for the second category. I never got THAT impaired when I was young.

Well, about the second I remember a Lou Reed's concert, and he missed the starting of 'Sweet Jane', so the band had to play the intro over and over, that was one of the case I was less stoned that the musician. I am pretty sure Lou Reed didn't remember the performance.

[Free For All]

I am thinking about a new thread: "One of the greatest performances I missed", for lacking of money, lazyness, ignorance, whatever.

Lots.

I've got one. I'll save it for the thread.

[Johnny E]

Elvis Costello & The Attractions - September 1, 1996 - Mercer Arena Seattle WA

It turned out to be their final US show ever - I guess they did a few more shows in Japan after this. They played for 3+ hour with no break, they were sounding tight as a motherfucker and it was incredible!

I saw a commercial for some concert in south Florida. Can't even remember who the headliner is but Elvis Costello and The Attractions are opening.

News to me. Elvis' current band is called the Imposters (same as the Attractions only minus bassist Bruce Thompson).

[Big Al]

Tony Bennett with the Ralph Sharon Trio, Fall 1994, Casa Manana, a theater-in-the-round. Holds about 1,500 people, we were eight rows back from the stage. Bennett worked the entire circle. Still get goose-bumps thinking about it.

Wayne Shorter at the Denton Arts & Jazz Fest, April 2002 (I think. maybe JSngry remembers better than I do). Just to be able to see someone I consider a legend play up to the heights I hold him.

[kenny weir]

I've seen some great jazz ion my time, but the life-changing gigs are all pretty much non-jazz for me:

Muddy Waters, Christchurch Town Hall, 1973

Grateful Dead, Winterland, San Francisco, 1977

Flamin' Groovies, Roundhouse, London, 1978

Solomon Burke, New Orleans Municipal Auditorium, 1994

[Johnny E]

I've seen some great jazz ion my time, but the life-changing gigs are all pretty much non-jazz for me:

Grateful Dead, Winterland, San Francisco, 1977

Oh I bet it did!

[BillF]

(As I started this thread, I guess I'm entitled to come back for a second round.)

Free Trade Hall, Manchester, April 1961. Double bill consisting of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the Thelonious Monk Quartet.

First up were the Messengers with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. The combination of the Free Trade Hall's notorious acoustics (mercifully, they've now converted it to a hotel!) and Blakey's thunderous drumming meant that the soloists weren't at all well heard, but I and my youthful jazz-loving friends weren't concerned; we were just blown away by the presence of these musicians at the cutting edge of the music! I remember them playing Shorter's "The Chess Players", an attractive composition with a stop/start feel which they'd recorded shortly before on the Blue Note album The Big Beat.

We took our seats for the second half and for several long minutes nothing happened! Then an awkward-looking John Ore came out on stage and proceeded to take a lengthy bass solo! Eventually he finished and stood there, looking even more uncomfortable. At this moment Monk, Charlie Rouse and Frankie Dunlop walked out onto the stage to huge applause, Monk resplendent in flat cap and expensive-looking suit. The instant they started playing, the propulsive swing of Frankie Dunlop's uniquely bouncy, explosive drumming was apparent. At one point, as Rouse settled into his solo, Monk rose from the piano and moved around the stage, lighting up a cigarette as he did so. As Rouse neared the end of his final chorus, Monk strode swiftly to the edge of the stage and handed the cigarette to an amazed-looking fan who carefully extinguished it and put it away as a memento.

Ah, those were the days!

[medjuck]

I saw what I think may have been Ella Fitzgerald's last concert. It was at the Hollywood Bowl and I had a box very near the front. I went because Benny Carter had put together a large band for the occasion. As I remember it, the band played an opening set then, Ella sang one song with the band before brining on on her trio. But Benny joined the trio for a lovely unfamiliar ballad and took a great solo. A friend of mine in the band said that not only had they not rehearsed, but Benny had never heard the song before. He was in his 80s by then and nothing could throw him.

[sidewinder]

"The Chess Players", an attractive composition with a stop/start feel which they'd recorded shortly before on the Blue Note album The Big Beat.

Then you must get the Music Matters 2LP 45 rpm set

What did they do with all the wall signatures in the artists changing rooms at Free Trade Hall? Was it all taken out and put into store/display somewhere or is it still in situ? Hopefully not the latter, after a hotel washroom conversion I hope (I recall that Duke and Louis had signed it).

Edited February 28, 2008 by sidewinder

[Drew Peacock]

I'm still having problems starting threads. This one seems like a good fit for this.

Happy Birthday Live Aid 1985. This has to be one of the all-time best concerts for pop fans.

This is a nice set of photos from that concert from Life magazine photographers:

http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery...85-on-the-scene

Note the collectors copy for M.J. available as an ad to the right of the screen.