question about Miles, Tiny Grimes/Coleman Hawkins

[sheldonm]

Miles did a Downbeat blindfold test in 1958...where he mentions someone he referred to as "Puerto Rico" while discussing a tune called "a smooth one" performed by Tiny Grimes and Coleman Hawkins. Any idea who "Puerto Rico" would be?

Mark~

Edited November 12, 2008 by sheldonm

[Chuck Nessa]

Can you quote Puerto Rico in context?

[Don Brown]

Wasn't "Puerto Rico" one of the guys who chased performers who hadn't done well on amateur night off the stage at the Apollo Theater?

Edited November 12, 2008 by Don Brown

[sheldonm]

Wasn't "Puerto Rico" one of the guys who chased performers who hadn't done well on amateur night off the stage at the Apollo Theater?

..this is the case. I was just speaking with the DownBeat associate editor and he confirmed.....I think also know as the Executioner???

Thanks, Mark~

[Shawn]

Is that article available online somewhere? I'd be interested in reading that...

[sheldonm]

Is that article available online somewhere? I'd be interested in reading that...

Hi Shawn; not sure if it can be found on-line. A friend called to ask me if I know who Miles was referring to so I tried to help him out. I think it was a late 1958 DownBeat...maybe August?

m~

[Big Beat Steve]

I think it was a late 1958 DownBeat...maybe August?

That alone would leave room for at least 2 issues as DB was published every 2 weeks, not monthly.

For those who want to know really exactly and if everything else fails, a good idea for checking would be to observe Ebay. Old DB issues come up fairly frequently, and if the subject of the blindfold test is not listed in the item description it might be readable on the pic of the cover that usually goes with the description. So watch those 1958 issues coming up for auction!

I can also check my copies of the Swedish jazz mag ESTRAD later on. They ran blindfold tests taken from Downbeats, and it just might be that the Miles test is among the 1958/59 issues that I have.

Update:

Just checked my Sept. 58 copy of ESTRAD which has the Miles blindfold test. However, the tests published in that mag must have been abridged slightly. No reference at all to that character in Miles' comments on that Tiny Grimes track.- Apparently too exotic and unknown to be understood by Swedish readers. Sorry - therefore I can't give the actual quote.

Edited November 12, 2008 by Big Beat Steve

[Randy Twizzle]

I saw this book in Borders last week. It contains all of Davis's Downbeat blindfold tests among many other interviews with him.