Roosevelt Wardell

[Hardbopjazz]

With many musicians having downtime because of venues closed do to Covid 19, some are interacting with fans on Facebook. Eric Reed started a listening discussion. I've never heard of Roosevelt Wardell. Looking through my collection, I do have him on the Curtis Amy Mosaic Select.  I can't even find much information about him. Anyone else know more about this pianist? 

 

 

[JSngry]

I've got that Riverside program and like it a good lot. it was part of the Cannonball Adderley Presentation series, all of which were very enlightening records. He has kind of an Elmo Hope-ish "focus" thing going on, and the non-Standards have titles that suggest that he was hearing the call of Elijah Muhammed, as were so many other jazz musicians of the time.

On this record, anyway, it sounds like he had a lot of creative energy bundled up inside. Definitely worth checking out.

Not sure that you have him on the Amy Select, though?

[Hardbopjazz]

20 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I've got that Riverside program and like it a good lot. it was part of the Cannonball Adderley Presentation series, all of which were very enlightening records. He has kind of an Elmo Hope-ish "focus" thing going on, and the non-Standards have titles that suggest that he was hearing the call of Elijah Muhammed, as were so many other jazz musicians of the time.

On this record, anyway, it sounds like he had a lot of creative energy bundled up inside. Definitely worth checking out.

Not sure that you have him on the Amy Select, though?

My bad, he is on the Onzy Matthews select. 

 

[jlhoots]

Going to get the Amy Select out today anyway.

[Dan Gould]

There is a fresh sounds issue of his trio dates it's very good. One of those I went for due to relative scarcity of the originals and no domestic CD issue.

[clifford_thornton]

Definitely would like to get the LP if it comes up in nice condition, long been curious about it.

[JSngry]

Fresh Sounds did a 2 CD issue of Wardell's sole LP coupled with the two Evans Bradshaw Riverside LPs. I find Wardell's material more, for lack of a better term, "compelling" than Bradshaw's two, so me, I found all of it on the blogosphere, captured it all and then kept what I wanted. Since it's Fresh Sounds, hey, I did what they did without inconveniencing them. Still waiting for the Thank You Note, but I know they got their hands full, so I'm not upset about not getting it yet, at least not right now.

[mikeweil]

Looks like the whole Riverside LP is on YouTube, in single tracks.

He recorded a few singles as early as 1949, some with Ed Wiles or under his leadership. The two recorded a whole LP for Atlantic, but only one single was released.