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Phil Schaap R.I.P.


ghost of miles

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I first encountered Phil Schaap in the late August of 1999, at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, held in Tompkins Square Park. He MC'ed, and was brimming with everything Parker. It was impossible to stop him from talking, until he, himself, would choose to stop. This was the year of Blue Note's 60th anniversary, and there was a raffle held, with the main prize being the blue-colored, Mosaic-sized CD boxed set. No, I didn't win. Me and my then girlfriend spent a whole day in the park, listening to Steve Lacy, Roy Haynes, Jackie McLean, Andy Bey, Gary Bartz...and Phil Schaap. I had a camera with me.
I still vividly remember that Phil Schaap was wearing Chuck Conroy high tops. To me it seemed odd. I know it's not odd at all, but that's how I saw it, almost 23 years ago

I might have the poster from the festival in a box in the closet, along with other jazz-related ephemera.

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I listened to the NPR program.  Beyond words. I listened to Phil for many years and I just assumed that he’d be around forever and I probably took him for granted. It’s not until someone is gone that you realize how wrong you were and how much you miss him. 

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  • 6 months later...

Good news from Facebook - Philschaapjazz.com not only lives on but a concerted effort to continue to digitize the archive is underway ...

https://www.philschaapjazz.com/

The announcement:

Phil Schaap’s first radio broadcast took place on February 2, 1970 (initially supposed to be about Fletcher Henderson, it ended up being about Joe Henderson due to a scheduling mixup), and his final broadcast took place on April 4, 2020 (a Traditions in Swing program on the two tenor tandem of the original Count Basie Orchestra). In the intervening 50 years, Phil became and maintained his position as one of the preeminent Jazz radio personalities in the world, largely hosting shows at WKCR in New York City. Of his numerous Jazz activities throughout his career, these radio broadcasts ended up being Phil’s most consistent and long-term project, and his shows were the place where his voice and message were most easily and widely heard.
In around 2010, Phil and a group of his students embarked on a project to create a website that would serve as an archive and repository for his past broadcasts. Although the website continued to serve its purpose, the site’s original framework struggled to keep up with the large quantities of content that were regularly added over the next decade.
Now, as we approach the first anniversary of Phil’s passing on September 7, 2021, Phil’s students are pleased to unveil a whole new PhilSchaapJazz.com that will preserve this legacy for years to come. The new website features all of the same free audio and written content of the original site, but with an improved user interface, a new search function, and show organization and filtering tools, all built by Ben Heller (who helped design the original website). A big thanks is also due to Matthew Rivera and Susan Shaffer for their help in the transition.
In addition, to mark the launch of this new website, over 50 of Phil’s archival broadcasts have been newly transferred, edited, and uploaded to the site by Charles Iselin.
New website features are in the works, and a steady new flow of Phil Schaap broadcasts will be uploaded in the coming months. Many of these shows will also appear on WKCR as part of their continued archival programming.
We hope that you will find continued education and entertainment in these shows. If you spot any issues or have any requests for new features or content, please email info@philschaapjazz.com.
Charles Iselin and Ben Heller
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Does anyone know what happened to the merchandise Phil was selling on his website? He had a tape of a recording session I did with Joe Dixon that had a bunch of my compositions and arrangements going for $25 for sale. I came into some big money ($27.50) last night when I dumped all my pennies, nickels and dimes into one of those coin machines, and I'm looking to spend it somewhere...

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11 hours ago, sgcim said:

Does anyone know what happened to the merchandise Phil was selling on his website? He had a tape of a recording session I did with Joe Dixon that had a bunch of my compositions and arrangements going for $25 for sale. I came into some big money ($27.50) last night when I dumped all my pennies, nickels and dimes into one of those coin machines, and I'm looking to spend it somewhere...

I'd suggest using the email that is posted above - info@philschaapjazz.com - and asking them directly. I would bet that it was all given to surviving family and isn't for sale anymore but its the same webmaster, designer, digitizer. They'd know.

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13 hours ago, sgcim said:

Does anyone know what happened to the merchandise Phil was selling on his website? He had a tape of a recording session I did with Joe Dixon that had a bunch of my compositions and arrangements going for $25 for sale. I came into some big money ($27.50) last night when I dumped all my pennies, nickels and dimes into one of those coin machines, and I'm looking to spend it somewhere...

I think it was all sold out, which is why they probably removed it from the site. 

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  • 5 months later...

Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency The first Polydor record/records with infamously horrendous recorded sound.

But it's some slamming music, and Schaap made it to where it was a lot easier to hear that just by listening.

My CD is the Polydor issue. There's a later Verve issue, no idea who did that one or how.

I had avoided a CD of this one for decades, thinking that there was no use, what coul be done, just live with those LPs. But in my car anyway, the CD is more than a little crankable!

Bought on a whim yesterday at an HPB on the way home from a Social Security office. To quote Tony elsewhere, "There comes a time..." 

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On 2/7/2023 at 5:51 PM, JSngry said:

Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency The first Polydor record/records with infamously horrendous recorded sound.

But it's some slamming music, and Schaap made it to where it was a lot easier to hear that just by listening.

My CD is the Polydor issue. There's a later Verve issue, no idea who did that one or how.

I had avoided a CD of this one for decades, thinking that there was no use, what coul be done, just live with those LPs. But in my car anyway, the CD is more than a little crankable!

Bought on a whim yesterday at an HPB on the way home from a Social Security office. To quote Tony elsewhere, "There comes a time..." 

Schaap's taste broader and weirder than many people realize, or he often broadcast in later years. For example, I'm nearly certain he saw and loved Hendrix-- live-- early ('67?, before the "Band of Gypsies" shows for sure) he himself played self-described bad trumpet in horn-rock band (he never named, whethe he's uncredited or used a pseudonym I don't know but he's never made any claims as musician, thus his fervor in finding other roles), was down with electric Miles, Sun Ra, pre- and post- electric... 

Later he definitely focused more on the living and gradually dying swing, big band to bop figures but those weren't he was somewhat more involved with the "music of his time" than first seems apparent without hearing all those 1000s of shows he did in the late 1960s, 70s which, afaik, weren't recorded. (Would love to hear Schaap being yelled at by Miles on the phone during some Davis tribute program, the call ending, before Miles hung up, "Now go play "Sketches of Spain"!)

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  • 11 months later...

News for those interested:  The Phil Schaap archive was ultimately donated to Vanderbilt University.  It's only a few months since they received everything. Scroll thru this file I found last night for an idea of content.

https://semla.wp.musiclibraryassoc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2023/10/Smith-Borne-Schaub-SEMLA-Presentation-2023.pdf

 

I have an email in to the two people listed enquiring as to final disposition of these incredible pieces of jazz history, especially whether digitization will include online availability or if most will be on-site only, which would absolutely suck and so limit the audience to true researchers.  I am also trying to convince them that their digitization should concentrate most on the artist interviews and live broadcasts, and not only because I am told by Charles Iselin that there were 'several' Percy France broadcasts from the West End.  Phil's collection of records/CDs may have included rarities but in this day and age the vast majority, I am going to guess, are not that hard to come by at least in terms of the grooves contained therein.

But his interviews and those concerts (which also include the famous 10 hour WKCR Benefit concerts) are the things lost in the moment of their creation, except for Phil's desire to record them.

 

And speaking of Percy, check out what I found in that PDF - so little is shown of what they have, yet there is Percy's name, and a notation that he was interviewed about  his early career.  What a gift it would be if I had that audio added to the website some day.

As Strayhorn wrote, it's "Something to Live For".

Screenshot 2024-01-30 060654.jpg

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