Author: Bash Daily Group Archive Feed
Bassist Calls for Equal Credits on Apple Music (and Beyond)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
** Bassist Calls for Equal Credits on Apple Music (and Beyond)
————————————————————
By Andrew Flanagan (http://www.billboard.com/author/andrew-flanagan-1494180) | July 06, 2015 10:41 AM EDT
“We want to know who’s playing the music we’re hearing, who produced it, who arranged it, where it was recorded and by whom,” reads the MoveOn petition page (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/show-the-album-credits.fb50?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=2220927) for ‘Show the Album Credits on Apple Music!’
Bassist Jon Burr launched the campaign yesterday (July 5), following the explosive launch week of Apple Music, which garnered many positive reviews, particularly around the service’s free Beats 1 international radio station.
“We chose to target Apple at this time because the rollout of Apple Music is missing this category of information,” the petition’s creator, Jon Burr (https://twitter.com/jonburr) , tells Billboard.
“Apple has shown a willingness to listen to feedback in the past, and is sensitive to their user base (which contains many of these same creatives). As the leader in technology and music marketing, if they set a trend, others may follow.”
Metadata is a problem that has plagued the digital music space for years (http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/1560778/how-inconsistent-metadata-impedes-music-industry-growth) , suffering from a lack of standardization around music files and their internal cataloguing of contributors to the work they contain. The lack, or incompleteness, of metadata can adversely affect artist payouts as well — if the robot doesn’t know where to look, if doesn’t know which palm to place the penny.
“We understand that doing this will create a burden on these services — many just don’t have access to the information due to the way digital music is delivered to them,” says Burr. “If we can encourage a cultural shift going forward and develop enhanced supply chains, we’ll be making the kind of progress needed by musicians, composers, lyricists, engineers, photographers, designers, and other contributing creatives.”
Spotify and Pandora, Apple Music’s biggest competitors, do not list comprehensive credits either when songs are played. Recordings within YouTube that have been scanned into the company’s “sort-of-switched-on” (still in beta) Music Key program do list label, publisher, composer(s) and performers (as in this Percy Mayfield recording (https://youtu.be/XgY7NjVPEl4) ).
Spotify refused to comment for this report. A request for comment from Pandora wasn’t immediately returned.
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=d31e727f35) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=d31e727f35&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Bassist Calls for Equal Credits on Apple Music (and Beyond)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
** Bassist Calls for Equal Credits on Apple Music (and Beyond)
————————————————————
By Andrew Flanagan (http://www.billboard.com/author/andrew-flanagan-1494180) | July 06, 2015 10:41 AM EDT
“We want to know who’s playing the music we’re hearing, who produced it, who arranged it, where it was recorded and by whom,” reads the MoveOn petition page (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/show-the-album-credits.fb50?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=2220927) for ‘Show the Album Credits on Apple Music!’
Bassist Jon Burr launched the campaign yesterday (July 5), following the explosive launch week of Apple Music, which garnered many positive reviews, particularly around the service’s free Beats 1 international radio station.
“We chose to target Apple at this time because the rollout of Apple Music is missing this category of information,” the petition’s creator, Jon Burr (https://twitter.com/jonburr) , tells Billboard.
“Apple has shown a willingness to listen to feedback in the past, and is sensitive to their user base (which contains many of these same creatives). As the leader in technology and music marketing, if they set a trend, others may follow.”
Metadata is a problem that has plagued the digital music space for years (http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/1560778/how-inconsistent-metadata-impedes-music-industry-growth) , suffering from a lack of standardization around music files and their internal cataloguing of contributors to the work they contain. The lack, or incompleteness, of metadata can adversely affect artist payouts as well — if the robot doesn’t know where to look, if doesn’t know which palm to place the penny.
“We understand that doing this will create a burden on these services — many just don’t have access to the information due to the way digital music is delivered to them,” says Burr. “If we can encourage a cultural shift going forward and develop enhanced supply chains, we’ll be making the kind of progress needed by musicians, composers, lyricists, engineers, photographers, designers, and other contributing creatives.”
Spotify and Pandora, Apple Music’s biggest competitors, do not list comprehensive credits either when songs are played. Recordings within YouTube that have been scanned into the company’s “sort-of-switched-on” (still in beta) Music Key program do list label, publisher, composer(s) and performers (as in this Percy Mayfield recording (https://youtu.be/XgY7NjVPEl4) ).
Spotify refused to comment for this report. A request for comment from Pandora wasn’t immediately returned.
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=d31e727f35) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=d31e727f35&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Bassist Calls for Equal Credits on Apple Music (and Beyond)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
** Bassist Calls for Equal Credits on Apple Music (and Beyond)
————————————————————
By Andrew Flanagan (http://www.billboard.com/author/andrew-flanagan-1494180) | July 06, 2015 10:41 AM EDT
“We want to know who’s playing the music we’re hearing, who produced it, who arranged it, where it was recorded and by whom,” reads the MoveOn petition page (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/show-the-album-credits.fb50?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=2220927) for ‘Show the Album Credits on Apple Music!’
Bassist Jon Burr launched the campaign yesterday (July 5), following the explosive launch week of Apple Music, which garnered many positive reviews, particularly around the service’s free Beats 1 international radio station.
“We chose to target Apple at this time because the rollout of Apple Music is missing this category of information,” the petition’s creator, Jon Burr (https://twitter.com/jonburr) , tells Billboard.
“Apple has shown a willingness to listen to feedback in the past, and is sensitive to their user base (which contains many of these same creatives). As the leader in technology and music marketing, if they set a trend, others may follow.”
Metadata is a problem that has plagued the digital music space for years (http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-mobile/1560778/how-inconsistent-metadata-impedes-music-industry-growth) , suffering from a lack of standardization around music files and their internal cataloguing of contributors to the work they contain. The lack, or incompleteness, of metadata can adversely affect artist payouts as well — if the robot doesn’t know where to look, if doesn’t know which palm to place the penny.
“We understand that doing this will create a burden on these services — many just don’t have access to the information due to the way digital music is delivered to them,” says Burr. “If we can encourage a cultural shift going forward and develop enhanced supply chains, we’ll be making the kind of progress needed by musicians, composers, lyricists, engineers, photographers, designers, and other contributing creatives.”
Spotify and Pandora, Apple Music’s biggest competitors, do not list comprehensive credits either when songs are played. Recordings within YouTube that have been scanned into the company’s “sort-of-switched-on” (still in beta) Music Key program do list label, publisher, composer(s) and performers (as in this Percy Mayfield recording (https://youtu.be/XgY7NjVPEl4) ).
Spotify refused to comment for this report. A request for comment from Pandora wasn’t immediately returned.
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=d31e727f35) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=d31e727f35&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74 – Yahoo News
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/french-jazzman-eddy-louiss-once-stan-getz-quartet-180852016.html
Jazz organist Eddy Louiss performs on the stage of the floral park in Vincennes, during the 9th edition of the Paris Jazz Festival on May 18, 2002 (AFP Photo/Pierre-Franck Colombier)
** French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74
————————————————————
Paris (AFP) – Eddy Louiss, a French jazzman who played with the Stan Getz quartet in the early 1970s, died Tuesday in hospital in central western France aged 74.
The Paris-born musician, who played the Hammond organ, had undergone two surgeries in recent days for a cataract, his son, Pierre Louiss, told AFP.
He did not survive a third surgery following a fall and passed away “peacefully, surrounded by family,” Pierre Louiss said.
Eddy Louiss had his left leg amputated in the early 1990s after suffering artery problems and had made few public appearances in recent years, though he was still working on musical projects, his son said.
Born in Paris on May 2, 1941, Eddy Louiss got his start in his father’s orchestra in the 1950s. His father had changed his last name from Louise.
In the 1960s, Eddy Louiss was part of a French vocal group of renown, the Double Six, and it was there he took up the organ.
His virtuoso playing earned him a slot with the Stan Getz quarter during a tour in 1971 and with other celebrated figures in jazz, including Claude Nougaro, a leading French musician with whom he played for 13 years, up to 1977.
After that he made the decision, one that his son described as “not that easy”, to split from Nougaro to head out on a solo career.
Back in the 90s when I was label manager for Dreyfus Jazz I had the good fortune to issue the US release of the
** Eddy Louiss Trio with Rene Thomas-guitar and Kenny Clarke-drums
————————————————————
You can check it out here (http://www.discogs.com/Eddy-Louiss-Kenny-Clarke-Ren%C3%A9-Thomas-Trio/release/3356582) :
Listen Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZO8z99Eqj8)
** Eddy Louiss YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpEeNZXXWwk)
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=40e8935734) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=40e8935734&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74 – Yahoo News
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/french-jazzman-eddy-louiss-once-stan-getz-quartet-180852016.html
Jazz organist Eddy Louiss performs on the stage of the floral park in Vincennes, during the 9th edition of the Paris Jazz Festival on May 18, 2002 (AFP Photo/Pierre-Franck Colombier)
** French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74
————————————————————
Paris (AFP) – Eddy Louiss, a French jazzman who played with the Stan Getz quartet in the early 1970s, died Tuesday in hospital in central western France aged 74.
The Paris-born musician, who played the Hammond organ, had undergone two surgeries in recent days for a cataract, his son, Pierre Louiss, told AFP.
He did not survive a third surgery following a fall and passed away “peacefully, surrounded by family,” Pierre Louiss said.
Eddy Louiss had his left leg amputated in the early 1990s after suffering artery problems and had made few public appearances in recent years, though he was still working on musical projects, his son said.
Born in Paris on May 2, 1941, Eddy Louiss got his start in his father’s orchestra in the 1950s. His father had changed his last name from Louise.
In the 1960s, Eddy Louiss was part of a French vocal group of renown, the Double Six, and it was there he took up the organ.
His virtuoso playing earned him a slot with the Stan Getz quarter during a tour in 1971 and with other celebrated figures in jazz, including Claude Nougaro, a leading French musician with whom he played for 13 years, up to 1977.
After that he made the decision, one that his son described as “not that easy”, to split from Nougaro to head out on a solo career.
Back in the 90s when I was label manager for Dreyfus Jazz I had the good fortune to issue the US release of the
** Eddy Louiss Trio with Rene Thomas-guitar and Kenny Clarke-drums
————————————————————
You can check it out here (http://www.discogs.com/Eddy-Louiss-Kenny-Clarke-Ren%C3%A9-Thomas-Trio/release/3356582) :
Listen Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZO8z99Eqj8)
** Eddy Louiss YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpEeNZXXWwk)
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=40e8935734) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=40e8935734&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74 – Yahoo News
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/french-jazzman-eddy-louiss-once-stan-getz-quartet-180852016.html
Jazz organist Eddy Louiss performs on the stage of the floral park in Vincennes, during the 9th edition of the Paris Jazz Festival on May 18, 2002 (AFP Photo/Pierre-Franck Colombier)
** French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74
————————————————————
Paris (AFP) – Eddy Louiss, a French jazzman who played with the Stan Getz quartet in the early 1970s, died Tuesday in hospital in central western France aged 74.
The Paris-born musician, who played the Hammond organ, had undergone two surgeries in recent days for a cataract, his son, Pierre Louiss, told AFP.
He did not survive a third surgery following a fall and passed away “peacefully, surrounded by family,” Pierre Louiss said.
Eddy Louiss had his left leg amputated in the early 1990s after suffering artery problems and had made few public appearances in recent years, though he was still working on musical projects, his son said.
Born in Paris on May 2, 1941, Eddy Louiss got his start in his father’s orchestra in the 1950s. His father had changed his last name from Louise.
In the 1960s, Eddy Louiss was part of a French vocal group of renown, the Double Six, and it was there he took up the organ.
His virtuoso playing earned him a slot with the Stan Getz quarter during a tour in 1971 and with other celebrated figures in jazz, including Claude Nougaro, a leading French musician with whom he played for 13 years, up to 1977.
After that he made the decision, one that his son described as “not that easy”, to split from Nougaro to head out on a solo career.
Back in the 90s when I was label manager for Dreyfus Jazz I had the good fortune to issue the US release of the
** Eddy Louiss Trio with Rene Thomas-guitar and Kenny Clarke-drums
————————————————————
You can check it out here (http://www.discogs.com/Eddy-Louiss-Kenny-Clarke-Ren%C3%A9-Thomas-Trio/release/3356582) :
Listen Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZO8z99Eqj8)
** Eddy Louiss YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpEeNZXXWwk)
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=40e8935734) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=40e8935734&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74 – Yahoo News
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/french-jazzman-eddy-louiss-once-stan-getz-quartet-180852016.html
Jazz organist Eddy Louiss performs on the stage of the floral park in Vincennes, during the 9th edition of the Paris Jazz Festival on May 18, 2002 (AFP Photo/Pierre-Franck Colombier)
** French jazzman Eddy Louiss, once in Stan Getz quartet, dies at 74
————————————————————
Paris (AFP) – Eddy Louiss, a French jazzman who played with the Stan Getz quartet in the early 1970s, died Tuesday in hospital in central western France aged 74.
The Paris-born musician, who played the Hammond organ, had undergone two surgeries in recent days for a cataract, his son, Pierre Louiss, told AFP.
He did not survive a third surgery following a fall and passed away “peacefully, surrounded by family,” Pierre Louiss said.
Eddy Louiss had his left leg amputated in the early 1990s after suffering artery problems and had made few public appearances in recent years, though he was still working on musical projects, his son said.
Born in Paris on May 2, 1941, Eddy Louiss got his start in his father’s orchestra in the 1950s. His father had changed his last name from Louise.
In the 1960s, Eddy Louiss was part of a French vocal group of renown, the Double Six, and it was there he took up the organ.
His virtuoso playing earned him a slot with the Stan Getz quarter during a tour in 1971 and with other celebrated figures in jazz, including Claude Nougaro, a leading French musician with whom he played for 13 years, up to 1977.
After that he made the decision, one that his son described as “not that easy”, to split from Nougaro to head out on a solo career.
Back in the 90s when I was label manager for Dreyfus Jazz I had the good fortune to issue the US release of the
** Eddy Louiss Trio with Rene Thomas-guitar and Kenny Clarke-drums
————————————————————
You can check it out here (http://www.discogs.com/Eddy-Louiss-Kenny-Clarke-Ren%C3%A9-Thomas-Trio/release/3356582) :
Listen Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZO8z99Eqj8)
** Eddy Louiss YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpEeNZXXWwk)
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=40e8935734) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=40e8935734&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Louis Armstrong, jazz legend, dies in 1971 – Originally published by the Daily News on July 7, 1971
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/louis-armstrong-jazz-legend-dies-1971-article-1.2268366
** Louis Armstrong, jazz legend, dies in 1971
————————————————————
Exported.; Warnecke, New York Daily News
** Trumpeter Louis Armstrong in the Daily News color studio c. 1950. This is a copy of a carbro print on display at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
————————————————————
(Originally published by the Daily News on July 7, 1971. This story was written by Anthony Burton.)
“When the times comes for me to head for the pearly gates, I’ll play a duet with Gabriel – maybe it’ll be ‘Sleepy Time Down South’ or maybe ‘Hello, Dolly’” – Satchmo.
Louis Armstrong, the jazzman whose peerless horn gave birth to music fit for the angels, died in his sleep yesterday at his home on 107th St., Corona, Queens.
Armstrong, who celebrated his 71st birthday two days earlier – on the 4th of July – apparently died of heart failure, according to a family spokesman.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S BODY IS LAID TO REST IN QUEENS (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/louis-satchmo-armstrong-body-laid-rest-queens-article-1.2269318)
He was released from Beth Israel Hospital a few weeks ago after spending 10 weeks there, undergoing treatment for heart and kidney ailments:
“In New Orleans, I played at as many funerals as I could get,” he mused, “and cats died like flies, so I got a lot of nice gigs out of that.
“It’s business. They going to enjoy blowing over me, ain’t they? Cats will be coming from California and everywhere else just to play.”
Whether they play or not, those cats will be there Friday to pay tribute to Pops, a trumpeter who could even put soul into the stuffy State Department.
State Department Mourns
Spokesman Charles W. Bray said yesterday, “The Department of State, for which he traveled on tours to almost every corner of the globe, mourns the passing of this great American.”
New York Daily News
** Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong died two days after his 71st birthday. Published Wednesday July 7, 1971.
————————————————————
Satchmo didn’t speak like that, but he made himself clearer than any diplomat.
“I play the trumpet in any language,” he used to say. “If they understand it, that’s any language.
“A note’s a note in any language, and if you hit it – beautiful – they dig it.”
In London once, he prepared to play a number and looked up from the stage with the famous grin. “This one’s for you, Rex,” he said. From the royal box, King George V acknowledged the honor.
Armstrong first picked up a horn in New Orleans, where he was born in 1900 to a laborer and his wife, a former domestic servant. The town’s notorious brothel district, Storyville, was wide open and young Louis grew up in the midst of thieves and cutthroats, prostitutes and madams.
He loved it, but particularly he loved the jazz that was evolving among musicians who played in the plush brothels. Jelly Roll Morton played piano at Miss Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall on Basin St.
Still in shorts pants, Armstrong learned to play a little toy slide whistle. He would listen as musicians on bandwagons touted their appearances at local clubs.
“Two wagons would park head-to-head and blow until one band was reduced to a frazzle,” he remembered.
Long afterwards, Armstrong told writer Larry L. King that his first professional gig was at 15 as a substitute cornet player in a honky tonky. He made 15 cents.
Sang in Street with Pals
AP
** Picture showing Louis Armstrong playing trumpet for his wife, Lucille, in front of the Great Sphinx and pyramids in Giza, Egypt.
————————————————————
“But I sang for my money long before I played for it,” he said. “When I was around 12, we formed this quartet. We’d sing on the streets and in taverns – pass the hat; might make six bits, a dollar.
“After hours all them prostitutes would be juicing, having a little fun, and they would offer us big tips to entertain ’em. Some would hold us on their laps and we would sniff the pretty scents and powders they wore.”
When he was 16, Armstrong found a patron in King Joe Oliver. Oliver gave the youngster a new horn, fed him and, most important, got him jobs.
“Lotta claims been made that Bunk Johnson put me wise to trumpet,” Armstrong said later. “Bunk hisself helped that story along. No such thing. Joe Oliver was the man.”
Aged 19, Armstrong married the first of his four wives, Daisy Parker. Once she found him with another woman and went at him with a brickbat.
“I ain’t been no angel,” Armstrong said later. “But I never once set out to harm NO cat.”
In 1922, his reputation already growing, Armstrong took the train to Chicago to join Oliver as second trumpet for $50 a week. It was a tough town, then and later.
“One night this big hood crashes my dressing room in Chicago and instructs me that I will open in such-and-such a club in New York the next night,” Armstrong told King.
“I tell him I got this Chicago engagement and don’t plan no traveling. And I turn my back on him to show I’m so COOL. Then I hear this sound: snap! click! I turn around and he was pulled this vast revolver on me and cocked it. Jesus, it look like a cannon and sound like death!
“So I look down that steel and say, ‘Weeell, maybe I do open in New York tomorrow.’”
AP
** Louis Armstrong displayed his broad smile in this 1932 file photo, made in Chicago to promote Armstrong’s first European tour.
————————————————————
Instead, Armstrong contacted every Chicago tough he and his friends knew – “it must have been 1,800 of ’em” – and asked them to pass the word he wasn’t to be messed with. He didn’t go to New York.
He organized his first band, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, and began a period of spontaneous inventiveness that produced records now known as classics and worth hundreds of dollars.
Critics said his lips and strong teeth gave him a natural advantage with a trumpet or cornet. That vast mouth also led to his nicknames, first “Dippermouth,” then “Sathelmouth,” later shortened to “Satchmo.”
In later years, Armstrong was accused of becoming too much the showman, relying too much on the white handkerchiefs, the teeth-baring grin, the voice that seemed to come gurgling up from an emptying wash basin.
Militants accused him of playing the Uncle Tom for his white audiences.
Billie Holiday watched him on TV once and murmured, “God bless Louis. He Toms from the heart.”
But Armstrong could get angry about the sufferings of his people. After seeing the televised gassing and clubbing of blacks in the South, he said:
“They would beat Jesus if he was black and marched… Tell me, how is it possible that human beings treat each other in this way today? Hitler is dead a long time. Or is he?”
But, above all, Armstrong was a musician who simply wanted to entertain people.
“I believe in myself, and I know what I can do when I pick up the horn,” he said shortly before his death. “Lots of guys just hoping that they play something. I don’t have to go in a corner and practice nothing.
“I play a piece of music and the thought of the life of that tune comes in my head… just the music, that’s all I’m interested in.”
Tags:
archives (safari-reader://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tags/archives)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
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Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Louis Armstrong, jazz legend, dies in 1971 – Originally published by the Daily News on July 7, 1971
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/louis-armstrong-jazz-legend-dies-1971-article-1.2268366
** Louis Armstrong, jazz legend, dies in 1971
————————————————————
Exported.; Warnecke, New York Daily News
** Trumpeter Louis Armstrong in the Daily News color studio c. 1950. This is a copy of a carbro print on display at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
————————————————————
(Originally published by the Daily News on July 7, 1971. This story was written by Anthony Burton.)
“When the times comes for me to head for the pearly gates, I’ll play a duet with Gabriel – maybe it’ll be ‘Sleepy Time Down South’ or maybe ‘Hello, Dolly’” – Satchmo.
Louis Armstrong, the jazzman whose peerless horn gave birth to music fit for the angels, died in his sleep yesterday at his home on 107th St., Corona, Queens.
Armstrong, who celebrated his 71st birthday two days earlier – on the 4th of July – apparently died of heart failure, according to a family spokesman.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S BODY IS LAID TO REST IN QUEENS (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/louis-satchmo-armstrong-body-laid-rest-queens-article-1.2269318)
He was released from Beth Israel Hospital a few weeks ago after spending 10 weeks there, undergoing treatment for heart and kidney ailments:
“In New Orleans, I played at as many funerals as I could get,” he mused, “and cats died like flies, so I got a lot of nice gigs out of that.
“It’s business. They going to enjoy blowing over me, ain’t they? Cats will be coming from California and everywhere else just to play.”
Whether they play or not, those cats will be there Friday to pay tribute to Pops, a trumpeter who could even put soul into the stuffy State Department.
State Department Mourns
Spokesman Charles W. Bray said yesterday, “The Department of State, for which he traveled on tours to almost every corner of the globe, mourns the passing of this great American.”
New York Daily News
** Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong died two days after his 71st birthday. Published Wednesday July 7, 1971.
————————————————————
Satchmo didn’t speak like that, but he made himself clearer than any diplomat.
“I play the trumpet in any language,” he used to say. “If they understand it, that’s any language.
“A note’s a note in any language, and if you hit it – beautiful – they dig it.”
In London once, he prepared to play a number and looked up from the stage with the famous grin. “This one’s for you, Rex,” he said. From the royal box, King George V acknowledged the honor.
Armstrong first picked up a horn in New Orleans, where he was born in 1900 to a laborer and his wife, a former domestic servant. The town’s notorious brothel district, Storyville, was wide open and young Louis grew up in the midst of thieves and cutthroats, prostitutes and madams.
He loved it, but particularly he loved the jazz that was evolving among musicians who played in the plush brothels. Jelly Roll Morton played piano at Miss Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall on Basin St.
Still in shorts pants, Armstrong learned to play a little toy slide whistle. He would listen as musicians on bandwagons touted their appearances at local clubs.
“Two wagons would park head-to-head and blow until one band was reduced to a frazzle,” he remembered.
Long afterwards, Armstrong told writer Larry L. King that his first professional gig was at 15 as a substitute cornet player in a honky tonky. He made 15 cents.
Sang in Street with Pals
AP
** Picture showing Louis Armstrong playing trumpet for his wife, Lucille, in front of the Great Sphinx and pyramids in Giza, Egypt.
————————————————————
“But I sang for my money long before I played for it,” he said. “When I was around 12, we formed this quartet. We’d sing on the streets and in taverns – pass the hat; might make six bits, a dollar.
“After hours all them prostitutes would be juicing, having a little fun, and they would offer us big tips to entertain ’em. Some would hold us on their laps and we would sniff the pretty scents and powders they wore.”
When he was 16, Armstrong found a patron in King Joe Oliver. Oliver gave the youngster a new horn, fed him and, most important, got him jobs.
“Lotta claims been made that Bunk Johnson put me wise to trumpet,” Armstrong said later. “Bunk hisself helped that story along. No such thing. Joe Oliver was the man.”
Aged 19, Armstrong married the first of his four wives, Daisy Parker. Once she found him with another woman and went at him with a brickbat.
“I ain’t been no angel,” Armstrong said later. “But I never once set out to harm NO cat.”
In 1922, his reputation already growing, Armstrong took the train to Chicago to join Oliver as second trumpet for $50 a week. It was a tough town, then and later.
“One night this big hood crashes my dressing room in Chicago and instructs me that I will open in such-and-such a club in New York the next night,” Armstrong told King.
“I tell him I got this Chicago engagement and don’t plan no traveling. And I turn my back on him to show I’m so COOL. Then I hear this sound: snap! click! I turn around and he was pulled this vast revolver on me and cocked it. Jesus, it look like a cannon and sound like death!
“So I look down that steel and say, ‘Weeell, maybe I do open in New York tomorrow.’”
AP
** Louis Armstrong displayed his broad smile in this 1932 file photo, made in Chicago to promote Armstrong’s first European tour.
————————————————————
Instead, Armstrong contacted every Chicago tough he and his friends knew – “it must have been 1,800 of ’em” – and asked them to pass the word he wasn’t to be messed with. He didn’t go to New York.
He organized his first band, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, and began a period of spontaneous inventiveness that produced records now known as classics and worth hundreds of dollars.
Critics said his lips and strong teeth gave him a natural advantage with a trumpet or cornet. That vast mouth also led to his nicknames, first “Dippermouth,” then “Sathelmouth,” later shortened to “Satchmo.”
In later years, Armstrong was accused of becoming too much the showman, relying too much on the white handkerchiefs, the teeth-baring grin, the voice that seemed to come gurgling up from an emptying wash basin.
Militants accused him of playing the Uncle Tom for his white audiences.
Billie Holiday watched him on TV once and murmured, “God bless Louis. He Toms from the heart.”
But Armstrong could get angry about the sufferings of his people. After seeing the televised gassing and clubbing of blacks in the South, he said:
“They would beat Jesus if he was black and marched… Tell me, how is it possible that human beings treat each other in this way today? Hitler is dead a long time. Or is he?”
But, above all, Armstrong was a musician who simply wanted to entertain people.
“I believe in myself, and I know what I can do when I pick up the horn,” he said shortly before his death. “Lots of guys just hoping that they play something. I don’t have to go in a corner and practice nothing.
“I play a piece of music and the thought of the life of that tune comes in my head… just the music, that’s all I’m interested in.”
Tags:
archives (safari-reader://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tags/archives)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Louis Armstrong, jazz legend, dies in 1971 – Originally published by the Daily News on July 7, 1971
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/louis-armstrong-jazz-legend-dies-1971-article-1.2268366
** Louis Armstrong, jazz legend, dies in 1971
————————————————————
Exported.; Warnecke, New York Daily News
** Trumpeter Louis Armstrong in the Daily News color studio c. 1950. This is a copy of a carbro print on display at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
————————————————————
(Originally published by the Daily News on July 7, 1971. This story was written by Anthony Burton.)
“When the times comes for me to head for the pearly gates, I’ll play a duet with Gabriel – maybe it’ll be ‘Sleepy Time Down South’ or maybe ‘Hello, Dolly’” – Satchmo.
Louis Armstrong, the jazzman whose peerless horn gave birth to music fit for the angels, died in his sleep yesterday at his home on 107th St., Corona, Queens.
Armstrong, who celebrated his 71st birthday two days earlier – on the 4th of July – apparently died of heart failure, according to a family spokesman.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S BODY IS LAID TO REST IN QUEENS (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/louis-satchmo-armstrong-body-laid-rest-queens-article-1.2269318)
He was released from Beth Israel Hospital a few weeks ago after spending 10 weeks there, undergoing treatment for heart and kidney ailments:
“In New Orleans, I played at as many funerals as I could get,” he mused, “and cats died like flies, so I got a lot of nice gigs out of that.
“It’s business. They going to enjoy blowing over me, ain’t they? Cats will be coming from California and everywhere else just to play.”
Whether they play or not, those cats will be there Friday to pay tribute to Pops, a trumpeter who could even put soul into the stuffy State Department.
State Department Mourns
Spokesman Charles W. Bray said yesterday, “The Department of State, for which he traveled on tours to almost every corner of the globe, mourns the passing of this great American.”
New York Daily News
** Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong died two days after his 71st birthday. Published Wednesday July 7, 1971.
————————————————————
Satchmo didn’t speak like that, but he made himself clearer than any diplomat.
“I play the trumpet in any language,” he used to say. “If they understand it, that’s any language.
“A note’s a note in any language, and if you hit it – beautiful – they dig it.”
In London once, he prepared to play a number and looked up from the stage with the famous grin. “This one’s for you, Rex,” he said. From the royal box, King George V acknowledged the honor.
Armstrong first picked up a horn in New Orleans, where he was born in 1900 to a laborer and his wife, a former domestic servant. The town’s notorious brothel district, Storyville, was wide open and young Louis grew up in the midst of thieves and cutthroats, prostitutes and madams.
He loved it, but particularly he loved the jazz that was evolving among musicians who played in the plush brothels. Jelly Roll Morton played piano at Miss Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall on Basin St.
Still in shorts pants, Armstrong learned to play a little toy slide whistle. He would listen as musicians on bandwagons touted their appearances at local clubs.
“Two wagons would park head-to-head and blow until one band was reduced to a frazzle,” he remembered.
Long afterwards, Armstrong told writer Larry L. King that his first professional gig was at 15 as a substitute cornet player in a honky tonky. He made 15 cents.
Sang in Street with Pals
AP
** Picture showing Louis Armstrong playing trumpet for his wife, Lucille, in front of the Great Sphinx and pyramids in Giza, Egypt.
————————————————————
“But I sang for my money long before I played for it,” he said. “When I was around 12, we formed this quartet. We’d sing on the streets and in taverns – pass the hat; might make six bits, a dollar.
“After hours all them prostitutes would be juicing, having a little fun, and they would offer us big tips to entertain ’em. Some would hold us on their laps and we would sniff the pretty scents and powders they wore.”
When he was 16, Armstrong found a patron in King Joe Oliver. Oliver gave the youngster a new horn, fed him and, most important, got him jobs.
“Lotta claims been made that Bunk Johnson put me wise to trumpet,” Armstrong said later. “Bunk hisself helped that story along. No such thing. Joe Oliver was the man.”
Aged 19, Armstrong married the first of his four wives, Daisy Parker. Once she found him with another woman and went at him with a brickbat.
“I ain’t been no angel,” Armstrong said later. “But I never once set out to harm NO cat.”
In 1922, his reputation already growing, Armstrong took the train to Chicago to join Oliver as second trumpet for $50 a week. It was a tough town, then and later.
“One night this big hood crashes my dressing room in Chicago and instructs me that I will open in such-and-such a club in New York the next night,” Armstrong told King.
“I tell him I got this Chicago engagement and don’t plan no traveling. And I turn my back on him to show I’m so COOL. Then I hear this sound: snap! click! I turn around and he was pulled this vast revolver on me and cocked it. Jesus, it look like a cannon and sound like death!
“So I look down that steel and say, ‘Weeell, maybe I do open in New York tomorrow.’”
AP
** Louis Armstrong displayed his broad smile in this 1932 file photo, made in Chicago to promote Armstrong’s first European tour.
————————————————————
Instead, Armstrong contacted every Chicago tough he and his friends knew – “it must have been 1,800 of ’em” – and asked them to pass the word he wasn’t to be messed with. He didn’t go to New York.
He organized his first band, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, and began a period of spontaneous inventiveness that produced records now known as classics and worth hundreds of dollars.
Critics said his lips and strong teeth gave him a natural advantage with a trumpet or cornet. That vast mouth also led to his nicknames, first “Dippermouth,” then “Sathelmouth,” later shortened to “Satchmo.”
In later years, Armstrong was accused of becoming too much the showman, relying too much on the white handkerchiefs, the teeth-baring grin, the voice that seemed to come gurgling up from an emptying wash basin.
Militants accused him of playing the Uncle Tom for his white audiences.
Billie Holiday watched him on TV once and murmured, “God bless Louis. He Toms from the heart.”
But Armstrong could get angry about the sufferings of his people. After seeing the televised gassing and clubbing of blacks in the South, he said:
“They would beat Jesus if he was black and marched… Tell me, how is it possible that human beings treat each other in this way today? Hitler is dead a long time. Or is he?”
But, above all, Armstrong was a musician who simply wanted to entertain people.
“I believe in myself, and I know what I can do when I pick up the horn,” he said shortly before his death. “Lots of guys just hoping that they play something. I don’t have to go in a corner and practice nothing.
“I play a piece of music and the thought of the life of that tune comes in my head… just the music, that’s all I’m interested in.”
Tags:
archives (safari-reader://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tags/archives)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=79f928e325) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=79f928e325&e=[UNIQID])
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
‘Playboy Swings’ By Patty Farmer to Release in September
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/patty-farmers-playboy-swings-releases-in-september/
** Patty Farmer’s ‘Playboy Swings’ Releases in September
————————————————————
http://www.eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/playboy.jpgPatty Farmer’s upcoming book accounts the story of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals.
*Since the launch of Playboy magazine (http://www.playboymagazinestore.com/) in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first is the celebration of the world’s most beautiful & desirable women and the second is its involvement with music. The Playboy experience was never just about sex—it was about lifestyle. And music—particularly the finest jazz, a personal passion of Hefner’s—has always been an essential component of that lifestyle.
While many books have been written about the Playboy organization and the ultimate playboy himself, Hugh Hefner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner) , no book—until this one—has focused specifically on Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals. Patty Farmer’s “ (http://patty-farmer.com/) Playboy Swings (http://patty-farmer.com/) “ is a groundbreaking look at Playboy through a new lens: music.
In addition to its renowned coverage of music in the magazine, Playboy began to sponsor a series of historic jazz festivals, starting with the groundbreaking 1959 Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago celebrating the magazine’s 5^th Anniversary.
Twenty years later in 1979, Hef enlisted George Wein, the world’s most famous jazz impresario, to help him revive the Playboy Jazz Festival (http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/playboyjazz) at perhaps the most famous music venue in the world: The Hollywood Bowl. This annual event continues to this day, attracting legendary stars, tens of thousands of ticket-buyers and employing the talents of thousands of musicians.
It was the success of that inaugural jazz festival that gave birth to the idea of the Playboy Club (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Club) which opened its first doors in Chicago on February 29, 1960. And once the clubs took hold, it was only natural that they would offer live performances featuring the sort of music the magazine endorsed. As much as anything—including the clubs’ iconic Bunnies—the music presented at the clubs set the tone of the organization and kept patrons coming back for more.
From the first issue of the magazine, music enjoyed pride of place, and by 1957, Playboy had launched its “All Star Poll,” in which readers were invited to vote for their favorite musicians and acts. This led to what was, at the time, a rather bold step for the young company: Playboy began to produce records. Now, Playboy was doing more than discussing or reviewing music; it was actually presenting it.
Two months after that first Jazz Festival in October 1959, Hefner launched his first TV project, Playboy’s Penthouse, and all the top-notch performers and musicians dropped by. Comics made the scene as well, including the legendary Lenny Bruce on the very first show. A later foray into television, Playboy After Dark (1968), was no less welcoming to the artists of the day. This time, traditional pop singers such as Vic Damone and Johnny Mathis shared the bill with the likes of Ike and Tina Turner and Sonny & Cher.
At its peak, Playboy was the largest employer of talent in the country.
The Playboy Clubs reached their apogee in the mid-to-late 1960s, and nothing like the wide-ranging Playboy “circuit” for entertainers had been seen since the Golden Age of VaudevilleBy the time the clubs began losing momentum in the late ‘70s, Playboy had spent several decades shaping American musical taste and cultural values.
While music may not be the first thing you think of when you hear the word Playboy, it should certainly be in the top two—and “Playboy Swings” is meant insure that. Compiled with the cooperation of hundreds of people
who were on the scene throughout Playboy’s rise, fall, and renaissance, “Playboy Swings” carries readers on a seductive journey through the history of the empire—all the while focusing on the entertainment that made it unique.
Featuring candid, in-depth interviews with a multitude of musicians and singers, as well as those involved behind the scenes, the book moves from the inception of the Playboy Empire through the 1959 jazz festival, to the opening of club after club. Throughout the book, it is the artists who do most of the talking—and they have a lot to say about the golden era of
Playboy entertainment. The result is a fresh take on one of the great social and cultural institutions of our time, as well as a unique first-person history of American popular performance in the second half of the 20^thcentury.
“Playboy, (Hef), has been a good friend to music in general, but especially jazz. We need him again!”—Al Jarreau
“You weren’t taken seriously if you didn’t have a Playboy key!” “Hugh Hefner didn’t care if you were black, white or purple, only if you were funny or could sing.”—Dick Gregory
“God Bless the Playboy Clubs and Hugh Hefner, they made Gregory, Dad and myself stars!”—Maurice Hines
Now, in the 21^st century, the clubs are starting to come back to life. There’s a new second-generation London Club, which opened in 2011, that is packing them in nightly and a new generation is discovering the magic and legend of the Playboy mystique.
source:
Nina Gordon
ngpr2@sbcglobal.net (mailto:ngpr2@sbcglobal.net)
** Recent Posts
————————————————————
* Man Breaks Down After Recognizing Judge As Former Classmate (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/man-breaks-down-after-recognizing-judge-as-former-classmate-watch/)
* Patty Farmer’s ‘Playboy Swings’ Releases in September (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/patty-farmers-playboy-swings-releases-in-september/)
* Thriller: Sanaa, Ealy & Chestnut in Trailer for ‘The Perfect Guy’ (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/thriller-sanaa-ealy-chestnut-in-trailer-for-the-perfect-guy-watch/)
* Tyra Banks Rants About Industry Pressure on New Models (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/tyra-banks-rants-about-industry-pressure-on-new-models/)
* Uzo Aduba Stuns ‘The View’ Cast with Her Operatic Voice (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/uzo-aduba-stuns-the-view-cast-with-her-operatic-voice-watch/)
* Antonio Fargas Gives Props to Rihanna for ‘BBHMM’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/antonio-fargas-gives-props-to-rihanna-for-bbhmm/)
* Announcing the Luther Vandross Estate’s ‘Power of Love Experience’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/announcing-the-luther-vandross-estate-power-of-love-experience/)
* Google Apologizes for App that Calls Black People ‘Gorillas’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/google-apologizes-for-app-that-calls-black-people-gorillas/)
* Warren Sapp Might Be Going to Jail for Breaking Plea Deal (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/warren-sapp-might-be-going-to-jail-for-breaking-plea-deal/)
* Sizzling Summer Movies Heat Up Box Office (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/sizzling-summer-movies-heat-up-box-office/)
* Discover More Stories on EURweb: Click Here (http://www.eurweb.com/today-posts/)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=1553732b69) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=1553732b69&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
‘Playboy Swings’ By Patty Farmer to Release in September
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/patty-farmers-playboy-swings-releases-in-september/
** Patty Farmer’s ‘Playboy Swings’ Releases in September
————————————————————
http://www.eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/playboy.jpgPatty Farmer’s upcoming book accounts the story of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals.
*Since the launch of Playboy magazine (http://www.playboymagazinestore.com/) in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first is the celebration of the world’s most beautiful & desirable women and the second is its involvement with music. The Playboy experience was never just about sex—it was about lifestyle. And music—particularly the finest jazz, a personal passion of Hefner’s—has always been an essential component of that lifestyle.
While many books have been written about the Playboy organization and the ultimate playboy himself, Hugh Hefner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner) , no book—until this one—has focused specifically on Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals. Patty Farmer’s “ (http://patty-farmer.com/) Playboy Swings (http://patty-farmer.com/) “ is a groundbreaking look at Playboy through a new lens: music.
In addition to its renowned coverage of music in the magazine, Playboy began to sponsor a series of historic jazz festivals, starting with the groundbreaking 1959 Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago celebrating the magazine’s 5^th Anniversary.
Twenty years later in 1979, Hef enlisted George Wein, the world’s most famous jazz impresario, to help him revive the Playboy Jazz Festival (http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/playboyjazz) at perhaps the most famous music venue in the world: The Hollywood Bowl. This annual event continues to this day, attracting legendary stars, tens of thousands of ticket-buyers and employing the talents of thousands of musicians.
It was the success of that inaugural jazz festival that gave birth to the idea of the Playboy Club (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Club) which opened its first doors in Chicago on February 29, 1960. And once the clubs took hold, it was only natural that they would offer live performances featuring the sort of music the magazine endorsed. As much as anything—including the clubs’ iconic Bunnies—the music presented at the clubs set the tone of the organization and kept patrons coming back for more.
From the first issue of the magazine, music enjoyed pride of place, and by 1957, Playboy had launched its “All Star Poll,” in which readers were invited to vote for their favorite musicians and acts. This led to what was, at the time, a rather bold step for the young company: Playboy began to produce records. Now, Playboy was doing more than discussing or reviewing music; it was actually presenting it.
Two months after that first Jazz Festival in October 1959, Hefner launched his first TV project, Playboy’s Penthouse, and all the top-notch performers and musicians dropped by. Comics made the scene as well, including the legendary Lenny Bruce on the very first show. A later foray into television, Playboy After Dark (1968), was no less welcoming to the artists of the day. This time, traditional pop singers such as Vic Damone and Johnny Mathis shared the bill with the likes of Ike and Tina Turner and Sonny & Cher.
At its peak, Playboy was the largest employer of talent in the country.
The Playboy Clubs reached their apogee in the mid-to-late 1960s, and nothing like the wide-ranging Playboy “circuit” for entertainers had been seen since the Golden Age of VaudevilleBy the time the clubs began losing momentum in the late ‘70s, Playboy had spent several decades shaping American musical taste and cultural values.
While music may not be the first thing you think of when you hear the word Playboy, it should certainly be in the top two—and “Playboy Swings” is meant insure that. Compiled with the cooperation of hundreds of people
who were on the scene throughout Playboy’s rise, fall, and renaissance, “Playboy Swings” carries readers on a seductive journey through the history of the empire—all the while focusing on the entertainment that made it unique.
Featuring candid, in-depth interviews with a multitude of musicians and singers, as well as those involved behind the scenes, the book moves from the inception of the Playboy Empire through the 1959 jazz festival, to the opening of club after club. Throughout the book, it is the artists who do most of the talking—and they have a lot to say about the golden era of
Playboy entertainment. The result is a fresh take on one of the great social and cultural institutions of our time, as well as a unique first-person history of American popular performance in the second half of the 20^thcentury.
“Playboy, (Hef), has been a good friend to music in general, but especially jazz. We need him again!”—Al Jarreau
“You weren’t taken seriously if you didn’t have a Playboy key!” “Hugh Hefner didn’t care if you were black, white or purple, only if you were funny or could sing.”—Dick Gregory
“God Bless the Playboy Clubs and Hugh Hefner, they made Gregory, Dad and myself stars!”—Maurice Hines
Now, in the 21^st century, the clubs are starting to come back to life. There’s a new second-generation London Club, which opened in 2011, that is packing them in nightly and a new generation is discovering the magic and legend of the Playboy mystique.
source:
Nina Gordon
ngpr2@sbcglobal.net (mailto:ngpr2@sbcglobal.net)
** Recent Posts
————————————————————
* Man Breaks Down After Recognizing Judge As Former Classmate (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/man-breaks-down-after-recognizing-judge-as-former-classmate-watch/)
* Patty Farmer’s ‘Playboy Swings’ Releases in September (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/patty-farmers-playboy-swings-releases-in-september/)
* Thriller: Sanaa, Ealy & Chestnut in Trailer for ‘The Perfect Guy’ (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/thriller-sanaa-ealy-chestnut-in-trailer-for-the-perfect-guy-watch/)
* Tyra Banks Rants About Industry Pressure on New Models (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/tyra-banks-rants-about-industry-pressure-on-new-models/)
* Uzo Aduba Stuns ‘The View’ Cast with Her Operatic Voice (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/uzo-aduba-stuns-the-view-cast-with-her-operatic-voice-watch/)
* Antonio Fargas Gives Props to Rihanna for ‘BBHMM’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/antonio-fargas-gives-props-to-rihanna-for-bbhmm/)
* Announcing the Luther Vandross Estate’s ‘Power of Love Experience’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/announcing-the-luther-vandross-estate-power-of-love-experience/)
* Google Apologizes for App that Calls Black People ‘Gorillas’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/google-apologizes-for-app-that-calls-black-people-gorillas/)
* Warren Sapp Might Be Going to Jail for Breaking Plea Deal (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/warren-sapp-might-be-going-to-jail-for-breaking-plea-deal/)
* Sizzling Summer Movies Heat Up Box Office (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/sizzling-summer-movies-heat-up-box-office/)
* Discover More Stories on EURweb: Click Here (http://www.eurweb.com/today-posts/)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=1553732b69) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=1553732b69&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
‘Playboy Swings’ By Patty Farmer to Release in September
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/patty-farmers-playboy-swings-releases-in-september/
** Patty Farmer’s ‘Playboy Swings’ Releases in September
————————————————————
http://www.eurweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/playboy.jpgPatty Farmer’s upcoming book accounts the story of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals.
*Since the launch of Playboy magazine (http://www.playboymagazinestore.com/) in 1953, two elements have been remarkably consistent: the first is the celebration of the world’s most beautiful & desirable women and the second is its involvement with music. The Playboy experience was never just about sex—it was about lifestyle. And music—particularly the finest jazz, a personal passion of Hefner’s—has always been an essential component of that lifestyle.
While many books have been written about the Playboy organization and the ultimate playboy himself, Hugh Hefner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner) , no book—until this one—has focused specifically on Playboy and the music scene, its impact on popular entertainment (and vice versa), and the fabulous cadre of performers who took to the stages of the mythic Playboy Clubs and Jazz Festivals. Patty Farmer’s “ (http://patty-farmer.com/) Playboy Swings (http://patty-farmer.com/) “ is a groundbreaking look at Playboy through a new lens: music.
In addition to its renowned coverage of music in the magazine, Playboy began to sponsor a series of historic jazz festivals, starting with the groundbreaking 1959 Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago celebrating the magazine’s 5^th Anniversary.
Twenty years later in 1979, Hef enlisted George Wein, the world’s most famous jazz impresario, to help him revive the Playboy Jazz Festival (http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/playboyjazz) at perhaps the most famous music venue in the world: The Hollywood Bowl. This annual event continues to this day, attracting legendary stars, tens of thousands of ticket-buyers and employing the talents of thousands of musicians.
It was the success of that inaugural jazz festival that gave birth to the idea of the Playboy Club (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Club) which opened its first doors in Chicago on February 29, 1960. And once the clubs took hold, it was only natural that they would offer live performances featuring the sort of music the magazine endorsed. As much as anything—including the clubs’ iconic Bunnies—the music presented at the clubs set the tone of the organization and kept patrons coming back for more.
From the first issue of the magazine, music enjoyed pride of place, and by 1957, Playboy had launched its “All Star Poll,” in which readers were invited to vote for their favorite musicians and acts. This led to what was, at the time, a rather bold step for the young company: Playboy began to produce records. Now, Playboy was doing more than discussing or reviewing music; it was actually presenting it.
Two months after that first Jazz Festival in October 1959, Hefner launched his first TV project, Playboy’s Penthouse, and all the top-notch performers and musicians dropped by. Comics made the scene as well, including the legendary Lenny Bruce on the very first show. A later foray into television, Playboy After Dark (1968), was no less welcoming to the artists of the day. This time, traditional pop singers such as Vic Damone and Johnny Mathis shared the bill with the likes of Ike and Tina Turner and Sonny & Cher.
At its peak, Playboy was the largest employer of talent in the country.
The Playboy Clubs reached their apogee in the mid-to-late 1960s, and nothing like the wide-ranging Playboy “circuit” for entertainers had been seen since the Golden Age of VaudevilleBy the time the clubs began losing momentum in the late ‘70s, Playboy had spent several decades shaping American musical taste and cultural values.
While music may not be the first thing you think of when you hear the word Playboy, it should certainly be in the top two—and “Playboy Swings” is meant insure that. Compiled with the cooperation of hundreds of people
who were on the scene throughout Playboy’s rise, fall, and renaissance, “Playboy Swings” carries readers on a seductive journey through the history of the empire—all the while focusing on the entertainment that made it unique.
Featuring candid, in-depth interviews with a multitude of musicians and singers, as well as those involved behind the scenes, the book moves from the inception of the Playboy Empire through the 1959 jazz festival, to the opening of club after club. Throughout the book, it is the artists who do most of the talking—and they have a lot to say about the golden era of
Playboy entertainment. The result is a fresh take on one of the great social and cultural institutions of our time, as well as a unique first-person history of American popular performance in the second half of the 20^thcentury.
“Playboy, (Hef), has been a good friend to music in general, but especially jazz. We need him again!”—Al Jarreau
“You weren’t taken seriously if you didn’t have a Playboy key!” “Hugh Hefner didn’t care if you were black, white or purple, only if you were funny or could sing.”—Dick Gregory
“God Bless the Playboy Clubs and Hugh Hefner, they made Gregory, Dad and myself stars!”—Maurice Hines
Now, in the 21^st century, the clubs are starting to come back to life. There’s a new second-generation London Club, which opened in 2011, that is packing them in nightly and a new generation is discovering the magic and legend of the Playboy mystique.
source:
Nina Gordon
ngpr2@sbcglobal.net (mailto:ngpr2@sbcglobal.net)
** Recent Posts
————————————————————
* Man Breaks Down After Recognizing Judge As Former Classmate (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/man-breaks-down-after-recognizing-judge-as-former-classmate-watch/)
* Patty Farmer’s ‘Playboy Swings’ Releases in September (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/patty-farmers-playboy-swings-releases-in-september/)
* Thriller: Sanaa, Ealy & Chestnut in Trailer for ‘The Perfect Guy’ (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/thriller-sanaa-ealy-chestnut-in-trailer-for-the-perfect-guy-watch/)
* Tyra Banks Rants About Industry Pressure on New Models (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/tyra-banks-rants-about-industry-pressure-on-new-models/)
* Uzo Aduba Stuns ‘The View’ Cast with Her Operatic Voice (WATCH) (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/uzo-aduba-stuns-the-view-cast-with-her-operatic-voice-watch/)
* Antonio Fargas Gives Props to Rihanna for ‘BBHMM’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/antonio-fargas-gives-props-to-rihanna-for-bbhmm/)
* Announcing the Luther Vandross Estate’s ‘Power of Love Experience’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/announcing-the-luther-vandross-estate-power-of-love-experience/)
* Google Apologizes for App that Calls Black People ‘Gorillas’ (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/google-apologizes-for-app-that-calls-black-people-gorillas/)
* Warren Sapp Might Be Going to Jail for Breaking Plea Deal (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/warren-sapp-might-be-going-to-jail-for-breaking-plea-deal/)
* Sizzling Summer Movies Heat Up Box Office (http://www.eurweb.com/2015/07/sizzling-summer-movies-heat-up-box-office/)
* Discover More Stories on EURweb: Click Here (http://www.eurweb.com/today-posts/)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=1553732b69) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=1553732b69&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Bassist Hal Gaylor July 9th 1929-June 25th 2015
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
July 1, 2015
To: Listings/Critics/Features
From: Jazz Promo Services
www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/ )
Bassist Hal Gaylor
July 9th 1929-June 25th 2015
Harold Walden Gaylor, born July 9^th 1929, slipped from this world surrounded by love from his family & friends on June 25^th 2015, following a long illness.
Hal studied music at McGill University in his native Montreal. He met and married Evelyn Benz in 1955, and moved to New York where he began a long and successful career as a Jazz bassist. He worked with such artists as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Chico Hamilton, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Oscar Peterson, and Charlie Parker as well as many others.
Due to a hearing loss, Hal retired from his music in 1996 and became an addictions counselor and hypnotherapist. Always a prolific artist, he created many paintings and portraits as well as designing several buildings. In 2012 he received the Hudson Valley Jazz Fest Life Time Achievement Award.
Hal was seen by his family and friends as loving, charming, whimsical, and stubborn, with an incredible sense of humor. “He always marched to a different drummer.” His personality was magnetic, drawing friends and strangers alike. He was “a real force of nature” and a true artist in every sense of the word, not just a dreamer but a doer and teacher. Extremely self directed Hal always wanted to leave things better than he found them. He had an adventurous spirit and lived on the cutting edge.
He will forever be remembered by his wife, Evelyn, daughter Stacy, son Jordan and his wife Patti. As well as his grandchildren, Jordan, Katherine, Victoria, Brenda, Donovan, Luna and his nieces and nephews. He predeceased by his grandson Jordan Cody Beste and his sister Betty.
A memorial will be held in celebration of Hal’s life on July 9^th, which would have been his 86^th birthday, at Applebee-McPhillips funeral home Highland Avenue, Middletown, NY, from 5 – 8 PM.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Wallkill River School for the Hal Gaylor Memorial Fund for teen artists.
Donations can be made online (http://wallkillriverschool.com/our-store/) or mailed to Wallkill River School, 232 Ward St. Montgomery, NY, 12549.
A memorial exhibit of Hal’s work is scheduled for February 2016.
www.jazz-portraits.com
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Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services
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T: 845-986-1677 / F: 845-986-1699
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Web Site: www.jazzpromoservices.com/
“Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=12f94320b2) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=12f94320b2&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Bassist Hal Gaylor July 9th 1929-June 25th 2015
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
July 1, 2015
To: Listings/Critics/Features
From: Jazz Promo Services
www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/ )
Bassist Hal Gaylor
July 9th 1929-June 25th 2015
Harold Walden Gaylor, born July 9^th 1929, slipped from this world surrounded by love from his family & friends on June 25^th 2015, following a long illness.
Hal studied music at McGill University in his native Montreal. He met and married Evelyn Benz in 1955, and moved to New York where he began a long and successful career as a Jazz bassist. He worked with such artists as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Chico Hamilton, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Oscar Peterson, and Charlie Parker as well as many others.
Due to a hearing loss, Hal retired from his music in 1996 and became an addictions counselor and hypnotherapist. Always a prolific artist, he created many paintings and portraits as well as designing several buildings. In 2012 he received the Hudson Valley Jazz Fest Life Time Achievement Award.
Hal was seen by his family and friends as loving, charming, whimsical, and stubborn, with an incredible sense of humor. “He always marched to a different drummer.” His personality was magnetic, drawing friends and strangers alike. He was “a real force of nature” and a true artist in every sense of the word, not just a dreamer but a doer and teacher. Extremely self directed Hal always wanted to leave things better than he found them. He had an adventurous spirit and lived on the cutting edge.
He will forever be remembered by his wife, Evelyn, daughter Stacy, son Jordan and his wife Patti. As well as his grandchildren, Jordan, Katherine, Victoria, Brenda, Donovan, Luna and his nieces and nephews. He predeceased by his grandson Jordan Cody Beste and his sister Betty.
A memorial will be held in celebration of Hal’s life on July 9^th, which would have been his 86^th birthday, at Applebee-McPhillips funeral home Highland Avenue, Middletown, NY, from 5 – 8 PM.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Wallkill River School for the Hal Gaylor Memorial Fund for teen artists.
Donations can be made online (http://wallkillriverschool.com/our-store/) or mailed to Wallkill River School, 232 Ward St. Montgomery, NY, 12549.
A memorial exhibit of Hal’s work is scheduled for February 2016.
www.jazz-portraits.com
This E Mail is being sent by:
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services
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HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
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Bassist Hal Gaylor July 9th 1929-June 25th 2015
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
July 1, 2015
To: Listings/Critics/Features
From: Jazz Promo Services
www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/ )
Bassist Hal Gaylor
July 9th 1929-June 25th 2015
Harold Walden Gaylor, born July 9^th 1929, slipped from this world surrounded by love from his family & friends on June 25^th 2015, following a long illness.
Hal studied music at McGill University in his native Montreal. He met and married Evelyn Benz in 1955, and moved to New York where he began a long and successful career as a Jazz bassist. He worked with such artists as Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Chico Hamilton, Lena Horne, Judy Garland, Oscar Peterson, and Charlie Parker as well as many others.
Due to a hearing loss, Hal retired from his music in 1996 and became an addictions counselor and hypnotherapist. Always a prolific artist, he created many paintings and portraits as well as designing several buildings. In 2012 he received the Hudson Valley Jazz Fest Life Time Achievement Award.
Hal was seen by his family and friends as loving, charming, whimsical, and stubborn, with an incredible sense of humor. “He always marched to a different drummer.” His personality was magnetic, drawing friends and strangers alike. He was “a real force of nature” and a true artist in every sense of the word, not just a dreamer but a doer and teacher. Extremely self directed Hal always wanted to leave things better than he found them. He had an adventurous spirit and lived on the cutting edge.
He will forever be remembered by his wife, Evelyn, daughter Stacy, son Jordan and his wife Patti. As well as his grandchildren, Jordan, Katherine, Victoria, Brenda, Donovan, Luna and his nieces and nephews. He predeceased by his grandson Jordan Cody Beste and his sister Betty.
A memorial will be held in celebration of Hal’s life on July 9^th, which would have been his 86^th birthday, at Applebee-McPhillips funeral home Highland Avenue, Middletown, NY, from 5 – 8 PM.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Wallkill River School for the Hal Gaylor Memorial Fund for teen artists.
Donations can be made online (http://wallkillriverschool.com/our-store/) or mailed to Wallkill River School, 232 Ward St. Montgomery, NY, 12549.
A memorial exhibit of Hal’s work is scheduled for February 2016.
www.jazz-portraits.com
This E Mail is being sent by:
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services
272 Ste Route 94 S #1 Warwick, NY 10990
T: 845-986-1677 / F: 845-986-1699
E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
Web Site: www.jazzpromoservices.com/
“Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=12f94320b2) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=12f94320b2&e=[UNIQID])
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus | Night Lights Classic Jazz – WFIU Public Radio
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/great-columbia-jazz-purge-coleman-evans-jarrett-mingus/
** By DAVID BRENT JOHNSON (http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/author/johnsond/)
————————————————————
** The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus
————————————————————
* The cover for a reissue of Ornette Coleman’s Columbia sessions.
Image 1 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Ornette-thology: the SCIENCE FICTION sessions showed Coleman in prime compositional and performing mode, surrounded by sidemen old and new.
* The cover for Ornette Coleman’s Skies of America.
Image 2 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Stranger than fiction: Coleman was upset when Columbia marketed his ambitious orchestral album as jazz instead of classical music.
* The Bill Evans Album cover
Image 3 of 7
Photo: Album cover art
Pianist Bill Evans had long wanted to record for Columbia and scored two Grammy wins with this debut album for the label.
* LP cover for Living Time
Image 4 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Evans’ followup, which put him in the company of arranger George Russell, was a big-budget, experimental large-ensemble album that found no favor with Columbia executives.
* the cover of pianist Keith Jarrett’s Expectations LP
Image 5 of 7
Photo: Album cover art
Unmet expectations: pianist Keith Jarrett’s double-LP and only outing for Columbia. He wanted to do a solo concert albun as a followup but was dropped by the label.
* Cover for Mingus LP
Image 6 of 7
Photo: album covert art
“A Mount Rushmore of jazz”: Charles Mingus was one of the four Columbia notables.
* Cover for Charles Mingus’ Let My Children Hear Music LP.
Image 7 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Let the people hear Mingus: the bassist’s recordings for Columbia signaled his return to the jazz scene.
In 1971 Columbia Records, a storied label for jazz artists such as Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, and Duke Ellington, brought four more notable musicians aboard: free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, bassist Charles Mingus, and two pianists, one established, the other up-and-coming–Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Columbia executive Clive Davis had been taking the label in a more aggressively youth-and-rock-oriented direction, and a number of its early 70s jazz acts such as Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra were or would be rooted in the ascending jazz-rock sound of fusion, which label mainstay Miles Davis had embraced as well. Coleman, Mingus, Jarrett, and Evans did not fit that marketing mold. Their stay would be brief, but it would yield a trove of compelling and expansive music.
** “The Surprise Album Of The Year”
————————————————————
For Bill Evans, landing on Columbia had been a lifelong dream. His first album for the label, simply called The Bill Evans Album, featured him on electric as well as acoustic piano in his standard trio setting, and won two Grammy awards. Columbia gave him a generous budget for a followup, and Evans commissioned a large-scale work from arranger and theorist George Russell, who had helped propel Evans into the jazz spotlight in the 1950s.
Evans scholar Jan Stevens says the result, called Living Time “is generally acknowledged to be the strangest album Bill ever did – what with its avant-garde character, its strange instrument groupings, and its often dissonant parts.” Evans’ drummer at the time, Marty Morell, later termed the album “a disaster” and said that Columbia dropped Evans afterwards because of it. He felt that Russell had simply taken something that he’d already written for a large ensemble and put a few parts for Evans’ trio, which included bassist Eddie Gomez, into it:
Eddie and I –and even Bill — kept looking at each other during the date with confused expressions as if to say “what is going on?”
In an ad for DownBeat Magazine Columbia said Living Time “could be the surprise album of the year.’ For Columbia it was an unpleasant surprise, and Evans’ recording option was not renewed. Evans, not generally given to bitterness, expressed unhappiness about how Columbia executive Clive Davis had handled him and what he saw as Davis’ lack of gratitude for Evans’ Grammy wins.
** Red, White And Blue Skies For Ornette Coleman
————————————————————
Ornette Coleman, considered by many to be the father of free jazz, also gave Columbia an unconventional large-ensemble album. The saxophonist signed with the label in late 1971, with a report in DownBeat saying that it would give him the opportunity to record some of the orchestral music that he had been composing. That music ultimately appeared on the album Skies Of America, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, with Coleman soloing on just a few of the pieces.
Before recording Skies, however, Coleman brought in some of the musicians who had been with him early on–trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins—-as well as trumpeter Bobby Bradford and saxophonist Dewey Redman, for small-group recordings that were eventually reissued as The Complete Science Fiction Sessions. Those sessions found Coleman in prime compositional and performing mode, and we’ll hear “Law Years” from them, as well as music from Skies Of America. But Coleman was unhappy when Columbia chose to market Skies Of Americaas jazz instead of classical music, and a planned two-LP collection of his recordings in Morocco with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, which would have made for a fascinating and groundbreaking addition to his Columbia work, fell through when the label dropped him.
** A Jarrett Concept, Spurned
————————————————————
Keith Jarrett had made a name for himself as an adventurous, wide-ranging pianist first with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Charles Lloyd’s quartet, then with Columbia artist Miles Davis, and he was managed by George Avakian, who had a longstanding relationship with the label, so Jarrett’s signing with them in 1971 seemed almost ordained. Jarrett delivered a double LP, Expectations, that now stands out as an early masterpiece, using strings and brass and Jarrett himself on a variety of instruments to showcase his expanding musical vision, as well as his emerging “American Quartet” with saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian.
Jarrett’s option was picked up by Columbia for a second album, and he had an idea: he wanted to perform and release a solo piano concert. One was recorded, but Columbia suddenly dropped Jarrett in favor of Herbie Hancock. Bruce Lundvall remembered Jarrett calling him on the phone the next day and cursing him, though Lundvall had nothing to do with the decision. Jarrett would go on to record a live solo album with the fledgling ECM label, and the resulting Koln Concert release would become one of the best-selling jazz LPs of all time.
** Let The Public Hear Mingus
————————————————————
Another artist known for occasional outbursts was bassist Charles Mingus. Mingus had been on Columbia before, in the late 1950s, producing the masterpiece Mingus Ah Um, but he had spent much of the past few years low to the ground, and was just beginning to re-emerge in 1971, his profile raised by the recent publication of his autobiography Beneath The Underdog.
The Columbia signing put Mingus back in the company of producer and former 1950s cohort Teo Macero, who was playing an ever-increasingly-important role in the electric era of Miles Davis, and gave Mingus the opportunity, like Ornette Coleman, to mount a large-ensemble recording of his music on the album Let My Children Hear Music. Before that album hit the streets, Columbia also recorded Mingus in concert at New York City’s Philharmonic Hall in February of 1972, joined by a supporting cast that included saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz, as well as longstanding Mingus sidemen like Charles McPherson.
** “A Mount Rushmore Of Jazz”
————————————————————
There are different versions of how Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Charles Mingus were let go by Columbia, over the years tending to crystallize in a single-day narrative that’s sometimes been referred to as “Bad Day at Black Rock,” a nickname for Columbia’s midtown Manhattan headquarters that also evoked a noir film of the 1950s. In his liner notes to a 1982 release of some of Coleman’s sessions, James Isaacs wrote that they were all dropped on the same day in 1973, saying it was “rather like the 1961 New York Yankees suddenly placing Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Mickey Mantle on waivers.” Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall seemed to confirm this version in a 2009 interview that he gave to journalist Ted Panken.
Jazz producer Michael Cuscuna says that Evans, Jarrett, and Mingus were all dropped on the same day, and that Coleman’s release was a separate matter. He thinks that Coleman’s often been grouped with the other three because his departure happened around the same time and that it makes for a sort of “Mount Rushmore of jazz” apocryphal story. He emphasizes that labels failed to pick up artist’s options all the time, generally because their sales weren’t up to expectations, but says that the “Bad Day at Black Rock” still came as a great insult to those who loved jazz. He also points out that all of these acts were not in the mold of fusion, which was riding high on Columbia at the time with Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Miles Davis’ electric period. Herbie Hancock, who began recording for Columbia in 1973, took his music in this direction as well.
In 1973 Clive Davis left Columbia in the midst of a payola scandal, and in the mid-1970s Bruce Lundvall began to bring non-fusion acts back into the fold, signing both saxophonist Dexter Gordon and trumpeter Woody Shaw. Decades later Columbia would proudly reissue all of the albums that you’ll hear on this show. We close out this edition of Night Lights with “Adagio Ma Non Troppo” from Charles Mingus’ 1972 comeback album for Columbia, Let My Children Hear Music.
** More About “The Purge” And Columbia Records In The Early 1970s
————————————————————
* A 2009 interview with Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall (https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/in-response-to-the-passing-of-bruce-lundvall-sept-13-1935-may-19-2015-an-uncut-interview-from-january-2009/)
* The Taurus In Winter: Mingus In The 1970s (http://www.furious.com/perfect/mingus2.html)
* A Look At THE BILL EVANS ALBUM (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/columbreview.html)
* An interview with Bill Evans’ early-70s drummer Marty Morell (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/2morellintvue2.htm)
* An analysis of Bill Evans and George Russell’s LIVING TIME (http://artsfuse.org/52614/fuse-commentary-drill-down-george-russells-living-time/)
* Also check out the recent Night Lights show Entrance Signs: Early Keith Jarrett (http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/birth-early-keith-jarrett/)
Listen to more music from Bill Evans and George Russell’s Living Time:
Read a passage from jazz writer and producer Chris Albertson’s November 1971 article about Miles Davis for Saturday Review, which quotes Columbia executive Clive Davis on the label’s early-1970s jazz policy:
One tangible result of Miles’ recent commercial success his been the signing up by Columbia of several black musicians who last year would hardly have been able to get as far as Clive Davis’ eleventh floor office. Explaining this change in policy, Clive Davis makes one momentarily forget that he is running a highly competitive commercial business: “I am very eager to allow Columbia to be used by the most forward looking American jazz artists, to explore what kind of synergy can come out of jazz and rock. What do the jazz giants, the leading jazz figures of today have to say? What is their reaction to the fact that, in attempting to fuse jazz and rock, Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears have reached millions of people all over the world while they, without such an attempt, only reach a few thousand with their music.” He mentioned that the label has signed Omette Coleman, Jack De Johnette, and Weather Report—an offshoot of Miles’ group—and that it was recording Charles
Mingus. “Just as Columbia sponsored a Modern American Composer series in classical music—not having any less reverence for Stravinsky, Mahler, or classical music performed by the New York Philharmonic or the Philadelphia Orchestra—so we are here exploring a very exciting now development in music, to see where it will go. I don’t know where it will go, but I think that by opening up the company to this kind of exploration of music by brilliant talent, we are providing a tremendous service.”
(The entire article can be read on Chris Albertson’s blog (http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-was-around-this-time-of-year-38.html) .)
Special thanks to Thomas Cunniffe, Michael Cuscuna, Michael Fitzgerald, and Jim Sangrey.
** Music Heard On This Episode
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=623928ae17) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=623928ae17&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus | Night Lights Classic Jazz – WFIU Public Radio
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/great-columbia-jazz-purge-coleman-evans-jarrett-mingus/
** By DAVID BRENT JOHNSON (http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/author/johnsond/)
————————————————————
** The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus
————————————————————
* The cover for a reissue of Ornette Coleman’s Columbia sessions.
Image 1 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Ornette-thology: the SCIENCE FICTION sessions showed Coleman in prime compositional and performing mode, surrounded by sidemen old and new.
* The cover for Ornette Coleman’s Skies of America.
Image 2 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Stranger than fiction: Coleman was upset when Columbia marketed his ambitious orchestral album as jazz instead of classical music.
* The Bill Evans Album cover
Image 3 of 7
Photo: Album cover art
Pianist Bill Evans had long wanted to record for Columbia and scored two Grammy wins with this debut album for the label.
* LP cover for Living Time
Image 4 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Evans’ followup, which put him in the company of arranger George Russell, was a big-budget, experimental large-ensemble album that found no favor with Columbia executives.
* the cover of pianist Keith Jarrett’s Expectations LP
Image 5 of 7
Photo: Album cover art
Unmet expectations: pianist Keith Jarrett’s double-LP and only outing for Columbia. He wanted to do a solo concert albun as a followup but was dropped by the label.
* Cover for Mingus LP
Image 6 of 7
Photo: album covert art
“A Mount Rushmore of jazz”: Charles Mingus was one of the four Columbia notables.
* Cover for Charles Mingus’ Let My Children Hear Music LP.
Image 7 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Let the people hear Mingus: the bassist’s recordings for Columbia signaled his return to the jazz scene.
In 1971 Columbia Records, a storied label for jazz artists such as Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, and Duke Ellington, brought four more notable musicians aboard: free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, bassist Charles Mingus, and two pianists, one established, the other up-and-coming–Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Columbia executive Clive Davis had been taking the label in a more aggressively youth-and-rock-oriented direction, and a number of its early 70s jazz acts such as Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra were or would be rooted in the ascending jazz-rock sound of fusion, which label mainstay Miles Davis had embraced as well. Coleman, Mingus, Jarrett, and Evans did not fit that marketing mold. Their stay would be brief, but it would yield a trove of compelling and expansive music.
** “The Surprise Album Of The Year”
————————————————————
For Bill Evans, landing on Columbia had been a lifelong dream. His first album for the label, simply called The Bill Evans Album, featured him on electric as well as acoustic piano in his standard trio setting, and won two Grammy awards. Columbia gave him a generous budget for a followup, and Evans commissioned a large-scale work from arranger and theorist George Russell, who had helped propel Evans into the jazz spotlight in the 1950s.
Evans scholar Jan Stevens says the result, called Living Time “is generally acknowledged to be the strangest album Bill ever did – what with its avant-garde character, its strange instrument groupings, and its often dissonant parts.” Evans’ drummer at the time, Marty Morell, later termed the album “a disaster” and said that Columbia dropped Evans afterwards because of it. He felt that Russell had simply taken something that he’d already written for a large ensemble and put a few parts for Evans’ trio, which included bassist Eddie Gomez, into it:
Eddie and I –and even Bill — kept looking at each other during the date with confused expressions as if to say “what is going on?”
In an ad for DownBeat Magazine Columbia said Living Time “could be the surprise album of the year.’ For Columbia it was an unpleasant surprise, and Evans’ recording option was not renewed. Evans, not generally given to bitterness, expressed unhappiness about how Columbia executive Clive Davis had handled him and what he saw as Davis’ lack of gratitude for Evans’ Grammy wins.
** Red, White And Blue Skies For Ornette Coleman
————————————————————
Ornette Coleman, considered by many to be the father of free jazz, also gave Columbia an unconventional large-ensemble album. The saxophonist signed with the label in late 1971, with a report in DownBeat saying that it would give him the opportunity to record some of the orchestral music that he had been composing. That music ultimately appeared on the album Skies Of America, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, with Coleman soloing on just a few of the pieces.
Before recording Skies, however, Coleman brought in some of the musicians who had been with him early on–trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins—-as well as trumpeter Bobby Bradford and saxophonist Dewey Redman, for small-group recordings that were eventually reissued as The Complete Science Fiction Sessions. Those sessions found Coleman in prime compositional and performing mode, and we’ll hear “Law Years” from them, as well as music from Skies Of America. But Coleman was unhappy when Columbia chose to market Skies Of Americaas jazz instead of classical music, and a planned two-LP collection of his recordings in Morocco with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, which would have made for a fascinating and groundbreaking addition to his Columbia work, fell through when the label dropped him.
** A Jarrett Concept, Spurned
————————————————————
Keith Jarrett had made a name for himself as an adventurous, wide-ranging pianist first with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Charles Lloyd’s quartet, then with Columbia artist Miles Davis, and he was managed by George Avakian, who had a longstanding relationship with the label, so Jarrett’s signing with them in 1971 seemed almost ordained. Jarrett delivered a double LP, Expectations, that now stands out as an early masterpiece, using strings and brass and Jarrett himself on a variety of instruments to showcase his expanding musical vision, as well as his emerging “American Quartet” with saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian.
Jarrett’s option was picked up by Columbia for a second album, and he had an idea: he wanted to perform and release a solo piano concert. One was recorded, but Columbia suddenly dropped Jarrett in favor of Herbie Hancock. Bruce Lundvall remembered Jarrett calling him on the phone the next day and cursing him, though Lundvall had nothing to do with the decision. Jarrett would go on to record a live solo album with the fledgling ECM label, and the resulting Koln Concert release would become one of the best-selling jazz LPs of all time.
** Let The Public Hear Mingus
————————————————————
Another artist known for occasional outbursts was bassist Charles Mingus. Mingus had been on Columbia before, in the late 1950s, producing the masterpiece Mingus Ah Um, but he had spent much of the past few years low to the ground, and was just beginning to re-emerge in 1971, his profile raised by the recent publication of his autobiography Beneath The Underdog.
The Columbia signing put Mingus back in the company of producer and former 1950s cohort Teo Macero, who was playing an ever-increasingly-important role in the electric era of Miles Davis, and gave Mingus the opportunity, like Ornette Coleman, to mount a large-ensemble recording of his music on the album Let My Children Hear Music. Before that album hit the streets, Columbia also recorded Mingus in concert at New York City’s Philharmonic Hall in February of 1972, joined by a supporting cast that included saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz, as well as longstanding Mingus sidemen like Charles McPherson.
** “A Mount Rushmore Of Jazz”
————————————————————
There are different versions of how Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Charles Mingus were let go by Columbia, over the years tending to crystallize in a single-day narrative that’s sometimes been referred to as “Bad Day at Black Rock,” a nickname for Columbia’s midtown Manhattan headquarters that also evoked a noir film of the 1950s. In his liner notes to a 1982 release of some of Coleman’s sessions, James Isaacs wrote that they were all dropped on the same day in 1973, saying it was “rather like the 1961 New York Yankees suddenly placing Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Mickey Mantle on waivers.” Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall seemed to confirm this version in a 2009 interview that he gave to journalist Ted Panken.
Jazz producer Michael Cuscuna says that Evans, Jarrett, and Mingus were all dropped on the same day, and that Coleman’s release was a separate matter. He thinks that Coleman’s often been grouped with the other three because his departure happened around the same time and that it makes for a sort of “Mount Rushmore of jazz” apocryphal story. He emphasizes that labels failed to pick up artist’s options all the time, generally because their sales weren’t up to expectations, but says that the “Bad Day at Black Rock” still came as a great insult to those who loved jazz. He also points out that all of these acts were not in the mold of fusion, which was riding high on Columbia at the time with Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Miles Davis’ electric period. Herbie Hancock, who began recording for Columbia in 1973, took his music in this direction as well.
In 1973 Clive Davis left Columbia in the midst of a payola scandal, and in the mid-1970s Bruce Lundvall began to bring non-fusion acts back into the fold, signing both saxophonist Dexter Gordon and trumpeter Woody Shaw. Decades later Columbia would proudly reissue all of the albums that you’ll hear on this show. We close out this edition of Night Lights with “Adagio Ma Non Troppo” from Charles Mingus’ 1972 comeback album for Columbia, Let My Children Hear Music.
** More About “The Purge” And Columbia Records In The Early 1970s
————————————————————
* A 2009 interview with Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall (https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/in-response-to-the-passing-of-bruce-lundvall-sept-13-1935-may-19-2015-an-uncut-interview-from-january-2009/)
* The Taurus In Winter: Mingus In The 1970s (http://www.furious.com/perfect/mingus2.html)
* A Look At THE BILL EVANS ALBUM (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/columbreview.html)
* An interview with Bill Evans’ early-70s drummer Marty Morell (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/2morellintvue2.htm)
* An analysis of Bill Evans and George Russell’s LIVING TIME (http://artsfuse.org/52614/fuse-commentary-drill-down-george-russells-living-time/)
* Also check out the recent Night Lights show Entrance Signs: Early Keith Jarrett (http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/birth-early-keith-jarrett/)
Listen to more music from Bill Evans and George Russell’s Living Time:
Read a passage from jazz writer and producer Chris Albertson’s November 1971 article about Miles Davis for Saturday Review, which quotes Columbia executive Clive Davis on the label’s early-1970s jazz policy:
One tangible result of Miles’ recent commercial success his been the signing up by Columbia of several black musicians who last year would hardly have been able to get as far as Clive Davis’ eleventh floor office. Explaining this change in policy, Clive Davis makes one momentarily forget that he is running a highly competitive commercial business: “I am very eager to allow Columbia to be used by the most forward looking American jazz artists, to explore what kind of synergy can come out of jazz and rock. What do the jazz giants, the leading jazz figures of today have to say? What is their reaction to the fact that, in attempting to fuse jazz and rock, Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears have reached millions of people all over the world while they, without such an attempt, only reach a few thousand with their music.” He mentioned that the label has signed Omette Coleman, Jack De Johnette, and Weather Report—an offshoot of Miles’ group—and that it was recording Charles
Mingus. “Just as Columbia sponsored a Modern American Composer series in classical music—not having any less reverence for Stravinsky, Mahler, or classical music performed by the New York Philharmonic or the Philadelphia Orchestra—so we are here exploring a very exciting now development in music, to see where it will go. I don’t know where it will go, but I think that by opening up the company to this kind of exploration of music by brilliant talent, we are providing a tremendous service.”
(The entire article can be read on Chris Albertson’s blog (http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-was-around-this-time-of-year-38.html) .)
Special thanks to Thomas Cunniffe, Michael Cuscuna, Michael Fitzgerald, and Jim Sangrey.
** Music Heard On This Episode
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
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The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus | Night Lights Classic Jazz – WFIU Public Radio
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/great-columbia-jazz-purge-coleman-evans-jarrett-mingus/
** By DAVID BRENT JOHNSON (http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/author/johnsond/)
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** The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus
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* The cover for a reissue of Ornette Coleman’s Columbia sessions.
Image 1 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Ornette-thology: the SCIENCE FICTION sessions showed Coleman in prime compositional and performing mode, surrounded by sidemen old and new.
* The cover for Ornette Coleman’s Skies of America.
Image 2 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Stranger than fiction: Coleman was upset when Columbia marketed his ambitious orchestral album as jazz instead of classical music.
* The Bill Evans Album cover
Image 3 of 7
Photo: Album cover art
Pianist Bill Evans had long wanted to record for Columbia and scored two Grammy wins with this debut album for the label.
* LP cover for Living Time
Image 4 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Evans’ followup, which put him in the company of arranger George Russell, was a big-budget, experimental large-ensemble album that found no favor with Columbia executives.
* the cover of pianist Keith Jarrett’s Expectations LP
Image 5 of 7
Photo: Album cover art
Unmet expectations: pianist Keith Jarrett’s double-LP and only outing for Columbia. He wanted to do a solo concert albun as a followup but was dropped by the label.
* Cover for Mingus LP
Image 6 of 7
Photo: album covert art
“A Mount Rushmore of jazz”: Charles Mingus was one of the four Columbia notables.
* Cover for Charles Mingus’ Let My Children Hear Music LP.
Image 7 of 7
Photo: album cover art
Let the people hear Mingus: the bassist’s recordings for Columbia signaled his return to the jazz scene.
In 1971 Columbia Records, a storied label for jazz artists such as Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, and Duke Ellington, brought four more notable musicians aboard: free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, bassist Charles Mingus, and two pianists, one established, the other up-and-coming–Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Columbia executive Clive Davis had been taking the label in a more aggressively youth-and-rock-oriented direction, and a number of its early 70s jazz acts such as Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra were or would be rooted in the ascending jazz-rock sound of fusion, which label mainstay Miles Davis had embraced as well. Coleman, Mingus, Jarrett, and Evans did not fit that marketing mold. Their stay would be brief, but it would yield a trove of compelling and expansive music.
** “The Surprise Album Of The Year”
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For Bill Evans, landing on Columbia had been a lifelong dream. His first album for the label, simply called The Bill Evans Album, featured him on electric as well as acoustic piano in his standard trio setting, and won two Grammy awards. Columbia gave him a generous budget for a followup, and Evans commissioned a large-scale work from arranger and theorist George Russell, who had helped propel Evans into the jazz spotlight in the 1950s.
Evans scholar Jan Stevens says the result, called Living Time “is generally acknowledged to be the strangest album Bill ever did – what with its avant-garde character, its strange instrument groupings, and its often dissonant parts.” Evans’ drummer at the time, Marty Morell, later termed the album “a disaster” and said that Columbia dropped Evans afterwards because of it. He felt that Russell had simply taken something that he’d already written for a large ensemble and put a few parts for Evans’ trio, which included bassist Eddie Gomez, into it:
Eddie and I –and even Bill — kept looking at each other during the date with confused expressions as if to say “what is going on?”
In an ad for DownBeat Magazine Columbia said Living Time “could be the surprise album of the year.’ For Columbia it was an unpleasant surprise, and Evans’ recording option was not renewed. Evans, not generally given to bitterness, expressed unhappiness about how Columbia executive Clive Davis had handled him and what he saw as Davis’ lack of gratitude for Evans’ Grammy wins.
** Red, White And Blue Skies For Ornette Coleman
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Ornette Coleman, considered by many to be the father of free jazz, also gave Columbia an unconventional large-ensemble album. The saxophonist signed with the label in late 1971, with a report in DownBeat saying that it would give him the opportunity to record some of the orchestral music that he had been composing. That music ultimately appeared on the album Skies Of America, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, with Coleman soloing on just a few of the pieces.
Before recording Skies, however, Coleman brought in some of the musicians who had been with him early on–trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins—-as well as trumpeter Bobby Bradford and saxophonist Dewey Redman, for small-group recordings that were eventually reissued as The Complete Science Fiction Sessions. Those sessions found Coleman in prime compositional and performing mode, and we’ll hear “Law Years” from them, as well as music from Skies Of America. But Coleman was unhappy when Columbia chose to market Skies Of Americaas jazz instead of classical music, and a planned two-LP collection of his recordings in Morocco with the Master Musicians of Joujouka, which would have made for a fascinating and groundbreaking addition to his Columbia work, fell through when the label dropped him.
** A Jarrett Concept, Spurned
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Keith Jarrett had made a name for himself as an adventurous, wide-ranging pianist first with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Charles Lloyd’s quartet, then with Columbia artist Miles Davis, and he was managed by George Avakian, who had a longstanding relationship with the label, so Jarrett’s signing with them in 1971 seemed almost ordained. Jarrett delivered a double LP, Expectations, that now stands out as an early masterpiece, using strings and brass and Jarrett himself on a variety of instruments to showcase his expanding musical vision, as well as his emerging “American Quartet” with saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian.
Jarrett’s option was picked up by Columbia for a second album, and he had an idea: he wanted to perform and release a solo piano concert. One was recorded, but Columbia suddenly dropped Jarrett in favor of Herbie Hancock. Bruce Lundvall remembered Jarrett calling him on the phone the next day and cursing him, though Lundvall had nothing to do with the decision. Jarrett would go on to record a live solo album with the fledgling ECM label, and the resulting Koln Concert release would become one of the best-selling jazz LPs of all time.
** Let The Public Hear Mingus
————————————————————
Another artist known for occasional outbursts was bassist Charles Mingus. Mingus had been on Columbia before, in the late 1950s, producing the masterpiece Mingus Ah Um, but he had spent much of the past few years low to the ground, and was just beginning to re-emerge in 1971, his profile raised by the recent publication of his autobiography Beneath The Underdog.
The Columbia signing put Mingus back in the company of producer and former 1950s cohort Teo Macero, who was playing an ever-increasingly-important role in the electric era of Miles Davis, and gave Mingus the opportunity, like Ornette Coleman, to mount a large-ensemble recording of his music on the album Let My Children Hear Music. Before that album hit the streets, Columbia also recorded Mingus in concert at New York City’s Philharmonic Hall in February of 1972, joined by a supporting cast that included saxophonists Gerry Mulligan and Lee Konitz, as well as longstanding Mingus sidemen like Charles McPherson.
** “A Mount Rushmore Of Jazz”
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There are different versions of how Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Charles Mingus were let go by Columbia, over the years tending to crystallize in a single-day narrative that’s sometimes been referred to as “Bad Day at Black Rock,” a nickname for Columbia’s midtown Manhattan headquarters that also evoked a noir film of the 1950s. In his liner notes to a 1982 release of some of Coleman’s sessions, James Isaacs wrote that they were all dropped on the same day in 1973, saying it was “rather like the 1961 New York Yankees suddenly placing Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Mickey Mantle on waivers.” Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall seemed to confirm this version in a 2009 interview that he gave to journalist Ted Panken.
Jazz producer Michael Cuscuna says that Evans, Jarrett, and Mingus were all dropped on the same day, and that Coleman’s release was a separate matter. He thinks that Coleman’s often been grouped with the other three because his departure happened around the same time and that it makes for a sort of “Mount Rushmore of jazz” apocryphal story. He emphasizes that labels failed to pick up artist’s options all the time, generally because their sales weren’t up to expectations, but says that the “Bad Day at Black Rock” still came as a great insult to those who loved jazz. He also points out that all of these acts were not in the mold of fusion, which was riding high on Columbia at the time with Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Miles Davis’ electric period. Herbie Hancock, who began recording for Columbia in 1973, took his music in this direction as well.
In 1973 Clive Davis left Columbia in the midst of a payola scandal, and in the mid-1970s Bruce Lundvall began to bring non-fusion acts back into the fold, signing both saxophonist Dexter Gordon and trumpeter Woody Shaw. Decades later Columbia would proudly reissue all of the albums that you’ll hear on this show. We close out this edition of Night Lights with “Adagio Ma Non Troppo” from Charles Mingus’ 1972 comeback album for Columbia, Let My Children Hear Music.
** More About “The Purge” And Columbia Records In The Early 1970s
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* A 2009 interview with Columbia executive Bruce Lundvall (https://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/in-response-to-the-passing-of-bruce-lundvall-sept-13-1935-may-19-2015-an-uncut-interview-from-january-2009/)
* The Taurus In Winter: Mingus In The 1970s (http://www.furious.com/perfect/mingus2.html)
* A Look At THE BILL EVANS ALBUM (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/columbreview.html)
* An interview with Bill Evans’ early-70s drummer Marty Morell (http://www.billevanswebpages.com/2morellintvue2.htm)
* An analysis of Bill Evans and George Russell’s LIVING TIME (http://artsfuse.org/52614/fuse-commentary-drill-down-george-russells-living-time/)
* Also check out the recent Night Lights show Entrance Signs: Early Keith Jarrett (http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/birth-early-keith-jarrett/)
Listen to more music from Bill Evans and George Russell’s Living Time:
Read a passage from jazz writer and producer Chris Albertson’s November 1971 article about Miles Davis for Saturday Review, which quotes Columbia executive Clive Davis on the label’s early-1970s jazz policy:
One tangible result of Miles’ recent commercial success his been the signing up by Columbia of several black musicians who last year would hardly have been able to get as far as Clive Davis’ eleventh floor office. Explaining this change in policy, Clive Davis makes one momentarily forget that he is running a highly competitive commercial business: “I am very eager to allow Columbia to be used by the most forward looking American jazz artists, to explore what kind of synergy can come out of jazz and rock. What do the jazz giants, the leading jazz figures of today have to say? What is their reaction to the fact that, in attempting to fuse jazz and rock, Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears have reached millions of people all over the world while they, without such an attempt, only reach a few thousand with their music.” He mentioned that the label has signed Omette Coleman, Jack De Johnette, and Weather Report—an offshoot of Miles’ group—and that it was recording Charles
Mingus. “Just as Columbia sponsored a Modern American Composer series in classical music—not having any less reverence for Stravinsky, Mahler, or classical music performed by the New York Philharmonic or the Philadelphia Orchestra—so we are here exploring a very exciting now development in music, to see where it will go. I don’t know where it will go, but I think that by opening up the company to this kind of exploration of music by brilliant talent, we are providing a tremendous service.”
(The entire article can be read on Chris Albertson’s blog (http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-was-around-this-time-of-year-38.html) .)
Special thanks to Thomas Cunniffe, Michael Cuscuna, Michael Fitzgerald, and Jim Sangrey.
** Music Heard On This Episode
————————————————————
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=623928ae17) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=623928ae17&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Gerry Mulligan Bassist Bob Whitlock (1931-2015) – JazzWax
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.jazzwax.com/2015/07/bob-whitlock-1931-2015.html
** Bob Whitlock (1931-2015)
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http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401bb084b2b3b970d-popup
Von “Bob” Whitlock, a West Coast jazz bassist and the last surviving original member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet who joined the influential piano-less group in the summer of 1952, died on June 29 in Long Beach, Calif., of a stroke. He was 84. [Bob Whitlock picture above, bottom center, on cover of album rotated on its side]
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401bb084b2ae9970d-popup
Without a piano in the Mulligan quartet, Bob had to work doubly hard to create not only the metronome-like time-keeping tempo but also play piano-like treble runs when gaps in the music needed fills. In fact, Bob was not only responsible for introducing Chet Baker to Mulligan but also wooing him back to the quartet after Mulligan blasted Baker for his loud warm-up exercises and Baker walked out. [Pictured above, Bob Whitlock in Paris in the early 1960s as a Fulbright Scholar]
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c7a71c21970b-popup
In 2012, thanks to numerous coaxing efforts by Bob’s friend and writer Leslie Westbrook (above), who provided ideal times to call Bob, I was able to interview him at length by phone. At first, Bob struck me as withdrawn (an American Wikipedia page still does not exist for him), but once we began talking, he had plenty to say and didn’t hold back on answers.
Here is my combined four-part interview with Bob originally posted in August 2012…
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401761709dcc1970c-popup
[Pictured above, clockwise from the top: Chet Baker, Bob Whitlock, Gerry Mulligan and Chico Hamilton in 1953; cover photo by Dave Pell]
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Bob Whitlock: I was born in Roosevelt, Utah, on January 21, 1931.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401761709ee2f970c-popup
JW: Did you have a good time as a kid?
BW: Yeah, I guess so. I was an only child and felt like the Lone Ranger. I had a bunch of relatives but they were a bit clannish.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176170ce2b8970c-popup
JW: What do you mean?
BW: If you weren’t immediate family—brothers—you didn’t rate. Cousins were too distant. It was kind of lonely and weird up in Utah. When I was 12 years old, we moved to Long Beach, Calif., just after Pearl Harbor. My grandmother on my mother’s side had died and left my granddad in a twist. My mother had just gotten her second divorce, so she felt like she was in prison in Utah.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769152835970b-popup
JW: So your grandfather lived in Long Beach?
BW: Yes. When we moved down there, I didn’t like it at first. I wasn’t comfortable with the strangeness of it compared to the jerkwater town we had left. But we were near the beach, and I liked that. The sunsets were great. When we had lived in Roosevelt, Utah, the whole town was 1,400 people, including the surrounding farms. Roosevelt was in the middle of an Indian reservation.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f042e0970d-popup
JW: But you wanted to move, yes?
BW: I did. I had always had these wild dreams about what it would be like to live in a city. Salt Lake was about as big as it got out there. The dreams I had was that the city was a highly sexed place and that teens would bond and do all the things teens did. But when we moved to Long Beach, the kids weren’t like that at all. It wasn’t that different from Utah, just a lot more people.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769153162970b-popup
JW: How were you first exposed to music?
BW: One of my older cousins was a very versatile guy. He played tenor sax, the baritone and the bass. He had had this little band back in Utah. My mother had played alto sax in the band, and played well for a gal in a hick town. Guy Lombardo was her favorite.
JW: Your cousin’s favorite, too?
BW: [Laughs] No. I remember getting into heated arguments with him. He had records by Basie and Ellington, but I wasn’t listening carefully yet and simply defended my mother’s taste. I had been playing the piano at this point. By the time we moved to California, I had gotten pretty fair on the keyboard. I was playing the organ in church.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176170a0282970c-popup
JW: Did you continue on the keyboard in California?
BW: No. There was nothing to play. In Long Beach, I began a love affair with the trumpet. I idolized Harry James, Ziggy Elman and the other horn stars. Then I discovered Roy Eldridge. He was brilliant. He could play from the bottom of the horn clear up to the top.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769153c58970b-popup
JW: Did you imagine yourself a trumpet player?
BW: Oh yes. I kept hounding my mother to buy me one. But I hadn’t even played a trumpet yet, and times were tough then. My mother was a single parent. She worked at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach as a secretary. She was earning 60 cents an hour.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340167691544e0970b-popup
JW: Ever get that horn?
BW: I did. My mother was a wonderful gal and she bought me a cornet. I was into it and got into the orchestra at school. But I had no idea what I was doing. I’d just mash the mouthpiece into my upper lip until it was numb. By the time I got some useful help with a couple of teachers—one taught me a non-pressure method—I couldn’t do anything with the trumpet. I had blown out my lip.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176170a1180970c-popup
JW: What did you do?
BW: I went to a couple of different teachers to try to unwind the damage, but nothing worked. I’d also been dropping in on the guy who owned the music store where my mother had bought the cornet. One day I came in and saw a bass sitting there. He knew I was having a difficult time with the horn. We talked, and he felt sorry for my mom laying out the money and the horn not working out.
JW: What did he do?
BW: He saw that I had an interest in the bass so he offered to trade me the bass or a piano for the cornet. I took the bass. It was portable and looked cool.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176170a1416970c-popup
JW: How did you learn to play?
BW: There was a brilliant guy named Nick Furjanick who had been a violinist in the orchestra at Woodrow Wilson High School [above]. He was injured in World War II, which limited his career. He gave me lessons. He was brilliant and for years won the state’s highest honors in music. He was a wonderful person. If he saw anything at all in a person, he would go all out for them. He saw that I had potential on the bass.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f057db970d-popup
JW: What was your first paying gig?
BW: At the Cinderella Ballroom in Long Beach [above]. It was a big band. I had the opportunity to play because I could read charts. I had become a solid reader in the high school orchestra.
JW: Is Von a nickname or your given name?
BW: Von is my real name. My mother had planned to name me by combining my dad’s name and her name. My mom’s name was Eva LaVaur Mullins while my dad’s name was Lynn Whitlock. So she was going to name me Varlynn until someone told her it was an odd name. Someone suggested a name like Von instead. But Von was a bit strange, too, and most people heard “Bob” when I was introduced, so I began to call myself Bob.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340167691b4f49970b-popup
JW: How did you wind up gigging steadily with Gerry Mulligan in Los Angeles in early 1952?
BW: I got a call one day from a woman who I thought was a manager or agent. She said she had gotten my name from someone and asked if I was interested in coming to a rehearsal with Gerry Mulligan. [Photo above, from left: Bob Whitlock, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan]
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017617103e48970c-popup
JW: What did you think?
BW: I was delighted. I couldn’t believe my luck. So I jumped on the opportunity in a hot minute. Gerry had somehow got hooked-up at a place where he could rehearse in the San Fernando Valley—a little Italian restaurant with sawdust on the floor.
JW: Did you already know Mulligan personally?
BW: No, I had never played with him or met him. But I knew his music and records. When I came in and set up, the first thing Gerry said to me was, “Let’s play some blues.” That was a relief. But then he said, “Go ahead and kick it off, give me four bars.” I flipped, but I took off and played a four-bar intro.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340167691b5982970b-popup
JW: How did you do?
BW: I kind of surprised myself that the line came out as good as it did. I was kind of scared. Hell, it was Gerry Mulligan. This guy had been on the Miles Davis Nonet recordings [later known as The Birth of the Cool], the best jazz sides in some time. I was scared and inspired. [Photo above: The Miles Davis Nonet]
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f689a5970d-popup
JW: Were you responsible for introducing Chet Baker to Gerry Mulligan?
BW: Yes. After I started playing with Gerry regularly, we had a record date on Vine. We had been playing with these two guys who Gerry had met in Albuquerque, when he hitchhiked across the country with his girlfriend [Gail Madden]. They had put up Gerry and Gail, so Gerry and Gail had asked them to come to L.A. One guy played drums and sax and the other played trumpet. But they weren’t cutting it. We recorded all evening on Vine but there was nothing we could use at the end of the night. [Photo above: Gerry Mulligan]
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f68a83970d-popup
JW: How did you know Baker?
BW: I had been rooming with him for a couple of years. When I mentioned to Gerry at the session that Chet would be perfect for us, Gerry told me to bring him by. Back at our place, I told Chet. He was delighted and beside himself. He and I used to just sit and listen to the Miles Davis Nonet stuff. Chet couldn’t get over it. [Photo above: Chet Baker]
JW: What was the next step?
BW: Chet and I went to a rehearsal Gerry held. But Chet had this really disturbing habit. When he’d warm up, he’d do it quickly and loud. He’d blast out these pedal tones and high notes. It was like he was putting his lip through a challenge. It wasn’t easy to listen to.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176171045f3970c-popup
JW: What was Mulligan’s reaction?
BW: Gerry went off on him. He said, “Don’t ever do that around me.” Chet was insulted, naturally, and he was an independent little dude [laughs]. Chet said, “Go fuck yourself” and packed up his horn and walked out. Right after that, Bird [Charlie Parker] came out to L.A., and Chet went to work with him at the Tiffany Club on 8th near Normandy. Bird took to Chet right away. Soon they got booked in San Francisco, and Chet played around with him for a couple of months.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f68c1e970d-popup
JW: What was the result?
BW: Playing with Bird did Chet’s reputation a world of good. Bird kept raving about him. Soon, Gerry felt like a jerk about what he had done, especially after he had heard what Chet was capable of playing on the instrument. In all fairness, there was no way for Gerry to know about Chet’s abilities at a rehearsal where Chet was blasting his horn and exercising his lip.
JW: How did Mulligan and Baker get back together?
BW: After Chet split and was playing with Bird, I would say some delicate lightweight, apologizing things to Gerry, noting that the rift was just a misunderstanding. I said, “That’s just the way Chet warms up.” Gerry asked me to have Chet come to the next rehearsal.
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JW: What happened?
BW: When Chet showed up, two minutes in it was obvious that we had a fantastic combination. We were building things, and they played like one mind working two horns. Funny enough Chet continued to do that warm-up thing and Gerry ate it [laughs].
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JW: Who was Phil Turetsky?
BW: Phil was a recording engineer who was connected to Dick Bock, who handled publicity at the Haig. Phil had a little studio at his house up in Laurel Canyon, northwest of Los Angeles. He would record whoever had some promise. In 1952, Dick Bock approached him about doing some recording for a label he wanted to start called Pacific Jazz. [Photo above, clockwise from top: Phil Turetsky, Bud Shank and Laurindo Almeida]
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JW: Do you remember recording there with Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker and Chico Hamilton in August 1952?
BW: Yes. I had been working at the Haig on the off-nights for two or three months before the quartet was formed. I wasn’t the only one. There were other bass players and drummers in the group. Gerry was trying different people to see who would fit his concept. After I became a regular, he chose Chico.
JW: Everything worked out?
BW: Yes. Gerry liked my playing. The next thing we did was this little recording session at Phil Turetsky’s. At the time I formally joined Gerry, I had been working with Art Pepper. Art played at the Haig for a while with his group. Then Gerry and Art started playing together. Gerry was still using the piano. I think Gil Barrios was playing it.
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JW: What happened to the piano at the Haig?
BW: The piano was a huge grand. Erroll Garner had been the featured soloist there. The piano was so long that the front extended into the room and had to sit on a crate. It took up a ton of space. So Gerry had it taken out. Gerry never gave me a direct answer as to why he stopped using a piano in the group, but I know he felt the piano was a pain in the ass, musically.
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JW: A pain in the ass?
BW: Everyone always had to conform to what the piano was playing and Gerry didn’t want to do that. The piano was a naturally dominant instrument because of its rhythm function and multiple notes. The ear had to hear it. I think Gerry was tired of having to follow it. The piano made the music too complicated, and the other musicians weren’t free enough to invent lines.
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JW: How did Mulligan develop the quartet sound?
BW: On Mondays at the Haig. It was Dick Bock’s [pictured] idea to get us taped and produced. I felt very comfortable with that group. I liked the challenge of playing a bass line that really defined the harmony without sounding like you’re just running chord changes. The challenge was to keep our lines simple enough to swing.
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JW: A challenge?
BW: At first, for me. It’s easy to get caught up trying to make your lines too cute. When that happens, the bass loses the reason why it’s there. Meeting that challenge was the reason for going to work every night. I felt like I had utter freedom and I never abused that. I was totally exposed as a player. Sometimes that was difficult.
JW: Why?
BW: It would get humid and warm in the Haig, and just trying to keep the four of us in tune with each other was tough. It’s not easy to play when you’re constantly trying to adjust the bass’s tuning pegs at the same time. It’s a hell of an experience. But it didn’t take very long for the whole thing we were doing to become accepted.
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JW: Wasn’t the quartet always accepted?
BW: Not really. For a time, people ridiculed it. They came in and thought we should have someone defining the harmony, like a guitar or piano. The tradeoff for us was the experimental freedom. Instead of having to chase the piano player all night, we could intermingle without that stress or interference.
JW: That was a radical concept?
BW: It was at the time. The piano was key in many groups. But you could often get a piano player who thought he was hotter than everyone else and could ruin everything in a hurry. Without the piano, we could pay attention to each other.
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JW: The absence of a piano in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet let Chet Baker stand out, yes?
BW: That’s true. You know, Chet was 10 times the soloist that Gerry was. Gerry had done so much writing and arranging by then that he had developed a lot of formulas for soloing. Chet was different. With Chet, it was always a free-fall. He could read music but he wasn’t a great reader. Instead, he had very highly developed taste and an appreciation for simplicity. From a musician’s perspective, he was always more exciting to listen to because you never knew where his lines were going to go. [Photo above of pianist Forrest Westbrook and bassist Bob Whitlock courtesy of Leslie Westbrook]
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JW: Spoken like a true Chet Baker fan.
BW: I guess I am one of Chet’s biggest fans. Listening to what came out of that horn each night and the challenge of putting a line up against what he played was so wonderful. Chet gave you this terrific opportunity each time he soloed. He wasn’t in your way and his playing was so clear and his sense of direction so evident that it was of enormous assistance to me as a bassist.
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JW: Was Baker’s approach different than other soloists?
BW: So many guys bulldog their way through, sometimes with an attitude of “To hell with what you’re doing—I’m here now.” Not with Chet [pictured]. The best moments of my career were as Chet’s wingman. He listened carefully to you and played something to flatter and support it. When he let you know he was there, it was a great feeling. You felt confident about going out on a limb without feeling you were going to be trapped. You always knew that Chet would be with you. I think Chet had a much higher skill level than Gerry.
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JW: Was Mulligan aware of Baker’s natural abilities? Was it a source of friction?
BW: Gerry and Chet didn’t get along too well. Gerry was an egomaniac. He loved to picture himself as Chet’s mentor, that he had discovered Chet. He didn’t hesitate to let Chet know that. And naturally Chet resented it. Chet rightfully was a hell of a lot better soloist than Gerry and felt it was presumptuous for Gerry to say he discovered him.
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JW: How would this antagonism play out?
BW: Whenever Gerry would make the slightest reference to being his mentor or the one who discovered him, Chet would get right in his face and make an ass of him. He’d call him right down on it. He’d say, “Hey Gerry, I’m me and you’re you. Don’t get too carried away with yourself.”
JW: Ouch. How did Mulligan respond?
BW: Gerry’s responses always reflected his disappointment that Chet didn’t fall in line with his line. Gerry really loved playing that role of being the godfather. Everything had to be “Gerry Mulligan and….” With Chet, Chet was always about what was going on. Chet had a facility that’s almost unimaginable. You had to be there playing behind him to fully appreciate the sound, the imagination and the beauty. Not to mention his ability to hook onto what was going on around him and add to it.
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JW: What did you think of Chico Hamilton’s drumming in the quartet?
BW: It was terrific. At first, Chico could get a little bombastic, as any drummer would. Gerry used to climb all over him for it. Eventually, Chico brought down the volume of his playing. In the beginning, he was a bit too loud and too busy. Everything he played was “Dig me.” Gerry would just eat him alive. [Chico Hamilton pictured above on cover at bottom]
JW: How so?
BW: Gerry had an ability to wade in on you pretty good but at the same time make it clear that it wasn’t vindictive, that he did actually have something musical in mind. But it’s a painful way to hear from someone trying to help you.
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JW: For example?
BW: Gerry wouldn’t allow Chico [pictured] to set up his whole drum set. I remember the first night Chico did, Gerry had him tear it down—the tom-tom and all the other drums. Eventually, Chico had a set up where he had a foot pedal attached to a tom-tom to use as a bass drum, for a lighter touch. Gerry wanted everything light as a feather. People used to call us the Chamber Music Society of Lower Wilshire Boulevard [laughs].
JW: What did that mean?
BW: A nice airy sound, clear and clean, that we kept the extraneous bullshit away. The beauty was the counterpoint. You can’t have intelligent sounding counterpoint if everyone is loud and banging away. But when everyone is listening closely to one another, then you hear where the other guys are going, and the other guys are going to feed off of you.
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JW: So what was the bottom-line criteria for being in the quartet?
BW: What Gerry needed in that group was everyone listening carefully to each other and to be willing to be second fiddle to him. And to be an interesting musical conversationalist among the other members of the group. At most jam sessions, it’s you and the rhythm section. In the setting where you have two horns and a bass player and drummer trying to make something happen, you’re always functioning as a single unit. You have to be careful. You have to be inside the other person’s notes. We all felt lucky to be in that group.
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JW: The drug scene was pretty hairy out in L.A. in the early ‘50s. Why?
BW: There were very few places in the country where drugs were more accessible. Los Angeles was close to the Mexican border, and there were large poor communities close by that bought and sold drugs.
JW: And for musicians?
BW: For musicians, that was the nature of using. You didn’t worry about the addiction until you were hooked. And by then, worrying about it was the least of your worries. In some perverse way that was the attraction of taking drugs—flirting with that kind of excitement.
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JW: How did so many great L.A. players become hooked?
BW: In my case, my favorite musician at that time was Charlie Parker—in terms of sheer inventiveness, night after night. I just couldn’t imagine anyone else ever coming close to him in that regard. And then there was Billie Holiday and all these wonderful people who were junkies. I was a youngster and there was something mysterious and illogical about it. But there also was a mystique—that maybe I need to explore it to find myself as a person and artist. [Pictured above, Charlie Parker and Chet Baker]
JW: It seemed as though drugs were everywhere in the jazz scene then.
BW: It was a challenging period. Everyone you knew was using. You wanted to recreate the immortality of it. Gerry, of course, had been a heavy user. And yet he was so out there musically. He was very clever about his addiction though. He was one of the smarter addicts.
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JW: How so?
BW: He kept it undercover very well. He didn’t advertise that he was using. There were a lot of guys who were so obvious that they were junkies. Gerry [pictured] never had the need to project that kind of image, possibly because his reputation was already established.
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JW: Was Chet Baker a user when you knew him?
BW: Chet was a latecomer to hard drugs. He smoked as much pot as anyone alive though. My god, that guy was insatiable. But he wasn’t a hard-drug user at first. I remember the first time Chet ever used drugs. In a way, I feel kind of guilty about it. [Photo of Bob Whitlock above taken by Leslie Westbrook in 2012]
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JW: How so?
BW: In 1952, I was going to score from a guy down in San Pedro, Calif., about a half hour south of Los Angeles. Chet drove down with me and stayed in the car while I went into the guy’s house. But I was in there too long to suit him.
JW: What happened?
BW: Eventually Chet came up and knocked on the door. It was an uncool thing to do, since anything could happen with paranoid people. Fortunately, the connection I was using knew that Chet was a musician and was cool.
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JW: How did it play out?
BW: Chet came up to the door and asked where I was and why was I there so long. They let him in. Chet could sense that the situation wasn’t cool immediately and that he shouldn’t have come in. A connection feels very threatened when someone unknown comes into his house, even if he knows who that person is.
JW: What happened next?
BW: I had just gotten down, and the guy asked Chet, “You want to get off?” I think Chet was afraid not to because this guy represented some kind of threat.
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JW: Threat how?
BW: I really don’t know how to go any deeper into that. It might have just passed, but I think Chet felt he needed to prove to this guy he wasn’t someone who was going to be dangerous to him. I also think Chet felt that he had gotten me in trouble and needed to undo that. I never urged him to do a thing and told him there was no need.
JW: Did Baker get high?
BW: Chet got down, and it was a terrible experience. He started vomiting. This stuff was very pure and strong. Chet got so whacked.
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JW: Based on Baker’s personality, it sounds like if he hadn’t started with you, he would probably have done so with someone else.
BW: He was hell-bound to do it. He always had that all-the-way-Jose mentality, whether it was playing the trumpet or smoking pot. He probably smoked enough pot by himself to last a lifetime. There was never any restraint or halfway with Chet.
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JW: So you had nothing to do with convincing him to try heroin?
BW: My god, no. That has been put on me for so long. He was with me when he started, but I had absolutely nothing to do with pushing him into doing anything. Chet was always his own man. But to this day I feel guilty about the whole thing.
JW: How did you kick the habit?
BW: In 1976 I went into Synanon, the drug-treatment program in Santa Monica. I kicked there. I had gotten caught stealing and was arrested. It’s amazing I made it as long as I did before getting caught. When I was on probation, I visited my probation officer and he was amazed that I was both a Fulbright Scholar and a junkie.
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JW: How did you become a Fulbright Scholar?
BW: I had written my masters thesis at UCLA on Anton Webern [pictured]. It won me a Fulbright. I studied as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris in 1961 and ’62. I originally was going to transcribe a manuscript but soon discovered that someone in London was already working on the project. I went to the Fulbright committee and told them about the project already in the works and that I wanted to make a switch.
JW: What did they say?
BW: They showed [contemporary classical composer and conductor] Pierre Boulez my thesis on the early, pre-serial music of Webern. Boulez said he would see me weekly. I was beyond happy but also scared to death.
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JW: Why?
BW: My original intent was to transcribe a manuscript and here I was studying Schoenberg and Berg with Boulez [pictured]. But then Boulez received a letter notifying him that he had to go to Baden-Baden in Germany.
JW: Why?
BW: Boulez was founder and head of a program there. He told me that he was sorry, that he couldn’t follow through. He lined me up with his old teacher, Max Deutsch. So I studied with Max for a year, mainly Schoenberg and Berg quartets.
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JW: Did you gig in Paris as well as study?
BW: Yes. About two weeks after I had arrived in Paris I was hired for drummer Kenny Clarke’s group, which included Rene Urtreger on piano and Jimmy Gourley on guitar.
JW: Who else did you gig with?
BW: Zoot Sims came over from the States around December of ‘61. After that I worked with Kenny Drew. Only lousy thing about the gig was that the owner got to sing with the group every night.
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JW: And Baker?
BW: I played with him again but not as much as I would have liked. I left Paris in May ’62. Chet had been in jail in Italy, and I just missed him in Paris after he was released.
JW: What do you think about Baker, looking back?
BW: Chet never should have ever done that, and I should never have let it happen. I didn’t encourage it, but I should have done more to prevent it—myself included. I wish I had never gotten into drugs.
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JW: Why did you?
BW: I was just trying to be one of the big guys. All the people I worshiped were using: Art Pepper [pictured above], Zoot—all the guys. It was the thing to do.
JW: Who got you hooked?
BW: Some guy I had known in junior high school. One day we were talking and it turned out that both of us were smoking weed. But he was also using.
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JW: Why did you leave the Gerry Mulligan Quartet?
BW: The first time I left was in the summer of ’53. We were playing at the Haig. We had recorded the one album and I was offered a job to accompany June Christy [pictured above] and Vido Musso. So I told Gerry I was leaving. We weren’t working, and I needed income. I said, “Gerry, all we do are these auditions and stuff. I have to go up for two weeks and work, and then I’ll be back.” The gig was at the Say When Club in San Francisco.
JW: How did Mulligan take it?
BW: He was fine with it. But right after I left, Gerry and the quartet got booked into the Blackhawk in San Francisco.
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JW: How did you feel?
BW: I was ready to shoot myself [laughs]. Gerry had gotten Carson Smith [pictured above on bass]. A couple of weeks later Gerry offered me the job back. I have no idea why, but I took it. Playing behind June was OK, but I was kind of sorry I had taken the gig.
JW: Why?
BW: She was great, but I had missed out on the quartet’s breakout. I worked with the quartet into the beginning of ‘53. I left the second time after Gerry and I got into a big fight.
JW: Over money?
BW: No, Chet and I had gotten busted.
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JW: How did that happen?
BW: Carson Smith used to come into the Haig to check us out. One night we were out in Chet’s car—just Chet, Carson and me. We were smoking weed when we saw a squad car go by. Chet flipped the roach out the window. The cops saw it in their rear-view mirror and backed up and were right on us.
JW: You were arrested for a roach?
BW: Not quite. It turned out that Chet and one of the cops were from the same town in Oklahoma and they got to talking. Which was great. I sighed and thought we weren’t going to go to jail. But then the other cop was a hard-ass and said they had to search the car. They wound up finding two full lids [ounces] of pot and took us all in.
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JW: What was Mulligan’s reaction?
BW: When I got out two days later, Gerry [pictured above] got all over me. “You and Chet are bad news for each other,” he said. I went back all over him. I said, “You’re a fucking hypocrite. How can you sit there and talk to me about using considering what you’ve done?” It was kind of threatening, like were going to get into it physically. But then we came to our senses. I told him he could shove the job up his ass. Gerry said you ain’t got no job. The irony, of course, is that Gerry got busted a short time later.
JW: What did you do?
BW: I went back to Utah. Two of my cousins had come into the Haig and saw the condition I was in and were ready to kidnap me to get me back in health. I stayed back there for about seven months. There was no messing around up there. When I returned to L.A., I started working with Art Pepper again and Stan Getz for a while.
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JW: What do you think when you look back on the Gerry Mulligan Quartet?
BW: I feel proud to have been a part of it. I feel a lot of pride in that group. Those were the greatest months of my career. I felt very lucky. I was barely old enough to buy a drink and was already playing with one of the major groups in jazz. I was dumbfounded by it and impressed with myself. I wish I had made different choices back then. But I was young, excited and didn’t know any better. [Photo of Bob Whitlock taken by Leslie Westbrook in 2012]
A special JazzWax thanks to Leslie Westbrook (http://www.lesliewestbrook.com/) .
JazzWax note: For more on how Dave Pell took the famous photo of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet 10-inch album at the top of this post—the first release by Pacific Jazz—go here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/06/interview-dave-pell-part-2.html) .
JazzWax tracks: The Pacific Jazz recordings of the http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f66b70970d-popupGerry Mulligan Quartet can be found on a two-CD set, The Original Quartet with Chet Baker, here (http://www.amazon.com/Original-Quartet-With-Chet-Baker/dp/B000007TFR/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344299697&sr=8-2&keywords=gerry+mulligan+quartet) . Bob Whitlock is on tracks #6 through #14 on disc #1.
For more recordings by Bob Whitlock, see the bottoms of the individual installments of this interview by going here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-1.html) , here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-2.html) , here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-3.html) and here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-4.html) .
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Gerry Mulligan Bassist Bob Whitlock (1931-2015) – JazzWax
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http://www.jazzwax.com/2015/07/bob-whitlock-1931-2015.html
** Bob Whitlock (1931-2015)
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Von “Bob” Whitlock, a West Coast jazz bassist and the last surviving original member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet who joined the influential piano-less group in the summer of 1952, died on June 29 in Long Beach, Calif., of a stroke. He was 84. [Bob Whitlock picture above, bottom center, on cover of album rotated on its side]
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Without a piano in the Mulligan quartet, Bob had to work doubly hard to create not only the metronome-like time-keeping tempo but also play piano-like treble runs when gaps in the music needed fills. In fact, Bob was not only responsible for introducing Chet Baker to Mulligan but also wooing him back to the quartet after Mulligan blasted Baker for his loud warm-up exercises and Baker walked out. [Pictured above, Bob Whitlock in Paris in the early 1960s as a Fulbright Scholar]
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In 2012, thanks to numerous coaxing efforts by Bob’s friend and writer Leslie Westbrook (above), who provided ideal times to call Bob, I was able to interview him at length by phone. At first, Bob struck me as withdrawn (an American Wikipedia page still does not exist for him), but once we began talking, he had plenty to say and didn’t hold back on answers.
Here is my combined four-part interview with Bob originally posted in August 2012…
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[Pictured above, clockwise from the top: Chet Baker, Bob Whitlock, Gerry Mulligan and Chico Hamilton in 1953; cover photo by Dave Pell]
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Bob Whitlock: I was born in Roosevelt, Utah, on January 21, 1931.
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JW: Did you have a good time as a kid?
BW: Yeah, I guess so. I was an only child and felt like the Lone Ranger. I had a bunch of relatives but they were a bit clannish.
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JW: What do you mean?
BW: If you weren’t immediate family—brothers—you didn’t rate. Cousins were too distant. It was kind of lonely and weird up in Utah. When I was 12 years old, we moved to Long Beach, Calif., just after Pearl Harbor. My grandmother on my mother’s side had died and left my granddad in a twist. My mother had just gotten her second divorce, so she felt like she was in prison in Utah.
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JW: So your grandfather lived in Long Beach?
BW: Yes. When we moved down there, I didn’t like it at first. I wasn’t comfortable with the strangeness of it compared to the jerkwater town we had left. But we were near the beach, and I liked that. The sunsets were great. When we had lived in Roosevelt, Utah, the whole town was 1,400 people, including the surrounding farms. Roosevelt was in the middle of an Indian reservation.
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JW: But you wanted to move, yes?
BW: I did. I had always had these wild dreams about what it would be like to live in a city. Salt Lake was about as big as it got out there. The dreams I had was that the city was a highly sexed place and that teens would bond and do all the things teens did. But when we moved to Long Beach, the kids weren’t like that at all. It wasn’t that different from Utah, just a lot more people.
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JW: How were you first exposed to music?
BW: One of my older cousins was a very versatile guy. He played tenor sax, the baritone and the bass. He had had this little band back in Utah. My mother had played alto sax in the band, and played well for a gal in a hick town. Guy Lombardo was her favorite.
JW: Your cousin’s favorite, too?
BW: [Laughs] No. I remember getting into heated arguments with him. He had records by Basie and Ellington, but I wasn’t listening carefully yet and simply defended my mother’s taste. I had been playing the piano at this point. By the time we moved to California, I had gotten pretty fair on the keyboard. I was playing the organ in church.
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JW: Did you continue on the keyboard in California?
BW: No. There was nothing to play. In Long Beach, I began a love affair with the trumpet. I idolized Harry James, Ziggy Elman and the other horn stars. Then I discovered Roy Eldridge. He was brilliant. He could play from the bottom of the horn clear up to the top.
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JW: Did you imagine yourself a trumpet player?
BW: Oh yes. I kept hounding my mother to buy me one. But I hadn’t even played a trumpet yet, and times were tough then. My mother was a single parent. She worked at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach as a secretary. She was earning 60 cents an hour.
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JW: Ever get that horn?
BW: I did. My mother was a wonderful gal and she bought me a cornet. I was into it and got into the orchestra at school. But I had no idea what I was doing. I’d just mash the mouthpiece into my upper lip until it was numb. By the time I got some useful help with a couple of teachers—one taught me a non-pressure method—I couldn’t do anything with the trumpet. I had blown out my lip.
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JW: What did you do?
BW: I went to a couple of different teachers to try to unwind the damage, but nothing worked. I’d also been dropping in on the guy who owned the music store where my mother had bought the cornet. One day I came in and saw a bass sitting there. He knew I was having a difficult time with the horn. We talked, and he felt sorry for my mom laying out the money and the horn not working out.
JW: What did he do?
BW: He saw that I had an interest in the bass so he offered to trade me the bass or a piano for the cornet. I took the bass. It was portable and looked cool.
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JW: How did you learn to play?
BW: There was a brilliant guy named Nick Furjanick who had been a violinist in the orchestra at Woodrow Wilson High School [above]. He was injured in World War II, which limited his career. He gave me lessons. He was brilliant and for years won the state’s highest honors in music. He was a wonderful person. If he saw anything at all in a person, he would go all out for them. He saw that I had potential on the bass.
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JW: What was your first paying gig?
BW: At the Cinderella Ballroom in Long Beach [above]. It was a big band. I had the opportunity to play because I could read charts. I had become a solid reader in the high school orchestra.
JW: Is Von a nickname or your given name?
BW: Von is my real name. My mother had planned to name me by combining my dad’s name and her name. My mom’s name was Eva LaVaur Mullins while my dad’s name was Lynn Whitlock. So she was going to name me Varlynn until someone told her it was an odd name. Someone suggested a name like Von instead. But Von was a bit strange, too, and most people heard “Bob” when I was introduced, so I began to call myself Bob.
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JW: How did you wind up gigging steadily with Gerry Mulligan in Los Angeles in early 1952?
BW: I got a call one day from a woman who I thought was a manager or agent. She said she had gotten my name from someone and asked if I was interested in coming to a rehearsal with Gerry Mulligan. [Photo above, from left: Bob Whitlock, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan]
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JW: What did you think?
BW: I was delighted. I couldn’t believe my luck. So I jumped on the opportunity in a hot minute. Gerry had somehow got hooked-up at a place where he could rehearse in the San Fernando Valley—a little Italian restaurant with sawdust on the floor.
JW: Did you already know Mulligan personally?
BW: No, I had never played with him or met him. But I knew his music and records. When I came in and set up, the first thing Gerry said to me was, “Let’s play some blues.” That was a relief. But then he said, “Go ahead and kick it off, give me four bars.” I flipped, but I took off and played a four-bar intro.
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JW: How did you do?
BW: I kind of surprised myself that the line came out as good as it did. I was kind of scared. Hell, it was Gerry Mulligan. This guy had been on the Miles Davis Nonet recordings [later known as The Birth of the Cool], the best jazz sides in some time. I was scared and inspired. [Photo above: The Miles Davis Nonet]
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JW: Were you responsible for introducing Chet Baker to Gerry Mulligan?
BW: Yes. After I started playing with Gerry regularly, we had a record date on Vine. We had been playing with these two guys who Gerry had met in Albuquerque, when he hitchhiked across the country with his girlfriend [Gail Madden]. They had put up Gerry and Gail, so Gerry and Gail had asked them to come to L.A. One guy played drums and sax and the other played trumpet. But they weren’t cutting it. We recorded all evening on Vine but there was nothing we could use at the end of the night. [Photo above: Gerry Mulligan]
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JW: How did you know Baker?
BW: I had been rooming with him for a couple of years. When I mentioned to Gerry at the session that Chet would be perfect for us, Gerry told me to bring him by. Back at our place, I told Chet. He was delighted and beside himself. He and I used to just sit and listen to the Miles Davis Nonet stuff. Chet couldn’t get over it. [Photo above: Chet Baker]
JW: What was the next step?
BW: Chet and I went to a rehearsal Gerry held. But Chet had this really disturbing habit. When he’d warm up, he’d do it quickly and loud. He’d blast out these pedal tones and high notes. It was like he was putting his lip through a challenge. It wasn’t easy to listen to.
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JW: What was Mulligan’s reaction?
BW: Gerry went off on him. He said, “Don’t ever do that around me.” Chet was insulted, naturally, and he was an independent little dude [laughs]. Chet said, “Go fuck yourself” and packed up his horn and walked out. Right after that, Bird [Charlie Parker] came out to L.A., and Chet went to work with him at the Tiffany Club on 8th near Normandy. Bird took to Chet right away. Soon they got booked in San Francisco, and Chet played around with him for a couple of months.
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JW: What was the result?
BW: Playing with Bird did Chet’s reputation a world of good. Bird kept raving about him. Soon, Gerry felt like a jerk about what he had done, especially after he had heard what Chet was capable of playing on the instrument. In all fairness, there was no way for Gerry to know about Chet’s abilities at a rehearsal where Chet was blasting his horn and exercising his lip.
JW: How did Mulligan and Baker get back together?
BW: After Chet split and was playing with Bird, I would say some delicate lightweight, apologizing things to Gerry, noting that the rift was just a misunderstanding. I said, “That’s just the way Chet warms up.” Gerry asked me to have Chet come to the next rehearsal.
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JW: What happened?
BW: When Chet showed up, two minutes in it was obvious that we had a fantastic combination. We were building things, and they played like one mind working two horns. Funny enough Chet continued to do that warm-up thing and Gerry ate it [laughs].
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JW: Who was Phil Turetsky?
BW: Phil was a recording engineer who was connected to Dick Bock, who handled publicity at the Haig. Phil had a little studio at his house up in Laurel Canyon, northwest of Los Angeles. He would record whoever had some promise. In 1952, Dick Bock approached him about doing some recording for a label he wanted to start called Pacific Jazz. [Photo above, clockwise from top: Phil Turetsky, Bud Shank and Laurindo Almeida]
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JW: Do you remember recording there with Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker and Chico Hamilton in August 1952?
BW: Yes. I had been working at the Haig on the off-nights for two or three months before the quartet was formed. I wasn’t the only one. There were other bass players and drummers in the group. Gerry was trying different people to see who would fit his concept. After I became a regular, he chose Chico.
JW: Everything worked out?
BW: Yes. Gerry liked my playing. The next thing we did was this little recording session at Phil Turetsky’s. At the time I formally joined Gerry, I had been working with Art Pepper. Art played at the Haig for a while with his group. Then Gerry and Art started playing together. Gerry was still using the piano. I think Gil Barrios was playing it.
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JW: What happened to the piano at the Haig?
BW: The piano was a huge grand. Erroll Garner had been the featured soloist there. The piano was so long that the front extended into the room and had to sit on a crate. It took up a ton of space. So Gerry had it taken out. Gerry never gave me a direct answer as to why he stopped using a piano in the group, but I know he felt the piano was a pain in the ass, musically.
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JW: A pain in the ass?
BW: Everyone always had to conform to what the piano was playing and Gerry didn’t want to do that. The piano was a naturally dominant instrument because of its rhythm function and multiple notes. The ear had to hear it. I think Gerry was tired of having to follow it. The piano made the music too complicated, and the other musicians weren’t free enough to invent lines.
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JW: How did Mulligan develop the quartet sound?
BW: On Mondays at the Haig. It was Dick Bock’s [pictured] idea to get us taped and produced. I felt very comfortable with that group. I liked the challenge of playing a bass line that really defined the harmony without sounding like you’re just running chord changes. The challenge was to keep our lines simple enough to swing.
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JW: A challenge?
BW: At first, for me. It’s easy to get caught up trying to make your lines too cute. When that happens, the bass loses the reason why it’s there. Meeting that challenge was the reason for going to work every night. I felt like I had utter freedom and I never abused that. I was totally exposed as a player. Sometimes that was difficult.
JW: Why?
BW: It would get humid and warm in the Haig, and just trying to keep the four of us in tune with each other was tough. It’s not easy to play when you’re constantly trying to adjust the bass’s tuning pegs at the same time. It’s a hell of an experience. But it didn’t take very long for the whole thing we were doing to become accepted.
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JW: Wasn’t the quartet always accepted?
BW: Not really. For a time, people ridiculed it. They came in and thought we should have someone defining the harmony, like a guitar or piano. The tradeoff for us was the experimental freedom. Instead of having to chase the piano player all night, we could intermingle without that stress or interference.
JW: That was a radical concept?
BW: It was at the time. The piano was key in many groups. But you could often get a piano player who thought he was hotter than everyone else and could ruin everything in a hurry. Without the piano, we could pay attention to each other.
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JW: The absence of a piano in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet let Chet Baker stand out, yes?
BW: That’s true. You know, Chet was 10 times the soloist that Gerry was. Gerry had done so much writing and arranging by then that he had developed a lot of formulas for soloing. Chet was different. With Chet, it was always a free-fall. He could read music but he wasn’t a great reader. Instead, he had very highly developed taste and an appreciation for simplicity. From a musician’s perspective, he was always more exciting to listen to because you never knew where his lines were going to go. [Photo above of pianist Forrest Westbrook and bassist Bob Whitlock courtesy of Leslie Westbrook]
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JW: Spoken like a true Chet Baker fan.
BW: I guess I am one of Chet’s biggest fans. Listening to what came out of that horn each night and the challenge of putting a line up against what he played was so wonderful. Chet gave you this terrific opportunity each time he soloed. He wasn’t in your way and his playing was so clear and his sense of direction so evident that it was of enormous assistance to me as a bassist.
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JW: Was Baker’s approach different than other soloists?
BW: So many guys bulldog their way through, sometimes with an attitude of “To hell with what you’re doing—I’m here now.” Not with Chet [pictured]. The best moments of my career were as Chet’s wingman. He listened carefully to you and played something to flatter and support it. When he let you know he was there, it was a great feeling. You felt confident about going out on a limb without feeling you were going to be trapped. You always knew that Chet would be with you. I think Chet had a much higher skill level than Gerry.
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JW: Was Mulligan aware of Baker’s natural abilities? Was it a source of friction?
BW: Gerry and Chet didn’t get along too well. Gerry was an egomaniac. He loved to picture himself as Chet’s mentor, that he had discovered Chet. He didn’t hesitate to let Chet know that. And naturally Chet resented it. Chet rightfully was a hell of a lot better soloist than Gerry and felt it was presumptuous for Gerry to say he discovered him.
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JW: How would this antagonism play out?
BW: Whenever Gerry would make the slightest reference to being his mentor or the one who discovered him, Chet would get right in his face and make an ass of him. He’d call him right down on it. He’d say, “Hey Gerry, I’m me and you’re you. Don’t get too carried away with yourself.”
JW: Ouch. How did Mulligan respond?
BW: Gerry’s responses always reflected his disappointment that Chet didn’t fall in line with his line. Gerry really loved playing that role of being the godfather. Everything had to be “Gerry Mulligan and….” With Chet, Chet was always about what was going on. Chet had a facility that’s almost unimaginable. You had to be there playing behind him to fully appreciate the sound, the imagination and the beauty. Not to mention his ability to hook onto what was going on around him and add to it.
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JW: What did you think of Chico Hamilton’s drumming in the quartet?
BW: It was terrific. At first, Chico could get a little bombastic, as any drummer would. Gerry used to climb all over him for it. Eventually, Chico brought down the volume of his playing. In the beginning, he was a bit too loud and too busy. Everything he played was “Dig me.” Gerry would just eat him alive. [Chico Hamilton pictured above on cover at bottom]
JW: How so?
BW: Gerry had an ability to wade in on you pretty good but at the same time make it clear that it wasn’t vindictive, that he did actually have something musical in mind. But it’s a painful way to hear from someone trying to help you.
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JW: For example?
BW: Gerry wouldn’t allow Chico [pictured] to set up his whole drum set. I remember the first night Chico did, Gerry had him tear it down—the tom-tom and all the other drums. Eventually, Chico had a set up where he had a foot pedal attached to a tom-tom to use as a bass drum, for a lighter touch. Gerry wanted everything light as a feather. People used to call us the Chamber Music Society of Lower Wilshire Boulevard [laughs].
JW: What did that mean?
BW: A nice airy sound, clear and clean, that we kept the extraneous bullshit away. The beauty was the counterpoint. You can’t have intelligent sounding counterpoint if everyone is loud and banging away. But when everyone is listening closely to one another, then you hear where the other guys are going, and the other guys are going to feed off of you.
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JW: So what was the bottom-line criteria for being in the quartet?
BW: What Gerry needed in that group was everyone listening carefully to each other and to be willing to be second fiddle to him. And to be an interesting musical conversationalist among the other members of the group. At most jam sessions, it’s you and the rhythm section. In the setting where you have two horns and a bass player and drummer trying to make something happen, you’re always functioning as a single unit. You have to be careful. You have to be inside the other person’s notes. We all felt lucky to be in that group.
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JW: The drug scene was pretty hairy out in L.A. in the early ‘50s. Why?
BW: There were very few places in the country where drugs were more accessible. Los Angeles was close to the Mexican border, and there were large poor communities close by that bought and sold drugs.
JW: And for musicians?
BW: For musicians, that was the nature of using. You didn’t worry about the addiction until you were hooked. And by then, worrying about it was the least of your worries. In some perverse way that was the attraction of taking drugs—flirting with that kind of excitement.
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JW: How did so many great L.A. players become hooked?
BW: In my case, my favorite musician at that time was Charlie Parker—in terms of sheer inventiveness, night after night. I just couldn’t imagine anyone else ever coming close to him in that regard. And then there was Billie Holiday and all these wonderful people who were junkies. I was a youngster and there was something mysterious and illogical about it. But there also was a mystique—that maybe I need to explore it to find myself as a person and artist. [Pictured above, Charlie Parker and Chet Baker]
JW: It seemed as though drugs were everywhere in the jazz scene then.
BW: It was a challenging period. Everyone you knew was using. You wanted to recreate the immortality of it. Gerry, of course, had been a heavy user. And yet he was so out there musically. He was very clever about his addiction though. He was one of the smarter addicts.
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JW: How so?
BW: He kept it undercover very well. He didn’t advertise that he was using. There were a lot of guys who were so obvious that they were junkies. Gerry [pictured] never had the need to project that kind of image, possibly because his reputation was already established.
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JW: Was Chet Baker a user when you knew him?
BW: Chet was a latecomer to hard drugs. He smoked as much pot as anyone alive though. My god, that guy was insatiable. But he wasn’t a hard-drug user at first. I remember the first time Chet ever used drugs. In a way, I feel kind of guilty about it. [Photo of Bob Whitlock above taken by Leslie Westbrook in 2012]
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JW: How so?
BW: In 1952, I was going to score from a guy down in San Pedro, Calif., about a half hour south of Los Angeles. Chet drove down with me and stayed in the car while I went into the guy’s house. But I was in there too long to suit him.
JW: What happened?
BW: Eventually Chet came up and knocked on the door. It was an uncool thing to do, since anything could happen with paranoid people. Fortunately, the connection I was using knew that Chet was a musician and was cool.
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JW: How did it play out?
BW: Chet came up to the door and asked where I was and why was I there so long. They let him in. Chet could sense that the situation wasn’t cool immediately and that he shouldn’t have come in. A connection feels very threatened when someone unknown comes into his house, even if he knows who that person is.
JW: What happened next?
BW: I had just gotten down, and the guy asked Chet, “You want to get off?” I think Chet was afraid not to because this guy represented some kind of threat.
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JW: Threat how?
BW: I really don’t know how to go any deeper into that. It might have just passed, but I think Chet felt he needed to prove to this guy he wasn’t someone who was going to be dangerous to him. I also think Chet felt that he had gotten me in trouble and needed to undo that. I never urged him to do a thing and told him there was no need.
JW: Did Baker get high?
BW: Chet got down, and it was a terrible experience. He started vomiting. This stuff was very pure and strong. Chet got so whacked.
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JW: Based on Baker’s personality, it sounds like if he hadn’t started with you, he would probably have done so with someone else.
BW: He was hell-bound to do it. He always had that all-the-way-Jose mentality, whether it was playing the trumpet or smoking pot. He probably smoked enough pot by himself to last a lifetime. There was never any restraint or halfway with Chet.
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JW: So you had nothing to do with convincing him to try heroin?
BW: My god, no. That has been put on me for so long. He was with me when he started, but I had absolutely nothing to do with pushing him into doing anything. Chet was always his own man. But to this day I feel guilty about the whole thing.
JW: How did you kick the habit?
BW: In 1976 I went into Synanon, the drug-treatment program in Santa Monica. I kicked there. I had gotten caught stealing and was arrested. It’s amazing I made it as long as I did before getting caught. When I was on probation, I visited my probation officer and he was amazed that I was both a Fulbright Scholar and a junkie.
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JW: How did you become a Fulbright Scholar?
BW: I had written my masters thesis at UCLA on Anton Webern [pictured]. It won me a Fulbright. I studied as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris in 1961 and ’62. I originally was going to transcribe a manuscript but soon discovered that someone in London was already working on the project. I went to the Fulbright committee and told them about the project already in the works and that I wanted to make a switch.
JW: What did they say?
BW: They showed [contemporary classical composer and conductor] Pierre Boulez my thesis on the early, pre-serial music of Webern. Boulez said he would see me weekly. I was beyond happy but also scared to death.
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JW: Why?
BW: My original intent was to transcribe a manuscript and here I was studying Schoenberg and Berg with Boulez [pictured]. But then Boulez received a letter notifying him that he had to go to Baden-Baden in Germany.
JW: Why?
BW: Boulez was founder and head of a program there. He told me that he was sorry, that he couldn’t follow through. He lined me up with his old teacher, Max Deutsch. So I studied with Max for a year, mainly Schoenberg and Berg quartets.
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JW: Did you gig in Paris as well as study?
BW: Yes. About two weeks after I had arrived in Paris I was hired for drummer Kenny Clarke’s group, which included Rene Urtreger on piano and Jimmy Gourley on guitar.
JW: Who else did you gig with?
BW: Zoot Sims came over from the States around December of ‘61. After that I worked with Kenny Drew. Only lousy thing about the gig was that the owner got to sing with the group every night.
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JW: And Baker?
BW: I played with him again but not as much as I would have liked. I left Paris in May ’62. Chet had been in jail in Italy, and I just missed him in Paris after he was released.
JW: What do you think about Baker, looking back?
BW: Chet never should have ever done that, and I should never have let it happen. I didn’t encourage it, but I should have done more to prevent it—myself included. I wish I had never gotten into drugs.
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JW: Why did you?
BW: I was just trying to be one of the big guys. All the people I worshiped were using: Art Pepper [pictured above], Zoot—all the guys. It was the thing to do.
JW: Who got you hooked?
BW: Some guy I had known in junior high school. One day we were talking and it turned out that both of us were smoking weed. But he was also using.
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JW: Why did you leave the Gerry Mulligan Quartet?
BW: The first time I left was in the summer of ’53. We were playing at the Haig. We had recorded the one album and I was offered a job to accompany June Christy [pictured above] and Vido Musso. So I told Gerry I was leaving. We weren’t working, and I needed income. I said, “Gerry, all we do are these auditions and stuff. I have to go up for two weeks and work, and then I’ll be back.” The gig was at the Say When Club in San Francisco.
JW: How did Mulligan take it?
BW: He was fine with it. But right after I left, Gerry and the quartet got booked into the Blackhawk in San Francisco.
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JW: How did you feel?
BW: I was ready to shoot myself [laughs]. Gerry had gotten Carson Smith [pictured above on bass]. A couple of weeks later Gerry offered me the job back. I have no idea why, but I took it. Playing behind June was OK, but I was kind of sorry I had taken the gig.
JW: Why?
BW: She was great, but I had missed out on the quartet’s breakout. I worked with the quartet into the beginning of ‘53. I left the second time after Gerry and I got into a big fight.
JW: Over money?
BW: No, Chet and I had gotten busted.
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JW: How did that happen?
BW: Carson Smith used to come into the Haig to check us out. One night we were out in Chet’s car—just Chet, Carson and me. We were smoking weed when we saw a squad car go by. Chet flipped the roach out the window. The cops saw it in their rear-view mirror and backed up and were right on us.
JW: You were arrested for a roach?
BW: Not quite. It turned out that Chet and one of the cops were from the same town in Oklahoma and they got to talking. Which was great. I sighed and thought we weren’t going to go to jail. But then the other cop was a hard-ass and said they had to search the car. They wound up finding two full lids [ounces] of pot and took us all in.
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JW: What was Mulligan’s reaction?
BW: When I got out two days later, Gerry [pictured above] got all over me. “You and Chet are bad news for each other,” he said. I went back all over him. I said, “You’re a fucking hypocrite. How can you sit there and talk to me about using considering what you’ve done?” It was kind of threatening, like were going to get into it physically. But then we came to our senses. I told him he could shove the job up his ass. Gerry said you ain’t got no job. The irony, of course, is that Gerry got busted a short time later.
JW: What did you do?
BW: I went back to Utah. Two of my cousins had come into the Haig and saw the condition I was in and were ready to kidnap me to get me back in health. I stayed back there for about seven months. There was no messing around up there. When I returned to L.A., I started working with Art Pepper again and Stan Getz for a while.
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JW: What do you think when you look back on the Gerry Mulligan Quartet?
BW: I feel proud to have been a part of it. I feel a lot of pride in that group. Those were the greatest months of my career. I felt very lucky. I was barely old enough to buy a drink and was already playing with one of the major groups in jazz. I was dumbfounded by it and impressed with myself. I wish I had made different choices back then. But I was young, excited and didn’t know any better. [Photo of Bob Whitlock taken by Leslie Westbrook in 2012]
A special JazzWax thanks to Leslie Westbrook (http://www.lesliewestbrook.com/) .
JazzWax note: For more on how Dave Pell took the famous photo of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet 10-inch album at the top of this post—the first release by Pacific Jazz—go here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/06/interview-dave-pell-part-2.html) .
JazzWax tracks: The Pacific Jazz recordings of the http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f66b70970d-popupGerry Mulligan Quartet can be found on a two-CD set, The Original Quartet with Chet Baker, here (http://www.amazon.com/Original-Quartet-With-Chet-Baker/dp/B000007TFR/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344299697&sr=8-2&keywords=gerry+mulligan+quartet) . Bob Whitlock is on tracks #6 through #14 on disc #1.
For more recordings by Bob Whitlock, see the bottoms of the individual installments of this interview by going here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-1.html) , here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-2.html) , here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-3.html) and here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-4.html) .
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Gerry Mulligan Bassist Bob Whitlock (1931-2015) – JazzWax
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http://www.jazzwax.com/2015/07/bob-whitlock-1931-2015.html
** Bob Whitlock (1931-2015)
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Von “Bob” Whitlock, a West Coast jazz bassist and the last surviving original member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet who joined the influential piano-less group in the summer of 1952, died on June 29 in Long Beach, Calif., of a stroke. He was 84. [Bob Whitlock picture above, bottom center, on cover of album rotated on its side]
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Without a piano in the Mulligan quartet, Bob had to work doubly hard to create not only the metronome-like time-keeping tempo but also play piano-like treble runs when gaps in the music needed fills. In fact, Bob was not only responsible for introducing Chet Baker to Mulligan but also wooing him back to the quartet after Mulligan blasted Baker for his loud warm-up exercises and Baker walked out. [Pictured above, Bob Whitlock in Paris in the early 1960s as a Fulbright Scholar]
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In 2012, thanks to numerous coaxing efforts by Bob’s friend and writer Leslie Westbrook (above), who provided ideal times to call Bob, I was able to interview him at length by phone. At first, Bob struck me as withdrawn (an American Wikipedia page still does not exist for him), but once we began talking, he had plenty to say and didn’t hold back on answers.
Here is my combined four-part interview with Bob originally posted in August 2012…
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[Pictured above, clockwise from the top: Chet Baker, Bob Whitlock, Gerry Mulligan and Chico Hamilton in 1953; cover photo by Dave Pell]
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Bob Whitlock: I was born in Roosevelt, Utah, on January 21, 1931.
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JW: Did you have a good time as a kid?
BW: Yeah, I guess so. I was an only child and felt like the Lone Ranger. I had a bunch of relatives but they were a bit clannish.
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JW: What do you mean?
BW: If you weren’t immediate family—brothers—you didn’t rate. Cousins were too distant. It was kind of lonely and weird up in Utah. When I was 12 years old, we moved to Long Beach, Calif., just after Pearl Harbor. My grandmother on my mother’s side had died and left my granddad in a twist. My mother had just gotten her second divorce, so she felt like she was in prison in Utah.
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JW: So your grandfather lived in Long Beach?
BW: Yes. When we moved down there, I didn’t like it at first. I wasn’t comfortable with the strangeness of it compared to the jerkwater town we had left. But we were near the beach, and I liked that. The sunsets were great. When we had lived in Roosevelt, Utah, the whole town was 1,400 people, including the surrounding farms. Roosevelt was in the middle of an Indian reservation.
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JW: But you wanted to move, yes?
BW: I did. I had always had these wild dreams about what it would be like to live in a city. Salt Lake was about as big as it got out there. The dreams I had was that the city was a highly sexed place and that teens would bond and do all the things teens did. But when we moved to Long Beach, the kids weren’t like that at all. It wasn’t that different from Utah, just a lot more people.
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JW: How were you first exposed to music?
BW: One of my older cousins was a very versatile guy. He played tenor sax, the baritone and the bass. He had had this little band back in Utah. My mother had played alto sax in the band, and played well for a gal in a hick town. Guy Lombardo was her favorite.
JW: Your cousin’s favorite, too?
BW: [Laughs] No. I remember getting into heated arguments with him. He had records by Basie and Ellington, but I wasn’t listening carefully yet and simply defended my mother’s taste. I had been playing the piano at this point. By the time we moved to California, I had gotten pretty fair on the keyboard. I was playing the organ in church.
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JW: Did you continue on the keyboard in California?
BW: No. There was nothing to play. In Long Beach, I began a love affair with the trumpet. I idolized Harry James, Ziggy Elman and the other horn stars. Then I discovered Roy Eldridge. He was brilliant. He could play from the bottom of the horn clear up to the top.
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JW: Did you imagine yourself a trumpet player?
BW: Oh yes. I kept hounding my mother to buy me one. But I hadn’t even played a trumpet yet, and times were tough then. My mother was a single parent. She worked at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach as a secretary. She was earning 60 cents an hour.
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JW: Ever get that horn?
BW: I did. My mother was a wonderful gal and she bought me a cornet. I was into it and got into the orchestra at school. But I had no idea what I was doing. I’d just mash the mouthpiece into my upper lip until it was numb. By the time I got some useful help with a couple of teachers—one taught me a non-pressure method—I couldn’t do anything with the trumpet. I had blown out my lip.
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JW: What did you do?
BW: I went to a couple of different teachers to try to unwind the damage, but nothing worked. I’d also been dropping in on the guy who owned the music store where my mother had bought the cornet. One day I came in and saw a bass sitting there. He knew I was having a difficult time with the horn. We talked, and he felt sorry for my mom laying out the money and the horn not working out.
JW: What did he do?
BW: He saw that I had an interest in the bass so he offered to trade me the bass or a piano for the cornet. I took the bass. It was portable and looked cool.
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JW: How did you learn to play?
BW: There was a brilliant guy named Nick Furjanick who had been a violinist in the orchestra at Woodrow Wilson High School [above]. He was injured in World War II, which limited his career. He gave me lessons. He was brilliant and for years won the state’s highest honors in music. He was a wonderful person. If he saw anything at all in a person, he would go all out for them. He saw that I had potential on the bass.
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JW: What was your first paying gig?
BW: At the Cinderella Ballroom in Long Beach [above]. It was a big band. I had the opportunity to play because I could read charts. I had become a solid reader in the high school orchestra.
JW: Is Von a nickname or your given name?
BW: Von is my real name. My mother had planned to name me by combining my dad’s name and her name. My mom’s name was Eva LaVaur Mullins while my dad’s name was Lynn Whitlock. So she was going to name me Varlynn until someone told her it was an odd name. Someone suggested a name like Von instead. But Von was a bit strange, too, and most people heard “Bob” when I was introduced, so I began to call myself Bob.
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JW: How did you wind up gigging steadily with Gerry Mulligan in Los Angeles in early 1952?
BW: I got a call one day from a woman who I thought was a manager or agent. She said she had gotten my name from someone and asked if I was interested in coming to a rehearsal with Gerry Mulligan. [Photo above, from left: Bob Whitlock, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan]
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JW: What did you think?
BW: I was delighted. I couldn’t believe my luck. So I jumped on the opportunity in a hot minute. Gerry had somehow got hooked-up at a place where he could rehearse in the San Fernando Valley—a little Italian restaurant with sawdust on the floor.
JW: Did you already know Mulligan personally?
BW: No, I had never played with him or met him. But I knew his music and records. When I came in and set up, the first thing Gerry said to me was, “Let’s play some blues.” That was a relief. But then he said, “Go ahead and kick it off, give me four bars.” I flipped, but I took off and played a four-bar intro.
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JW: How did you do?
BW: I kind of surprised myself that the line came out as good as it did. I was kind of scared. Hell, it was Gerry Mulligan. This guy had been on the Miles Davis Nonet recordings [later known as The Birth of the Cool], the best jazz sides in some time. I was scared and inspired. [Photo above: The Miles Davis Nonet]
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JW: Were you responsible for introducing Chet Baker to Gerry Mulligan?
BW: Yes. After I started playing with Gerry regularly, we had a record date on Vine. We had been playing with these two guys who Gerry had met in Albuquerque, when he hitchhiked across the country with his girlfriend [Gail Madden]. They had put up Gerry and Gail, so Gerry and Gail had asked them to come to L.A. One guy played drums and sax and the other played trumpet. But they weren’t cutting it. We recorded all evening on Vine but there was nothing we could use at the end of the night. [Photo above: Gerry Mulligan]
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JW: How did you know Baker?
BW: I had been rooming with him for a couple of years. When I mentioned to Gerry at the session that Chet would be perfect for us, Gerry told me to bring him by. Back at our place, I told Chet. He was delighted and beside himself. He and I used to just sit and listen to the Miles Davis Nonet stuff. Chet couldn’t get over it. [Photo above: Chet Baker]
JW: What was the next step?
BW: Chet and I went to a rehearsal Gerry held. But Chet had this really disturbing habit. When he’d warm up, he’d do it quickly and loud. He’d blast out these pedal tones and high notes. It was like he was putting his lip through a challenge. It wasn’t easy to listen to.
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JW: What was Mulligan’s reaction?
BW: Gerry went off on him. He said, “Don’t ever do that around me.” Chet was insulted, naturally, and he was an independent little dude [laughs]. Chet said, “Go fuck yourself” and packed up his horn and walked out. Right after that, Bird [Charlie Parker] came out to L.A., and Chet went to work with him at the Tiffany Club on 8th near Normandy. Bird took to Chet right away. Soon they got booked in San Francisco, and Chet played around with him for a couple of months.
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JW: What was the result?
BW: Playing with Bird did Chet’s reputation a world of good. Bird kept raving about him. Soon, Gerry felt like a jerk about what he had done, especially after he had heard what Chet was capable of playing on the instrument. In all fairness, there was no way for Gerry to know about Chet’s abilities at a rehearsal where Chet was blasting his horn and exercising his lip.
JW: How did Mulligan and Baker get back together?
BW: After Chet split and was playing with Bird, I would say some delicate lightweight, apologizing things to Gerry, noting that the rift was just a misunderstanding. I said, “That’s just the way Chet warms up.” Gerry asked me to have Chet come to the next rehearsal.
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JW: What happened?
BW: When Chet showed up, two minutes in it was obvious that we had a fantastic combination. We were building things, and they played like one mind working two horns. Funny enough Chet continued to do that warm-up thing and Gerry ate it [laughs].
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JW: Who was Phil Turetsky?
BW: Phil was a recording engineer who was connected to Dick Bock, who handled publicity at the Haig. Phil had a little studio at his house up in Laurel Canyon, northwest of Los Angeles. He would record whoever had some promise. In 1952, Dick Bock approached him about doing some recording for a label he wanted to start called Pacific Jazz. [Photo above, clockwise from top: Phil Turetsky, Bud Shank and Laurindo Almeida]
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JW: Do you remember recording there with Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker and Chico Hamilton in August 1952?
BW: Yes. I had been working at the Haig on the off-nights for two or three months before the quartet was formed. I wasn’t the only one. There were other bass players and drummers in the group. Gerry was trying different people to see who would fit his concept. After I became a regular, he chose Chico.
JW: Everything worked out?
BW: Yes. Gerry liked my playing. The next thing we did was this little recording session at Phil Turetsky’s. At the time I formally joined Gerry, I had been working with Art Pepper. Art played at the Haig for a while with his group. Then Gerry and Art started playing together. Gerry was still using the piano. I think Gil Barrios was playing it.
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JW: What happened to the piano at the Haig?
BW: The piano was a huge grand. Erroll Garner had been the featured soloist there. The piano was so long that the front extended into the room and had to sit on a crate. It took up a ton of space. So Gerry had it taken out. Gerry never gave me a direct answer as to why he stopped using a piano in the group, but I know he felt the piano was a pain in the ass, musically.
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JW: A pain in the ass?
BW: Everyone always had to conform to what the piano was playing and Gerry didn’t want to do that. The piano was a naturally dominant instrument because of its rhythm function and multiple notes. The ear had to hear it. I think Gerry was tired of having to follow it. The piano made the music too complicated, and the other musicians weren’t free enough to invent lines.
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JW: How did Mulligan develop the quartet sound?
BW: On Mondays at the Haig. It was Dick Bock’s [pictured] idea to get us taped and produced. I felt very comfortable with that group. I liked the challenge of playing a bass line that really defined the harmony without sounding like you’re just running chord changes. The challenge was to keep our lines simple enough to swing.
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JW: A challenge?
BW: At first, for me. It’s easy to get caught up trying to make your lines too cute. When that happens, the bass loses the reason why it’s there. Meeting that challenge was the reason for going to work every night. I felt like I had utter freedom and I never abused that. I was totally exposed as a player. Sometimes that was difficult.
JW: Why?
BW: It would get humid and warm in the Haig, and just trying to keep the four of us in tune with each other was tough. It’s not easy to play when you’re constantly trying to adjust the bass’s tuning pegs at the same time. It’s a hell of an experience. But it didn’t take very long for the whole thing we were doing to become accepted.
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JW: Wasn’t the quartet always accepted?
BW: Not really. For a time, people ridiculed it. They came in and thought we should have someone defining the harmony, like a guitar or piano. The tradeoff for us was the experimental freedom. Instead of having to chase the piano player all night, we could intermingle without that stress or interference.
JW: That was a radical concept?
BW: It was at the time. The piano was key in many groups. But you could often get a piano player who thought he was hotter than everyone else and could ruin everything in a hurry. Without the piano, we could pay attention to each other.
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JW: The absence of a piano in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet let Chet Baker stand out, yes?
BW: That’s true. You know, Chet was 10 times the soloist that Gerry was. Gerry had done so much writing and arranging by then that he had developed a lot of formulas for soloing. Chet was different. With Chet, it was always a free-fall. He could read music but he wasn’t a great reader. Instead, he had very highly developed taste and an appreciation for simplicity. From a musician’s perspective, he was always more exciting to listen to because you never knew where his lines were going to go. [Photo above of pianist Forrest Westbrook and bassist Bob Whitlock courtesy of Leslie Westbrook]
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JW: Spoken like a true Chet Baker fan.
BW: I guess I am one of Chet’s biggest fans. Listening to what came out of that horn each night and the challenge of putting a line up against what he played was so wonderful. Chet gave you this terrific opportunity each time he soloed. He wasn’t in your way and his playing was so clear and his sense of direction so evident that it was of enormous assistance to me as a bassist.
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JW: Was Baker’s approach different than other soloists?
BW: So many guys bulldog their way through, sometimes with an attitude of “To hell with what you’re doing—I’m here now.” Not with Chet [pictured]. The best moments of my career were as Chet’s wingman. He listened carefully to you and played something to flatter and support it. When he let you know he was there, it was a great feeling. You felt confident about going out on a limb without feeling you were going to be trapped. You always knew that Chet would be with you. I think Chet had a much higher skill level than Gerry.
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JW: Was Mulligan aware of Baker’s natural abilities? Was it a source of friction?
BW: Gerry and Chet didn’t get along too well. Gerry was an egomaniac. He loved to picture himself as Chet’s mentor, that he had discovered Chet. He didn’t hesitate to let Chet know that. And naturally Chet resented it. Chet rightfully was a hell of a lot better soloist than Gerry and felt it was presumptuous for Gerry to say he discovered him.
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JW: How would this antagonism play out?
BW: Whenever Gerry would make the slightest reference to being his mentor or the one who discovered him, Chet would get right in his face and make an ass of him. He’d call him right down on it. He’d say, “Hey Gerry, I’m me and you’re you. Don’t get too carried away with yourself.”
JW: Ouch. How did Mulligan respond?
BW: Gerry’s responses always reflected his disappointment that Chet didn’t fall in line with his line. Gerry really loved playing that role of being the godfather. Everything had to be “Gerry Mulligan and….” With Chet, Chet was always about what was going on. Chet had a facility that’s almost unimaginable. You had to be there playing behind him to fully appreciate the sound, the imagination and the beauty. Not to mention his ability to hook onto what was going on around him and add to it.
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JW: What did you think of Chico Hamilton’s drumming in the quartet?
BW: It was terrific. At first, Chico could get a little bombastic, as any drummer would. Gerry used to climb all over him for it. Eventually, Chico brought down the volume of his playing. In the beginning, he was a bit too loud and too busy. Everything he played was “Dig me.” Gerry would just eat him alive. [Chico Hamilton pictured above on cover at bottom]
JW: How so?
BW: Gerry had an ability to wade in on you pretty good but at the same time make it clear that it wasn’t vindictive, that he did actually have something musical in mind. But it’s a painful way to hear from someone trying to help you.
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JW: For example?
BW: Gerry wouldn’t allow Chico [pictured] to set up his whole drum set. I remember the first night Chico did, Gerry had him tear it down—the tom-tom and all the other drums. Eventually, Chico had a set up where he had a foot pedal attached to a tom-tom to use as a bass drum, for a lighter touch. Gerry wanted everything light as a feather. People used to call us the Chamber Music Society of Lower Wilshire Boulevard [laughs].
JW: What did that mean?
BW: A nice airy sound, clear and clean, that we kept the extraneous bullshit away. The beauty was the counterpoint. You can’t have intelligent sounding counterpoint if everyone is loud and banging away. But when everyone is listening closely to one another, then you hear where the other guys are going, and the other guys are going to feed off of you.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743fbcd44970d-popup
JW: So what was the bottom-line criteria for being in the quartet?
BW: What Gerry needed in that group was everyone listening carefully to each other and to be willing to be second fiddle to him. And to be an interesting musical conversationalist among the other members of the group. At most jam sessions, it’s you and the rhythm section. In the setting where you have two horns and a bass player and drummer trying to make something happen, you’re always functioning as a single unit. You have to be careful. You have to be inside the other person’s notes. We all felt lucky to be in that group.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743fbdd51970d-popup
JW: The drug scene was pretty hairy out in L.A. in the early ‘50s. Why?
BW: There were very few places in the country where drugs were more accessible. Los Angeles was close to the Mexican border, and there were large poor communities close by that bought and sold drugs.
JW: And for musicians?
BW: For musicians, that was the nature of using. You didn’t worry about the addiction until you were hooked. And by then, worrying about it was the least of your worries. In some perverse way that was the attraction of taking drugs—flirting with that kind of excitement.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743fbd08f970d-popup
JW: How did so many great L.A. players become hooked?
BW: In my case, my favorite musician at that time was Charlie Parker—in terms of sheer inventiveness, night after night. I just couldn’t imagine anyone else ever coming close to him in that regard. And then there was Billie Holiday and all these wonderful people who were junkies. I was a youngster and there was something mysterious and illogical about it. But there also was a mystique—that maybe I need to explore it to find myself as a person and artist. [Pictured above, Charlie Parker and Chet Baker]
JW: It seemed as though drugs were everywhere in the jazz scene then.
BW: It was a challenging period. Everyone you knew was using. You wanted to recreate the immortality of it. Gerry, of course, had been a heavy user. And yet he was so out there musically. He was very clever about his addiction though. He was one of the smarter addicts.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401761715b686970c-popup
JW: How so?
BW: He kept it undercover very well. He didn’t advertise that he was using. There were a lot of guys who were so obvious that they were junkies. Gerry [pictured] never had the need to project that kind of image, possibly because his reputation was already established.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017744015e2a970d-popup
JW: Was Chet Baker a user when you knew him?
BW: Chet was a latecomer to hard drugs. He smoked as much pot as anyone alive though. My god, that guy was insatiable. But he wasn’t a hard-drug user at first. I remember the first time Chet ever used drugs. In a way, I feel kind of guilty about it. [Photo of Bob Whitlock above taken by Leslie Westbrook in 2012]
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340167692647d6970b-popup
JW: How so?
BW: In 1952, I was going to score from a guy down in San Pedro, Calif., about a half hour south of Los Angeles. Chet drove down with me and stayed in the car while I went into the guy’s house. But I was in there too long to suit him.
JW: What happened?
BW: Eventually Chet came up and knocked on the door. It was an uncool thing to do, since anything could happen with paranoid people. Fortunately, the connection I was using knew that Chet was a musician and was cool.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176171b4ad2970c-popup
JW: How did it play out?
BW: Chet came up to the door and asked where I was and why was I there so long. They let him in. Chet could sense that the situation wasn’t cool immediately and that he shouldn’t have come in. A connection feels very threatened when someone unknown comes into his house, even if he knows who that person is.
JW: What happened next?
BW: I had just gotten down, and the guy asked Chet, “You want to get off?” I think Chet was afraid not to because this guy represented some kind of threat.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340167692649fb970b-popup
JW: Threat how?
BW: I really don’t know how to go any deeper into that. It might have just passed, but I think Chet felt he needed to prove to this guy he wasn’t someone who was going to be dangerous to him. I also think Chet felt that he had gotten me in trouble and needed to undo that. I never urged him to do a thing and told him there was no need.
JW: Did Baker get high?
BW: Chet got down, and it was a terrible experience. He started vomiting. This stuff was very pure and strong. Chet got so whacked.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769264a91970b-popup
JW: Based on Baker’s personality, it sounds like if he hadn’t started with you, he would probably have done so with someone else.
BW: He was hell-bound to do it. He always had that all-the-way-Jose mentality, whether it was playing the trumpet or smoking pot. He probably smoked enough pot by himself to last a lifetime. There was never any restraint or halfway with Chet.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176171b4c5c970c-popup
JW: So you had nothing to do with convincing him to try heroin?
BW: My god, no. That has been put on me for so long. He was with me when he started, but I had absolutely nothing to do with pushing him into doing anything. Chet was always his own man. But to this day I feel guilty about the whole thing.
JW: How did you kick the habit?
BW: In 1976 I went into Synanon, the drug-treatment program in Santa Monica. I kicked there. I had gotten caught stealing and was arrested. It’s amazing I made it as long as I did before getting caught. When I was on probation, I visited my probation officer and he was amazed that I was both a Fulbright Scholar and a junkie.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769264c3d970b-popup
JW: How did you become a Fulbright Scholar?
BW: I had written my masters thesis at UCLA on Anton Webern [pictured]. It won me a Fulbright. I studied as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris in 1961 and ’62. I originally was going to transcribe a manuscript but soon discovered that someone in London was already working on the project. I went to the Fulbright committee and told them about the project already in the works and that I wanted to make a switch.
JW: What did they say?
BW: They showed [contemporary classical composer and conductor] Pierre Boulez my thesis on the early, pre-serial music of Webern. Boulez said he would see me weekly. I was beyond happy but also scared to death.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769264d6e970b-popup
JW: Why?
BW: My original intent was to transcribe a manuscript and here I was studying Schoenberg and Berg with Boulez [pictured]. But then Boulez received a letter notifying him that he had to go to Baden-Baden in Germany.
JW: Why?
BW: Boulez was founder and head of a program there. He told me that he was sorry, that he couldn’t follow through. He lined me up with his old teacher, Max Deutsch. So I studied with Max for a year, mainly Schoenberg and Berg quartets.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176171b503d970c-popup
JW: Did you gig in Paris as well as study?
BW: Yes. About two weeks after I had arrived in Paris I was hired for drummer Kenny Clarke’s group, which included Rene Urtreger on piano and Jimmy Gourley on guitar.
JW: Who else did you gig with?
BW: Zoot Sims came over from the States around December of ‘61. After that I worked with Kenny Drew. Only lousy thing about the gig was that the owner got to sing with the group every night.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769265038970b-popup
JW: And Baker?
BW: I played with him again but not as much as I would have liked. I left Paris in May ’62. Chet had been in jail in Italy, and I just missed him in Paris after he was released.
JW: What do you think about Baker, looking back?
BW: Chet never should have ever done that, and I should never have let it happen. I didn’t encourage it, but I should have done more to prevent it—myself included. I wish I had never gotten into drugs.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340167692c6e9b970b-popup
JW: Why did you?
BW: I was just trying to be one of the big guys. All the people I worshiped were using: Art Pepper [pictured above], Zoot—all the guys. It was the thing to do.
JW: Who got you hooked?
BW: Some guy I had known in junior high school. One day we were talking and it turned out that both of us were smoking weed. But he was also using.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017744016b7c970d-popup
JW: Why did you leave the Gerry Mulligan Quartet?
BW: The first time I left was in the summer of ’53. We were playing at the Haig. We had recorded the one album and I was offered a job to accompany June Christy [pictured above] and Vido Musso. So I told Gerry I was leaving. We weren’t working, and I needed income. I said, “Gerry, all we do are these auditions and stuff. I have to go up for two weeks and work, and then I’ll be back.” The gig was at the Say When Club in San Francisco.
JW: How did Mulligan take it?
BW: He was fine with it. But right after I left, Gerry and the quartet got booked into the Blackhawk in San Francisco.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340176171b56b2970c-popup
JW: How did you feel?
BW: I was ready to shoot myself [laughs]. Gerry had gotten Carson Smith [pictured above on bass]. A couple of weeks later Gerry offered me the job back. I have no idea why, but I took it. Playing behind June was OK, but I was kind of sorry I had taken the gig.
JW: Why?
BW: She was great, but I had missed out on the quartet’s breakout. I worked with the quartet into the beginning of ‘53. I left the second time after Gerry and I got into a big fight.
JW: Over money?
BW: No, Chet and I had gotten busted.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834016769266219970b-popup
JW: How did that happen?
BW: Carson Smith used to come into the Haig to check us out. One night we were out in Chet’s car—just Chet, Carson and me. We were smoking weed when we saw a squad car go by. Chet flipped the roach out the window. The cops saw it in their rear-view mirror and backed up and were right on us.
JW: You were arrested for a roach?
BW: Not quite. It turned out that Chet and one of the cops were from the same town in Oklahoma and they got to talking. Which was great. I sighed and thought we weren’t going to go to jail. But then the other cop was a hard-ass and said they had to search the car. They wound up finding two full lids [ounces] of pot and took us all in.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017744017e72970d-popup
JW: What was Mulligan’s reaction?
BW: When I got out two days later, Gerry [pictured above] got all over me. “You and Chet are bad news for each other,” he said. I went back all over him. I said, “You’re a fucking hypocrite. How can you sit there and talk to me about using considering what you’ve done?” It was kind of threatening, like were going to get into it physically. But then we came to our senses. I told him he could shove the job up his ass. Gerry said you ain’t got no job. The irony, of course, is that Gerry got busted a short time later.
JW: What did you do?
BW: I went back to Utah. Two of my cousins had come into the Haig and saw the condition I was in and were ready to kidnap me to get me back in health. I stayed back there for about seven months. There was no messing around up there. When I returned to L.A., I started working with Art Pepper again and Stan Getz for a while.
http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401676926662a970b-popup
JW: What do you think when you look back on the Gerry Mulligan Quartet?
BW: I feel proud to have been a part of it. I feel a lot of pride in that group. Those were the greatest months of my career. I felt very lucky. I was barely old enough to buy a drink and was already playing with one of the major groups in jazz. I was dumbfounded by it and impressed with myself. I wish I had made different choices back then. But I was young, excited and didn’t know any better. [Photo of Bob Whitlock taken by Leslie Westbrook in 2012]
A special JazzWax thanks to Leslie Westbrook (http://www.lesliewestbrook.com/) .
JazzWax note: For more on how Dave Pell took the famous photo of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet 10-inch album at the top of this post—the first release by Pacific Jazz—go here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/06/interview-dave-pell-part-2.html) .
JazzWax tracks: The Pacific Jazz recordings of the http://marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834017743f66b70970d-popupGerry Mulligan Quartet can be found on a two-CD set, The Original Quartet with Chet Baker, here (http://www.amazon.com/Original-Quartet-With-Chet-Baker/dp/B000007TFR/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344299697&sr=8-2&keywords=gerry+mulligan+quartet) . Bob Whitlock is on tracks #6 through #14 on disc #1.
For more recordings by Bob Whitlock, see the bottoms of the individual installments of this interview by going here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-1.html) , here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-2.html) , here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-3.html) and here (http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/08/interview-bob-whitlock-part-4.html) .
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Photographer Harold Feinstein, Blue Note veteran, dead at 84 – Oakland Jazz music | Examiner.com
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http://www.examiner.com/article/photographer-harold-feinstein-blue-note-veteran-dead-at-84?CID=examiner_alerts_article
** Photographer Harold Feinstein, Blue Note veteran, dead at 84
————————————————————
Brian McCoy | Oakland Jazz Music Examiner
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Next: Kama Ruby and Jeff Rosbrugh at La Foret Saturday (http://www.examiner.com/article/kama-ruby-and-jeff-rosbrugh-at-la-foret-saturday)
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http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/harold-feinstein-select-blue-note-discography
Blue Note
View all 9 photos (http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/harold-feinstein-select-blue-note-discography)
One of the 20th century’s leading photographers, Harold Feinstein, has died. Here’s the lede from his New York Times obit.
Harold Feinstein, whose celebrated series of black-and-white photographs of Coney Island in the 1950s established him as one of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience, and who went on to experiment with color and new digital techniques, died on June 20 at his home in Merrimac, Mass. He was 84.
Mr. Feinstein, a native of Coney Island, borrowed a Rolleiflex camera from a neighbor when he was 15 and set forth to record the sights and the people surrounding him. Early on, he exhibited an uncanny ability to capture spontaneous moments – sunbathers enjoying the beach, teenagers laughing on a plunging roller coaster – that pulled viewers into the city’s most famous seaside playground and the life of ordinary New Yorkers.
Less remembered is Feinstein’s tenure shooting and/or designing seminal jazz (http://www.examiner.com/topic/jazz) album covers for Blue Note. Here’s how the photographer described those days on his website.
On my first exposure to jazz I remember calling my old friend Bob Gill and asking: “Is this really music?” to which he responded simply – “yes, Harold.” Soon I was steeped in the culture with all its accoutrements and was never the same again.
Among the great memories and opportunities that came my way was hooking up with Alfred Lion, founder of Blue Note records (http://www.examiner.com/topic/blue-note-records) , who frequented the loft. He’d seen a couple of record covers I’d designed for Signal Records (a short-lived jazz label) in 1955 and asked me if I would be interested in being a designer of Blue Note record covers. I jumped in.
He was a photographer in his own right and wanted to use his own photos, so I mostly did the design work and became one of the three people to really get associated with the label’s 1500 jazz series. The others were Andy Warhol and Reid Miles.
Check out some of the best of Feinstein’s Blue Note output in the slideshow.
Want to keep up with the best in Bay Area jazz and blues?
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Photographer Harold Feinstein, Blue Note veteran, dead at 84 – Oakland Jazz music | Examiner.com
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http://www.examiner.com/article/photographer-harold-feinstein-blue-note-veteran-dead-at-84?CID=examiner_alerts_article
** Photographer Harold Feinstein, Blue Note veteran, dead at 84
————————————————————
Brian McCoy | Oakland Jazz Music Examiner
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Next: Kama Ruby and Jeff Rosbrugh at La Foret Saturday (http://www.examiner.com/article/kama-ruby-and-jeff-rosbrugh-at-la-foret-saturday)
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http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/harold-feinstein-select-blue-note-discography
Blue Note
View all 9 photos (http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/harold-feinstein-select-blue-note-discography)
One of the 20th century’s leading photographers, Harold Feinstein, has died. Here’s the lede from his New York Times obit.
Harold Feinstein, whose celebrated series of black-and-white photographs of Coney Island in the 1950s established him as one of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience, and who went on to experiment with color and new digital techniques, died on June 20 at his home in Merrimac, Mass. He was 84.
Mr. Feinstein, a native of Coney Island, borrowed a Rolleiflex camera from a neighbor when he was 15 and set forth to record the sights and the people surrounding him. Early on, he exhibited an uncanny ability to capture spontaneous moments – sunbathers enjoying the beach, teenagers laughing on a plunging roller coaster – that pulled viewers into the city’s most famous seaside playground and the life of ordinary New Yorkers.
Less remembered is Feinstein’s tenure shooting and/or designing seminal jazz (http://www.examiner.com/topic/jazz) album covers for Blue Note. Here’s how the photographer described those days on his website.
On my first exposure to jazz I remember calling my old friend Bob Gill and asking: “Is this really music?” to which he responded simply – “yes, Harold.” Soon I was steeped in the culture with all its accoutrements and was never the same again.
Among the great memories and opportunities that came my way was hooking up with Alfred Lion, founder of Blue Note records (http://www.examiner.com/topic/blue-note-records) , who frequented the loft. He’d seen a couple of record covers I’d designed for Signal Records (a short-lived jazz label) in 1955 and asked me if I would be interested in being a designer of Blue Note record covers. I jumped in.
He was a photographer in his own right and wanted to use his own photos, so I mostly did the design work and became one of the three people to really get associated with the label’s 1500 jazz series. The others were Andy Warhol and Reid Miles.
Check out some of the best of Feinstein’s Blue Note output in the slideshow.
Want to keep up with the best in Bay Area jazz and blues?
Subscribe to me: Have our jazz and blues Examiner columns sent to your inbox. Click the SUBSCRIBE button on this page. It’s free. (And I won’t spam you or give out your information.) Bookmark me: http://www.examiner.com/jazz-music-in-oakland/brian-mccoy. CONTACT ME FOR YOUR JAZZ AND ARTS GRANT WRITING NEEDS
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Photographer Harold Feinstein, Blue Note veteran, dead at 84 – Oakland Jazz music | Examiner.com
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.examiner.com/article/photographer-harold-feinstein-blue-note-veteran-dead-at-84?CID=examiner_alerts_article
** Photographer Harold Feinstein, Blue Note veteran, dead at 84
————————————————————
Brian McCoy | Oakland Jazz Music Examiner
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http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/harold-feinstein-select-blue-note-discography
Blue Note
View all 9 photos (http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/harold-feinstein-select-blue-note-discography)
One of the 20th century’s leading photographers, Harold Feinstein, has died. Here’s the lede from his New York Times obit.
Harold Feinstein, whose celebrated series of black-and-white photographs of Coney Island in the 1950s established him as one of the most accomplished recorders of the American experience, and who went on to experiment with color and new digital techniques, died on June 20 at his home in Merrimac, Mass. He was 84.
Mr. Feinstein, a native of Coney Island, borrowed a Rolleiflex camera from a neighbor when he was 15 and set forth to record the sights and the people surrounding him. Early on, he exhibited an uncanny ability to capture spontaneous moments – sunbathers enjoying the beach, teenagers laughing on a plunging roller coaster – that pulled viewers into the city’s most famous seaside playground and the life of ordinary New Yorkers.
Less remembered is Feinstein’s tenure shooting and/or designing seminal jazz (http://www.examiner.com/topic/jazz) album covers for Blue Note. Here’s how the photographer described those days on his website.
On my first exposure to jazz I remember calling my old friend Bob Gill and asking: “Is this really music?” to which he responded simply – “yes, Harold.” Soon I was steeped in the culture with all its accoutrements and was never the same again.
Among the great memories and opportunities that came my way was hooking up with Alfred Lion, founder of Blue Note records (http://www.examiner.com/topic/blue-note-records) , who frequented the loft. He’d seen a couple of record covers I’d designed for Signal Records (a short-lived jazz label) in 1955 and asked me if I would be interested in being a designer of Blue Note record covers. I jumped in.
He was a photographer in his own right and wanted to use his own photos, so I mostly did the design work and became one of the three people to really get associated with the label’s 1500 jazz series. The others were Andy Warhol and Reid Miles.
Check out some of the best of Feinstein’s Blue Note output in the slideshow.
Want to keep up with the best in Bay Area jazz and blues?
Subscribe to me: Have our jazz and blues Examiner columns sent to your inbox. Click the SUBSCRIBE button on this page. It’s free. (And I won’t spam you or give out your information.) Bookmark me: http://www.examiner.com/jazz-music-in-oakland/brian-mccoy. CONTACT ME FOR YOUR JAZZ AND ARTS GRANT WRITING NEEDS
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/arts/music/jazz-at-lincoln-center-and-sony-music-team-up-for-blue-engine-records.html?_r=0
** Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records
————————————————————
By ROBIN POGREBIN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/robin_pogrebin/index.html)
Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director, who conceived the recording deal with Sony Music. Credit Platon/Trunk Archive
Continue reading the main story
Jazz at Lincoln Center (http://www.jazz.org/) has shelves upon shelves of recordings from concerts it has presented since its founding in 1987, including a studio recording featuring the pianist Chick Corea, a musical Mass with a gospel choir written for the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and concerts with the saxophonists Sherman Irby and Ted Nash.
Now, that organization, together with Sony Music Entertainment, is bringing that archive, as well as new studio and live recordings, to the public through the creation of its own label, Blue Engine Records, to be announced on Tuesday.
“In jazz, recordings are your identity,” said Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director. “So the identity of our institution has not been available — unless we’re live.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center will release the recordings as CDs and digital downloads and to streaming music services, with a few titles in vinyl format, through an exclusive agreement with RED (http://www.redmusic.com/) Distribution, a division of Sony Music, for distribution in the United States and overseas. RED’s ’stache media, a marketing company, will provide publicity, branding and social media support. The financial arrangements of the deal were not disclosed.
“It’s the legendary and iconic company of Jazz at Lincoln Center,” said Bob Morelli, RED’s president. “Sony RED is a fairly eclectic company; I’m not limited to rock or pop or hip-hop.”
In an age of music services like Spotify and a crowded marketplace, skeptics might wonder about the prospects for a new record label, let alone one devoted to a classic form like jazz. The financial upside is likely to be limited and the field could prove competitive, given that several jazz clubs also have their own labels. But Sony said the deal holds potential.
“There is a significant market for jazz,” Mr. Morelli said. “I don’t see this becoming Madonna, where Wynton’s going to do halftime at the Super Bowl, but virtually anything is possible.”
Blue Engine Records represents only the latest effort by Jazz at Lincoln Center to serve existing jazz fans and to expose new audiences to the music beyond its New York stages in the Time Warner Center, as it has with webcasts; a new radio show, “Jazz Night in America” (produced with NPR Music and WBGO); a video web series on its own YouTube channel, Facebook page and jazz.org (http://jazz.org/) ; and a growing library of over 600 performance videos available free through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education portal (http://academy.jazz.org/) .
The recording project is the baby of Mr. Marsalis, who has conceived and developed each year’s programming over the last 28 years. “I picked almost every song we played at every concert,” he said.
Comprising mostly performances by Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the organization’s R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concerts.
The company is also announcing a 12-city “Blue Engine Tour” beginning Sunday with a first-time performance at the Breckenridge Music Festival.
As part of the tour, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Mr. Marsalis will appear in six summer music festivals, including Jazz Aspen Snowmass’s 25th anniversary season, where the band will be joined by the vocalist René Marie, and Tanglewood’s 75th-anniversary season. For its first-time appearance at the Caramoor Jazz Festival, the band will be joined by the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.
The Blue Engine recordings will be rolled out over 15 years, starting with about six releases a year. “You start small — you figure out how to serve the audience and our mission,” Mr. Marsalis said. “We wouldn’t want to rush things.”
That said, he added that the company had “80 viables” ready to go as soon as they’re mixed. Blue Engine will start with the most recent recordings and move backward in time. The releases will not necessarily consist of an entire concert; they may include the seven or eight best songs, Mr. Marsalis said.
The recordings will feature outside artists, as well as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The orchestra has released previous albums but in a piecemeal fashion.
Blue Engine will be operated as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s brand and audience development department, which is managed by Gabrielle Armand.
RED specializes in digital and physical sales and marketing, as well as radio promotion and product development for more than 60 independent record labels, as well as artists from Sony-owned labels and Sony joint ventures with Descendant Records, Ultra Records, Red Bow Records and RED Associated Labels.
“Our mission is to distribute and sell and to brand the label imprint,” Mr. Morelli said. “But simultaneously it’s to sell stuff, to do as much as we can. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.”
The first release from Blue Engine, “Live in Cuba,” featuring Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be released on Aug. 21 (and is available for pre-order (http://itunes.com/BlueEngineRecords) online). Recorded over three nights at the Mella Theater in Havana in October 2010, “Live in Cuba” explores the connections between American jazz and Afro-Cuban music, from bebop to bolero.
Jazz at Lincoln Center said it was now regularly connected to one million people through Facebook, website visits and email lists and Mr. Marsalis said he looked forward to reaching many more with Blue Engine.
“Anyone who’s interested in having a relationship with us can have a clear idea of who we are and what we do,” he said. “Our music is about freedom and bringing people together through swing.”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=f60ebba063) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=f60ebba063&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/arts/music/jazz-at-lincoln-center-and-sony-music-team-up-for-blue-engine-records.html?_r=0
** Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records
————————————————————
By ROBIN POGREBIN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/robin_pogrebin/index.html)
Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director, who conceived the recording deal with Sony Music. Credit Platon/Trunk Archive
Continue reading the main story
Jazz at Lincoln Center (http://www.jazz.org/) has shelves upon shelves of recordings from concerts it has presented since its founding in 1987, including a studio recording featuring the pianist Chick Corea, a musical Mass with a gospel choir written for the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and concerts with the saxophonists Sherman Irby and Ted Nash.
Now, that organization, together with Sony Music Entertainment, is bringing that archive, as well as new studio and live recordings, to the public through the creation of its own label, Blue Engine Records, to be announced on Tuesday.
“In jazz, recordings are your identity,” said Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director. “So the identity of our institution has not been available — unless we’re live.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center will release the recordings as CDs and digital downloads and to streaming music services, with a few titles in vinyl format, through an exclusive agreement with RED (http://www.redmusic.com/) Distribution, a division of Sony Music, for distribution in the United States and overseas. RED’s ’stache media, a marketing company, will provide publicity, branding and social media support. The financial arrangements of the deal were not disclosed.
“It’s the legendary and iconic company of Jazz at Lincoln Center,” said Bob Morelli, RED’s president. “Sony RED is a fairly eclectic company; I’m not limited to rock or pop or hip-hop.”
In an age of music services like Spotify and a crowded marketplace, skeptics might wonder about the prospects for a new record label, let alone one devoted to a classic form like jazz. The financial upside is likely to be limited and the field could prove competitive, given that several jazz clubs also have their own labels. But Sony said the deal holds potential.
“There is a significant market for jazz,” Mr. Morelli said. “I don’t see this becoming Madonna, where Wynton’s going to do halftime at the Super Bowl, but virtually anything is possible.”
Blue Engine Records represents only the latest effort by Jazz at Lincoln Center to serve existing jazz fans and to expose new audiences to the music beyond its New York stages in the Time Warner Center, as it has with webcasts; a new radio show, “Jazz Night in America” (produced with NPR Music and WBGO); a video web series on its own YouTube channel, Facebook page and jazz.org (http://jazz.org/) ; and a growing library of over 600 performance videos available free through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education portal (http://academy.jazz.org/) .
The recording project is the baby of Mr. Marsalis, who has conceived and developed each year’s programming over the last 28 years. “I picked almost every song we played at every concert,” he said.
Comprising mostly performances by Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the organization’s R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concerts.
The company is also announcing a 12-city “Blue Engine Tour” beginning Sunday with a first-time performance at the Breckenridge Music Festival.
As part of the tour, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Mr. Marsalis will appear in six summer music festivals, including Jazz Aspen Snowmass’s 25th anniversary season, where the band will be joined by the vocalist René Marie, and Tanglewood’s 75th-anniversary season. For its first-time appearance at the Caramoor Jazz Festival, the band will be joined by the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.
The Blue Engine recordings will be rolled out over 15 years, starting with about six releases a year. “You start small — you figure out how to serve the audience and our mission,” Mr. Marsalis said. “We wouldn’t want to rush things.”
That said, he added that the company had “80 viables” ready to go as soon as they’re mixed. Blue Engine will start with the most recent recordings and move backward in time. The releases will not necessarily consist of an entire concert; they may include the seven or eight best songs, Mr. Marsalis said.
The recordings will feature outside artists, as well as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The orchestra has released previous albums but in a piecemeal fashion.
Blue Engine will be operated as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s brand and audience development department, which is managed by Gabrielle Armand.
RED specializes in digital and physical sales and marketing, as well as radio promotion and product development for more than 60 independent record labels, as well as artists from Sony-owned labels and Sony joint ventures with Descendant Records, Ultra Records, Red Bow Records and RED Associated Labels.
“Our mission is to distribute and sell and to brand the label imprint,” Mr. Morelli said. “But simultaneously it’s to sell stuff, to do as much as we can. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.”
The first release from Blue Engine, “Live in Cuba,” featuring Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be released on Aug. 21 (and is available for pre-order (http://itunes.com/BlueEngineRecords) online). Recorded over three nights at the Mella Theater in Havana in October 2010, “Live in Cuba” explores the connections between American jazz and Afro-Cuban music, from bebop to bolero.
Jazz at Lincoln Center said it was now regularly connected to one million people through Facebook, website visits and email lists and Mr. Marsalis said he looked forward to reaching many more with Blue Engine.
“Anyone who’s interested in having a relationship with us can have a clear idea of who we are and what we do,” he said. “Our music is about freedom and bringing people together through swing.”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=f60ebba063) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=f60ebba063&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/arts/music/jazz-at-lincoln-center-and-sony-music-team-up-for-blue-engine-records.html?_r=0
** Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records
————————————————————
By ROBIN POGREBIN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/robin_pogrebin/index.html)
Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director, who conceived the recording deal with Sony Music. Credit Platon/Trunk Archive
Continue reading the main story
Jazz at Lincoln Center (http://www.jazz.org/) has shelves upon shelves of recordings from concerts it has presented since its founding in 1987, including a studio recording featuring the pianist Chick Corea, a musical Mass with a gospel choir written for the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and concerts with the saxophonists Sherman Irby and Ted Nash.
Now, that organization, together with Sony Music Entertainment, is bringing that archive, as well as new studio and live recordings, to the public through the creation of its own label, Blue Engine Records, to be announced on Tuesday.
“In jazz, recordings are your identity,” said Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director. “So the identity of our institution has not been available — unless we’re live.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center will release the recordings as CDs and digital downloads and to streaming music services, with a few titles in vinyl format, through an exclusive agreement with RED (http://www.redmusic.com/) Distribution, a division of Sony Music, for distribution in the United States and overseas. RED’s ’stache media, a marketing company, will provide publicity, branding and social media support. The financial arrangements of the deal were not disclosed.
“It’s the legendary and iconic company of Jazz at Lincoln Center,” said Bob Morelli, RED’s president. “Sony RED is a fairly eclectic company; I’m not limited to rock or pop or hip-hop.”
In an age of music services like Spotify and a crowded marketplace, skeptics might wonder about the prospects for a new record label, let alone one devoted to a classic form like jazz. The financial upside is likely to be limited and the field could prove competitive, given that several jazz clubs also have their own labels. But Sony said the deal holds potential.
“There is a significant market for jazz,” Mr. Morelli said. “I don’t see this becoming Madonna, where Wynton’s going to do halftime at the Super Bowl, but virtually anything is possible.”
Blue Engine Records represents only the latest effort by Jazz at Lincoln Center to serve existing jazz fans and to expose new audiences to the music beyond its New York stages in the Time Warner Center, as it has with webcasts; a new radio show, “Jazz Night in America” (produced with NPR Music and WBGO); a video web series on its own YouTube channel, Facebook page and jazz.org (http://jazz.org/) ; and a growing library of over 600 performance videos available free through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education portal (http://academy.jazz.org/) .
The recording project is the baby of Mr. Marsalis, who has conceived and developed each year’s programming over the last 28 years. “I picked almost every song we played at every concert,” he said.
Comprising mostly performances by Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the organization’s R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concerts.
The company is also announcing a 12-city “Blue Engine Tour” beginning Sunday with a first-time performance at the Breckenridge Music Festival.
As part of the tour, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Mr. Marsalis will appear in six summer music festivals, including Jazz Aspen Snowmass’s 25th anniversary season, where the band will be joined by the vocalist René Marie, and Tanglewood’s 75th-anniversary season. For its first-time appearance at the Caramoor Jazz Festival, the band will be joined by the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.
The Blue Engine recordings will be rolled out over 15 years, starting with about six releases a year. “You start small — you figure out how to serve the audience and our mission,” Mr. Marsalis said. “We wouldn’t want to rush things.”
That said, he added that the company had “80 viables” ready to go as soon as they’re mixed. Blue Engine will start with the most recent recordings and move backward in time. The releases will not necessarily consist of an entire concert; they may include the seven or eight best songs, Mr. Marsalis said.
The recordings will feature outside artists, as well as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The orchestra has released previous albums but in a piecemeal fashion.
Blue Engine will be operated as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s brand and audience development department, which is managed by Gabrielle Armand.
RED specializes in digital and physical sales and marketing, as well as radio promotion and product development for more than 60 independent record labels, as well as artists from Sony-owned labels and Sony joint ventures with Descendant Records, Ultra Records, Red Bow Records and RED Associated Labels.
“Our mission is to distribute and sell and to brand the label imprint,” Mr. Morelli said. “But simultaneously it’s to sell stuff, to do as much as we can. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.”
The first release from Blue Engine, “Live in Cuba,” featuring Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be released on Aug. 21 (and is available for pre-order (http://itunes.com/BlueEngineRecords) online). Recorded over three nights at the Mella Theater in Havana in October 2010, “Live in Cuba” explores the connections between American jazz and Afro-Cuban music, from bebop to bolero.
Jazz at Lincoln Center said it was now regularly connected to one million people through Facebook, website visits and email lists and Mr. Marsalis said he looked forward to reaching many more with Blue Engine.
“Anyone who’s interested in having a relationship with us can have a clear idea of who we are and what we do,” he said. “Our music is about freedom and bringing people together through swing.”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
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Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/arts/music/jazz-at-lincoln-center-and-sony-music-team-up-for-blue-engine-records.html?_r=0
** Jazz at Lincoln Center and Sony Music Team Up for Blue Engine Records
————————————————————
By ROBIN POGREBIN (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/robin_pogrebin/index.html)
Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director, who conceived the recording deal with Sony Music. Credit Platon/Trunk Archive
Continue reading the main story
Jazz at Lincoln Center (http://www.jazz.org/) has shelves upon shelves of recordings from concerts it has presented since its founding in 1987, including a studio recording featuring the pianist Chick Corea, a musical Mass with a gospel choir written for the 200th anniversary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York and concerts with the saxophonists Sherman Irby and Ted Nash.
Now, that organization, together with Sony Music Entertainment, is bringing that archive, as well as new studio and live recordings, to the public through the creation of its own label, Blue Engine Records, to be announced on Tuesday.
“In jazz, recordings are your identity,” said Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s managing and artistic director. “So the identity of our institution has not been available — unless we’re live.”
Jazz at Lincoln Center will release the recordings as CDs and digital downloads and to streaming music services, with a few titles in vinyl format, through an exclusive agreement with RED (http://www.redmusic.com/) Distribution, a division of Sony Music, for distribution in the United States and overseas. RED’s ’stache media, a marketing company, will provide publicity, branding and social media support. The financial arrangements of the deal were not disclosed.
“It’s the legendary and iconic company of Jazz at Lincoln Center,” said Bob Morelli, RED’s president. “Sony RED is a fairly eclectic company; I’m not limited to rock or pop or hip-hop.”
In an age of music services like Spotify and a crowded marketplace, skeptics might wonder about the prospects for a new record label, let alone one devoted to a classic form like jazz. The financial upside is likely to be limited and the field could prove competitive, given that several jazz clubs also have their own labels. But Sony said the deal holds potential.
“There is a significant market for jazz,” Mr. Morelli said. “I don’t see this becoming Madonna, where Wynton’s going to do halftime at the Super Bowl, but virtually anything is possible.”
Blue Engine Records represents only the latest effort by Jazz at Lincoln Center to serve existing jazz fans and to expose new audiences to the music beyond its New York stages in the Time Warner Center, as it has with webcasts; a new radio show, “Jazz Night in America” (produced with NPR Music and WBGO); a video web series on its own YouTube channel, Facebook page and jazz.org (http://jazz.org/) ; and a growing library of over 600 performance videos available free through Jazz at Lincoln Center’s education portal (http://academy.jazz.org/) .
The recording project is the baby of Mr. Marsalis, who has conceived and developed each year’s programming over the last 28 years. “I picked almost every song we played at every concert,” he said.
Comprising mostly performances by Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the organization’s R. Theodore Ammon Archives and Music Library has grown to include thousands of songs from hundreds of concerts.
The company is also announcing a 12-city “Blue Engine Tour” beginning Sunday with a first-time performance at the Breckenridge Music Festival.
As part of the tour, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Mr. Marsalis will appear in six summer music festivals, including Jazz Aspen Snowmass’s 25th anniversary season, where the band will be joined by the vocalist René Marie, and Tanglewood’s 75th-anniversary season. For its first-time appearance at the Caramoor Jazz Festival, the band will be joined by the singer Cécile McLorin Salvant.
The Blue Engine recordings will be rolled out over 15 years, starting with about six releases a year. “You start small — you figure out how to serve the audience and our mission,” Mr. Marsalis said. “We wouldn’t want to rush things.”
That said, he added that the company had “80 viables” ready to go as soon as they’re mixed. Blue Engine will start with the most recent recordings and move backward in time. The releases will not necessarily consist of an entire concert; they may include the seven or eight best songs, Mr. Marsalis said.
The recordings will feature outside artists, as well as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. The orchestra has released previous albums but in a piecemeal fashion.
Blue Engine will be operated as part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s brand and audience development department, which is managed by Gabrielle Armand.
RED specializes in digital and physical sales and marketing, as well as radio promotion and product development for more than 60 independent record labels, as well as artists from Sony-owned labels and Sony joint ventures with Descendant Records, Ultra Records, Red Bow Records and RED Associated Labels.
“Our mission is to distribute and sell and to brand the label imprint,” Mr. Morelli said. “But simultaneously it’s to sell stuff, to do as much as we can. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.”
The first release from Blue Engine, “Live in Cuba,” featuring Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, will be released on Aug. 21 (and is available for pre-order (http://itunes.com/BlueEngineRecords) online). Recorded over three nights at the Mella Theater in Havana in October 2010, “Live in Cuba” explores the connections between American jazz and Afro-Cuban music, from bebop to bolero.
Jazz at Lincoln Center said it was now regularly connected to one million people through Facebook, website visits and email lists and Mr. Marsalis said he looked forward to reaching many more with Blue Engine.
“Anyone who’s interested in having a relationship with us can have a clear idea of who we are and what we do,” he said. “Our music is about freedom and bringing people together through swing.”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
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Blue Note Jazz Club Plans Expansion to China – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/arts/music/blue-note-jazz-club-plans-expansion-to-china.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150625
** Blue Note Jazz Club Plans Expansion to China
————————————————————
By Nate Chinen
“China is an emerging market for live Western music,” Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment Group, said.“We’ll be on the forefront of helping to build that market.” Credit Jessica Lehrman for The New York Times
The Blue Note Jazz Club, one of the most prominent names in its field, will announce plans on Thursday to open new locations in Hawaii and China (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) , a sign of a large and growing market for jazz in the Pacific Rim.
Blue Note Beijing and Blue Note Hawaii, in Honolulu, will both open in early 2016, according to Blue Note Entertainment (http://bluenoteentertainmentgroup.com/) Group, which also owns clubs in Japan and Italy, along with its flagship in New York.
Jazz has long had a substantial consumer base in Asia, especially Japan. Blue Note Tokyo opened more than 25 years ago, joined later by Blue Note clubs in Osaka and Nagoya.
But given the potential development of a new audience in China, this expansion could radically change the picture for jazz in the region — as well as reap benefits for touring musicians and the Blue Note brand.
“China is an emerging market for live Western music,” said Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment, whose other properties include the Highline Ballroom and B. B. King Blues Club & Grill. “We’ll be on the forefront of helping to build that market. It’s something that we’re in a unique position to do.”
Blue Note Beijing, scheduled to open in March, will occupy a 16,000-square-foot basement space in a neo-Classical building near Tiananmen Square. Built in 1903 as Beijing’s first American Embassy, it was later home to the Dalai Lama, and more recently to the upscale French restaurant Maison Boulud (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/world/asia/a-global-dining-empire-loses-an-outpost.html) . The club, now undergoing a $5 million renovation, will present two shows a night, Tuesday through Sunday.
Blue Note Entertainment’s partner in China is a unit of Beijing Winbright Investment Group. The unit, the Winbright Culture and Media Company, specializing in the entertainment and hospitality industries, will also be a partner in two more Blue Note clubs, set to open in the next few years in Shanghai and Taipei.
Beijing has a handful of small but well-regarded jazz clubs, notably the East Shore Live Jazz Café, founded by the saxophonist Liu Yuan, a former sideman to China’s original rock star, Cui Jian. And the jazz scene is growing.
“It’s definitely evolved in terms of musicianship and the amount of original music being produced,” said Lawrence Ku, a Chinese-American guitarist based in Shanghai, who previously lived in Beijing. “There are many more younger musicians now that can really play, that really have a handle on the language.”
With the arrival of a Blue Note, jazz audiences will have access to a higher tier of artists, with the booking and talent buying done from the company’s office in New York.
“We feel it is only through the introduction of the pinnacle of jazz performances that we are able to foster growth within the local jazz scene and the next generation of Chinese jazz musicians,” Bao Zhong Lun, the general manager of Winbright Culture and Media, wrote in an email. “It is through the Blue Note Jazz Clubs that we aim to generate a more widespread social and cultural recognition of jazz music amongst music fans in China.”
It’s not uncommon for an artist to appear across the network of Blue Note clubs. The headliner at the original Blue Note this week is the pianist Robert Glasper (http://www.robertglasper.com/) , who has the top jazz album on iTunes; he’s also scheduled to perform in July at Blue Note Milan.
The addition of a club in the middle of the Pacific Ocean should also help touring musicians, who will be able to perform in Hawaii as part of an Asian tour. “We’ll be able to save money on international flights,” Mr. Bensusan said, “which will make it more affordable to bring musicians to Hawaii. It all comes together nicely.”
Blue Note Hawaii will open at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, in a room with an entertainment pedigree: For four decades, it was home to the Society of Seven (http://www.societyofseven.com/) , a popular variety act and show band, and served as an anchor for what was once a thriving nightclub scene for live music.
The room closed in 2013 and has been dark since, apart from special events. Renovations, including new sound and lighting systems, will cost “in excess of $2 million,” Mr. Bensusan said.
Outrigger Resorts will be a partner in the new club through a licensing agreement. And given the importance of Asian tourism to Hawaii — there have been roughly 1.5 million visitors from Japan in each of the last three years, according to state statistics — the new club should have some synergy with Blue Note locations in the Far East.
“The number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii is growing,” said Barbara Campbell, the vice president for retail leasing and property management for Outrigger Enterprises Group. “It’ll be a very strategic brand move for the Blue Note. And Outrigger, too, is expanding throughout Asia Pacific. This is a great global expansion strategy for both companies.”
Hawaii has its share of jazz musicians but hardly any dedicated clubs, and none with the cachet or resources of the Blue Note. The perennial challenges for a promoter in the islands are geography and demographics: Unlike Beijing or Tokyo, Hawaiian cities have a small resident population, which intensifies the need to court tourist groups. But the support of local fans and musicians will also be key.
“I believe we’re going to be pleasantly surprised by the reception we get from the resident market,” Ms. Campbell said. “There’s been so much re-gentrification of Waikiki that locals are more comfortable coming out.”
It seems likely that the club’s programming will make some provision for Hawaiian music, especially given the crossover success of slack-key guitar, a popular local genre. Blue Note Hawaii would be a natural fit for someone like Jake Shimabukuro (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/arts/music/22shima.html?_r=0) , a local-born ukulele ace who draws from jazz fusion and has a large following in Japan.
The relationship between the original Blue Note and its Japanese offshoots suggests a model for the two forthcoming clubs. Along with creating work for touring artists, the locations in Japan have helped cultivate an enthusiastic audience for jazz, and (not coincidentally) loyal patronage for the clubs themselves. On any given night at the Blue Note in New York, you’re likely to encounter Japanese tourists. Some are highly knowledgeable about the music; others flock to the club because of its familiarity as a brand.
The same could happen with Japanese visitors to Waikiki — and, eventually, with Chinese patrons in both Hawaii and New York. “I know once we get established in China, we’ll probably see an uptick in Chinese tourists in New York,” Mr. Bensusan said. “And I think it’s going to be a great thing for jazz in general.”
Correction: June 25, 2015
An earlier version of this article misidentified Lawrence Ku. He is a guitarist, not a saxophonist.
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=f5ca0feec5) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=f5ca0feec5&e=[UNIQID])
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Blue Note Jazz Club Plans Expansion to China – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/arts/music/blue-note-jazz-club-plans-expansion-to-china.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150625
** Blue Note Jazz Club Plans Expansion to China
————————————————————
By Nate Chinen
“China is an emerging market for live Western music,” Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment Group, said.“We’ll be on the forefront of helping to build that market.” Credit Jessica Lehrman for The New York Times
The Blue Note Jazz Club, one of the most prominent names in its field, will announce plans on Thursday to open new locations in Hawaii and China (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) , a sign of a large and growing market for jazz in the Pacific Rim.
Blue Note Beijing and Blue Note Hawaii, in Honolulu, will both open in early 2016, according to Blue Note Entertainment (http://bluenoteentertainmentgroup.com/) Group, which also owns clubs in Japan and Italy, along with its flagship in New York.
Jazz has long had a substantial consumer base in Asia, especially Japan. Blue Note Tokyo opened more than 25 years ago, joined later by Blue Note clubs in Osaka and Nagoya.
But given the potential development of a new audience in China, this expansion could radically change the picture for jazz in the region — as well as reap benefits for touring musicians and the Blue Note brand.
“China is an emerging market for live Western music,” said Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment, whose other properties include the Highline Ballroom and B. B. King Blues Club & Grill. “We’ll be on the forefront of helping to build that market. It’s something that we’re in a unique position to do.”
Blue Note Beijing, scheduled to open in March, will occupy a 16,000-square-foot basement space in a neo-Classical building near Tiananmen Square. Built in 1903 as Beijing’s first American Embassy, it was later home to the Dalai Lama, and more recently to the upscale French restaurant Maison Boulud (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/world/asia/a-global-dining-empire-loses-an-outpost.html) . The club, now undergoing a $5 million renovation, will present two shows a night, Tuesday through Sunday.
Blue Note Entertainment’s partner in China is a unit of Beijing Winbright Investment Group. The unit, the Winbright Culture and Media Company, specializing in the entertainment and hospitality industries, will also be a partner in two more Blue Note clubs, set to open in the next few years in Shanghai and Taipei.
Beijing has a handful of small but well-regarded jazz clubs, notably the East Shore Live Jazz Café, founded by the saxophonist Liu Yuan, a former sideman to China’s original rock star, Cui Jian. And the jazz scene is growing.
“It’s definitely evolved in terms of musicianship and the amount of original music being produced,” said Lawrence Ku, a Chinese-American guitarist based in Shanghai, who previously lived in Beijing. “There are many more younger musicians now that can really play, that really have a handle on the language.”
With the arrival of a Blue Note, jazz audiences will have access to a higher tier of artists, with the booking and talent buying done from the company’s office in New York.
“We feel it is only through the introduction of the pinnacle of jazz performances that we are able to foster growth within the local jazz scene and the next generation of Chinese jazz musicians,” Bao Zhong Lun, the general manager of Winbright Culture and Media, wrote in an email. “It is through the Blue Note Jazz Clubs that we aim to generate a more widespread social and cultural recognition of jazz music amongst music fans in China.”
It’s not uncommon for an artist to appear across the network of Blue Note clubs. The headliner at the original Blue Note this week is the pianist Robert Glasper (http://www.robertglasper.com/) , who has the top jazz album on iTunes; he’s also scheduled to perform in July at Blue Note Milan.
The addition of a club in the middle of the Pacific Ocean should also help touring musicians, who will be able to perform in Hawaii as part of an Asian tour. “We’ll be able to save money on international flights,” Mr. Bensusan said, “which will make it more affordable to bring musicians to Hawaii. It all comes together nicely.”
Blue Note Hawaii will open at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, in a room with an entertainment pedigree: For four decades, it was home to the Society of Seven (http://www.societyofseven.com/) , a popular variety act and show band, and served as an anchor for what was once a thriving nightclub scene for live music.
The room closed in 2013 and has been dark since, apart from special events. Renovations, including new sound and lighting systems, will cost “in excess of $2 million,” Mr. Bensusan said.
Outrigger Resorts will be a partner in the new club through a licensing agreement. And given the importance of Asian tourism to Hawaii — there have been roughly 1.5 million visitors from Japan in each of the last three years, according to state statistics — the new club should have some synergy with Blue Note locations in the Far East.
“The number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii is growing,” said Barbara Campbell, the vice president for retail leasing and property management for Outrigger Enterprises Group. “It’ll be a very strategic brand move for the Blue Note. And Outrigger, too, is expanding throughout Asia Pacific. This is a great global expansion strategy for both companies.”
Hawaii has its share of jazz musicians but hardly any dedicated clubs, and none with the cachet or resources of the Blue Note. The perennial challenges for a promoter in the islands are geography and demographics: Unlike Beijing or Tokyo, Hawaiian cities have a small resident population, which intensifies the need to court tourist groups. But the support of local fans and musicians will also be key.
“I believe we’re going to be pleasantly surprised by the reception we get from the resident market,” Ms. Campbell said. “There’s been so much re-gentrification of Waikiki that locals are more comfortable coming out.”
It seems likely that the club’s programming will make some provision for Hawaiian music, especially given the crossover success of slack-key guitar, a popular local genre. Blue Note Hawaii would be a natural fit for someone like Jake Shimabukuro (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/arts/music/22shima.html?_r=0) , a local-born ukulele ace who draws from jazz fusion and has a large following in Japan.
The relationship between the original Blue Note and its Japanese offshoots suggests a model for the two forthcoming clubs. Along with creating work for touring artists, the locations in Japan have helped cultivate an enthusiastic audience for jazz, and (not coincidentally) loyal patronage for the clubs themselves. On any given night at the Blue Note in New York, you’re likely to encounter Japanese tourists. Some are highly knowledgeable about the music; others flock to the club because of its familiarity as a brand.
The same could happen with Japanese visitors to Waikiki — and, eventually, with Chinese patrons in both Hawaii and New York. “I know once we get established in China, we’ll probably see an uptick in Chinese tourists in New York,” Mr. Bensusan said. “And I think it’s going to be a great thing for jazz in general.”
Correction: June 25, 2015
An earlier version of this article misidentified Lawrence Ku. He is a guitarist, not a saxophonist.
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=f5ca0feec5) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=f5ca0feec5&e=[UNIQID])
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE ON THIS MAILING LIST PLEASE RESPOND WITH ‘REMOVE’ IN THE SUBJECT LINE. IF YOU ARE RECEIVING DUPLICATE EMAILS OUR APOLOGIES, JAZZ PROMO SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENT LIST IS GROWING LARGER EVERY DAY…..PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL FIX IT IMMEDIATELY!
Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Blue Note Jazz Club Plans Expansion to China – The New York Times
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/arts/music/blue-note-jazz-club-plans-expansion-to-china.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150625
** Blue Note Jazz Club Plans Expansion to China
————————————————————
By Nate Chinen
“China is an emerging market for live Western music,” Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment Group, said.“We’ll be on the forefront of helping to build that market.” Credit Jessica Lehrman for The New York Times
The Blue Note Jazz Club, one of the most prominent names in its field, will announce plans on Thursday to open new locations in Hawaii and China (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/china/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) , a sign of a large and growing market for jazz in the Pacific Rim.
Blue Note Beijing and Blue Note Hawaii, in Honolulu, will both open in early 2016, according to Blue Note Entertainment (http://bluenoteentertainmentgroup.com/) Group, which also owns clubs in Japan and Italy, along with its flagship in New York.
Jazz has long had a substantial consumer base in Asia, especially Japan. Blue Note Tokyo opened more than 25 years ago, joined later by Blue Note clubs in Osaka and Nagoya.
But given the potential development of a new audience in China, this expansion could radically change the picture for jazz in the region — as well as reap benefits for touring musicians and the Blue Note brand.
“China is an emerging market for live Western music,” said Steven Bensusan, the president of Blue Note Entertainment, whose other properties include the Highline Ballroom and B. B. King Blues Club & Grill. “We’ll be on the forefront of helping to build that market. It’s something that we’re in a unique position to do.”
Blue Note Beijing, scheduled to open in March, will occupy a 16,000-square-foot basement space in a neo-Classical building near Tiananmen Square. Built in 1903 as Beijing’s first American Embassy, it was later home to the Dalai Lama, and more recently to the upscale French restaurant Maison Boulud (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/world/asia/a-global-dining-empire-loses-an-outpost.html) . The club, now undergoing a $5 million renovation, will present two shows a night, Tuesday through Sunday.
Blue Note Entertainment’s partner in China is a unit of Beijing Winbright Investment Group. The unit, the Winbright Culture and Media Company, specializing in the entertainment and hospitality industries, will also be a partner in two more Blue Note clubs, set to open in the next few years in Shanghai and Taipei.
Beijing has a handful of small but well-regarded jazz clubs, notably the East Shore Live Jazz Café, founded by the saxophonist Liu Yuan, a former sideman to China’s original rock star, Cui Jian. And the jazz scene is growing.
“It’s definitely evolved in terms of musicianship and the amount of original music being produced,” said Lawrence Ku, a Chinese-American guitarist based in Shanghai, who previously lived in Beijing. “There are many more younger musicians now that can really play, that really have a handle on the language.”
With the arrival of a Blue Note, jazz audiences will have access to a higher tier of artists, with the booking and talent buying done from the company’s office in New York.
“We feel it is only through the introduction of the pinnacle of jazz performances that we are able to foster growth within the local jazz scene and the next generation of Chinese jazz musicians,” Bao Zhong Lun, the general manager of Winbright Culture and Media, wrote in an email. “It is through the Blue Note Jazz Clubs that we aim to generate a more widespread social and cultural recognition of jazz music amongst music fans in China.”
It’s not uncommon for an artist to appear across the network of Blue Note clubs. The headliner at the original Blue Note this week is the pianist Robert Glasper (http://www.robertglasper.com/) , who has the top jazz album on iTunes; he’s also scheduled to perform in July at Blue Note Milan.
The addition of a club in the middle of the Pacific Ocean should also help touring musicians, who will be able to perform in Hawaii as part of an Asian tour. “We’ll be able to save money on international flights,” Mr. Bensusan said, “which will make it more affordable to bring musicians to Hawaii. It all comes together nicely.”
Blue Note Hawaii will open at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, in a room with an entertainment pedigree: For four decades, it was home to the Society of Seven (http://www.societyofseven.com/) , a popular variety act and show band, and served as an anchor for what was once a thriving nightclub scene for live music.
The room closed in 2013 and has been dark since, apart from special events. Renovations, including new sound and lighting systems, will cost “in excess of $2 million,” Mr. Bensusan said.
Outrigger Resorts will be a partner in the new club through a licensing agreement. And given the importance of Asian tourism to Hawaii — there have been roughly 1.5 million visitors from Japan in each of the last three years, according to state statistics — the new club should have some synergy with Blue Note locations in the Far East.
“The number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii is growing,” said Barbara Campbell, the vice president for retail leasing and property management for Outrigger Enterprises Group. “It’ll be a very strategic brand move for the Blue Note. And Outrigger, too, is expanding throughout Asia Pacific. This is a great global expansion strategy for both companies.”
Hawaii has its share of jazz musicians but hardly any dedicated clubs, and none with the cachet or resources of the Blue Note. The perennial challenges for a promoter in the islands are geography and demographics: Unlike Beijing or Tokyo, Hawaiian cities have a small resident population, which intensifies the need to court tourist groups. But the support of local fans and musicians will also be key.
“I believe we’re going to be pleasantly surprised by the reception we get from the resident market,” Ms. Campbell said. “There’s been so much re-gentrification of Waikiki that locals are more comfortable coming out.”
It seems likely that the club’s programming will make some provision for Hawaiian music, especially given the crossover success of slack-key guitar, a popular local genre. Blue Note Hawaii would be a natural fit for someone like Jake Shimabukuro (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/arts/music/22shima.html?_r=0) , a local-born ukulele ace who draws from jazz fusion and has a large following in Japan.
The relationship between the original Blue Note and its Japanese offshoots suggests a model for the two forthcoming clubs. Along with creating work for touring artists, the locations in Japan have helped cultivate an enthusiastic audience for jazz, and (not coincidentally) loyal patronage for the clubs themselves. On any given night at the Blue Note in New York, you’re likely to encounter Japanese tourists. Some are highly knowledgeable about the music; others flock to the club because of its familiarity as a brand.
The same could happen with Japanese visitors to Waikiki — and, eventually, with Chinese patrons in both Hawaii and New York. “I know once we get established in China, we’ll probably see an uptick in Chinese tourists in New York,” Mr. Bensusan said. “And I think it’s going to be a great thing for jazz in general.”
Correction: June 25, 2015
An earlier version of this article misidentified Lawrence Ku. He is a guitarist, not a saxophonist.
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Gunther Schuller (1925-2015): JazzWax
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** Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) (http://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=106278512&f=984327&u=28498183&c=4968959)
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Gunther Schuller, a classically trained French hornist, composer and conductor whose passion for jazz motivated him to record with jazz musicians and then fuse classical and jazz into what would become known as Third Stream, died Sunday in Boston. He was 89.
I interviewed Gunther in 2010 on his jazz experiences. Here are all four parts of that inteview combined…
JazzWax: Where exactly did you grow up?
Gunther Schuller: As a young child, I spent 4½ years in a private school in Germany for foreign children of German http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e486eb970b-popupparentage. My parents were German, but they had emigrated to America and my father was in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I was a slightly unruly, rebellious child, so they placed me in a boarding school in Germany. [Pictured: The 1941 New York Philharmonic bass section]
JW: Why did they do that?
GS: My parents had assumed that a German education wouldhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49020970b-popup be best for me. Besides, both of my parents had relatives there, so on vacations I would stay with them. I attended that school from January 1932 until December 1936. I had an incredible education there. In the second grade I was studying subjects like French, Latin, geography and geology. [Pictured: German countryside]
JW:
As you’re studying civilization, Germany is growing rapidly uncivilized.
GS: Yes. We were isolated in the school from what was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77100970c-popuphappening there. By definition, these private schools for foreign children with German parents were sealed off from outside distractions, and Hitler had promised to leave them undisturbed. However, since Hitler never kept any agreement that he had made, he invaded all those private schools in 1936.
JW: What happened to you?
GS: In the last half year of my stay there, I was inducted into the Hitler Youth. There I was in a brown uniform parading http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e7716e970c-popupuselessly up and down outside, with the commandant beating us severely once a week. I wrote my parents about what was going on there, but they were in disbelief. They were 3,000 miles away in New York. Even in America, people in the 1930s were in disbelief that Hitler was really that bad or evil.
JW: How did you finally leave Germany?
GS: In 1936, when I turned 11, I lost my right eye in a knife accident. It’s too gory to get into, but I was in the hospital for a week and underwent a double operation on my eye. You can imagine http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49617970b-popuphow my mother felt when she heard the news. I had to leave the school, of course, and my mother had to come to Germany to take me home to New York. In those days there were no airplanes crossing the Atlantic, so it took her seven days to get there. I’ve had an artificial right eye ever since.
JW: Where did your parents live in New York?
GS: In Queens. As soon as I arrived, I was enrolled in another private school—St. Thomas Choir School. I was there for http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e496e7970b-popupthree years. The school was nearly as rigorous as the one in Germany, so I had little time for anything more than my studies. What I am today is largely a result of the education I had in Germany and New York.
JW: Did you find New York exciting?
GS: Well, of course. Though we lived in Queens, we were in Manhattan a lot. When I came to New York, it was discovered that I had musical talent. I didn’t know that and no one else knew that either. So I became a musician very quickly, between age 11 and 16. And a composer afterward.
JW: How was high school after St. Thomas?
GS: I don’t know. I finished three years ahead of everyone else. I had already covered everything that the high school was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4988d970b-popupteaching for graduation in my earlier private schools. That’s how I wound up becoming a professional French horn player at age 16 and playing with Arturo Toscanini in the New York Philharmonic.
JW: Were you aware of how advanced you were?
GS: I knew I was good. My father was the leader of the second violins in the Philharmonic. He was a terrific violinist. My teacher and father had recommended me, and I was hired. Toscanini was inspiring, but he was one of those temperamental tyrants who just behaved ridiculously on the podium.
JW: How so?
GS: Toscanini was the greatest conductor of that era, but hehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77884970c-popupwould explode in these outbursts, these scatological fits with Italian curse words. It was frightening to work with him. But he was such a great musician and conductor. We played extremely well with him. But if he landed on you, you were in trouble. [Photo of Arturo Toscanini conducting Metropolitan Opera stars in 1946 by W. Eugene Smith for Life]
JW: Did he ever land on you?
GS: Not in that first performance. Toscanini tended not to conduct contemporary music, and my first performance http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e79e43970c-popupjust happened to be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, which was composed in 1941. Toscanini didn’t know the symphony as well as he knew works by Wagner, Beethoven and Rossini. I came away unscathed [laughs].
JW: Why do you suppose that happened, specifically?
GS: Probably because he hardly knew I was there. The http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49d3e970b-popupsymphony, you see, has eight horns instead of the usual four. I was hired as one of the extra players. But I was scared. I was just 16 years old and I feared he’d look around, see me and say, “What is this little kid doing in this orchestra?”
JW: So you were playing in the orchestra with your dad?
GS: Yes, he was about 30 feet away.
JW: Did you feel the added pressure of your father’s presence and judgment?
GS: Yes, always. I played with the New York Philharmonic later as first French horn player, and my http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4c5ac970b-popupfather was always sitting by. But I was good. There were a few bad moments. Only once in a great while would he look at me with a sour look. But not in the Shostakovich symphony. I think Toscanini was just glad to have gotten through it.
JW: Did Toscanini give you a hard time later?
GS: Not really. He was a great conductor of Wagner, whose http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77ca1970c-popuplate operas required eight horns. For those performances, Toscanini would hire the four extra horns he needed from the Metropolitan Opera, where by that time I was playing first horn. That’s how I was able to play with him many times, when he conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in those Wagner programs. [Photo of Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony in 1947 by Robert Hupka]
JW: How did you avoid distractions in New York?
GS: Well, I didn’t. I became heavily involved with all the arts—film, painting, literature, dance and other forms. This is hard to http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4ae4d970b-popupexplain. My girlfriend, who later became my wife, and I lived the full cultural life of New York, which is now quite gone. New York was, in the late 1930s and 1940s and well into the 50s, the cultural paradise of the world. It was unbelievable in its richness, wit, breadth, depth—and I feasted on that. It was so mesmerizing. It’s almost impossible to describe the energy and excitement today. [Pictured: Women with Statue at the Museum of Modern Art in 1948 by Ruth Orkin]
JW: Did you explore it all?
GS: My wife and I hardly ever slept. We existed on three or http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e78e9f970c-popupfour hours’ sleep. Whenever we were free, we’d see three or four films showing at the Museum of Modern Art. I was obsessed with the art of film—the great films from Germany and France from the 1920s and 1930s. We went to all the museums and galleries, saw performances of all kinds. We went to jazz clubs. We did everything. We just ate up the entire cultural ambiance of New York at the time.
JW: Was it an obsession?
GS: That’s just the way I am. To this day, I have a voracious appetite for anything cultural and artistic. I just cannot not pursue it. When I was young in Germany, I had a great talent for drawing, painting and design. I still have the whole fascination and involvement with art in me, and it shows up in a lot of my music.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c7a2dfa6970b-popup
JW: What was it about New York that excited you?
GS: Artists in all of the arts created works at the highest levels. Enjoying all of the arts came together for me. They didn’t come together for most of my colleagues. But I’m crazy. We were crazy. Just pursuing jazz and classical music day after day was enough. But we would go see and hear anything and everything. We couldn’t get enough, and it was all terribly exciting. It’s hard to believe. It’s hard for me to believe in retrospect. Once I hooked up with the jazz world, though, through John Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and others, I was completely captivated. It was just outrageous.
JW: When were you first exposed to jazz?
GS: I started collecting jazz records when I was 12 years old. I quickly became a jazz fan and read all the books on jazz that existed at that time. Jazz was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e273970b-popupdefinitely a part of my life in the mid-1940s, but not yet as a performer. I was an admirer of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson and all the other bebop musicians who were breaking new ground. Then one day I decided to make it a point to meet John Lewis.
JW: When did you meet him?
GS: We met in December 1948. I’d go to all these clubs and concerts, but I was too shy to go up to any of these people to talk to them at length. But with John, I was so http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e3d4970b-popuptaken with his playing that I made it a point to meet him. He was so warm and friendly. We hit it off immediately, and John became my entrée to the jazz world. In those days, if a musician in jazz’s inner circle introduced you or said, “This guy is one of us,” you were in.
JW: How did you become “one of us?”
GS: By then, I was at a high level of creativity, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf057970c-popupplaying, writing and composing in my area of music. You see, in the classical world, you audition. You have to prove yourself to win a place in an orchestra. In the jazz world, if Duke Ellington lost a player, word would go out and three or four of his musician buddies would say, “Listen, there’s an incredible bass player in Lincoln, Nebraska. Get him.” This was absolute, and it never failed. None of these people ever http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf095970c-popuprecommended anyone who wasn’t good. With me, it was unusual because I was a French horn player. The horn was not a jazz instrument at the time, but it was creeping in. So when Miles needed a French horn,
he asked John Lewis for a recommendation, and John said, “Get Gunther.”
JW: Classical was beginning to seep into jazz during this period—not as an aspiration but as a resource to draw from.
GS: That’s correct. Classical in the late 1940s was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf2ba970c-popupincreasingly viewed by jazz musicians as a form from which to adapt. None of these musicians, of course, was striving to become a classical player. But they were intrigued by the music, its harmonies, its tonality and its complexity.
JW: Which only stimulated your thinking about merging classical and jazz.
GS: Yes. One of my obvious rationales for combining jazz and classic was that both musics had a lot to learn from each other. They may not have known that at first, but they discovered it soon enough. Especially the form. The forms of jazz back then were primitive, despite the enormous dexterity and skill of the musicians. In a very short period of time, jazz steadily became much more intricate and developed.
JW: The musicians in the late 1940s also were much more sophisticated than most people realized at the time.
GS: Absolutely. Look, Dizzy Gillespie back then was known as a great trumpet player but also as a kind of a clown. He danced around on stage and did all this scat http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f570970b-popupsinging. But I’m telling you, that guy when you were alone with him was the most serious person, the most socially conscious, the most politically aware, the most intellectual and the most spiritual. It was just incredible. Being with him was like attending a university seminar course. All of those guys were voracious readers and enormously curious.
JW: Jazz and classical coming together continued through the 1950s.
GS: When I started the whole thing in 1957 with the Third Stream, which was bringing the two forms of music together—but really bringing them together in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf732970c-popupcompositions, styles and performance—it was extremely controversial. I was vilified on both sides. Classical musicians, composers and critics all thought that classical would be contaminated by this lowly jazz music, this black music. And jazz musicians and critics said, “My god, classical music is going to stultify our great, spontaneous music.” It was all nonsense and ignorance, of course. Eventually the two came together anyway.
JW: Exposure to classical and classical training certainly made jazz musicians better readers and studio musicians.
GS: Yes, to some extent. Classical training was certainly important in this regard. But the greatest jazz musicians would have been great jazz http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf9c5970c-popupmusicians anyway. As for other jazz musicians, classical training, either in school or through lessons, became essential for the reason you mention. Jazz orchestral arrangements were becoming more complex starting in the early 1950s, especially with the rise of the LP and longer recorded pieces. Reading a music part once and perfectly was essential and that required training.
JW: Speaking of orchestral jazz, how did you come to replace Junior Collins and Sandy Siegelstein on French horn on the last “Birth of the Cool” recording session in March 1950?
GS: Both Sandy and Junior had played on the previous two dates. I believe that both went to California afterward http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f99f970b-popupand the horn position was open. Miles told John Lewis, his pianist, “I just lost Junior.” Miles and I had already known each other casually. I had met him earlier, in Detroit, when I was on tour with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I’d see Dizzy, Duke, Miles—anyone and everyone—on the road. After, they performed, we’d hang out. Of course. I didn’t sleep much in those days [laughs].
JW: On the Miles Davis nonet session, did you just come in, sit down and record what was on the stands?
GS: My goodness, no. This was not such easy music that you could walk into the recording session and say, “Take it http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9fb33970b-popupfrom the top, here we go.” Miles held something like four or five rehearsals, which wasn’t easy given all of the musicians involved and each one’s schedule. Lee Konitz [pictured], Al McKibbon, Max Roach and all the rest were busy people. At only one rehearsal did we have all nine players there at once.
JW: What was your schedule like at the time?
GS: I was at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, with eight or nine performances each week. So my schedule was tight.
JW: At the “Birth of the Cool” session, you recorded Deception, Rocker, Moon Dreams and http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecfd3e970c-popupDarn That Dream. Which one was hardest?
GS: Without a doubt, Gil Evans’ [pictured] arrangement of Moon Dreams. That’s the ultimate masterpiece of the session.
JW: Really? The most difficult?
GS: Absolutely. The coda at the end goes into atonality and counterpoint. There are five different layers of contrapuntal lines. No one had ever written anything like that before in jazz.
JW: How did the rehearsals work out?
GS: In all honesty, we couldn’t really play Moon Dreams very well, and it shows on the studio recording. I mean we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea03f1970b-popupplayed it well enough that it could be issued by Capitol. The piece works because of the greatness of those musicians and how much feeling was squeezed into that very difficult music. I have performed Moon Dreams many times over the years in what I call repertory jazz concerts, and it’s still hard to play in an ensemble. [Photo by Popsie Randolph]
JW: I’m surprised it was so difficult. Moon Dreams sounds so relaxed.
GS: All you have to do is listen to The Complete Birth of the Cool CD that includes the live recordings from the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea07f6970b-popupRoyal Roost. You can hear that the performances of it are falling apart. The musicians were out of tune, the executions were ragged, Junior Collins on French horn was two measures ahead of everyone else and so on.
JW: Was Deception truly arranged by Davis? It sounds a lot like Mulligan.
GS: Look, Miles immediately learned from Gil and Gerry. In those days, very often, some other person’s name was put on a title for one reason or another. Miles had hired Gil and Gerry for the date because Miles loved what they had been doing with the Claude Thornhill orchestra.
JW: There certainly is a lot of Thornhill in terms of Impressionism.
GS: In all of those arrangements. They purposefully http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ed06fe970c-popupreduced the Thornhill band concept from 16 musicians down to 9. They did that because Capitol didn’t want to hire a big band for the material. That was Pete Rugolo [pictured], who was a great arranger for Stan Kenton and the label’s East Coast music director at the time.
JW: How did the musicians on the date interact?
GS: We all loved what we were doing. We kind of knew we were doing something exciting that hadn’t been done before. But that Moon Dreams scared everyone to death. It was strange that Gil Evans and Pete Rugolo weren’t at that session.
JW: Rocker still has a modern sound.
GS: Gerry [pictured] was one of the leading creative improvisers of the period. The freshness of what you hear comes from the clarity Mulligan had in his writing. Gil’s music is quitehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea0ed3970b-popup dense and rich and full on the inside. With Gerry, there was always this wonderful linearity and clear harmonies. Though they are modern, he keeps them simple. Gerry also had a certain bounce in his rhythms. John Carisi’s Israel is a whole different kind of writing. And John Lewis’ arrangement of Denzil Best’s Move is different again. That’s like Mozart.
JW: What made pianist John Lewis special?
GS: He was the gentlest soul. Kind, quiet, intelligent and an intellectual who was well versed in all of the arts. And just a beautiful person. He could be stern and tough in rehearsals when producing his music. But he was very good at getting the music right. And he could make anybody get it right. But deep down he was a sweetheart. All of the jazz musicians I knew were—and are. They are all beautiful people.
JW: Was Lewis instrumental in helping to merge classical and jazz?
GS: Oh yes, early on. Then the influence spread to people like Ralph Burns, Bob Brookmeyer and many other great musicians who came into the jazz-classical field. That was how exciting the post-war period was.
JW: What was the Modern Jazz Society?
GS: John and I founded the ensemble in 1955 because we felt we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f27e8c970c-popup had to put teeth into what we were saying about jazz-classical fusion. We soon renamed it the Jazz and Classical Music Society.
JW: Looking back, do you view the group as a success?
GS: Yes, absolutely. That doesn’t mean the group and our attempts were all perfection. But the group was a success in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29192970c-popupterms of helping the new music break through. All the things that happened after we put those jazz-classical ideas together happened because of what John and I did. I won’t say we were the only ones. Pete Rugolo and Stan Kenton [pictured] and others had been doing things with jazz and classical. But they were doing it in a slightly different way.
JW: Was your timing right?
GS: I think so. The concept was in the air at the time. John and I advanced the cause in New York and for the first time used the word “classical” in what we were doing. Stan Kenton didn’t do http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ef7c51970b-popupthat with his Innovations Orchestra in 1950, much of which is uneven and awful. Pianist Lennie Tristano did not use the word classical, either. Many musicians felt they would wind up in trouble with the critics if they did. And they were right. John and I did use it, and that of course made it controversial.
JW: Classical gradually became more accepted by jazz musicians and listeners.
GS: Yes, eventually the jazz-classical language changed to the extent of breaking into atonality. That happened later, though, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2954e970c-popupwith Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus and so many others. Everything went forward tremendously through the 1960s and then settled down into a sort of standardization. There was little experimentation after that.
JW: In 1955, you were in another exciting jazz ensemble led by Gigi Gryce. What made Gryce so special?
GS: His personality. He’s such an underrated player. Sadly, he’s nearly forgotten today. These guys were such talents and maybe geniuses. Whatever they put their http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29873970c-popuphands on would emerge with their special personality attached. That’s the greatness of jazz—the individualism, the distinctiveness of each of these great players. Unfortunately, we don’t have that today. Instead, we have 10,000 John Coltrane clones.
JW: What are we hearing with Gryce that sounds so fascinating?
GS: His sound was different. He arranged the reeds for a thinner feel, and he had in his ear a different conception. The result was a very light, flowing sound. And that’s also how his harmonizations worked. He was another one of these quiet guys who had studied classical music of all kinds. On a personal level, he was very witty. It’s amazing how interesting they all were and yet how different.
JW: In 1957, you and George Russell arranged and conducted the Brandeis Jazz Festival concerts in New York. That was pretty incredible music.
GS: I don’t know what you mean by incredible. It was damn hard [laughs].
JW: Why?
GS: Milton Babbitt’s All Set? Can you imagine? That piece was 150 years ahead of its time. I can’t even begin http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29d10970c-popupto describe what I had to go through to get that recording made. No one had ever played anything like it. All Set is just on the periphery of jazz. We couldn’t really play it as jazz, so the initial recording was pretty stiff.
JW: Tough stuff?
GS: We never were able to play All Set live. This was especially true during the first Brandeis Jazz Festival concert in June 1957. The next morning, at the second concert, we repeated the program from the night before. We had lost our jitters by then and played it much better. But we still http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2a3c8970c-popupdidn’t perform the piece like it was supposed to be played. I wound up spending about 35 hours editing that piece together on tape for the record. Wow, that was some piece. I mean, come on. That could have been written by Arnold Schoenberg or Anton Webern.
JW: This was a very different form of classical music, wasn’t it?
GS: Absolutely. When we talk about jazz musicians studying classical music, we’re mostly talking about musicians exploring Ravel, Debussy, maybe Brahms, and English classical music. Most didn’t study Schoenberg or any of the 12-tone composers. My god, All Set was a hard-core 12-tone piece.
JW: Did you ever perform the piece to your satisfaction?
GS: I have performed it at least a dozen times over the years since 1957. I will say, though, that there was only one time in Cleveland [pictured] that I felt we had finally performed that piece correctly. And it happened by sheer luck. It was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2abae970c-popupa coincidence that I had all the right players in place. And this is only several years ago. Between 1957 and then I had the best musicians on sessions, but it was still like walking on the moon. Forty years later, we had just the right musicians for whom that atonal material had finally become familiar.
JW: Has the Cleveland rendition been released?
GS: No. We recorded it, of course, but we haven’t released it. Every style, no matter how difficult or unfamiliar at first, eventually becomes assimilated. Even atonal pieces. Now I can put together a performance of All Set and know that it would be damn good. All of those Brandeis pieces were hard initially because the feel and approach was completely new to the musicians.
JW: How about your Brandeis composition, Transformation?
GS: It, too, was hard, for the same reasons. Transformation is an atonal piece, and the language was new. Jazz musicians who had classical training were http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2b143970c-popupfamiliar with the language of Ravel [pictured], Debussy, 11th chords, 9th chords, flatted fifths and all that stuff. Atonality was completely different. But I put enough swinging stuff in there so at least the musicians could feel it rhythmically [laughs].
JW: What about Bill Evans’ solo on All About Rosie?
GS: Bill was unbelievable. That was an epiphanal experience. Bill was the one guy… [pause]. He had studied so much classical music that he was able to sight read all of this stuff. He could even sight read Milton Babbitt’s All Set perfectly. I didn’t have to coach him on that.
JW: What was so remarkable about his playing during that concert series?
GS: We were astonished that all of the material was so easy for him. He not only could deal with it straightaway, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efa986970b-popuphe also could improvise on it. Then Bill played one of the greatest piano solos of all time on All Abut Rosie. I become speechless when I think back on Bill and that solo. We were all staggered. We were all looking at each other while his solo was taking place.
JW: How was that possible?
GS: We weren’t playing. We were playing stop-time chords. We’d play one chord at the beginning of each chorus and stop. As Bill improvised, we all looked at each other in amazement at what we were hearing.
JW: What was so exciting about it?
GS: I just didn’t know that someone could create such an incredible full-speed jazz-classical solo and have it turn http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efaf7b970b-popupout to be so perfect.
JW: When All About Rosie was finished, what happened?
GS: I don’t recall exactly but I think it was like at the end of World Series game, when the winning players all leap on the guy who made the last out. I’m sure we all jumped on Bill.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d12c4a97970c-popup
JW: I hear elements of Cool from West Side Story in your Brandeis Jazz Festival composition Transformations. Yours came first. Did Leonard Bernstein hear your work?
GS: He probably did. We were very good friends at various times and worked closely together. He was a great admirer of my music. Lenny never said, “Oh, Gunther, you don’t know how much you influenced me.” But the feeling was there.
JW: Do you think Bernstein came to a finer recognition of jazz as a result of your work in the mid-1950s?
GS: Lenny wasn’t influenced only by me. He learned from a great many jazz-classical artists. He was a quick study http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f78821970c-popupwhen it came to jazz. But in terms of the musical language, Lenny would never go into jazz-classical styles beyond tonality. Rhythmically, he learned a lot from Count Basie and Stan Kenton. Basically, Lenny’s jazz sensibility was from the 1920s. He was real cornball. When he used to play piano at parties, I had to close my ears because he was so corny. He thought he was as good as Art Tatum [laughs].
JW: You played French horn on Miles Davis’ Porgy and Bess. How did your involvement come about?
GS: The idea for that 1958 session was actually producer George Avakian’s, before he left Columbia. George was a great admirer of the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47333970b-popuprecordings that Miles and Gil had done between 1948 and 1950 [later known as “Birth of the Cool”]. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t more popular. And they weren’t until they were brought together on an LP in 1957 and the album was named Birth of the Cool. Even before Capitol decided to bring them together on an LP, George had decided to unite Gil and Miles for a broader interpretation of that concept on music that was widely known. That was his conception.
JW: What was your role?
GS: I say this with all modesty: George went to Miles and said, “Listen, I think there are only two people here who can turn Gershwin into modern jazz orchestral works—Gunther Schuller and Gil Evans.” Miles went with Gil, and I played French horn.
JW: Would you have done something different with it?
GS: No, probably not. I was as enamored of Gil’s style as I was of my own. I knew what Gil was doing with the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f4788b970b-popuporchestration and why. Since the music had to be, at its core, Gershwin, it couldn’t be mine. If I had arranged it, the session would have come out something like that. I might have had some different orchestral ideas now and then. But I was thrilled to play horn on that recording.
JW: Is there anything that most people aren’t aware of about that session?
GS: Probably how difficult it was to play. Porgy and Bess is not a perfect recording. There’s a lot of sloppiness in there if you listen closely. We had to add three more http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79293970c-popupsessions to capture what was needed in good enough shape to be issued. Cal Lampley, the album’s producer, had to do an enormous amount of editing with the tape. We couldn’t play any of those pieces perfectly all the way through.
JW: Was it that the music was hard or that the musicians on the date weren’t well trained enough?
GS: Both. That was a pretty big orchestra, with 19 instrumentalists including Miles. Some of those musicians were unfamiliar http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47d1e970b-popupwith Gil’s great music and the harmonies were a mystery to them. You have to remember, there was no other jazz like that at the time to refer to. No band was playing anything like that with the sounds that Gil produced—not Benny Goodman or Dizzy Gillespie. And Gil did that with horns and flutes and muting of other instruments. That was all unfamiliar. As a result, it’s pretty ragged at times.
JW: As you listen to Miles Davis during the recording, what were you hearing?
GS: I know how he struggled. At one session, his lip started to bleed. The endurance, all that slow playing. It’s http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f797a0970c-popupvery hard on a trumpet player. But he came through beautifully. Again, a lot of editing by Cal Lampley took place. He first had to take care of Miles, which in some cases meant choosing great trumpet takes even if the orchestra behind him was uneven. There are probably 800 splices in that thing.
JW: What was it like recording John Lewis’ score in 1959 for the film Odds Against Tomorrow?
GS: Remarkable. John was stretching out on there. There’s a lot of intense, almost harsh, nasty chords when http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f799f0970c-popupsome of the bad things happen in the film. It was years since we had first met, and by then he had learned so much. He was trying to get out of traditional tonality more and more.
JW: How did you come up with the term “Third Stream?” What was the thought process?
GS: It was very simple. Back in 1957, there were two main streams of music—jazz and classical music. Today, of course, you can argue that there are many more streams—rock and roll, hip-hop, ethnic music and so on. In 1957, I http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79b1f970c-popupcalled one the First Stream and the other the Second Stream. The two streams got married and they begat a child, like in the Bible says [laughs], and a Third Stream was born. But a Third Stream meant that that the other streams would have to amalgamate or fuse in a thorough, deep way—not in some superficial construction by laying a few clichés on top of each other.
JW: So the two would have to give up something?
GS: No, why? You just combine the best of both musics.
JW: But if they’re fusing, by definition they’re becoming something else entirely, yes?
GS: Yes, that’s the true definition of a fusion. But that didn’t mean these music forms had to give up anything in Third Stream. Both retained their characteristics as they formed something new.
JW: What did the critics say?
GS: The critics said you can’t mix oil and water. They pounced on me. I was crucified. But their reaction was as dumb as racial prejudice. Their notion that jazz and classical should not be polluted by each other’s sensibilities was dumb. Both jazz and classical critics said basically the same thing.
JW: Was the Third Stream a successful adventure?
GS: Oh, yes, totally. The new music form spread to other great ethnic musics in the world. By 1975, Third Stream had influenced Turkishhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f48d96970b-popup music and Greek music and Indian music. That’s apparent now. The record companies don’t call the result Third Stream. They call it fusion or crossover. You now can have three or four different forms of music together as long as it’s done creatively. And honestly.
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Gunther Schuller, a classically trained French hornist, composer and conductor whose passion for jazz motivated him to record with jazz musicians and then fuse classical and jazz into what would become known as Third Stream, died Sunday in Boston. He was 89.
I interviewed Gunther in 2010 on his jazz experiences. Here are all four parts of that inteview combined…
JazzWax: Where exactly did you grow up?
Gunther Schuller: As a young child, I spent 4½ years in a private school in Germany for foreign children of German http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e486eb970b-popupparentage. My parents were German, but they had emigrated to America and my father was in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I was a slightly unruly, rebellious child, so they placed me in a boarding school in Germany. [Pictured: The 1941 New York Philharmonic bass section]
JW: Why did they do that?
GS: My parents had assumed that a German education wouldhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49020970b-popup be best for me. Besides, both of my parents had relatives there, so on vacations I would stay with them. I attended that school from January 1932 until December 1936. I had an incredible education there. In the second grade I was studying subjects like French, Latin, geography and geology. [Pictured: German countryside]
JW:
As you’re studying civilization, Germany is growing rapidly uncivilized.
GS: Yes. We were isolated in the school from what was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77100970c-popuphappening there. By definition, these private schools for foreign children with German parents were sealed off from outside distractions, and Hitler had promised to leave them undisturbed. However, since Hitler never kept any agreement that he had made, he invaded all those private schools in 1936.
JW: What happened to you?
GS: In the last half year of my stay there, I was inducted into the Hitler Youth. There I was in a brown uniform parading http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e7716e970c-popupuselessly up and down outside, with the commandant beating us severely once a week. I wrote my parents about what was going on there, but they were in disbelief. They were 3,000 miles away in New York. Even in America, people in the 1930s were in disbelief that Hitler was really that bad or evil.
JW: How did you finally leave Germany?
GS: In 1936, when I turned 11, I lost my right eye in a knife accident. It’s too gory to get into, but I was in the hospital for a week and underwent a double operation on my eye. You can imagine http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49617970b-popuphow my mother felt when she heard the news. I had to leave the school, of course, and my mother had to come to Germany to take me home to New York. In those days there were no airplanes crossing the Atlantic, so it took her seven days to get there. I’ve had an artificial right eye ever since.
JW: Where did your parents live in New York?
GS: In Queens. As soon as I arrived, I was enrolled in another private school—St. Thomas Choir School. I was there for http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e496e7970b-popupthree years. The school was nearly as rigorous as the one in Germany, so I had little time for anything more than my studies. What I am today is largely a result of the education I had in Germany and New York.
JW: Did you find New York exciting?
GS: Well, of course. Though we lived in Queens, we were in Manhattan a lot. When I came to New York, it was discovered that I had musical talent. I didn’t know that and no one else knew that either. So I became a musician very quickly, between age 11 and 16. And a composer afterward.
JW: How was high school after St. Thomas?
GS: I don’t know. I finished three years ahead of everyone else. I had already covered everything that the high school was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4988d970b-popupteaching for graduation in my earlier private schools. That’s how I wound up becoming a professional French horn player at age 16 and playing with Arturo Toscanini in the New York Philharmonic.
JW: Were you aware of how advanced you were?
GS: I knew I was good. My father was the leader of the second violins in the Philharmonic. He was a terrific violinist. My teacher and father had recommended me, and I was hired. Toscanini was inspiring, but he was one of those temperamental tyrants who just behaved ridiculously on the podium.
JW: How so?
GS: Toscanini was the greatest conductor of that era, but hehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77884970c-popupwould explode in these outbursts, these scatological fits with Italian curse words. It was frightening to work with him. But he was such a great musician and conductor. We played extremely well with him. But if he landed on you, you were in trouble. [Photo of Arturo Toscanini conducting Metropolitan Opera stars in 1946 by W. Eugene Smith for Life]
JW: Did he ever land on you?
GS: Not in that first performance. Toscanini tended not to conduct contemporary music, and my first performance http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e79e43970c-popupjust happened to be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, which was composed in 1941. Toscanini didn’t know the symphony as well as he knew works by Wagner, Beethoven and Rossini. I came away unscathed [laughs].
JW: Why do you suppose that happened, specifically?
GS: Probably because he hardly knew I was there. The http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49d3e970b-popupsymphony, you see, has eight horns instead of the usual four. I was hired as one of the extra players. But I was scared. I was just 16 years old and I feared he’d look around, see me and say, “What is this little kid doing in this orchestra?”
JW: So you were playing in the orchestra with your dad?
GS: Yes, he was about 30 feet away.
JW: Did you feel the added pressure of your father’s presence and judgment?
GS: Yes, always. I played with the New York Philharmonic later as first French horn player, and my http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4c5ac970b-popupfather was always sitting by. But I was good. There were a few bad moments. Only once in a great while would he look at me with a sour look. But not in the Shostakovich symphony. I think Toscanini was just glad to have gotten through it.
JW: Did Toscanini give you a hard time later?
GS: Not really. He was a great conductor of Wagner, whose http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77ca1970c-popuplate operas required eight horns. For those performances, Toscanini would hire the four extra horns he needed from the Metropolitan Opera, where by that time I was playing first horn. That’s how I was able to play with him many times, when he conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in those Wagner programs. [Photo of Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony in 1947 by Robert Hupka]
JW: How did you avoid distractions in New York?
GS: Well, I didn’t. I became heavily involved with all the arts—film, painting, literature, dance and other forms. This is hard to http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4ae4d970b-popupexplain. My girlfriend, who later became my wife, and I lived the full cultural life of New York, which is now quite gone. New York was, in the late 1930s and 1940s and well into the 50s, the cultural paradise of the world. It was unbelievable in its richness, wit, breadth, depth—and I feasted on that. It was so mesmerizing. It’s almost impossible to describe the energy and excitement today. [Pictured: Women with Statue at the Museum of Modern Art in 1948 by Ruth Orkin]
JW: Did you explore it all?
GS: My wife and I hardly ever slept. We existed on three or http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e78e9f970c-popupfour hours’ sleep. Whenever we were free, we’d see three or four films showing at the Museum of Modern Art. I was obsessed with the art of film—the great films from Germany and France from the 1920s and 1930s. We went to all the museums and galleries, saw performances of all kinds. We went to jazz clubs. We did everything. We just ate up the entire cultural ambiance of New York at the time.
JW: Was it an obsession?
GS: That’s just the way I am. To this day, I have a voracious appetite for anything cultural and artistic. I just cannot not pursue it. When I was young in Germany, I had a great talent for drawing, painting and design. I still have the whole fascination and involvement with art in me, and it shows up in a lot of my music.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c7a2dfa6970b-popup
JW: What was it about New York that excited you?
GS: Artists in all of the arts created works at the highest levels. Enjoying all of the arts came together for me. They didn’t come together for most of my colleagues. But I’m crazy. We were crazy. Just pursuing jazz and classical music day after day was enough. But we would go see and hear anything and everything. We couldn’t get enough, and it was all terribly exciting. It’s hard to believe. It’s hard for me to believe in retrospect. Once I hooked up with the jazz world, though, through John Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and others, I was completely captivated. It was just outrageous.
JW: When were you first exposed to jazz?
GS: I started collecting jazz records when I was 12 years old. I quickly became a jazz fan and read all the books on jazz that existed at that time. Jazz was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e273970b-popupdefinitely a part of my life in the mid-1940s, but not yet as a performer. I was an admirer of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson and all the other bebop musicians who were breaking new ground. Then one day I decided to make it a point to meet John Lewis.
JW: When did you meet him?
GS: We met in December 1948. I’d go to all these clubs and concerts, but I was too shy to go up to any of these people to talk to them at length. But with John, I was so http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e3d4970b-popuptaken with his playing that I made it a point to meet him. He was so warm and friendly. We hit it off immediately, and John became my entrée to the jazz world. In those days, if a musician in jazz’s inner circle introduced you or said, “This guy is one of us,” you were in.
JW: How did you become “one of us?”
GS: By then, I was at a high level of creativity, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf057970c-popupplaying, writing and composing in my area of music. You see, in the classical world, you audition. You have to prove yourself to win a place in an orchestra. In the jazz world, if Duke Ellington lost a player, word would go out and three or four of his musician buddies would say, “Listen, there’s an incredible bass player in Lincoln, Nebraska. Get him.” This was absolute, and it never failed. None of these people ever http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf095970c-popuprecommended anyone who wasn’t good. With me, it was unusual because I was a French horn player. The horn was not a jazz instrument at the time, but it was creeping in. So when Miles needed a French horn,
he asked John Lewis for a recommendation, and John said, “Get Gunther.”
JW: Classical was beginning to seep into jazz during this period—not as an aspiration but as a resource to draw from.
GS: That’s correct. Classical in the late 1940s was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf2ba970c-popupincreasingly viewed by jazz musicians as a form from which to adapt. None of these musicians, of course, was striving to become a classical player. But they were intrigued by the music, its harmonies, its tonality and its complexity.
JW: Which only stimulated your thinking about merging classical and jazz.
GS: Yes. One of my obvious rationales for combining jazz and classic was that both musics had a lot to learn from each other. They may not have known that at first, but they discovered it soon enough. Especially the form. The forms of jazz back then were primitive, despite the enormous dexterity and skill of the musicians. In a very short period of time, jazz steadily became much more intricate and developed.
JW: The musicians in the late 1940s also were much more sophisticated than most people realized at the time.
GS: Absolutely. Look, Dizzy Gillespie back then was known as a great trumpet player but also as a kind of a clown. He danced around on stage and did all this scat http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f570970b-popupsinging. But I’m telling you, that guy when you were alone with him was the most serious person, the most socially conscious, the most politically aware, the most intellectual and the most spiritual. It was just incredible. Being with him was like attending a university seminar course. All of those guys were voracious readers and enormously curious.
JW: Jazz and classical coming together continued through the 1950s.
GS: When I started the whole thing in 1957 with the Third Stream, which was bringing the two forms of music together—but really bringing them together in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf732970c-popupcompositions, styles and performance—it was extremely controversial. I was vilified on both sides. Classical musicians, composers and critics all thought that classical would be contaminated by this lowly jazz music, this black music. And jazz musicians and critics said, “My god, classical music is going to stultify our great, spontaneous music.” It was all nonsense and ignorance, of course. Eventually the two came together anyway.
JW: Exposure to classical and classical training certainly made jazz musicians better readers and studio musicians.
GS: Yes, to some extent. Classical training was certainly important in this regard. But the greatest jazz musicians would have been great jazz http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf9c5970c-popupmusicians anyway. As for other jazz musicians, classical training, either in school or through lessons, became essential for the reason you mention. Jazz orchestral arrangements were becoming more complex starting in the early 1950s, especially with the rise of the LP and longer recorded pieces. Reading a music part once and perfectly was essential and that required training.
JW: Speaking of orchestral jazz, how did you come to replace Junior Collins and Sandy Siegelstein on French horn on the last “Birth of the Cool” recording session in March 1950?
GS: Both Sandy and Junior had played on the previous two dates. I believe that both went to California afterward http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f99f970b-popupand the horn position was open. Miles told John Lewis, his pianist, “I just lost Junior.” Miles and I had already known each other casually. I had met him earlier, in Detroit, when I was on tour with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I’d see Dizzy, Duke, Miles—anyone and everyone—on the road. After, they performed, we’d hang out. Of course. I didn’t sleep much in those days [laughs].
JW: On the Miles Davis nonet session, did you just come in, sit down and record what was on the stands?
GS: My goodness, no. This was not such easy music that you could walk into the recording session and say, “Take it http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9fb33970b-popupfrom the top, here we go.” Miles held something like four or five rehearsals, which wasn’t easy given all of the musicians involved and each one’s schedule. Lee Konitz [pictured], Al McKibbon, Max Roach and all the rest were busy people. At only one rehearsal did we have all nine players there at once.
JW: What was your schedule like at the time?
GS: I was at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, with eight or nine performances each week. So my schedule was tight.
JW: At the “Birth of the Cool” session, you recorded Deception, Rocker, Moon Dreams and http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecfd3e970c-popupDarn That Dream. Which one was hardest?
GS: Without a doubt, Gil Evans’ [pictured] arrangement of Moon Dreams. That’s the ultimate masterpiece of the session.
JW: Really? The most difficult?
GS: Absolutely. The coda at the end goes into atonality and counterpoint. There are five different layers of contrapuntal lines. No one had ever written anything like that before in jazz.
JW: How did the rehearsals work out?
GS: In all honesty, we couldn’t really play Moon Dreams very well, and it shows on the studio recording. I mean we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea03f1970b-popupplayed it well enough that it could be issued by Capitol. The piece works because of the greatness of those musicians and how much feeling was squeezed into that very difficult music. I have performed Moon Dreams many times over the years in what I call repertory jazz concerts, and it’s still hard to play in an ensemble. [Photo by Popsie Randolph]
JW: I’m surprised it was so difficult. Moon Dreams sounds so relaxed.
GS: All you have to do is listen to The Complete Birth of the Cool CD that includes the live recordings from the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea07f6970b-popupRoyal Roost. You can hear that the performances of it are falling apart. The musicians were out of tune, the executions were ragged, Junior Collins on French horn was two measures ahead of everyone else and so on.
JW: Was Deception truly arranged by Davis? It sounds a lot like Mulligan.
GS: Look, Miles immediately learned from Gil and Gerry. In those days, very often, some other person’s name was put on a title for one reason or another. Miles had hired Gil and Gerry for the date because Miles loved what they had been doing with the Claude Thornhill orchestra.
JW: There certainly is a lot of Thornhill in terms of Impressionism.
GS: In all of those arrangements. They purposefully http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ed06fe970c-popupreduced the Thornhill band concept from 16 musicians down to 9. They did that because Capitol didn’t want to hire a big band for the material. That was Pete Rugolo [pictured], who was a great arranger for Stan Kenton and the label’s East Coast music director at the time.
JW: How did the musicians on the date interact?
GS: We all loved what we were doing. We kind of knew we were doing something exciting that hadn’t been done before. But that Moon Dreams scared everyone to death. It was strange that Gil Evans and Pete Rugolo weren’t at that session.
JW: Rocker still has a modern sound.
GS: Gerry [pictured] was one of the leading creative improvisers of the period. The freshness of what you hear comes from the clarity Mulligan had in his writing. Gil’s music is quitehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea0ed3970b-popup dense and rich and full on the inside. With Gerry, there was always this wonderful linearity and clear harmonies. Though they are modern, he keeps them simple. Gerry also had a certain bounce in his rhythms. John Carisi’s Israel is a whole different kind of writing. And John Lewis’ arrangement of Denzil Best’s Move is different again. That’s like Mozart.
JW: What made pianist John Lewis special?
GS: He was the gentlest soul. Kind, quiet, intelligent and an intellectual who was well versed in all of the arts. And just a beautiful person. He could be stern and tough in rehearsals when producing his music. But he was very good at getting the music right. And he could make anybody get it right. But deep down he was a sweetheart. All of the jazz musicians I knew were—and are. They are all beautiful people.
JW: Was Lewis instrumental in helping to merge classical and jazz?
GS: Oh yes, early on. Then the influence spread to people like Ralph Burns, Bob Brookmeyer and many other great musicians who came into the jazz-classical field. That was how exciting the post-war period was.
JW: What was the Modern Jazz Society?
GS: John and I founded the ensemble in 1955 because we felt we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f27e8c970c-popup had to put teeth into what we were saying about jazz-classical fusion. We soon renamed it the Jazz and Classical Music Society.
JW: Looking back, do you view the group as a success?
GS: Yes, absolutely. That doesn’t mean the group and our attempts were all perfection. But the group was a success in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29192970c-popupterms of helping the new music break through. All the things that happened after we put those jazz-classical ideas together happened because of what John and I did. I won’t say we were the only ones. Pete Rugolo and Stan Kenton [pictured] and others had been doing things with jazz and classical. But they were doing it in a slightly different way.
JW: Was your timing right?
GS: I think so. The concept was in the air at the time. John and I advanced the cause in New York and for the first time used the word “classical” in what we were doing. Stan Kenton didn’t do http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ef7c51970b-popupthat with his Innovations Orchestra in 1950, much of which is uneven and awful. Pianist Lennie Tristano did not use the word classical, either. Many musicians felt they would wind up in trouble with the critics if they did. And they were right. John and I did use it, and that of course made it controversial.
JW: Classical gradually became more accepted by jazz musicians and listeners.
GS: Yes, eventually the jazz-classical language changed to the extent of breaking into atonality. That happened later, though, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2954e970c-popupwith Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus and so many others. Everything went forward tremendously through the 1960s and then settled down into a sort of standardization. There was little experimentation after that.
JW: In 1955, you were in another exciting jazz ensemble led by Gigi Gryce. What made Gryce so special?
GS: His personality. He’s such an underrated player. Sadly, he’s nearly forgotten today. These guys were such talents and maybe geniuses. Whatever they put their http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29873970c-popuphands on would emerge with their special personality attached. That’s the greatness of jazz—the individualism, the distinctiveness of each of these great players. Unfortunately, we don’t have that today. Instead, we have 10,000 John Coltrane clones.
JW: What are we hearing with Gryce that sounds so fascinating?
GS: His sound was different. He arranged the reeds for a thinner feel, and he had in his ear a different conception. The result was a very light, flowing sound. And that’s also how his harmonizations worked. He was another one of these quiet guys who had studied classical music of all kinds. On a personal level, he was very witty. It’s amazing how interesting they all were and yet how different.
JW: In 1957, you and George Russell arranged and conducted the Brandeis Jazz Festival concerts in New York. That was pretty incredible music.
GS: I don’t know what you mean by incredible. It was damn hard [laughs].
JW: Why?
GS: Milton Babbitt’s All Set? Can you imagine? That piece was 150 years ahead of its time. I can’t even begin http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29d10970c-popupto describe what I had to go through to get that recording made. No one had ever played anything like it. All Set is just on the periphery of jazz. We couldn’t really play it as jazz, so the initial recording was pretty stiff.
JW: Tough stuff?
GS: We never were able to play All Set live. This was especially true during the first Brandeis Jazz Festival concert in June 1957. The next morning, at the second concert, we repeated the program from the night before. We had lost our jitters by then and played it much better. But we still http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2a3c8970c-popupdidn’t perform the piece like it was supposed to be played. I wound up spending about 35 hours editing that piece together on tape for the record. Wow, that was some piece. I mean, come on. That could have been written by Arnold Schoenberg or Anton Webern.
JW: This was a very different form of classical music, wasn’t it?
GS: Absolutely. When we talk about jazz musicians studying classical music, we’re mostly talking about musicians exploring Ravel, Debussy, maybe Brahms, and English classical music. Most didn’t study Schoenberg or any of the 12-tone composers. My god, All Set was a hard-core 12-tone piece.
JW: Did you ever perform the piece to your satisfaction?
GS: I have performed it at least a dozen times over the years since 1957. I will say, though, that there was only one time in Cleveland [pictured] that I felt we had finally performed that piece correctly. And it happened by sheer luck. It was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2abae970c-popupa coincidence that I had all the right players in place. And this is only several years ago. Between 1957 and then I had the best musicians on sessions, but it was still like walking on the moon. Forty years later, we had just the right musicians for whom that atonal material had finally become familiar.
JW: Has the Cleveland rendition been released?
GS: No. We recorded it, of course, but we haven’t released it. Every style, no matter how difficult or unfamiliar at first, eventually becomes assimilated. Even atonal pieces. Now I can put together a performance of All Set and know that it would be damn good. All of those Brandeis pieces were hard initially because the feel and approach was completely new to the musicians.
JW: How about your Brandeis composition, Transformation?
GS: It, too, was hard, for the same reasons. Transformation is an atonal piece, and the language was new. Jazz musicians who had classical training were http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2b143970c-popupfamiliar with the language of Ravel [pictured], Debussy, 11th chords, 9th chords, flatted fifths and all that stuff. Atonality was completely different. But I put enough swinging stuff in there so at least the musicians could feel it rhythmically [laughs].
JW: What about Bill Evans’ solo on All About Rosie?
GS: Bill was unbelievable. That was an epiphanal experience. Bill was the one guy… [pause]. He had studied so much classical music that he was able to sight read all of this stuff. He could even sight read Milton Babbitt’s All Set perfectly. I didn’t have to coach him on that.
JW: What was so remarkable about his playing during that concert series?
GS: We were astonished that all of the material was so easy for him. He not only could deal with it straightaway, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efa986970b-popuphe also could improvise on it. Then Bill played one of the greatest piano solos of all time on All Abut Rosie. I become speechless when I think back on Bill and that solo. We were all staggered. We were all looking at each other while his solo was taking place.
JW: How was that possible?
GS: We weren’t playing. We were playing stop-time chords. We’d play one chord at the beginning of each chorus and stop. As Bill improvised, we all looked at each other in amazement at what we were hearing.
JW: What was so exciting about it?
GS: I just didn’t know that someone could create such an incredible full-speed jazz-classical solo and have it turn http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efaf7b970b-popupout to be so perfect.
JW: When All About Rosie was finished, what happened?
GS: I don’t recall exactly but I think it was like at the end of World Series game, when the winning players all leap on the guy who made the last out. I’m sure we all jumped on Bill.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d12c4a97970c-popup
JW: I hear elements of Cool from West Side Story in your Brandeis Jazz Festival composition Transformations. Yours came first. Did Leonard Bernstein hear your work?
GS: He probably did. We were very good friends at various times and worked closely together. He was a great admirer of my music. Lenny never said, “Oh, Gunther, you don’t know how much you influenced me.” But the feeling was there.
JW: Do you think Bernstein came to a finer recognition of jazz as a result of your work in the mid-1950s?
GS: Lenny wasn’t influenced only by me. He learned from a great many jazz-classical artists. He was a quick study http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f78821970c-popupwhen it came to jazz. But in terms of the musical language, Lenny would never go into jazz-classical styles beyond tonality. Rhythmically, he learned a lot from Count Basie and Stan Kenton. Basically, Lenny’s jazz sensibility was from the 1920s. He was real cornball. When he used to play piano at parties, I had to close my ears because he was so corny. He thought he was as good as Art Tatum [laughs].
JW: You played French horn on Miles Davis’ Porgy and Bess. How did your involvement come about?
GS: The idea for that 1958 session was actually producer George Avakian’s, before he left Columbia. George was a great admirer of the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47333970b-popuprecordings that Miles and Gil had done between 1948 and 1950 [later known as “Birth of the Cool”]. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t more popular. And they weren’t until they were brought together on an LP in 1957 and the album was named Birth of the Cool. Even before Capitol decided to bring them together on an LP, George had decided to unite Gil and Miles for a broader interpretation of that concept on music that was widely known. That was his conception.
JW: What was your role?
GS: I say this with all modesty: George went to Miles and said, “Listen, I think there are only two people here who can turn Gershwin into modern jazz orchestral works—Gunther Schuller and Gil Evans.” Miles went with Gil, and I played French horn.
JW: Would you have done something different with it?
GS: No, probably not. I was as enamored of Gil’s style as I was of my own. I knew what Gil was doing with the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f4788b970b-popuporchestration and why. Since the music had to be, at its core, Gershwin, it couldn’t be mine. If I had arranged it, the session would have come out something like that. I might have had some different orchestral ideas now and then. But I was thrilled to play horn on that recording.
JW: Is there anything that most people aren’t aware of about that session?
GS: Probably how difficult it was to play. Porgy and Bess is not a perfect recording. There’s a lot of sloppiness in there if you listen closely. We had to add three more http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79293970c-popupsessions to capture what was needed in good enough shape to be issued. Cal Lampley, the album’s producer, had to do an enormous amount of editing with the tape. We couldn’t play any of those pieces perfectly all the way through.
JW: Was it that the music was hard or that the musicians on the date weren’t well trained enough?
GS: Both. That was a pretty big orchestra, with 19 instrumentalists including Miles. Some of those musicians were unfamiliar http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47d1e970b-popupwith Gil’s great music and the harmonies were a mystery to them. You have to remember, there was no other jazz like that at the time to refer to. No band was playing anything like that with the sounds that Gil produced—not Benny Goodman or Dizzy Gillespie. And Gil did that with horns and flutes and muting of other instruments. That was all unfamiliar. As a result, it’s pretty ragged at times.
JW: As you listen to Miles Davis during the recording, what were you hearing?
GS: I know how he struggled. At one session, his lip started to bleed. The endurance, all that slow playing. It’s http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f797a0970c-popupvery hard on a trumpet player. But he came through beautifully. Again, a lot of editing by Cal Lampley took place. He first had to take care of Miles, which in some cases meant choosing great trumpet takes even if the orchestra behind him was uneven. There are probably 800 splices in that thing.
JW: What was it like recording John Lewis’ score in 1959 for the film Odds Against Tomorrow?
GS: Remarkable. John was stretching out on there. There’s a lot of intense, almost harsh, nasty chords when http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f799f0970c-popupsome of the bad things happen in the film. It was years since we had first met, and by then he had learned so much. He was trying to get out of traditional tonality more and more.
JW: How did you come up with the term “Third Stream?” What was the thought process?
GS: It was very simple. Back in 1957, there were two main streams of music—jazz and classical music. Today, of course, you can argue that there are many more streams—rock and roll, hip-hop, ethnic music and so on. In 1957, I http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79b1f970c-popupcalled one the First Stream and the other the Second Stream. The two streams got married and they begat a child, like in the Bible says [laughs], and a Third Stream was born. But a Third Stream meant that that the other streams would have to amalgamate or fuse in a thorough, deep way—not in some superficial construction by laying a few clichés on top of each other.
JW: So the two would have to give up something?
GS: No, why? You just combine the best of both musics.
JW: But if they’re fusing, by definition they’re becoming something else entirely, yes?
GS: Yes, that’s the true definition of a fusion. But that didn’t mean these music forms had to give up anything in Third Stream. Both retained their characteristics as they formed something new.
JW: What did the critics say?
GS: The critics said you can’t mix oil and water. They pounced on me. I was crucified. But their reaction was as dumb as racial prejudice. Their notion that jazz and classical should not be polluted by each other’s sensibilities was dumb. Both jazz and classical critics said basically the same thing.
JW: Was the Third Stream a successful adventure?
GS: Oh, yes, totally. The new music form spread to other great ethnic musics in the world. By 1975, Third Stream had influenced Turkishhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f48d96970b-popup music and Greek music and Indian music. That’s apparent now. The record companies don’t call the result Third Stream. They call it fusion or crossover. You now can have three or four different forms of music together as long as it’s done creatively. And honestly.
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Gunther Schuller, a classically trained French hornist, composer and conductor whose passion for jazz motivated him to record with jazz musicians and then fuse classical and jazz into what would become known as Third Stream, died Sunday in Boston. He was 89.
I interviewed Gunther in 2010 on his jazz experiences. Here are all four parts of that inteview combined…
JazzWax: Where exactly did you grow up?
Gunther Schuller: As a young child, I spent 4½ years in a private school in Germany for foreign children of German http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e486eb970b-popupparentage. My parents were German, but they had emigrated to America and my father was in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I was a slightly unruly, rebellious child, so they placed me in a boarding school in Germany. [Pictured: The 1941 New York Philharmonic bass section]
JW: Why did they do that?
GS: My parents had assumed that a German education wouldhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49020970b-popup be best for me. Besides, both of my parents had relatives there, so on vacations I would stay with them. I attended that school from January 1932 until December 1936. I had an incredible education there. In the second grade I was studying subjects like French, Latin, geography and geology. [Pictured: German countryside]
JW:
As you’re studying civilization, Germany is growing rapidly uncivilized.
GS: Yes. We were isolated in the school from what was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77100970c-popuphappening there. By definition, these private schools for foreign children with German parents were sealed off from outside distractions, and Hitler had promised to leave them undisturbed. However, since Hitler never kept any agreement that he had made, he invaded all those private schools in 1936.
JW: What happened to you?
GS: In the last half year of my stay there, I was inducted into the Hitler Youth. There I was in a brown uniform parading http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e7716e970c-popupuselessly up and down outside, with the commandant beating us severely once a week. I wrote my parents about what was going on there, but they were in disbelief. They were 3,000 miles away in New York. Even in America, people in the 1930s were in disbelief that Hitler was really that bad or evil.
JW: How did you finally leave Germany?
GS: In 1936, when I turned 11, I lost my right eye in a knife accident. It’s too gory to get into, but I was in the hospital for a week and underwent a double operation on my eye. You can imagine http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49617970b-popuphow my mother felt when she heard the news. I had to leave the school, of course, and my mother had to come to Germany to take me home to New York. In those days there were no airplanes crossing the Atlantic, so it took her seven days to get there. I’ve had an artificial right eye ever since.
JW: Where did your parents live in New York?
GS: In Queens. As soon as I arrived, I was enrolled in another private school—St. Thomas Choir School. I was there for http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e496e7970b-popupthree years. The school was nearly as rigorous as the one in Germany, so I had little time for anything more than my studies. What I am today is largely a result of the education I had in Germany and New York.
JW: Did you find New York exciting?
GS: Well, of course. Though we lived in Queens, we were in Manhattan a lot. When I came to New York, it was discovered that I had musical talent. I didn’t know that and no one else knew that either. So I became a musician very quickly, between age 11 and 16. And a composer afterward.
JW: How was high school after St. Thomas?
GS: I don’t know. I finished three years ahead of everyone else. I had already covered everything that the high school was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4988d970b-popupteaching for graduation in my earlier private schools. That’s how I wound up becoming a professional French horn player at age 16 and playing with Arturo Toscanini in the New York Philharmonic.
JW: Were you aware of how advanced you were?
GS: I knew I was good. My father was the leader of the second violins in the Philharmonic. He was a terrific violinist. My teacher and father had recommended me, and I was hired. Toscanini was inspiring, but he was one of those temperamental tyrants who just behaved ridiculously on the podium.
JW: How so?
GS: Toscanini was the greatest conductor of that era, but hehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77884970c-popupwould explode in these outbursts, these scatological fits with Italian curse words. It was frightening to work with him. But he was such a great musician and conductor. We played extremely well with him. But if he landed on you, you were in trouble. [Photo of Arturo Toscanini conducting Metropolitan Opera stars in 1946 by W. Eugene Smith for Life]
JW: Did he ever land on you?
GS: Not in that first performance. Toscanini tended not to conduct contemporary music, and my first performance http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e79e43970c-popupjust happened to be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, which was composed in 1941. Toscanini didn’t know the symphony as well as he knew works by Wagner, Beethoven and Rossini. I came away unscathed [laughs].
JW: Why do you suppose that happened, specifically?
GS: Probably because he hardly knew I was there. The http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49d3e970b-popupsymphony, you see, has eight horns instead of the usual four. I was hired as one of the extra players. But I was scared. I was just 16 years old and I feared he’d look around, see me and say, “What is this little kid doing in this orchestra?”
JW: So you were playing in the orchestra with your dad?
GS: Yes, he was about 30 feet away.
JW: Did you feel the added pressure of your father’s presence and judgment?
GS: Yes, always. I played with the New York Philharmonic later as first French horn player, and my http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4c5ac970b-popupfather was always sitting by. But I was good. There were a few bad moments. Only once in a great while would he look at me with a sour look. But not in the Shostakovich symphony. I think Toscanini was just glad to have gotten through it.
JW: Did Toscanini give you a hard time later?
GS: Not really. He was a great conductor of Wagner, whose http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77ca1970c-popuplate operas required eight horns. For those performances, Toscanini would hire the four extra horns he needed from the Metropolitan Opera, where by that time I was playing first horn. That’s how I was able to play with him many times, when he conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in those Wagner programs. [Photo of Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony in 1947 by Robert Hupka]
JW: How did you avoid distractions in New York?
GS: Well, I didn’t. I became heavily involved with all the arts—film, painting, literature, dance and other forms. This is hard to http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4ae4d970b-popupexplain. My girlfriend, who later became my wife, and I lived the full cultural life of New York, which is now quite gone. New York was, in the late 1930s and 1940s and well into the 50s, the cultural paradise of the world. It was unbelievable in its richness, wit, breadth, depth—and I feasted on that. It was so mesmerizing. It’s almost impossible to describe the energy and excitement today. [Pictured: Women with Statue at the Museum of Modern Art in 1948 by Ruth Orkin]
JW: Did you explore it all?
GS: My wife and I hardly ever slept. We existed on three or http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e78e9f970c-popupfour hours’ sleep. Whenever we were free, we’d see three or four films showing at the Museum of Modern Art. I was obsessed with the art of film—the great films from Germany and France from the 1920s and 1930s. We went to all the museums and galleries, saw performances of all kinds. We went to jazz clubs. We did everything. We just ate up the entire cultural ambiance of New York at the time.
JW: Was it an obsession?
GS: That’s just the way I am. To this day, I have a voracious appetite for anything cultural and artistic. I just cannot not pursue it. When I was young in Germany, I had a great talent for drawing, painting and design. I still have the whole fascination and involvement with art in me, and it shows up in a lot of my music.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c7a2dfa6970b-popup
JW: What was it about New York that excited you?
GS: Artists in all of the arts created works at the highest levels. Enjoying all of the arts came together for me. They didn’t come together for most of my colleagues. But I’m crazy. We were crazy. Just pursuing jazz and classical music day after day was enough. But we would go see and hear anything and everything. We couldn’t get enough, and it was all terribly exciting. It’s hard to believe. It’s hard for me to believe in retrospect. Once I hooked up with the jazz world, though, through John Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and others, I was completely captivated. It was just outrageous.
JW: When were you first exposed to jazz?
GS: I started collecting jazz records when I was 12 years old. I quickly became a jazz fan and read all the books on jazz that existed at that time. Jazz was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e273970b-popupdefinitely a part of my life in the mid-1940s, but not yet as a performer. I was an admirer of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson and all the other bebop musicians who were breaking new ground. Then one day I decided to make it a point to meet John Lewis.
JW: When did you meet him?
GS: We met in December 1948. I’d go to all these clubs and concerts, but I was too shy to go up to any of these people to talk to them at length. But with John, I was so http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e3d4970b-popuptaken with his playing that I made it a point to meet him. He was so warm and friendly. We hit it off immediately, and John became my entrée to the jazz world. In those days, if a musician in jazz’s inner circle introduced you or said, “This guy is one of us,” you were in.
JW: How did you become “one of us?”
GS: By then, I was at a high level of creativity, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf057970c-popupplaying, writing and composing in my area of music. You see, in the classical world, you audition. You have to prove yourself to win a place in an orchestra. In the jazz world, if Duke Ellington lost a player, word would go out and three or four of his musician buddies would say, “Listen, there’s an incredible bass player in Lincoln, Nebraska. Get him.” This was absolute, and it never failed. None of these people ever http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf095970c-popuprecommended anyone who wasn’t good. With me, it was unusual because I was a French horn player. The horn was not a jazz instrument at the time, but it was creeping in. So when Miles needed a French horn,
he asked John Lewis for a recommendation, and John said, “Get Gunther.”
JW: Classical was beginning to seep into jazz during this period—not as an aspiration but as a resource to draw from.
GS: That’s correct. Classical in the late 1940s was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf2ba970c-popupincreasingly viewed by jazz musicians as a form from which to adapt. None of these musicians, of course, was striving to become a classical player. But they were intrigued by the music, its harmonies, its tonality and its complexity.
JW: Which only stimulated your thinking about merging classical and jazz.
GS: Yes. One of my obvious rationales for combining jazz and classic was that both musics had a lot to learn from each other. They may not have known that at first, but they discovered it soon enough. Especially the form. The forms of jazz back then were primitive, despite the enormous dexterity and skill of the musicians. In a very short period of time, jazz steadily became much more intricate and developed.
JW: The musicians in the late 1940s also were much more sophisticated than most people realized at the time.
GS: Absolutely. Look, Dizzy Gillespie back then was known as a great trumpet player but also as a kind of a clown. He danced around on stage and did all this scat http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f570970b-popupsinging. But I’m telling you, that guy when you were alone with him was the most serious person, the most socially conscious, the most politically aware, the most intellectual and the most spiritual. It was just incredible. Being with him was like attending a university seminar course. All of those guys were voracious readers and enormously curious.
JW: Jazz and classical coming together continued through the 1950s.
GS: When I started the whole thing in 1957 with the Third Stream, which was bringing the two forms of music together—but really bringing them together in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf732970c-popupcompositions, styles and performance—it was extremely controversial. I was vilified on both sides. Classical musicians, composers and critics all thought that classical would be contaminated by this lowly jazz music, this black music. And jazz musicians and critics said, “My god, classical music is going to stultify our great, spontaneous music.” It was all nonsense and ignorance, of course. Eventually the two came together anyway.
JW: Exposure to classical and classical training certainly made jazz musicians better readers and studio musicians.
GS: Yes, to some extent. Classical training was certainly important in this regard. But the greatest jazz musicians would have been great jazz http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf9c5970c-popupmusicians anyway. As for other jazz musicians, classical training, either in school or through lessons, became essential for the reason you mention. Jazz orchestral arrangements were becoming more complex starting in the early 1950s, especially with the rise of the LP and longer recorded pieces. Reading a music part once and perfectly was essential and that required training.
JW: Speaking of orchestral jazz, how did you come to replace Junior Collins and Sandy Siegelstein on French horn on the last “Birth of the Cool” recording session in March 1950?
GS: Both Sandy and Junior had played on the previous two dates. I believe that both went to California afterward http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f99f970b-popupand the horn position was open. Miles told John Lewis, his pianist, “I just lost Junior.” Miles and I had already known each other casually. I had met him earlier, in Detroit, when I was on tour with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I’d see Dizzy, Duke, Miles—anyone and everyone—on the road. After, they performed, we’d hang out. Of course. I didn’t sleep much in those days [laughs].
JW: On the Miles Davis nonet session, did you just come in, sit down and record what was on the stands?
GS: My goodness, no. This was not such easy music that you could walk into the recording session and say, “Take it http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9fb33970b-popupfrom the top, here we go.” Miles held something like four or five rehearsals, which wasn’t easy given all of the musicians involved and each one’s schedule. Lee Konitz [pictured], Al McKibbon, Max Roach and all the rest were busy people. At only one rehearsal did we have all nine players there at once.
JW: What was your schedule like at the time?
GS: I was at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, with eight or nine performances each week. So my schedule was tight.
JW: At the “Birth of the Cool” session, you recorded Deception, Rocker, Moon Dreams and http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecfd3e970c-popupDarn That Dream. Which one was hardest?
GS: Without a doubt, Gil Evans’ [pictured] arrangement of Moon Dreams. That’s the ultimate masterpiece of the session.
JW: Really? The most difficult?
GS: Absolutely. The coda at the end goes into atonality and counterpoint. There are five different layers of contrapuntal lines. No one had ever written anything like that before in jazz.
JW: How did the rehearsals work out?
GS: In all honesty, we couldn’t really play Moon Dreams very well, and it shows on the studio recording. I mean we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea03f1970b-popupplayed it well enough that it could be issued by Capitol. The piece works because of the greatness of those musicians and how much feeling was squeezed into that very difficult music. I have performed Moon Dreams many times over the years in what I call repertory jazz concerts, and it’s still hard to play in an ensemble. [Photo by Popsie Randolph]
JW: I’m surprised it was so difficult. Moon Dreams sounds so relaxed.
GS: All you have to do is listen to The Complete Birth of the Cool CD that includes the live recordings from the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea07f6970b-popupRoyal Roost. You can hear that the performances of it are falling apart. The musicians were out of tune, the executions were ragged, Junior Collins on French horn was two measures ahead of everyone else and so on.
JW: Was Deception truly arranged by Davis? It sounds a lot like Mulligan.
GS: Look, Miles immediately learned from Gil and Gerry. In those days, very often, some other person’s name was put on a title for one reason or another. Miles had hired Gil and Gerry for the date because Miles loved what they had been doing with the Claude Thornhill orchestra.
JW: There certainly is a lot of Thornhill in terms of Impressionism.
GS: In all of those arrangements. They purposefully http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ed06fe970c-popupreduced the Thornhill band concept from 16 musicians down to 9. They did that because Capitol didn’t want to hire a big band for the material. That was Pete Rugolo [pictured], who was a great arranger for Stan Kenton and the label’s East Coast music director at the time.
JW: How did the musicians on the date interact?
GS: We all loved what we were doing. We kind of knew we were doing something exciting that hadn’t been done before. But that Moon Dreams scared everyone to death. It was strange that Gil Evans and Pete Rugolo weren’t at that session.
JW: Rocker still has a modern sound.
GS: Gerry [pictured] was one of the leading creative improvisers of the period. The freshness of what you hear comes from the clarity Mulligan had in his writing. Gil’s music is quitehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea0ed3970b-popup dense and rich and full on the inside. With Gerry, there was always this wonderful linearity and clear harmonies. Though they are modern, he keeps them simple. Gerry also had a certain bounce in his rhythms. John Carisi’s Israel is a whole different kind of writing. And John Lewis’ arrangement of Denzil Best’s Move is different again. That’s like Mozart.
JW: What made pianist John Lewis special?
GS: He was the gentlest soul. Kind, quiet, intelligent and an intellectual who was well versed in all of the arts. And just a beautiful person. He could be stern and tough in rehearsals when producing his music. But he was very good at getting the music right. And he could make anybody get it right. But deep down he was a sweetheart. All of the jazz musicians I knew were—and are. They are all beautiful people.
JW: Was Lewis instrumental in helping to merge classical and jazz?
GS: Oh yes, early on. Then the influence spread to people like Ralph Burns, Bob Brookmeyer and many other great musicians who came into the jazz-classical field. That was how exciting the post-war period was.
JW: What was the Modern Jazz Society?
GS: John and I founded the ensemble in 1955 because we felt we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f27e8c970c-popup had to put teeth into what we were saying about jazz-classical fusion. We soon renamed it the Jazz and Classical Music Society.
JW: Looking back, do you view the group as a success?
GS: Yes, absolutely. That doesn’t mean the group and our attempts were all perfection. But the group was a success in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29192970c-popupterms of helping the new music break through. All the things that happened after we put those jazz-classical ideas together happened because of what John and I did. I won’t say we were the only ones. Pete Rugolo and Stan Kenton [pictured] and others had been doing things with jazz and classical. But they were doing it in a slightly different way.
JW: Was your timing right?
GS: I think so. The concept was in the air at the time. John and I advanced the cause in New York and for the first time used the word “classical” in what we were doing. Stan Kenton didn’t do http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ef7c51970b-popupthat with his Innovations Orchestra in 1950, much of which is uneven and awful. Pianist Lennie Tristano did not use the word classical, either. Many musicians felt they would wind up in trouble with the critics if they did. And they were right. John and I did use it, and that of course made it controversial.
JW: Classical gradually became more accepted by jazz musicians and listeners.
GS: Yes, eventually the jazz-classical language changed to the extent of breaking into atonality. That happened later, though, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2954e970c-popupwith Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus and so many others. Everything went forward tremendously through the 1960s and then settled down into a sort of standardization. There was little experimentation after that.
JW: In 1955, you were in another exciting jazz ensemble led by Gigi Gryce. What made Gryce so special?
GS: His personality. He’s such an underrated player. Sadly, he’s nearly forgotten today. These guys were such talents and maybe geniuses. Whatever they put their http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29873970c-popuphands on would emerge with their special personality attached. That’s the greatness of jazz—the individualism, the distinctiveness of each of these great players. Unfortunately, we don’t have that today. Instead, we have 10,000 John Coltrane clones.
JW: What are we hearing with Gryce that sounds so fascinating?
GS: His sound was different. He arranged the reeds for a thinner feel, and he had in his ear a different conception. The result was a very light, flowing sound. And that’s also how his harmonizations worked. He was another one of these quiet guys who had studied classical music of all kinds. On a personal level, he was very witty. It’s amazing how interesting they all were and yet how different.
JW: In 1957, you and George Russell arranged and conducted the Brandeis Jazz Festival concerts in New York. That was pretty incredible music.
GS: I don’t know what you mean by incredible. It was damn hard [laughs].
JW: Why?
GS: Milton Babbitt’s All Set? Can you imagine? That piece was 150 years ahead of its time. I can’t even begin http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29d10970c-popupto describe what I had to go through to get that recording made. No one had ever played anything like it. All Set is just on the periphery of jazz. We couldn’t really play it as jazz, so the initial recording was pretty stiff.
JW: Tough stuff?
GS: We never were able to play All Set live. This was especially true during the first Brandeis Jazz Festival concert in June 1957. The next morning, at the second concert, we repeated the program from the night before. We had lost our jitters by then and played it much better. But we still http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2a3c8970c-popupdidn’t perform the piece like it was supposed to be played. I wound up spending about 35 hours editing that piece together on tape for the record. Wow, that was some piece. I mean, come on. That could have been written by Arnold Schoenberg or Anton Webern.
JW: This was a very different form of classical music, wasn’t it?
GS: Absolutely. When we talk about jazz musicians studying classical music, we’re mostly talking about musicians exploring Ravel, Debussy, maybe Brahms, and English classical music. Most didn’t study Schoenberg or any of the 12-tone composers. My god, All Set was a hard-core 12-tone piece.
JW: Did you ever perform the piece to your satisfaction?
GS: I have performed it at least a dozen times over the years since 1957. I will say, though, that there was only one time in Cleveland [pictured] that I felt we had finally performed that piece correctly. And it happened by sheer luck. It was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2abae970c-popupa coincidence that I had all the right players in place. And this is only several years ago. Between 1957 and then I had the best musicians on sessions, but it was still like walking on the moon. Forty years later, we had just the right musicians for whom that atonal material had finally become familiar.
JW: Has the Cleveland rendition been released?
GS: No. We recorded it, of course, but we haven’t released it. Every style, no matter how difficult or unfamiliar at first, eventually becomes assimilated. Even atonal pieces. Now I can put together a performance of All Set and know that it would be damn good. All of those Brandeis pieces were hard initially because the feel and approach was completely new to the musicians.
JW: How about your Brandeis composition, Transformation?
GS: It, too, was hard, for the same reasons. Transformation is an atonal piece, and the language was new. Jazz musicians who had classical training were http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2b143970c-popupfamiliar with the language of Ravel [pictured], Debussy, 11th chords, 9th chords, flatted fifths and all that stuff. Atonality was completely different. But I put enough swinging stuff in there so at least the musicians could feel it rhythmically [laughs].
JW: What about Bill Evans’ solo on All About Rosie?
GS: Bill was unbelievable. That was an epiphanal experience. Bill was the one guy… [pause]. He had studied so much classical music that he was able to sight read all of this stuff. He could even sight read Milton Babbitt’s All Set perfectly. I didn’t have to coach him on that.
JW: What was so remarkable about his playing during that concert series?
GS: We were astonished that all of the material was so easy for him. He not only could deal with it straightaway, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efa986970b-popuphe also could improvise on it. Then Bill played one of the greatest piano solos of all time on All Abut Rosie. I become speechless when I think back on Bill and that solo. We were all staggered. We were all looking at each other while his solo was taking place.
JW: How was that possible?
GS: We weren’t playing. We were playing stop-time chords. We’d play one chord at the beginning of each chorus and stop. As Bill improvised, we all looked at each other in amazement at what we were hearing.
JW: What was so exciting about it?
GS: I just didn’t know that someone could create such an incredible full-speed jazz-classical solo and have it turn http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efaf7b970b-popupout to be so perfect.
JW: When All About Rosie was finished, what happened?
GS: I don’t recall exactly but I think it was like at the end of World Series game, when the winning players all leap on the guy who made the last out. I’m sure we all jumped on Bill.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d12c4a97970c-popup
JW: I hear elements of Cool from West Side Story in your Brandeis Jazz Festival composition Transformations. Yours came first. Did Leonard Bernstein hear your work?
GS: He probably did. We were very good friends at various times and worked closely together. He was a great admirer of my music. Lenny never said, “Oh, Gunther, you don’t know how much you influenced me.” But the feeling was there.
JW: Do you think Bernstein came to a finer recognition of jazz as a result of your work in the mid-1950s?
GS: Lenny wasn’t influenced only by me. He learned from a great many jazz-classical artists. He was a quick study http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f78821970c-popupwhen it came to jazz. But in terms of the musical language, Lenny would never go into jazz-classical styles beyond tonality. Rhythmically, he learned a lot from Count Basie and Stan Kenton. Basically, Lenny’s jazz sensibility was from the 1920s. He was real cornball. When he used to play piano at parties, I had to close my ears because he was so corny. He thought he was as good as Art Tatum [laughs].
JW: You played French horn on Miles Davis’ Porgy and Bess. How did your involvement come about?
GS: The idea for that 1958 session was actually producer George Avakian’s, before he left Columbia. George was a great admirer of the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47333970b-popuprecordings that Miles and Gil had done between 1948 and 1950 [later known as “Birth of the Cool”]. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t more popular. And they weren’t until they were brought together on an LP in 1957 and the album was named Birth of the Cool. Even before Capitol decided to bring them together on an LP, George had decided to unite Gil and Miles for a broader interpretation of that concept on music that was widely known. That was his conception.
JW: What was your role?
GS: I say this with all modesty: George went to Miles and said, “Listen, I think there are only two people here who can turn Gershwin into modern jazz orchestral works—Gunther Schuller and Gil Evans.” Miles went with Gil, and I played French horn.
JW: Would you have done something different with it?
GS: No, probably not. I was as enamored of Gil’s style as I was of my own. I knew what Gil was doing with the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f4788b970b-popuporchestration and why. Since the music had to be, at its core, Gershwin, it couldn’t be mine. If I had arranged it, the session would have come out something like that. I might have had some different orchestral ideas now and then. But I was thrilled to play horn on that recording.
JW: Is there anything that most people aren’t aware of about that session?
GS: Probably how difficult it was to play. Porgy and Bess is not a perfect recording. There’s a lot of sloppiness in there if you listen closely. We had to add three more http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79293970c-popupsessions to capture what was needed in good enough shape to be issued. Cal Lampley, the album’s producer, had to do an enormous amount of editing with the tape. We couldn’t play any of those pieces perfectly all the way through.
JW: Was it that the music was hard or that the musicians on the date weren’t well trained enough?
GS: Both. That was a pretty big orchestra, with 19 instrumentalists including Miles. Some of those musicians were unfamiliar http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47d1e970b-popupwith Gil’s great music and the harmonies were a mystery to them. You have to remember, there was no other jazz like that at the time to refer to. No band was playing anything like that with the sounds that Gil produced—not Benny Goodman or Dizzy Gillespie. And Gil did that with horns and flutes and muting of other instruments. That was all unfamiliar. As a result, it’s pretty ragged at times.
JW: As you listen to Miles Davis during the recording, what were you hearing?
GS: I know how he struggled. At one session, his lip started to bleed. The endurance, all that slow playing. It’s http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f797a0970c-popupvery hard on a trumpet player. But he came through beautifully. Again, a lot of editing by Cal Lampley took place. He first had to take care of Miles, which in some cases meant choosing great trumpet takes even if the orchestra behind him was uneven. There are probably 800 splices in that thing.
JW: What was it like recording John Lewis’ score in 1959 for the film Odds Against Tomorrow?
GS: Remarkable. John was stretching out on there. There’s a lot of intense, almost harsh, nasty chords when http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f799f0970c-popupsome of the bad things happen in the film. It was years since we had first met, and by then he had learned so much. He was trying to get out of traditional tonality more and more.
JW: How did you come up with the term “Third Stream?” What was the thought process?
GS: It was very simple. Back in 1957, there were two main streams of music—jazz and classical music. Today, of course, you can argue that there are many more streams—rock and roll, hip-hop, ethnic music and so on. In 1957, I http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79b1f970c-popupcalled one the First Stream and the other the Second Stream. The two streams got married and they begat a child, like in the Bible says [laughs], and a Third Stream was born. But a Third Stream meant that that the other streams would have to amalgamate or fuse in a thorough, deep way—not in some superficial construction by laying a few clichés on top of each other.
JW: So the two would have to give up something?
GS: No, why? You just combine the best of both musics.
JW: But if they’re fusing, by definition they’re becoming something else entirely, yes?
GS: Yes, that’s the true definition of a fusion. But that didn’t mean these music forms had to give up anything in Third Stream. Both retained their characteristics as they formed something new.
JW: What did the critics say?
GS: The critics said you can’t mix oil and water. They pounced on me. I was crucified. But their reaction was as dumb as racial prejudice. Their notion that jazz and classical should not be polluted by each other’s sensibilities was dumb. Both jazz and classical critics said basically the same thing.
JW: Was the Third Stream a successful adventure?
GS: Oh, yes, totally. The new music form spread to other great ethnic musics in the world. By 1975, Third Stream had influenced Turkishhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f48d96970b-popup music and Greek music and Indian music. That’s apparent now. The record companies don’t call the result Third Stream. They call it fusion or crossover. You now can have three or four different forms of music together as long as it’s done creatively. And honestly.
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Gunther Schuller, a classically trained French hornist, composer and conductor whose passion for jazz motivated him to record with jazz musicians and then fuse classical and jazz into what would become known as Third Stream, died Sunday in Boston. He was 89.
I interviewed Gunther in 2010 on his jazz experiences. Here are all four parts of that inteview combined…
JazzWax: Where exactly did you grow up?
Gunther Schuller: As a young child, I spent 4½ years in a private school in Germany for foreign children of German http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e486eb970b-popupparentage. My parents were German, but they had emigrated to America and my father was in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I was a slightly unruly, rebellious child, so they placed me in a boarding school in Germany. [Pictured: The 1941 New York Philharmonic bass section]
JW: Why did they do that?
GS: My parents had assumed that a German education wouldhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49020970b-popup be best for me. Besides, both of my parents had relatives there, so on vacations I would stay with them. I attended that school from January 1932 until December 1936. I had an incredible education there. In the second grade I was studying subjects like French, Latin, geography and geology. [Pictured: German countryside]
JW:
As you’re studying civilization, Germany is growing rapidly uncivilized.
GS: Yes. We were isolated in the school from what was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77100970c-popuphappening there. By definition, these private schools for foreign children with German parents were sealed off from outside distractions, and Hitler had promised to leave them undisturbed. However, since Hitler never kept any agreement that he had made, he invaded all those private schools in 1936.
JW: What happened to you?
GS: In the last half year of my stay there, I was inducted into the Hitler Youth. There I was in a brown uniform parading http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e7716e970c-popupuselessly up and down outside, with the commandant beating us severely once a week. I wrote my parents about what was going on there, but they were in disbelief. They were 3,000 miles away in New York. Even in America, people in the 1930s were in disbelief that Hitler was really that bad or evil.
JW: How did you finally leave Germany?
GS: In 1936, when I turned 11, I lost my right eye in a knife accident. It’s too gory to get into, but I was in the hospital for a week and underwent a double operation on my eye. You can imagine http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49617970b-popuphow my mother felt when she heard the news. I had to leave the school, of course, and my mother had to come to Germany to take me home to New York. In those days there were no airplanes crossing the Atlantic, so it took her seven days to get there. I’ve had an artificial right eye ever since.
JW: Where did your parents live in New York?
GS: In Queens. As soon as I arrived, I was enrolled in another private school—St. Thomas Choir School. I was there for http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e496e7970b-popupthree years. The school was nearly as rigorous as the one in Germany, so I had little time for anything more than my studies. What I am today is largely a result of the education I had in Germany and New York.
JW: Did you find New York exciting?
GS: Well, of course. Though we lived in Queens, we were in Manhattan a lot. When I came to New York, it was discovered that I had musical talent. I didn’t know that and no one else knew that either. So I became a musician very quickly, between age 11 and 16. And a composer afterward.
JW: How was high school after St. Thomas?
GS: I don’t know. I finished three years ahead of everyone else. I had already covered everything that the high school was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4988d970b-popupteaching for graduation in my earlier private schools. That’s how I wound up becoming a professional French horn player at age 16 and playing with Arturo Toscanini in the New York Philharmonic.
JW: Were you aware of how advanced you were?
GS: I knew I was good. My father was the leader of the second violins in the Philharmonic. He was a terrific violinist. My teacher and father had recommended me, and I was hired. Toscanini was inspiring, but he was one of those temperamental tyrants who just behaved ridiculously on the podium.
JW: How so?
GS: Toscanini was the greatest conductor of that era, but hehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77884970c-popupwould explode in these outbursts, these scatological fits with Italian curse words. It was frightening to work with him. But he was such a great musician and conductor. We played extremely well with him. But if he landed on you, you were in trouble. [Photo of Arturo Toscanini conducting Metropolitan Opera stars in 1946 by W. Eugene Smith for Life]
JW: Did he ever land on you?
GS: Not in that first performance. Toscanini tended not to conduct contemporary music, and my first performance http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e79e43970c-popupjust happened to be Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, which was composed in 1941. Toscanini didn’t know the symphony as well as he knew works by Wagner, Beethoven and Rossini. I came away unscathed [laughs].
JW: Why do you suppose that happened, specifically?
GS: Probably because he hardly knew I was there. The http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e49d3e970b-popupsymphony, you see, has eight horns instead of the usual four. I was hired as one of the extra players. But I was scared. I was just 16 years old and I feared he’d look around, see me and say, “What is this little kid doing in this orchestra?”
JW: So you were playing in the orchestra with your dad?
GS: Yes, he was about 30 feet away.
JW: Did you feel the added pressure of your father’s presence and judgment?
GS: Yes, always. I played with the New York Philharmonic later as first French horn player, and my http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4c5ac970b-popupfather was always sitting by. But I was good. There were a few bad moments. Only once in a great while would he look at me with a sour look. But not in the Shostakovich symphony. I think Toscanini was just glad to have gotten through it.
JW: Did Toscanini give you a hard time later?
GS: Not really. He was a great conductor of Wagner, whose http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e77ca1970c-popuplate operas required eight horns. For those performances, Toscanini would hire the four extra horns he needed from the Metropolitan Opera, where by that time I was playing first horn. That’s how I was able to play with him many times, when he conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in those Wagner programs. [Photo of Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony in 1947 by Robert Hupka]
JW: How did you avoid distractions in New York?
GS: Well, I didn’t. I became heavily involved with all the arts—film, painting, literature, dance and other forms. This is hard to http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e4ae4d970b-popupexplain. My girlfriend, who later became my wife, and I lived the full cultural life of New York, which is now quite gone. New York was, in the late 1930s and 1940s and well into the 50s, the cultural paradise of the world. It was unbelievable in its richness, wit, breadth, depth—and I feasted on that. It was so mesmerizing. It’s almost impossible to describe the energy and excitement today. [Pictured: Women with Statue at the Museum of Modern Art in 1948 by Ruth Orkin]
JW: Did you explore it all?
GS: My wife and I hardly ever slept. We existed on three or http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876e78e9f970c-popupfour hours’ sleep. Whenever we were free, we’d see three or four films showing at the Museum of Modern Art. I was obsessed with the art of film—the great films from Germany and France from the 1920s and 1930s. We went to all the museums and galleries, saw performances of all kinds. We went to jazz clubs. We did everything. We just ate up the entire cultural ambiance of New York at the time.
JW: Was it an obsession?
GS: That’s just the way I am. To this day, I have a voracious appetite for anything cultural and artistic. I just cannot not pursue it. When I was young in Germany, I had a great talent for drawing, painting and design. I still have the whole fascination and involvement with art in me, and it shows up in a lot of my music.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b7c7a2dfa6970b-popup
JW: What was it about New York that excited you?
GS: Artists in all of the arts created works at the highest levels. Enjoying all of the arts came together for me. They didn’t come together for most of my colleagues. But I’m crazy. We were crazy. Just pursuing jazz and classical music day after day was enough. But we would go see and hear anything and everything. We couldn’t get enough, and it was all terribly exciting. It’s hard to believe. It’s hard for me to believe in retrospect. Once I hooked up with the jazz world, though, through John Lewis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and others, I was completely captivated. It was just outrageous.
JW: When were you first exposed to jazz?
GS: I started collecting jazz records when I was 12 years old. I quickly became a jazz fan and read all the books on jazz that existed at that time. Jazz was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e273970b-popupdefinitely a part of my life in the mid-1940s, but not yet as a performer. I was an admirer of Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson and all the other bebop musicians who were breaking new ground. Then one day I decided to make it a point to meet John Lewis.
JW: When did you meet him?
GS: We met in December 1948. I’d go to all these clubs and concerts, but I was too shy to go up to any of these people to talk to them at length. But with John, I was so http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9e3d4970b-popuptaken with his playing that I made it a point to meet him. He was so warm and friendly. We hit it off immediately, and John became my entrée to the jazz world. In those days, if a musician in jazz’s inner circle introduced you or said, “This guy is one of us,” you were in.
JW: How did you become “one of us?”
GS: By then, I was at a high level of creativity, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf057970c-popupplaying, writing and composing in my area of music. You see, in the classical world, you audition. You have to prove yourself to win a place in an orchestra. In the jazz world, if Duke Ellington lost a player, word would go out and three or four of his musician buddies would say, “Listen, there’s an incredible bass player in Lincoln, Nebraska. Get him.” This was absolute, and it never failed. None of these people ever http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf095970c-popuprecommended anyone who wasn’t good. With me, it was unusual because I was a French horn player. The horn was not a jazz instrument at the time, but it was creeping in. So when Miles needed a French horn,
he asked John Lewis for a recommendation, and John said, “Get Gunther.”
JW: Classical was beginning to seep into jazz during this period—not as an aspiration but as a resource to draw from.
GS: That’s correct. Classical in the late 1940s was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf2ba970c-popupincreasingly viewed by jazz musicians as a form from which to adapt. None of these musicians, of course, was striving to become a classical player. But they were intrigued by the music, its harmonies, its tonality and its complexity.
JW: Which only stimulated your thinking about merging classical and jazz.
GS: Yes. One of my obvious rationales for combining jazz and classic was that both musics had a lot to learn from each other. They may not have known that at first, but they discovered it soon enough. Especially the form. The forms of jazz back then were primitive, despite the enormous dexterity and skill of the musicians. In a very short period of time, jazz steadily became much more intricate and developed.
JW: The musicians in the late 1940s also were much more sophisticated than most people realized at the time.
GS: Absolutely. Look, Dizzy Gillespie back then was known as a great trumpet player but also as a kind of a clown. He danced around on stage and did all this scat http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f570970b-popupsinging. But I’m telling you, that guy when you were alone with him was the most serious person, the most socially conscious, the most politically aware, the most intellectual and the most spiritual. It was just incredible. Being with him was like attending a university seminar course. All of those guys were voracious readers and enormously curious.
JW: Jazz and classical coming together continued through the 1950s.
GS: When I started the whole thing in 1957 with the Third Stream, which was bringing the two forms of music together—but really bringing them together in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf732970c-popupcompositions, styles and performance—it was extremely controversial. I was vilified on both sides. Classical musicians, composers and critics all thought that classical would be contaminated by this lowly jazz music, this black music. And jazz musicians and critics said, “My god, classical music is going to stultify our great, spontaneous music.” It was all nonsense and ignorance, of course. Eventually the two came together anyway.
JW: Exposure to classical and classical training certainly made jazz musicians better readers and studio musicians.
GS: Yes, to some extent. Classical training was certainly important in this regard. But the greatest jazz musicians would have been great jazz http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecf9c5970c-popupmusicians anyway. As for other jazz musicians, classical training, either in school or through lessons, became essential for the reason you mention. Jazz orchestral arrangements were becoming more complex starting in the early 1950s, especially with the rise of the LP and longer recorded pieces. Reading a music part once and perfectly was essential and that required training.
JW: Speaking of orchestral jazz, how did you come to replace Junior Collins and Sandy Siegelstein on French horn on the last “Birth of the Cool” recording session in March 1950?
GS: Both Sandy and Junior had played on the previous two dates. I believe that both went to California afterward http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9f99f970b-popupand the horn position was open. Miles told John Lewis, his pianist, “I just lost Junior.” Miles and I had already known each other casually. I had met him earlier, in Detroit, when I was on tour with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. I’d see Dizzy, Duke, Miles—anyone and everyone—on the road. After, they performed, we’d hang out. Of course. I didn’t sleep much in those days [laughs].
JW: On the Miles Davis nonet session, did you just come in, sit down and record what was on the stands?
GS: My goodness, no. This was not such easy music that you could walk into the recording session and say, “Take it http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7e9fb33970b-popupfrom the top, here we go.” Miles held something like four or five rehearsals, which wasn’t easy given all of the musicians involved and each one’s schedule. Lee Konitz [pictured], Al McKibbon, Max Roach and all the rest were busy people. At only one rehearsal did we have all nine players there at once.
JW: What was your schedule like at the time?
GS: I was at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, with eight or nine performances each week. So my schedule was tight.
JW: At the “Birth of the Cool” session, you recorded Deception, Rocker, Moon Dreams and http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ecfd3e970c-popupDarn That Dream. Which one was hardest?
GS: Without a doubt, Gil Evans’ [pictured] arrangement of Moon Dreams. That’s the ultimate masterpiece of the session.
JW: Really? The most difficult?
GS: Absolutely. The coda at the end goes into atonality and counterpoint. There are five different layers of contrapuntal lines. No one had ever written anything like that before in jazz.
JW: How did the rehearsals work out?
GS: In all honesty, we couldn’t really play Moon Dreams very well, and it shows on the studio recording. I mean we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea03f1970b-popupplayed it well enough that it could be issued by Capitol. The piece works because of the greatness of those musicians and how much feeling was squeezed into that very difficult music. I have performed Moon Dreams many times over the years in what I call repertory jazz concerts, and it’s still hard to play in an ensemble. [Photo by Popsie Randolph]
JW: I’m surprised it was so difficult. Moon Dreams sounds so relaxed.
GS: All you have to do is listen to The Complete Birth of the Cool CD that includes the live recordings from the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea07f6970b-popupRoyal Roost. You can hear that the performances of it are falling apart. The musicians were out of tune, the executions were ragged, Junior Collins on French horn was two measures ahead of everyone else and so on.
JW: Was Deception truly arranged by Davis? It sounds a lot like Mulligan.
GS: Look, Miles immediately learned from Gil and Gerry. In those days, very often, some other person’s name was put on a title for one reason or another. Miles had hired Gil and Gerry for the date because Miles loved what they had been doing with the Claude Thornhill orchestra.
JW: There certainly is a lot of Thornhill in terms of Impressionism.
GS: In all of those arrangements. They purposefully http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876ed06fe970c-popupreduced the Thornhill band concept from 16 musicians down to 9. They did that because Capitol didn’t want to hire a big band for the material. That was Pete Rugolo [pictured], who was a great arranger for Stan Kenton and the label’s East Coast music director at the time.
JW: How did the musicians on the date interact?
GS: We all loved what we were doing. We kind of knew we were doing something exciting that hadn’t been done before. But that Moon Dreams scared everyone to death. It was strange that Gil Evans and Pete Rugolo weren’t at that session.
JW: Rocker still has a modern sound.
GS: Gerry [pictured] was one of the leading creative improvisers of the period. The freshness of what you hear comes from the clarity Mulligan had in his writing. Gil’s music is quitehttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ea0ed3970b-popup dense and rich and full on the inside. With Gerry, there was always this wonderful linearity and clear harmonies. Though they are modern, he keeps them simple. Gerry also had a certain bounce in his rhythms. John Carisi’s Israel is a whole different kind of writing. And John Lewis’ arrangement of Denzil Best’s Move is different again. That’s like Mozart.
JW: What made pianist John Lewis special?
GS: He was the gentlest soul. Kind, quiet, intelligent and an intellectual who was well versed in all of the arts. And just a beautiful person. He could be stern and tough in rehearsals when producing his music. But he was very good at getting the music right. And he could make anybody get it right. But deep down he was a sweetheart. All of the jazz musicians I knew were—and are. They are all beautiful people.
JW: Was Lewis instrumental in helping to merge classical and jazz?
GS: Oh yes, early on. Then the influence spread to people like Ralph Burns, Bob Brookmeyer and many other great musicians who came into the jazz-classical field. That was how exciting the post-war period was.
JW: What was the Modern Jazz Society?
GS: John and I founded the ensemble in 1955 because we felt we http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f27e8c970c-popup had to put teeth into what we were saying about jazz-classical fusion. We soon renamed it the Jazz and Classical Music Society.
JW: Looking back, do you view the group as a success?
GS: Yes, absolutely. That doesn’t mean the group and our attempts were all perfection. But the group was a success in http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29192970c-popupterms of helping the new music break through. All the things that happened after we put those jazz-classical ideas together happened because of what John and I did. I won’t say we were the only ones. Pete Rugolo and Stan Kenton [pictured] and others had been doing things with jazz and classical. But they were doing it in a slightly different way.
JW: Was your timing right?
GS: I think so. The concept was in the air at the time. John and I advanced the cause in New York and for the first time used the word “classical” in what we were doing. Stan Kenton didn’t do http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7ef7c51970b-popupthat with his Innovations Orchestra in 1950, much of which is uneven and awful. Pianist Lennie Tristano did not use the word classical, either. Many musicians felt they would wind up in trouble with the critics if they did. And they were right. John and I did use it, and that of course made it controversial.
JW: Classical gradually became more accepted by jazz musicians and listeners.
GS: Yes, eventually the jazz-classical language changed to the extent of breaking into atonality. That happened later, though, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2954e970c-popupwith Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus and so many others. Everything went forward tremendously through the 1960s and then settled down into a sort of standardization. There was little experimentation after that.
JW: In 1955, you were in another exciting jazz ensemble led by Gigi Gryce. What made Gryce so special?
GS: His personality. He’s such an underrated player. Sadly, he’s nearly forgotten today. These guys were such talents and maybe geniuses. Whatever they put their http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29873970c-popuphands on would emerge with their special personality attached. That’s the greatness of jazz—the individualism, the distinctiveness of each of these great players. Unfortunately, we don’t have that today. Instead, we have 10,000 John Coltrane clones.
JW: What are we hearing with Gryce that sounds so fascinating?
GS: His sound was different. He arranged the reeds for a thinner feel, and he had in his ear a different conception. The result was a very light, flowing sound. And that’s also how his harmonizations worked. He was another one of these quiet guys who had studied classical music of all kinds. On a personal level, he was very witty. It’s amazing how interesting they all were and yet how different.
JW: In 1957, you and George Russell arranged and conducted the Brandeis Jazz Festival concerts in New York. That was pretty incredible music.
GS: I don’t know what you mean by incredible. It was damn hard [laughs].
JW: Why?
GS: Milton Babbitt’s All Set? Can you imagine? That piece was 150 years ahead of its time. I can’t even begin http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f29d10970c-popupto describe what I had to go through to get that recording made. No one had ever played anything like it. All Set is just on the periphery of jazz. We couldn’t really play it as jazz, so the initial recording was pretty stiff.
JW: Tough stuff?
GS: We never were able to play All Set live. This was especially true during the first Brandeis Jazz Festival concert in June 1957. The next morning, at the second concert, we repeated the program from the night before. We had lost our jitters by then and played it much better. But we still http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2a3c8970c-popupdidn’t perform the piece like it was supposed to be played. I wound up spending about 35 hours editing that piece together on tape for the record. Wow, that was some piece. I mean, come on. That could have been written by Arnold Schoenberg or Anton Webern.
JW: This was a very different form of classical music, wasn’t it?
GS: Absolutely. When we talk about jazz musicians studying classical music, we’re mostly talking about musicians exploring Ravel, Debussy, maybe Brahms, and English classical music. Most didn’t study Schoenberg or any of the 12-tone composers. My god, All Set was a hard-core 12-tone piece.
JW: Did you ever perform the piece to your satisfaction?
GS: I have performed it at least a dozen times over the years since 1957. I will say, though, that there was only one time in Cleveland [pictured] that I felt we had finally performed that piece correctly. And it happened by sheer luck. It was http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2abae970c-popupa coincidence that I had all the right players in place. And this is only several years ago. Between 1957 and then I had the best musicians on sessions, but it was still like walking on the moon. Forty years later, we had just the right musicians for whom that atonal material had finally become familiar.
JW: Has the Cleveland rendition been released?
GS: No. We recorded it, of course, but we haven’t released it. Every style, no matter how difficult or unfamiliar at first, eventually becomes assimilated. Even atonal pieces. Now I can put together a performance of All Set and know that it would be damn good. All of those Brandeis pieces were hard initially because the feel and approach was completely new to the musicians.
JW: How about your Brandeis composition, Transformation?
GS: It, too, was hard, for the same reasons. Transformation is an atonal piece, and the language was new. Jazz musicians who had classical training were http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f2b143970c-popupfamiliar with the language of Ravel [pictured], Debussy, 11th chords, 9th chords, flatted fifths and all that stuff. Atonality was completely different. But I put enough swinging stuff in there so at least the musicians could feel it rhythmically [laughs].
JW: What about Bill Evans’ solo on All About Rosie?
GS: Bill was unbelievable. That was an epiphanal experience. Bill was the one guy… [pause]. He had studied so much classical music that he was able to sight read all of this stuff. He could even sight read Milton Babbitt’s All Set perfectly. I didn’t have to coach him on that.
JW: What was so remarkable about his playing during that concert series?
GS: We were astonished that all of the material was so easy for him. He not only could deal with it straightaway, http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efa986970b-popuphe also could improvise on it. Then Bill played one of the greatest piano solos of all time on All Abut Rosie. I become speechless when I think back on Bill and that solo. We were all staggered. We were all looking at each other while his solo was taking place.
JW: How was that possible?
GS: We weren’t playing. We were playing stop-time chords. We’d play one chord at the beginning of each chorus and stop. As Bill improvised, we all looked at each other in amazement at what we were hearing.
JW: What was so exciting about it?
GS: I just didn’t know that someone could create such an incredible full-speed jazz-classical solo and have it turn http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7efaf7b970b-popupout to be so perfect.
JW: When All About Rosie was finished, what happened?
GS: I don’t recall exactly but I think it was like at the end of World Series game, when the winning players all leap on the guy who made the last out. I’m sure we all jumped on Bill.
http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f0883401b8d12c4a97970c-popup
JW: I hear elements of Cool from West Side Story in your Brandeis Jazz Festival composition Transformations. Yours came first. Did Leonard Bernstein hear your work?
GS: He probably did. We were very good friends at various times and worked closely together. He was a great admirer of my music. Lenny never said, “Oh, Gunther, you don’t know how much you influenced me.” But the feeling was there.
JW: Do you think Bernstein came to a finer recognition of jazz as a result of your work in the mid-1950s?
GS: Lenny wasn’t influenced only by me. He learned from a great many jazz-classical artists. He was a quick study http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f78821970c-popupwhen it came to jazz. But in terms of the musical language, Lenny would never go into jazz-classical styles beyond tonality. Rhythmically, he learned a lot from Count Basie and Stan Kenton. Basically, Lenny’s jazz sensibility was from the 1920s. He was real cornball. When he used to play piano at parties, I had to close my ears because he was so corny. He thought he was as good as Art Tatum [laughs].
JW: You played French horn on Miles Davis’ Porgy and Bess. How did your involvement come about?
GS: The idea for that 1958 session was actually producer George Avakian’s, before he left Columbia. George was a great admirer of the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47333970b-popuprecordings that Miles and Gil had done between 1948 and 1950 [later known as “Birth of the Cool”]. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t more popular. And they weren’t until they were brought together on an LP in 1957 and the album was named Birth of the Cool. Even before Capitol decided to bring them together on an LP, George had decided to unite Gil and Miles for a broader interpretation of that concept on music that was widely known. That was his conception.
JW: What was your role?
GS: I say this with all modesty: George went to Miles and said, “Listen, I think there are only two people here who can turn Gershwin into modern jazz orchestral works—Gunther Schuller and Gil Evans.” Miles went with Gil, and I played French horn.
JW: Would you have done something different with it?
GS: No, probably not. I was as enamored of Gil’s style as I was of my own. I knew what Gil was doing with the http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f4788b970b-popuporchestration and why. Since the music had to be, at its core, Gershwin, it couldn’t be mine. If I had arranged it, the session would have come out something like that. I might have had some different orchestral ideas now and then. But I was thrilled to play horn on that recording.
JW: Is there anything that most people aren’t aware of about that session?
GS: Probably how difficult it was to play. Porgy and Bess is not a perfect recording. There’s a lot of sloppiness in there if you listen closely. We had to add three more http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79293970c-popupsessions to capture what was needed in good enough shape to be issued. Cal Lampley, the album’s producer, had to do an enormous amount of editing with the tape. We couldn’t play any of those pieces perfectly all the way through.
JW: Was it that the music was hard or that the musicians on the date weren’t well trained enough?
GS: Both. That was a pretty big orchestra, with 19 instrumentalists including Miles. Some of those musicians were unfamiliar http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f47d1e970b-popupwith Gil’s great music and the harmonies were a mystery to them. You have to remember, there was no other jazz like that at the time to refer to. No band was playing anything like that with the sounds that Gil produced—not Benny Goodman or Dizzy Gillespie. And Gil did that with horns and flutes and muting of other instruments. That was all unfamiliar. As a result, it’s pretty ragged at times.
JW: As you listen to Miles Davis during the recording, what were you hearing?
GS: I know how he struggled. At one session, his lip started to bleed. The endurance, all that slow playing. It’s http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f797a0970c-popupvery hard on a trumpet player. But he came through beautifully. Again, a lot of editing by Cal Lampley took place. He first had to take care of Miles, which in some cases meant choosing great trumpet takes even if the orchestra behind him was uneven. There are probably 800 splices in that thing.
JW: What was it like recording John Lewis’ score in 1959 for the film Odds Against Tomorrow?
GS: Remarkable. John was stretching out on there. There’s a lot of intense, almost harsh, nasty chords when http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f799f0970c-popupsome of the bad things happen in the film. It was years since we had first met, and by then he had learned so much. He was trying to get out of traditional tonality more and more.
JW: How did you come up with the term “Third Stream?” What was the thought process?
GS: It was very simple. Back in 1957, there were two main streams of music—jazz and classical music. Today, of course, you can argue that there are many more streams—rock and roll, hip-hop, ethnic music and so on. In 1957, I http://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f08834012876f79b1f970c-popupcalled one the First Stream and the other the Second Stream. The two streams got married and they begat a child, like in the Bible says [laughs], and a Third Stream was born. But a Third Stream meant that that the other streams would have to amalgamate or fuse in a thorough, deep way—not in some superficial construction by laying a few clichés on top of each other.
JW: So the two would have to give up something?
GS: No, why? You just combine the best of both musics.
JW: But if they’re fusing, by definition they’re becoming something else entirely, yes?
GS: Yes, that’s the true definition of a fusion. But that didn’t mean these music forms had to give up anything in Third Stream. Both retained their characteristics as they formed something new.
JW: What did the critics say?
GS: The critics said you can’t mix oil and water. They pounced on me. I was crucified. But their reaction was as dumb as racial prejudice. Their notion that jazz and classical should not be polluted by each other’s sensibilities was dumb. Both jazz and classical critics said basically the same thing.
JW: Was the Third Stream a successful adventure?
GS: Oh, yes, totally. The new music form spread to other great ethnic musics in the world. By 1975, Third Stream had influenced Turkishhttp://p.feedblitz.com/t3.asp?/984327/28498183/4968959/feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/jazzwax/~marcmyers.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dca1f088340120a7f48d96970b-popup music and Greek music and Indian music. That’s apparent now. The record companies don’t call the result Third Stream. They call it fusion or crossover. You now can have three or four different forms of music together as long as it’s done creatively. And honestly.
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Voice of Utah jazz: DJ retiring after 31 years hosting nightly show | KSL.com
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Voice of Utah jazz: DJ retiring after 31 years hosting nightly show | KSL.com
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SALT LAKE CITY — Steve Williams’ love for jazz might have been baked in at birth.
Reflecting on his life and his decision to retire after 31 years of hosting a nightly jazz program on KUER-FM, Williams looks back on his parents’ musical experiences as a formative influence on his life. He even has an album of big-band jazz recorded at the concert where his parents met.
“My dad was a professional saxophonist; she was a tap dancer,” Williams said. “At 12 years old, 13, she was a professional tap dancer.”
On a fateful night at the Hollywood Palladium in 1945, Murray Williams was playing lead alto sax for the Gene Krupa Orchestra. His future wife — visiting from Utah — came to hear the band play. There must have been magic in the air as well as music; they met that night and got married not long after.
“The night they met at the Palladium, they recorded it,” Williams said, proudly holding the Gene Krupa CD album recorded that night. “I found this four years ago, five years ago, on Amazon. I had no idea (it existed).”
Murray Williams went on to play reed instruments with many famous jazz musicians in the post-World War II era.
“Charlie Parker, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett,” Williams said. “I grew up with the music every day. Charlie Parker was my first musical hero. I mean, at 3 years old.”
Williams’ decision to retire has sparked controversy because it triggered a decision by KUER management to eliminate jazz from the station’s schedule. Williams avoids criticizing the decision and emphasizes that the time had come for him personally.
“Well, I’m going to be 70,” Williams said. “I can’t work forever.”
He said he looks forward to traveling and spending most weeknights at home with his wife, Vicki, instead of sitting by himself at a radio control board.
For Utahns who love jazz, Williams’ departure is a big deal and an unwelcome turning point. Williams has been the voice of jazz in Utah for 31 years, always choosing his playlist from the best of mainstream jazz, drawing on his family influences and his deep knowledge of jazz history.
“Charlie Parker, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett. I grew up with the music every day. Charlie Parker was my first musical hero. I mean, at 3 years old.”
When asked what he likes about jazz, Williams snapped his fingers rhythmically and said, “Everything. The groove, you know. Jazz is a feeling.”
When there’s “live” jazz to be heard in Salt Lake City, Williams is often the face of jazz as well, serving as on-stage host for many jazz-related events. And now, jazz fans are saying goodbye.
“You’re a tremendous friend,” said Stephen Denkers, executive director of the Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation, as he raised a glass to toast Williams on stage at a music venue called the State Room. “You’re a tremendous asset to this community, you always will be and you shall be in the future. Thank you very, very much. And here’s a hearty cheer to you and your future.”
The tribute was met with enthusiastic applause by music fans who had come to hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Although Williams lived his first few years in Manhattan — the birthplace of the modern jazz pioneered by Charlie Parker — he and his family moved west in 1952. Murray Williams gave up the big-time music scene so his wife could live near her family in Utah.
“My dad, because he loved my mother, he said, ‘Yes. We’ll move. We’ll take a chance.'” Williams recalled.
He grew up and became a musician too, playing soprano sax. But in the 1980s he found his true calling, first at KRCL and then at KUER.
Listeners have long had the benefit of Williams’ vast knowledge and experience. He has interviewed or met many of the big names in jazz and he often travels to jazz festivals and conferences. He regrets that jazz is no longer America’s popular music, but he says a crop of young musicians is keeping it alive.
“It’s an acquired thing,” Williams said. “I have people tell me this all the time: ‘I didn’t know I liked jazz, but you turned me into a jazz person.'”
“He has such a conviction about the music and such a sincerity about it and obviously such a depth with it,” said Chris Mautz, co-owner of the State Room as he spoke from the stage to honor Williams. He was joined by KRCL’s Eugenie Hero Jaffe, who said to the audience, “Let’s raise our glass for 31 amazing years of music and radio. Thank you. Thank you, Steve Williams.”
Williams’ final broadcast will be on the evening of June 30. A major goodbye celebration and free jazz concert are planned at the Gallivan Center on Thursday, June 25.
“It’s a gift; it’s a blessing for me to be able to do this for 31 years and make a living,” Williams said. “If my old dad was alive he’d say, ‘Kid, you really did it. I’m proud of you.'”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
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Jazz Promo Services
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Voice of Utah jazz: DJ retiring after 31 years hosting nightly show | KSL.com
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
** http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=35210341 (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=35210341)
Voice of Utah jazz: DJ retiring after 31 years hosting nightly show | KSL.com
————————————————————
SALT LAKE CITY — Steve Williams’ love for jazz might have been baked in at birth.
Reflecting on his life and his decision to retire after 31 years of hosting a nightly jazz program on KUER-FM, Williams looks back on his parents’ musical experiences as a formative influence on his life. He even has an album of big-band jazz recorded at the concert where his parents met.
“My dad was a professional saxophonist; she was a tap dancer,” Williams said. “At 12 years old, 13, she was a professional tap dancer.”
On a fateful night at the Hollywood Palladium in 1945, Murray Williams was playing lead alto sax for the Gene Krupa Orchestra. His future wife — visiting from Utah — came to hear the band play. There must have been magic in the air as well as music; they met that night and got married not long after.
“The night they met at the Palladium, they recorded it,” Williams said, proudly holding the Gene Krupa CD album recorded that night. “I found this four years ago, five years ago, on Amazon. I had no idea (it existed).”
Murray Williams went on to play reed instruments with many famous jazz musicians in the post-World War II era.
“Charlie Parker, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett,” Williams said. “I grew up with the music every day. Charlie Parker was my first musical hero. I mean, at 3 years old.”
Williams’ decision to retire has sparked controversy because it triggered a decision by KUER management to eliminate jazz from the station’s schedule. Williams avoids criticizing the decision and emphasizes that the time had come for him personally.
“Well, I’m going to be 70,” Williams said. “I can’t work forever.”
He said he looks forward to traveling and spending most weeknights at home with his wife, Vicki, instead of sitting by himself at a radio control board.
For Utahns who love jazz, Williams’ departure is a big deal and an unwelcome turning point. Williams has been the voice of jazz in Utah for 31 years, always choosing his playlist from the best of mainstream jazz, drawing on his family influences and his deep knowledge of jazz history.
“Charlie Parker, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett. I grew up with the music every day. Charlie Parker was my first musical hero. I mean, at 3 years old.”
When asked what he likes about jazz, Williams snapped his fingers rhythmically and said, “Everything. The groove, you know. Jazz is a feeling.”
When there’s “live” jazz to be heard in Salt Lake City, Williams is often the face of jazz as well, serving as on-stage host for many jazz-related events. And now, jazz fans are saying goodbye.
“You’re a tremendous friend,” said Stephen Denkers, executive director of the Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation, as he raised a glass to toast Williams on stage at a music venue called the State Room. “You’re a tremendous asset to this community, you always will be and you shall be in the future. Thank you very, very much. And here’s a hearty cheer to you and your future.”
The tribute was met with enthusiastic applause by music fans who had come to hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Although Williams lived his first few years in Manhattan — the birthplace of the modern jazz pioneered by Charlie Parker — he and his family moved west in 1952. Murray Williams gave up the big-time music scene so his wife could live near her family in Utah.
“My dad, because he loved my mother, he said, ‘Yes. We’ll move. We’ll take a chance.'” Williams recalled.
He grew up and became a musician too, playing soprano sax. But in the 1980s he found his true calling, first at KRCL and then at KUER.
Listeners have long had the benefit of Williams’ vast knowledge and experience. He has interviewed or met many of the big names in jazz and he often travels to jazz festivals and conferences. He regrets that jazz is no longer America’s popular music, but he says a crop of young musicians is keeping it alive.
“It’s an acquired thing,” Williams said. “I have people tell me this all the time: ‘I didn’t know I liked jazz, but you turned me into a jazz person.'”
“He has such a conviction about the music and such a sincerity about it and obviously such a depth with it,” said Chris Mautz, co-owner of the State Room as he spoke from the stage to honor Williams. He was joined by KRCL’s Eugenie Hero Jaffe, who said to the audience, “Let’s raise our glass for 31 amazing years of music and radio. Thank you. Thank you, Steve Williams.”
Williams’ final broadcast will be on the evening of June 30. A major goodbye celebration and free jazz concert are planned at the Gallivan Center on Thursday, June 25.
“It’s a gift; it’s a blessing for me to be able to do this for 31 years and make a living,” Williams said. “If my old dad was alive he’d say, ‘Kid, you really did it. I’m proud of you.'”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=c1de5621f6) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=c1de5621f6&e=[UNIQID])
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
Voice of Utah jazz: DJ retiring after 31 years hosting nightly show | KSL.com
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
** http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=35210341 (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=35210341)
Voice of Utah jazz: DJ retiring after 31 years hosting nightly show | KSL.com
————————————————————
SALT LAKE CITY — Steve Williams’ love for jazz might have been baked in at birth.
Reflecting on his life and his decision to retire after 31 years of hosting a nightly jazz program on KUER-FM, Williams looks back on his parents’ musical experiences as a formative influence on his life. He even has an album of big-band jazz recorded at the concert where his parents met.
“My dad was a professional saxophonist; she was a tap dancer,” Williams said. “At 12 years old, 13, she was a professional tap dancer.”
On a fateful night at the Hollywood Palladium in 1945, Murray Williams was playing lead alto sax for the Gene Krupa Orchestra. His future wife — visiting from Utah — came to hear the band play. There must have been magic in the air as well as music; they met that night and got married not long after.
“The night they met at the Palladium, they recorded it,” Williams said, proudly holding the Gene Krupa CD album recorded that night. “I found this four years ago, five years ago, on Amazon. I had no idea (it existed).”
Murray Williams went on to play reed instruments with many famous jazz musicians in the post-World War II era.
“Charlie Parker, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett,” Williams said. “I grew up with the music every day. Charlie Parker was my first musical hero. I mean, at 3 years old.”
Williams’ decision to retire has sparked controversy because it triggered a decision by KUER management to eliminate jazz from the station’s schedule. Williams avoids criticizing the decision and emphasizes that the time had come for him personally.
“Well, I’m going to be 70,” Williams said. “I can’t work forever.”
He said he looks forward to traveling and spending most weeknights at home with his wife, Vicki, instead of sitting by himself at a radio control board.
For Utahns who love jazz, Williams’ departure is a big deal and an unwelcome turning point. Williams has been the voice of jazz in Utah for 31 years, always choosing his playlist from the best of mainstream jazz, drawing on his family influences and his deep knowledge of jazz history.
“Charlie Parker, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett. I grew up with the music every day. Charlie Parker was my first musical hero. I mean, at 3 years old.”
When asked what he likes about jazz, Williams snapped his fingers rhythmically and said, “Everything. The groove, you know. Jazz is a feeling.”
When there’s “live” jazz to be heard in Salt Lake City, Williams is often the face of jazz as well, serving as on-stage host for many jazz-related events. And now, jazz fans are saying goodbye.
“You’re a tremendous friend,” said Stephen Denkers, executive director of the Willard L. Eccles Charitable Foundation, as he raised a glass to toast Williams on stage at a music venue called the State Room. “You’re a tremendous asset to this community, you always will be and you shall be in the future. Thank you very, very much. And here’s a hearty cheer to you and your future.”
The tribute was met with enthusiastic applause by music fans who had come to hear the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Although Williams lived his first few years in Manhattan — the birthplace of the modern jazz pioneered by Charlie Parker — he and his family moved west in 1952. Murray Williams gave up the big-time music scene so his wife could live near her family in Utah.
“My dad, because he loved my mother, he said, ‘Yes. We’ll move. We’ll take a chance.'” Williams recalled.
He grew up and became a musician too, playing soprano sax. But in the 1980s he found his true calling, first at KRCL and then at KUER.
Listeners have long had the benefit of Williams’ vast knowledge and experience. He has interviewed or met many of the big names in jazz and he often travels to jazz festivals and conferences. He regrets that jazz is no longer America’s popular music, but he says a crop of young musicians is keeping it alive.
“It’s an acquired thing,” Williams said. “I have people tell me this all the time: ‘I didn’t know I liked jazz, but you turned me into a jazz person.'”
“He has such a conviction about the music and such a sincerity about it and obviously such a depth with it,” said Chris Mautz, co-owner of the State Room as he spoke from the stage to honor Williams. He was joined by KRCL’s Eugenie Hero Jaffe, who said to the audience, “Let’s raise our glass for 31 amazing years of music and radio. Thank you. Thank you, Steve Williams.”
Williams’ final broadcast will be on the evening of June 30. A major goodbye celebration and free jazz concert are planned at the Gallivan Center on Thursday, June 25.
“It’s a gift; it’s a blessing for me to be able to do this for 31 years and make a living,” Williams said. “If my old dad was alive he’d say, ‘Kid, you really did it. I’m proud of you.'”
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
Unsubscribe (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]&c=c1de5621f6) | Update your profile (http://jazzpromoservices.us2.list-manage.com/profile?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=911f90f0b1&e=[UNIQID]) | Forward to a friend (http://us2.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=3186fe64133adb244b1010be2&id=c1de5621f6&e=[UNIQID])
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA
See the San Diego Record Store That Collapsed From Too Much Vinyl Pictures | Rolling Stone
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/see-the-san-diego-store-that-collapsed-from-too-many-records-20150623
** See the San Diego Record Store That Collapsed From Too Much Vinyl
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START (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/see-the-san-diego-store-that-collapsed-from-too-many-records-20150623/macklemores-nightmare-20150623)
1 OF 11
** Thrift Trader’s second floor gave way from being overstuffed with boxes of LPs
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By ROLLING STONE (http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/rolling-stone) | June 23, 2015
Here’s proof that too many records may not always be a good thing. On Monday morning, the second floor of Thrift Trader, a shop in the Hillcrest suburb of San Diego collapsed under the weight of vinyl records, reported NBC (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Thrift-Store-Records-Crash-Collapse-Building-Normal-University-309013091.html) . No one was injured and the fire department promptly cordoned off the area. Here’s photos of the aftermath.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/see-the-san-diego-store-that-collapsed-from-too-many-records-20150623#ixzz3dvXAC23h
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=rollingstone) | RollingStone on Facebook (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bbJxak64Kr4kEzacwqm_6l&u=RollingStone)
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: j (mailto:jazzpromo@earthlink.net) im@jazzpromoservices.com (mailto:jim@jazzpromoservices.com)
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com (http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/)
HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDvUe6fkNLU)
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Copyright (C) 2015 All rights reserved.
Jazz Promo Services
269 State Route 94 South
Warwick, Ny 10990
USA