Originally posted by Serial_Apologist
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There's Jolly and there are... jollies?
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Indeed. I think he was quite surprised at the hospitality etc. The person who's "life" it was wanted to meet the 'great jazz pianist' he had heard in West Coast clubs and befriended in LA. Obviously not that 'befriended' if he couldn't get his name right. Still, night clubs, strong drink, dim lights etc......
There's Jolly and there are... jollies?
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Clive
I find few things date 1950's jazz sessions more than the presence of French Horns. The Birth of the Cool band seemed to make the instrument a legitimate choice for jazz musicians but even Gil Evans never seemed to find room for it as a soloist untul he employed the likes of Sharon Freeman and John Clark in the 1970;s.
I was reading the liner notes on a Jimmy Heath album that also featured Julius Watkins and the critic made a barbed comment in the copy of an old Downbeat review about the fact that no one could play convincing jazz in this instrument without making clinkers. It is a notoriously difficult instrument yet the effort seems hardly worthwhile when the result sounds like a drunk trombonist. For me, it has a blunt attack which renders it ok for "Cool "jazz yet markedly inferior when something harder is attempted. I like the sound in an ensemble but rarely bowled over by the solo aspect.
It is surprising just how influential the BotC band was but the Dameron session is rendered dated by its inclusion to a degree. The years inside seemed to leave him cast adrift from where the music was headed.
This is a record that always intrigued me as it seems such an unlikely coupling. I haven't heard this record for ages and hearing it again reminded me that the Dameron was actually living and working for Heath in London at the time. Some of the playing is a bit under-rehearsed but I like the piano and the trombone. I assume that the former was Norman Stenfalt - my piano teacher when to the audition when NS was selected to get the gig. The whole thing is so improbable that it is curiously compelling and you wonder what the ultra-conservative Heath must have made of this music. He couldn't have been too anti-bop as he later recorded Gillespie's "The Champ."
To my ears, Dameron epitomises the best in jazz in the late 40's even if he had been a prolific arrangement for more than ten years beforehand. After the late 50's, he seems to be less relevant although I've been reading about how Jimmy Heath was influenced by him. You can hear than in some of the Riverside records yet Heath is far more ensconced within the jazz mainstream.
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Ian, do check out John Graas. Exceptional FR H player. And maybe one of you would care to ask for some Dameron on JRR? I've always been a sucker for Philly J J with Clifford B, but there are lots...Comment
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Oh and Ian, also Vincent Chancey on FR H with Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy.Comment
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Yes, I forgot Vincent Chancey. I used really enjoy the first Brass Fantasy album.
Just stumbled upon this....
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Alyn ~ I did send a request(January 31!) to mark the 50th anniversary of Tadd's passing on March 8, 1965.Originally posted by Alyn_Shipton View Post
It was 'Look, Stop And Listen', Tadd's favourite track from his final 1962 album 'The Magic Touch'.
Must have got lost in the post!Last edited by Jazzrook; 31-03-15, 08:41.Comment
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I think this has got to be one of the most effective big band bop arrangements on all time . I know very little about A. K. Salim but am familiar with this arrangement for Basie which was also recorded by an all-star Oscar Pettiford big band too. The writing is terrific. I love the saxophone theme that kicks in at around 2.00m. I would imagine that it would be impossible to get a more star-studied brass section that this and nice to hear Paul Gonsalves in the mix ( as well as Clark Terry) . This is the Basie version:-
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