Love runs Amok

[Serial_Apologist]

I am curious as to why so many British jazz musicians from the 1930s through to the 1960s all seemed to come from Scotland.

It all seems out of kilter...

I have little interest in history after 1918.

Shame - 1919 was such an interesting year...

Did anyone else watch Amy at Glasty 2007? I didn't manage to catch her announcements of the other band members, when each of them wwas allowed their two bars of creativity. The guy on trumpet she referred to as "Henry" I thought was Quentin Collins, and the first of the two sax players, whose baritone break elicited the one burst of audience enthralment of the entire two sets, Robin Fincker. The quieter of the two lead guitarists sounded as if his name was "Harry", but it could well have been Hawi Gondwe, one of the Jazz Warriors acolytum. Watching Amy always produces lumps in my throat for what she might have been, had she stayed in with the convivial jazz crowd she had been in with early on. She may not have had the voice and expressive range of Julie Driscoll, who for me was the greatest white Soul singer this country has produced, but she had amazing freedom with the pulse compared with all the regular run-of-the-mill Aretha copyists back to year dot, seeming to understand instinctively the looseness Billie took into popular music from the Blues. And her materials weren't all rubbish by any means. I might see if I can find out who her backing line-up were for the date.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

It all seems out of kilter...



Shame - 1919 was such an interesting year...

Did anyone else watch Amy at Glasty 2007? I didn't manage to catch her announcements of the other band members, when each of them wwas allowed their two bars of creativity. The guy on trumpet she referred to as "Henry" I thought was Quentin Collins, and the first of the two sax players, whose baritone break elicited the one burst of audience enthralment of the entire two sets, Robin Fincker. The quieter of the two lead guitarists sounded as if his name was "Harry", but it could well have been Hawi Gondwe, one of the Jazz Warriors acolytum. Watching Amy always produces lumps in my throat for what she might have been, had she stayed in with the convivial jazz crowd she had been in with early on. She may not have had the voice and expressive range of Julie Driscoll, who for me was the greatest white Soul singer this country has produced, but she had amazing freedom with the pulse compared with all the regular run-of-the-mill Aretha copyists back to year dot, seeming to understand instinctively the looseness Billie took into popular music from the Blues. And her materials weren't all rubbish by any means. I might see if I can find out who her backing line-up were for the date.

I was a sceptic, and still am to the claims she's a potential Sarah or Ella or whatever, she was never that, it wasn't what she was about. But just after she died, R6 played some tapes they had of her, an early session with the James Taylor group, and I was surprised how good she was in that format. And watching the biopic must make anybody concerned that no-one had the strength or REAL desire (because the money was flowing) to just grab her and shake her out of the end she was obviously racing towards. She was just indulged in an industry that cares not a jot.

[Ian Thumwood]

I caught some of Toots and the Maytals after the football and then say Nile Rodgers last night. I have to say that I think Glastonbury glorifies a lot of really poor and mediocre music but Chic are a really tight band and Rodger's knows what he is doing. He is a genuine musician and you could tell that the band was jazz influenced. The thing that always interests me with Chic is that whilst you have a call and response pattern between Nile's guitar, the singers and the horns, the pianist is always playing really tasty chords in the background which can only have come from someone who has studied jazz. Rodgers was a former pupil of Ted Dunbar. Another band of the same ilk is "Earth, wind and fire." By comparison, so many British guitar bands looked like they learned their stuff in their bedrooms. A massive gulf in class with some of these American groups.

[Tenor Freak]

I caught some of Toots and the Maytals after the football and then say Nile Rodgers last night. I have to say that I think Glastonbury glorifies a lot of really poor and mediocre music but Chic are a really tight band and Rodger's knows what he is doing. He is a genuine musician and you could tell that the band was jazz influenced. The thing that always interests me with Chic is that whilst you have a call and response pattern between Nile's guitar, the singers and the horns, the pianist is always playing really tasty chords in the background which can only have come from someone who has studied jazz. Rodgers was a former pupil of Ted Dunbar. Another band of the same ilk is "Earth, wind and fire." By comparison, so many British guitar bands looked like they learned their stuff in their bedrooms. A massive gulf in class with some of these American groups.

Nile Rodgers is a jazz musician to his core. He started off playing a hollow-body guitar until he was persuaded to switch to a Strat, and would often reference Miles or McCoy in his music.

For example here's a workshop he did in Paris. If you skip to 10:45 on the video you can hear him talk about (and play) Nefertiti when discussing his own approach to writing for Chic. He admits that he hid a large number of "jazz" chords in plain sight in his disco and pop songs.