Bob Brookmeyer, The Valve Trombone and Me…

It was alright, especially when we played college dates. The last two hours would always be one long dance medley. You'd play that session, smoke a little dope and it was dark, so everything was comfortable. I think (arranger/composer) Gil Evans wrote some things for the band that were pretty complex. Claude Thornhill was very proud of that band. I remember him sitting with some people at a hotel. He asked me to play "Snowfall," the band's theme. Then he'd tell his friends, "How about that? I got two for the price of one. He plays my theme and writes some arrangements." When we were on the road, if Claude wanted to leave early, I'd also play the piano.

Bob Brookmeyer, early beginnings with Claude Thornhill

Jazz Is A Kick (1960) signed by Bob, Curtis Fuller, Hank Jones

When Gerry (Mulligan) sat down at the piano, my toes would curl in a bad way. He had a touch like a rocket propelled grenade. He wasn't a piano player, his hands weren't made for it. He was an arranger's piano player, someone who used the piano to write, not play. I studied piano for three years and had a sense of how it's supposed to go... One time, we were working opposite Art Tatum in New Jersey. We were there for a weekend. I had never been around Art Tatum before, so I'm sitting in the back, and the crowd is watching and listening intently. When Tatum finished his set, I said to myself. 'Gerry will never play piano with Art Tatum here.' Well, as soon as Tatum got up, Gerry went over to the piano and sat down. That took some nerve... On the next set, Gerry said, "Go on, go play the piano." So I went over and sat down. I was amazed. The piano worked so beautifully after Tatum had played it. He was such a strong player that he had warmed up the keys and action. The piano played beautifully. Just the power of Tatum's artistry and humanity and whatever else he laid on it was beautiful. Heck, even Gerry sounded good on that instrument.

Bob Brookmeyer on the great baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and the even greater pianist Art Tatum

Paris Concert (1954) signed by Bob

It was Jack Lewis' idea. Jack was an eccentric producer at United Artists who had interesting ideas. It was supposed to be a quartet date, or at least, I thought it was. I showed up at the studio with my horn, but when I walked into the studio, I saw two pianos pushing together, facing each other. Jack had heard Bill and me do a four-hand thing at an earlier United Artists record date and wanted to try it out for the record. I knew Bill well. We had spent a lot of time together socially, so we were close... So for Bill and me, it was just two friends who got dumped into a crazy idea. We looked at each other when Jack told us what he had in mind, and we said, "Hey, why not?" We sat down and played "I Got Rhythm" and it sounded pretty good, so we kept going. There was no advanced planning, no playlist. We just walked in that day and (drummer) Connie Kay and (bassist) Percy Heath were waiting for us. Toward the end of his life, Bill told me it was one of the greatest things he had done. At the session, I just tried to hang on. We both had a good time doing it, and I did my best to make up for my lack of technique compared to Bill's.

Bob Brookmeyer on The Ivory Hunters, a 1959 piano duet with the incomparable Bill Evans

Gingerbread Men (1966) signed by Bob, Clark Terry, Hank Jones

The harmony that Bob and I had was super. I was digging the valve trombone that Bob played because that was the first instrument I was given in high school. But the way its sound married with my flugelhorn sound was something special. We could feel each other's next moves and enjoyed the way we managed to play simultaneously throughout the changes. We called it "noodling." Usually one player wants to outshine the other, but we had a way of blending together that allowed both of us to shine. We really tried to make each other sound beautiful.

Clark Terry playing with Bob Brookmeyer 1961-1966

Previously Unreleased Recordings (1973) signed by Bob, Clark, Roger Kellaway

The subtlety, energy and enthusiasm required is what it's all about. I was a conductor destroyer until I started studying the nuances and technique. A conductor is everything. You know as soon as a conductor walks in front of a band or orchestra whether or not that person is going to be good. I always wanted to be a good conductor. At the time, I didn't want to study composition, I just needed a conductor who could just give me the feel and technique.

Bob Brookmeyer studying with Earle Brown, contemporary classical composer

7 x Wilder (1961) signed by Bob

Ralph Burns, the credited arranger, wrote one chart for the album (The Genius Of Soul) and got so drunk for some reason, he couldn't finish the job. It was a string date, so copyist Emile Charlap's office called Manny Album, Al Cohn and me to finish the album. We were all there working through the night to get the charts done and copied in time for the date, which was the next day. I arranged "Just For A Thrill" and "You Won't Let Me Go." Ralph wrote "Am I Blue" and then called Al Cohn and me to finish the album (The Genius Hits The Road). Ralph liked Ray's music so much that he'd listen to it and think too much and freeze up. I think the music was too powerful for him, too emotional. Ray was coming from the center of the earth with those songs. I think they hit Ralph hard which made arranging them harder and slower... Al Cohn arranged "Georgia On My Mind" and a bunch of others, and I arranged "Moonlight In Vermont," "Basin Street Blues," "Mississippi Mud," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "Deep In The Heart Of Texas," "Alabamy Bound," and "New York's My Home."

Bob Brookmeyer, uncredited arranger for Ray Charles 1959-1960

The Dual Role Of Bob Brookmeyer (1955) signed by Bob

Arranger, composer, educator, pianist and valve trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer lived a rich and full life, and he left an enduring legacy of music. He released more than thirty-five albums as a leader and participated as a sideman on hundreds of sessions with Chet Baker, Ray Charles, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan and so many others. There simply aren't any who played piano duets with Bill Evans, arranged modern country songs with Ray Charles, taught classes at the New England Conservatory Of Music, incorporated contemporary classical music techniques in jazz compositions, and studied conducting with influential and innovative American classical composer Earle Brown. Yes, Bob Brookmeyer was one of a kind.

Born in 1929 in Kansas City, Missouri, Bob was a precocious only child. His family was not affluent, as he described in an extensive 2009 interview with Marc Myers, "When I was very young, we were pretty poor. We were so poor we lived with other people. Eventually, we moved to a better area and I went to a better school. From then on, my life improved. We rented our first house. It was furnished. I remember when we moved in, I went down to the basement and found a doctor's bag. When I opened it, I saw all these pills, My parents came down just as I was looking at them and brought down the hammer fast. But I clearly had an early fascination with drugs, they were really pretty." This early glimpse into Bob's psyche is revealing, but let's not get ahead of his story!

His early school experiences were daunting, as Bob remembered, "I wasn't a delighted child, that's for sure. Grade school was a nightmare for me, there were bad teachers and bad kids. I was an only child and rather antisocial, so I was bullied quite a bit. My folks were loving but it was hard to get over the nightmare I would face at school every day. You couldn't escape it. I'd walk into the gym and someone standing there would hit me in the stomach as hard as he could..." So Bob found solace in music, an outlet which didn't disappoint, "Grade school wasn't happening, friends weren't happening, sports wasn't it. Music was the first thing in my life that made sense and gave me self worth. It filled the hole and I jumped at music with enormous passion and focus."

Portrait Of The Artist (1960) signed by Bob

Bob's talents as a pianist and writer of charts developed quickly, "I was already playing with dance bands and I sort of knew how harmony went. So at age fourteen, I was writing for a professional dance band. The first chart I ever brought in was ‘Do You Ever Think Of Me?’ and it worked out ok. From that point on, I had a contact in Omaha who would order the arrangements." Bob was paid the princely sum of $15 for each arrangement, a rich remuneration for a fourteen year old in 1943 while World War II raged on. As a result, his high school experience was much improved, "I became a member of clubs and was well known as a kid musician. I was playing professionally by that point. The high school bandleader, to his dying day, would shudder at the sound of my name. I was more advanced than most professionals then. He'd call for a band rehearsal and I'd have to tell him that I couldn't make it because I had a recording date."

Initially, Bob played piano in big bands led by Tex Beneke and Ray McKinley. When he joined the Claude Thornhill orchestra in the early 1950s, Bob switched to the valve trombone, a move which brought some trepidation, as he recalled, "Who likes the slide trombone? Sax players got all the girls because they were seated in the front row. Trumpeters got all the money because they were driving the band from the back row. Trombones sit in the middle and develop an interior life. Trombonists didn't get the money or the girls." The valve trombone is different from the slide trombone as it is played like a trumpet with three valves, rather than using the glissando of the slide. Although jazz luminaries Al Grey, Slide Hampton and J.J. Johnson used the slide trombone to great effect in jazz, and Giuseppe Verdi used the valve trombone in his classical pieces, Bob Brookmeyer became the most accomplished jazz practitioner.

Notwithstanding his misgivings within the orchestra pecking order, Bob joined Thornhill's band as a valve trombonist/pianist. He disliked the travails of life on the road, "Playing wasn't bad but the road was grueling. Claude's band in the early 50s was a hard drinking band. You had to drink given the pace. There were times on the road when we didn't check into a hotel for six days. You just rode the bus from gig to gig to gig. Buses didn't have toilets then and the food on the road was terrible. When we traveled, we had two groups on the bus - one who would sleep while the other was up semi-loaded and talking. Then, the guys who were sleeping would get up and the others would go to sleep. It was pretty rough."

The Clark Terry-Bobby Brookmeyer Quintet (1965) signed by Bob, Clark Terry, Roger Kellaway

The road was wearying and after successful stints with Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Clark Terry, Bob moved to Los Angeles, and he settled into studio work, composing for movies as well as enduring a particularly unsatisfying gig with Merv Griffin's television show studio band in the 1960s, "...the worst thing I ever did in my life. It was terrible. The band was good but had nothing to do. We had a bad bandleader. Once again, I used my cleverness and hatred to cause trouble. My name was well known among musicians at this point, but I disliked the lack of adventurous creative thinking in the band. So I did things to cause trouble. For instance, I'd make believe I couldn't read the charts. I'd put on my glasses and look studiously at the part, telling them, "I'll get it, I'll get it." I made quite a reputation for being an asshole, that's the way I survived." Certainly, it didn't help that Bob was in the throes of his alcoholism, a dark descent which he was able to overcome nearly a decade later.

Bob later reflected on his addiction and recovery years later, "I divide my life into two parts - the drinking part and the sober part. Actually, sober is a terrible word to use since I'm loonier now than I ever was... I have a great memory, I clearly remember being a drunk. I had an amazing capacity for alcohol, and I was great at appearing sober. I used to drink a couple of fifths of scotch a day along with wine and drinks with dinner. After a while, I couldn't depend on alcohol. It wouldn't work." After several fits and starts, Bob got sober in 1977 and he remained sober until he passed away in 2011.

Bob Brookmeyer featuring John Williams & Red Mitchell (1963) signed by Bob, mustache added by Bob

In the late 1990s, I saw Bob Brookmeyer perform at the Village Vanguard in New York City. It was quite a thrill as his performances were rare. He played the valve trombone with skill and precision, although, for me, it was unusual to see the trombone played so beautifully without the slide moving up and down. Such is the inherent nature and workings of the valve trombone. After the show, I had a stack of vinyl for Bob to sign. He was very gracious as he signed the Clark Terry records, "I loved playing with Clark, we had a lot of fun together." When he signed Bob Brookmeyer featuring John Williams & Red Mitchell, he couldn't resist adding a Snidely Whiplash moustache, "There," he said with a mischievous grin, "That looks much better!" I thanked Bob for his time and especially his music.

Bob Brookmeyer left a lasting impact with his music and all the students he helped through the years. His words from the liner notes to 7x Wilder ring true, "Jazz is a personal expression. A jazzman should be saying what he feels. He's one human being talking to others, telling his story - and that means humor and sadness, joy, all the things that humans have. You tell it freely and honestly, and sometimes you don't make it. It's a matter of percentages, like telling a joke that no one laughs at. But you tell it, whatever it is and it's yours. That's you, that's human, that's jazz."

Thank you Bob, you were, and will always be, a master musician and storyteller.

Through A Looking Glass (1981) signed by Bob

Choice Bob Brookmeyer Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DCQVyD3whM

“Open Country” live with Gerry Mulligan Quartet 1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wKLBLgkSBk

“Straight No Chaser” live with Clark Terry 1965

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC82SBym4Kg&list=PL0q2VleZJVEkRdSAceJLuBxvhYMUStdd3

“As Time Goes By” The Ivory Hunters with Bill Evans 1959
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ore4UO6MiME

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” The Bob Brookmeyer Quartet 1960

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URklmhMVof8

“Things I Love” Jazz Is A Kick 1960

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-Jm8dGf6UA&list=PLI3QsU_sOlWvACA4pROB6IP2SSg4agYXu

“Walkin’ Shoes” Paris Concert with Gerry Mulligan 1955

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj-_nqyZiMc

“Misty” Bob Brookmeyer and Friends 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcO7kvgugnE

“My Funny Valentine” Live At North Sea Jazz Festival with Jim Hall 1979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_TACm-37K0

“Hello & Goodbye” Live at The Village Vanguard with Mel Lewis, Clark Terry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1T_kp3EzNw

“Hum” live with Clark Terry 1965

9/11, David and Andrew Rice and Me... Stories From Nowhere Podcast

Andrew Rice and I share an uncommon bond and burden. His brother David was one of my best friends who was senselessly murdered on 9/11 along with thousands of others. Although the years pass, in many ways, the enormity of David's loss magnifies. It is truly a wound which does not heal.

Armed with a Master's Degree from Harvard Divinity School, Andrew Rice is an accomplished author and poet - a veritable renaissance man. Recently, Andrew started a podcast - storiesfromnowherepodcast.com - with an eclectic and fascinating mix of guests, including the founders of Die Jim Crow Records (DJCR), a label which helps artists incarcerated behind bars, Great Britain based clinical psychologist Sandra Barefoot, Programme Development Lead for The Forgiveness Project, and Church Goin' Mule, a Cleveland, Mississippi based artist influenced by the outsider art of Howard Finster and Bill Traylor. and the delta blues of Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf and Blind Willie McTell.

Several months ago, Andrew called me and asked if I would contribute to his podcast and speak about his brother. I was deeply touched and gladly accepted. Andrew said, "We'll just have a conversation and see where it goes."  There were no notes, no preparation and no guardrails. It was just two brothers united in their recovery and grief trying to make sense of the senseless. There were tears and laughter as we talked, remembering the indomitable spirit and force of energy that was our brother David Rice, his by blood, mine by choice. For me, It was a glorious afternoon, recalling the profound and profane, in short, the human condition which infuses and informs all of our lives.

As stated on its website, the purpose of Stories from Nowhere "documents unconventional conversations, details human connections, presents the questions and mysteries we all face, from anywhere, out in nowhere, and everywhere…" I am so humbled and honored to be included. Thank you Andrew for the opportunity. While I mostly bend and stumble toward the light, in words and deeds, you live an exemplary life of love and service. David would be so proud.

Feel free to share and disseminate wildly, these stories that Andrew has curated deserve a far wider audience.

Hope our paths cross soon.

Neil

Leon Russell, Erin and Me….

When he  called me and asked me if I'd like to do an album, I hadn't spoken to him in thirty-five years. I was basically sitting home watching soap operas at the time, because I had taken two years off. When I came back, it was pretty much all gone — hard to get bookings, and then they were considerably different than before. I kept thinking somebody was gonna come back and get me, but they never did — except for Elton. That's why I tell people he came and found me in a ditch by the side of the highway of life. Then I showed up an hour late for our first recording session — I'd been in the hospital — and Elton had written four songs already! So I thought, "Well, this should be easy!"

                         Leon Russell on Elton John and their collaboration on The Union in 2009

I learned a lot from that guy, both up close and from a distance. He's not known for spilling the beans, but he answered every question I ever asked him about the music business or songwriting. In between shows at the Concert for Bangladesh, Bob and I sat on one side of the dressing room together, and he played a little concert for me. I'd say, "Play 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue,' " and he'd play it. He played about 20 songs for me. He'd been off for two years since his motorcycle accident, and he wasn't sure we'd sell out the second show, but we did!

                          Leon Russell, playing with Bob Dylan, Concert For Bangladesh, August 1, 1971, Madison Square Garden, NYC 

Leon Russell (1971) signed by Leon

A few years ago I was driving down Pacific Coast Highway and saw a big, black tour bus that was parked in front of a venue announcing that Leon was performing there that night. I pulled over and knocked on the bus door. Leon opened the door with a smile when he saw me, welcomed me in, then went back to lying down in the back as we talked for a while about our great memories. We were both happy to see one another. It was clear to me that his health was a challenge but there he was, in his bus, on the road, doing one nighters. That was the last time I saw Leon. I’m glad I stopped. I’m glad he was in my life.

                         Herb Alpert

I'm not as aware of categories in music as some people are. To me, it's just music. I'm interested in all kinds of music.

                         Leon Russell

A long time ago, no shoes on my feet
I walked ten miles of train track
To hear Hank Williams sing

His body was worn but his spirit was free
And he sang every song
Looking right straight at me

Just a tramp on your street
You must understand
You got my soul at your feet
And my heart in your hand

Billy Joe Shaver

The late, great singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver wrote “Tramp On Your Street,” a paean about his long ago trek to hear Hank Williams sing in a nondescript bar near the end of Hank’s troubled and turbulent life. “The Hillbilly Shakespeare,” Hank Williams had an enormous impact on Billy Joe as did most songwriters who followed in the wake of Hank’s enormous talents. Fortunately, Erin and I didn’t have to walk ten miles of train track to see Leon Russell perform in 2004, it was a rather breezy, twenty minute drive from our home to the Boxcar Cafe in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a now shuttered dive bar located in a scenic underpass off a desultory I-95 exit. It was startling to us that Leon would be relegated to performing in such an inglorious venue, yet there he was, body worn and spirit free, shoehorned into the corner of the bar, banging out twenty-five plus songs in his ninety minute set, performing relentlessly for maybe one hundred-twenty five patrons. His passion was as undeniable as his talent. It was hard to tell who Leon was looking at, his trademark mirrored aviator sunglasses reflected and obscured all inquiries. It was not always like this…

Born Claude Russell Bridges in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1941, Leon Russell had a remarkable career. He started playing piano at four years old and showed prodigious talents as a bunny youngun. Initially, Leon wanted to become a classical pianist, "I studied classical music for a long time, maybe ten years, and I realized, finally, I was never going to have the hands to play that stuff. It was too complicated. I invented ways to play in a classical style that was not the real deal." Part of Leon's inability stemmed from his difficult childbirth, a disability which left his right side partially paralyzed. Leon recounted his affliction with characteristic aplomb, "The doctor who pulled me out at birth damaged my second and third vertebrae. But without those tugs, I probably would have been a regular guy selling insurance in Texas or something.”

As sports and other activities were not viable options, Leon focused on music. While attending the Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Leon started his first band with David Gates, an aspiring singer-songwriter who would later form the pop rock group Bread, which yielded the easy listening 1970s radio hits, “Make It With You,” “Baby I'm A Want You,” “The Guitar Man,” and “If.” Bread had eleven hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1970-1973 which Gates sang and wrote. This proved to be so lucrative that Gates eventually retired and became a cattle rancher in Northern California, but I digress. This would not be the path which Leon trod…

Wedding Album: Leon & Mary Russell (1976) signed by Leon

When he was fourteen years old, Leon honed his skills performing in bars in Tulsa. He needed a fake ID which a friend had lent him so he could get in. So long Claude Russell Bridges, hello “Leon Russell.” He was asked to tour briefly while still in high school with Jerry Lee Lewis as The Killer had heard about his fearsome chops. Leon didn’t flinch, accepted the challenge, played wonderfully and, upon graduation from high school, Leon lit out for new territory, "There was just a lot of opportunity at that time, but I left for Los Angeles the week after I graduated from high school, and I actually left to try to get into the advertising business. That was really why I went out to LA, my music career was almost an accident." Some accident, instead of peddling insurance, Leon became a revered studio session musician, part of the famed Wrecking Crew which included drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye, guitarist Glen Campbell, among many other talented studio musicians. Leon performed on such classics as “California Girls" with The Beach Boys, "River Deep - Mountain High" with Ike and Tina Turner, “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man,” with The Byrds, “Be My Baby” with The Ronettes, and "Whipped Cream & Other Delights" with Herb Alpert. And he also worked with producer Phil Spector on countless sessions, contributing to Spector's famed Wall Of Sound.

Herb Alpert remembered Leon fondly, "Leon was on several sessions that I produced with the Tijuana Brass. He was always dressed in a suit and tie, with short hair and no beard! This was soon after he arrived in Los Angeles from Oklahoma. We would go through the same routine each time I started rehearsing the music. He would sit at the piano and he would always say, ‘I don’t know what to play.’ And I would say, ‘Just wait and see if you feel something, and if you don’t it’s okay. I just like your energy at the sessions.’ Well, he would always chime in with something special and affect the groove in a very Leon Russell way that was always unique. Leon was a wonderful musician and had a major effect on all of my recordings. His touch can be heard on many Tijuana Brass records, including “Whipped Cream” and “A Taste of Honey.” To top it off, Leon was a true gentleman with a special talent and he was a person that I had a great feeling for."

For his part, Leon was more impressed with some of the songs that didn't become universal hits. He recalled an early session for Columbia Records with a relatively unknown Aretha Franklin at the beginning of her career before she exploded as The Queen Of Soul on Atlantic Records. "A lot of the stuff that was the greatest for me was not necessarily a hit. I saw thirty violin players tapping their sticks on the stand after seeing her (Aretha Franklin) sing. I'd never seen that in my life."

While the studio work was gratifying, Leon yearned to write his own music, and an occasion to be the bandleader for Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour presented a perfect opportunity. Cocker had just come off of his triumphant Woodstock appearance, captured on film in his riveting performance of "With A Little Help From My Friends" with The Grease Band. The band had broken up, but Joe's record label wanted him to perform another tour, a forty-eight show extravaganza. Joe needed a bandleader, enter Leon. Leon cobbled together a crack team of session aces, mostly friends from the Delaney & Bonnie band, including Carl Radle on bass, Jim Gordon and Jim Keltner on drums, Bobby Keys and Jim Horn on saxophone, Jim Price on trumpet, and the heavenly vocals of Rita Coolidge and Claudia Lennear. The tour was a triumphant success, although the brittle ego of Joe Cocker was bruised because of all the attention Leon was garnering. Certainly, the copious amounts of drugs and alcohol didn't add to their respective tranquility, as Joe and Leon had a rancorous falling out which lasted for years thereafter.

Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen (1971)

The tour, and subsequent record release, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, a title lifted from a Noel Coward play, marked the first time Rita Coolidge sang "Superstar." an ode to the life of groupies that surrounded Leon's experience with Delaney and Bonnie, which preceded his time with Joe Cocker. Originally titled the less radio friendly "Groupie,” and co-written with Bonnie Bramlett, "Superstar" was released as a B side in 1969 for Delaney & Bonnie with a scorching Duane Allman on lead guitar. Remade with the soft rock deities The Carpenters, who altered the line "I want to sleep with you again" to "I want to be with you again," "Superstar" became a Number 1 hit and has been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to Peggy Lee to Sonic Youth, although Luther Vandross' 1983 smoldering, sensuous take remains the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Given the great success of the Mad Dogs’ tour, Leon entered the studio and recorded his first album, the eponymous Leon Russell, released in 1970, with an incredible cast of characters - Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Mick Jagger - providing support. The first track on the album, “A Song For You,” is probably Leon’s most famous composition. Over the years, more than two hundred artists have sung this song, everyone from Andy Williams to Amy Winehouse, Ray Charles to Donny Hathaway. It has become a standard and part of the ever expanding Great American SongBook.

It is one thing to want to write a standard, it is quite another to actually do it. But Leon was focused and determined, and he remembered where he was when he wrote “A Song For You,” “Yeah, I was in my studio in Hollywood and actually I was trying to write a standard. I was trying to write a blues song that Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles both could sing. I wrote it in 10 minutes. It was for a specific occasion, and I went in there and wrote it very quickly. Yeah, that happens sometimes. Sometimes they're very quick. It's almost as if one is not writing them. You know? Like they're coming from another place." A place of beauty and grace which few writers seldom ever attain but Leon was able to capture in this beautiful song and many others.

All the while, Leon confounded radio music programmers who had strict, parochial tastes in adhering to their on air formats. Mo Ostin, former Warner Brothers President, recognized Leon's vast talents but chided him for his broad musical palette. Leon was as comfortable playing country music as well as gospel, blues, jazz and rock and roll, "What that meant was I made it very hard on radio program directors. I was not always a brand that they could always expect was going to be the same thing." To wit, at the height of his commercial rock and pop powers in 1973, Leon adopted the persona Hank Wilson and released a hard core country album, Hank Wilson's Back, in an era when genres rarely blurred. Songs by Hank Williams, Lester Flatt, Bill Monroe and George Jones were anathema to rock and pop fans in those days, and Leon did not care, it was all music, music which deeply resonated within his soul. Despite his name omitted from album credits, Hank Wilson's Back sold well, hit #28 on the Billboard 200, and Leon released three other volumes under the Hank Wilson pseudonym, although the later volumes disclosed Leon Russell as the primary music source.

Hank Wilson's Back (1973) signed by 'Hank Wilson'

All these stylistic choices led Leon to a quieter artistic existence in which he seemed completely comfortable, “I didn't start out to become famous, so when it disappeared, I thought, well, that happens sometimes.” The royalties certainly helped, especially, the relentless, overwrought renditions of "A Song For You" which appear on seemingly every American Idol episode extant. Meanwhile, Leon toured incessantly, the old school way in a bus, the trappings of chauffeurs and private jets had dissipated long ago. That's why we saw him on stage at the Boxcar Cafe in Fairfield, Connecticut in 2004, hurtling through his vast songbook at breakneck speed. As soon as one song ended, he counted off "1,2,3.4" and it was on to the next. After the show, I thought Leon would rather speak with my beautiful bride Erin, so I handed her some albums and she knocked on his bus door. The door cracked open slightly, wider when Erin's comely visage came into view, and she climbed aboard the bus. Leon, unfailingly polite, was happy to sign the vinyl, including Hank Wilson's Back, which he signed as "Hank Wilson," a most welcome forgery!

In 2009, Elton John helped resuscitate Leon's career, a noble effort. "He was my biggest influence as a piano player, a singer and a songwriter," Elton said, a remarkable admission for the legendary pop star. They recorded The Union, a Grammy nominee, and Elton described the impetus for his help in Leon's resurrection, "I was kind of angry because I thought, you know, this man's been forgotten about... Look, the thing that astounded me throughout this whole thing, you know, he was never bitter about falling out of the spotlight because Leon, as I've learned, was never really a spotlight person, although he looked amazing. He had the most incredible image with the long hair and the Ray-Bans and the top hat." Though Leon's health, always precarious, was failing, Elton and Leon's subsequent tour was a great success, as he remembered fondly, "Elton came and found me in a ditch by the side of the highway of life. He took me up to the high stages with big audiences and treated me like a king. And the only thing I could say is bless your heart." Leon wrote a song in tribute to his mentee turned benefactor, "In The Hands Of Angels," a glorious song infused with traces of gospel, blues, pop and rock, music which Leon consumed so wholly. And Elton was not done proselytizing for all things Leon Russell. Elton spearheaded an effort to get Leon admitted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame which was successful when Leon became a member of the Class of 2011.

Leon Russell, a remarkable arranger, musician, producer, singer, songwriter, a master of space and time.

One For The Road (1979) signed by Leon and Willie Nelson

Choice Leon Russell Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwccfu3EDSI

"Roll Over Beethoven" Leon on Shindig! 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37dw2r45Xzg

"A Song For You" Live in 1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWs9ugbzxyY

"Delta Lady" Leon Russell 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtUQImH26Bw

"A Song For You" Ray Charles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeHiio1sTTI

"A Song For You" Donny Hathaway live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpZ7BOSmO64

"Superstar" Delaney & Bonnie with Duane Allman 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xoQej06OEQ

"Superstar > Until You Come Back To Me" Luther Vandross Busy Body 1983

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJmmaIGiGBg

"Superstar" The Carpenters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5rMauzx5f4
"The Letter" Live with Joe Cocker Mad Dogs & Englishmen 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHumkOWEqJk

"Let It Be" Leon with Claudia Lennear Mad Dogs & Englishmen 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8IvCyw_aTQ

"She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" Joe Cocker with Leon on guitar! 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn-br0h4rZk

"This Masquerade" Carney 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeDxEkcnlQs

"This Masquerade" George Benson. live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4DcRXJ2akg

"In The Hands Of Angels" Elton John and Leon Russell The Union 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGHzv0MK45o

"The Window Up Above" Hank Wilson sings George Jones 1973

Billy Hart and Me…

Buck Hill is my mentor, my teacher. He was my major inspiration. He's the one that played me my first records. I discovered Charlie Parker through Buck Hill.

Billy Hart

Wes said to me, “ Billy, what’s that you’re doing with your cymbal?”

And I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Wes.’

“You know what I’m talking about.”

‘Wes, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.’

“OK Billy, let me put it this way: the shit ain’t laying.”

Now, how am I supposed to know what that means? Well, of course I did know what it meant… ‘It’s not perfectly in sync,’ or ‘It’s not causing the kind of euphoria that we refer to as swinging or grooving.”

Well, anyway, the way he put it was, “The shit ain’t laying.”

life lessons from Wes Montgomery

Enchance (1977) signed by Billy, Oliver Lake, Buster Williams, Eddie Henderson

how smooth is smooth?

workin', playin' wit Billy

let me c how smooth smooth was/is

rehearsals flow

sessions flow

music flows

E-go go go gone!

workin', playin wit Jabali

he say "if somebody bring u a gift,

don't throw it away -- USE IT!"

so, everybody gave to the effort.

how smooth is smooth?

now I know

musician/poet Oliver Lake 1977

Mwandishi (1970) signed by Jabali, Eddie Henderson, Buster Williams

Billy Hart is the most sensitive and creative drummer I know. He's never afraid to take chances and, by doing so, he sets himself free to play something fresh and new. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with him for three years in the Herbie Hancock Sextet. The main thing I dig about Billy's playing is that he always is listening and supporting whatever happens. He's a real pro.

trumpeter Eddie Henderson, Enchance liner notes 1977

There was one other thing that happened in Washington, DC that was pertinent. A guy named Charlie Byrd and he had a bass player named Keter Betts. They went to Brazil and they get credit for discovering the Bossa Nova. A lot of those guys would come to Washington and play at Charlie Byrd's club, and I got to play with some of those guys. So my world was bigger. Before I left Washington DC, I had already done tours of Europe and Japan. I began to have as many friends in New York as I had originally in Washington, DC. I had broadened my horizons.

Billy Hart

Black Unity (1971) signed by Billy, Pharoah Sanders, Stanley Clarke

Arranger, composer, drummer extraordinaire, educator and NEA Jazz Master, Billy Hart has appeared on more than six-hundred recordings as a leader and sideman in his storied career. As versatile as he is talented, Billy has performed and recorded with Miles Davis, guitarist Wes Montogomery, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, organ master Jimmy Smith, and pianist McCoy Tyner among many others. When he joined Herbie Hancock's influential Sextet (1969-1973), Billy was bestowed the name Jabali, "strong as a rock" in Swahili, a most appropriate and deserving moniker for his steadfast rhythm and musicianship.

Sextant (1973) signed by Jabali, Eddie Henderson, Buster Williams

Born in Washington DC in 1940, Billy is an integral part of the DC jazz tradition, a lineage which extends from the incomparable Duke Ellington to drummers Jimmy Cobb and Ben Dixon, saxophonist Buck Hill, singer/pianist Shirley Horn, and pianist/educator Dr. Billy Taylor. Billy grew up in a very musical family: his grandmother played piano for the renowned opera and spiritual singer Marian Anderson, and his father, whom Billy described as "an intellectual cat who demanded respect and knew a lot about a lot," was an expert on all things Ellingtonia. His grandmother bought him a "good drum set for a gig with a good bebop band," and Billy was off and jamming. The Hart family also lived five blocks from the Spotlite Club, a hive of bebop activity where an underage Billy got his first exposure to Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Lee Morgan. Listening to these titans from a window outside the club, Billy was hooked.

This Is Buck Hill (1978) signed by Billy, Buster Williams

While attending McKinley Tech in Washington DC, Billy met three important musicians, "I went to high school just as they were being integrated...There were three guys that were upperclassmen, one guy's name was (guitarist) Quentin Warren. The day after he graduated he joined up with Jimmy Smith, the great organist. Butch Warren, the bass player, the day after he graduated, he left and went to New York to join Kenny Dorham. And then there was a pianist here for years named Reuben Brown. He left to join Lou Donaldson. Butch came back and then left again and recorded a bunch of classic albums for Blue Note Records. Quentin played a lot with Jimmy Smith and eventually got me a job with Jimmy Smith."

Rah (1987) signed by Jabali, Eddie Henderson

Later, Billy expanded his versatility and honed his chops as the house drummer at the venerable Howard Theater, as he remembered, "Fate put me in some very funny situations... In 1958, I was sixteen or seventeen years old, so when you think about where the music industry was at that time. whether you want to call it rock and roll or rhythm and blues, whatever you want to call it, it was just happening. And it wasn't really being accepted because we were still basically in a segregated society. It was still out, so Motown, Stax or whatever, there were certain places you just couldn't play. You weren't playing Radio City Music Hall, Las Vegas, Miami Beach. So for a lot of those people, there was a circuit of theaters that was about five or six theaters and other than that, there were no places for these groundbreaking acts that we take for granted now. It was the Regal in Chicago, the Uptown in Philadelphia, the Royal in Baltimore, the Howard Theater in DC and the Apollo in New York. So I was the house band drummer at the Howard Theater for a while and who came through? Otis Redding, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Joe Tex, Sam & Dave, The Impressions, The Isley Brothers... There's a history and vocabulary and a language of that music that I was fortunate enough to be a part of. A lot of people can't say that, I was right in the middle of that."

Karma (1969) signed by Billy, Pharoah Sanders, Reggie Workman

After going out on the road with Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery, Billy moved to New York City in 1968 where he was in high demand as a session player. Eddie Harris, Marion McPartland, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul are a few with whom Billy recorded. The 1970s was a very productive decade as Billy recorded On The Corner in 1972 with Miles Davis, was a member of Herbie Hancock's acclaimed Sextet, and toured and played with Stan Getz for four years. Indeed, it was as fruitful as were the following decades. Billy also gave back to the community by his commitment to teaching students at Western Michigan University as an adjunct professor, and affiliations with the Oberlin Conservatory Of Music and the prestigious New England Conservatory Of Music.

Pure Getz (1988) signed by Billy

Erin and I were fortunate to see Billy many times over the years, primarily as a sideman in New York City clubs - the Blue Note, the Iridium, Sweet Basil - and on his home turf in Washington, DC - Blues Alley and One Step Down. He was always the engine of any band, a propulsive locomotive at times, and tender with exquisite brush work at others. Most recently, we saw Billy at the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, New York with pianist David Janeway who was showcasing his new CD, Distant Voices, featuring Cameron Brown on bass and Billy on drums. The show opened with a swinging version of the 1931 jazz standard, "Sweet And Lovely," followed by a suitably knotty and disjointed "Bemsha Swing" from the brilliant pen of Thelonious Monk. Other highlights included "One For Cedar," a Janeway composition and tribute to the great pianist Cedar Walton, "Minor Contention," a Hank Jones tune which featured the florid technique of Janeway bolstered by Billy's stout and resolute drums, and a lament to the unfortunate recent passing of Chick Corea, "Steps - Which Was," from Chick's trio masterpiece Now He Sings, Now He Sobs. It was a beautiful night of music rendered by these jazz masters.

Scope (1979) signed by Billy, Buck Hill, Kenny Barron, Buster Williams

After the show, I visited with Billy who was gracious while he signed his vinyl. I handed him his first album as a leader, Enchance released in 1977, "Oh man, you got my first album and you got (Oliver) Lake on here. Where did you see him?" he asked, pointing to Lake's signature. 'I saw him a couple weeks ago at Dizzy's with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille. It was one of their last gigs as TRIO 3,' I replied. "Wow, I didn't know they were playing. Lake is a genius, man, he is something, he really is a genius," Billy affirmed unequivocally. When he saw the Buck Hill album, he grew quiet, "You know, I owe everything to Buck. he was such a great man and player. I met him when I was a kid, he lived down the hall from my grandmother. That's how we met, we were really close." I mentioned that I used to see Buck at One Step Down in Washington DC, a small club which featured a great house band with Steve Novosel on bass and Reuben Brown on piano, "Oh Reuben is one of my favorites, we went to high school together. Man, I miss him." Though Reuben had a stroke more than twenty five years ago which curtailed his playing and passed away in 2018, his absence still stung and hung heavy.

Exit (1981) signed by Billy, “Be Encouraged”

As he signed the Pat Martino album Exit, he grew pensive, "Wow, Pat was so beautiful, what a terrible loss, this brings back a lot of memories." When I handed him a couple of Stan Getz albums, he brightened, "I love Stan. He was such a big influence.I played with him for four years and I learned the most from him, probably more than anybody else. He was a genius." When he saw The Best Of Two Worlds, he smiled, "Joao (Gilberto) was an old friend. I used to see him at The Showboat, a great club in DC. Charlie Byrd used to play there all the time, you know, Charlie brought this Brazilian music back with him from a State Department trip down there and I was lucky to hear it in the early 60s. Later, Joao became a great friend and I used to play with him." I thanked Billy for his time and especially his music.

As Billy once said about his vocation, "The rhythmic reason for this is to make people feel good. On the highest level, you actually heal people, both physically and psychologically. It makes people happy and it makes them move. That's the purpose of drumming in the first place. The dance, that's the point of anyone playing the drums."

A genius in his own right, a faultless timekeeper and a healer, Billy Hart's shit always lays!

Sunburst (1975) signed by Billy, Eddie Henderson

Choice Billy Hart Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKgPqPb9XJk

“Shadow Dance” Enchance 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgVe3KCsF8s

“Mack The Knife” Ice Scape with Reuben Brown 1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BML8qdNwikc

“Mwandishi” live in Paris with Herbie Hancock 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdS2BFMncBM

“Minor Contention” Distant Voices with David Janeway 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RF4CQhcr3E

“Black Satin” On The Corner with Miles Davis 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO9xDEYFsXc

“Alice In Wonderland” My Foolish Heart with Richie Beirach, George Mraz 1995

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKbk1LcsuUM

“Trading” live with Kenny Werner, Ray Drummond 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko9jXT2jZ2A
"Sweet And Lovely" Distant Voices with David Janeway 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg-XPchcKtk

“Sombrero Sam” live with John Abercrombie, Charles Lloyd 1999

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqRFGf4d5U4

“One For Cedar” Distant Voices with David Janeway 2021

Buck Hill, Austrian Embassy, 1995

Buck Hill and Barry Harris, Austrian Embassy, 1995

James Williams, Austrian Embassy, 1995

George Coleman and Cecil McBee, Austrian Embassy, 1995

Lizz Wright and Me...

I feel like the words end up directing me, and I try to let them have their life, and to let them open. They kind of push me, and I have to say I really enjoy listening to Shirley Horn when it comes to the study of space and how to create impact with emptiness. But it’s obviously not empty. There’s something of the smoke of the notes, the sentiment is still moving between the next phrase, the next idea, and I’ve learnt to have a lot of trust in that and interest in it. And it’s honestly very seducing: any kind of experience anyone is having – meditative or trance-like – is really a ripple from what’s actually going on. I try to only sing music that makes me get carried away. It’s learning over the years to run better tests to make sure that they all do that – learning how to write better, and how to become even more emotionally and spiritually available to let that happen.

Lizz Wright

I don’t know, I just get out on the water, you know. There’s so much great energy between the song itself and all the history it carries, all the voices that it’s held in the moment, and the gathering of people in the room, they have a beautiful, electric charge of their own. I literally push the boat out and hop in. I have my body, I have my memory, I have my relationship with these lyrics, I have my imagination. But it’s definitely one of those songs that, because of how it’s written and because of the moment it creates, I’m given so much to move inside of that I don’t feel like it all has to come from me. Between the actual song itself, the moment, and the people in the room and their presence, there’s so much magic and there may be only a difference in just yielding to it and playing with it.

Lizz Wright singing “The Nearness Of You”

Grace (2017) signed by Lizz

My favorite singers tell great stories. You know, Abbey Lincoln is one of my favorites, Nina Simone amazing. Joni Mitchell is so unique. And this is the kind of stuff I'm really attracted to, and I did purposely decide that this record, that I wanted to do less singing and just telling stories that brought something out of me. Singing a story, you're experiencing it. You're not completely in control. You're kind of following it, and it's happening to you, you know, and I love that. I love using my imagination, like closing my eyes and seeing a place or making up a story inside of a song that wasn't there before, and I'm often daydreaming while I'm singing.

Lizz Wright recording Grace

Every time I make a record, I check into Nina’s catalogue, and I also check into Roberta Flack’s catalogue. But the beautiful thing that happened this time around is, it’s also Ella Fitzgerald’s centennial year, so it was all this saturation coming from different ends. I kept thinking about these women, and how they all lived through times where they had to step into their full humanity and express their genius, express their opinion, onstage. I thought about the grace of who they are, especially Nina Simone in this case, because I think all these woman who inspire what I do, have exemplified grace as embodying the possibility that’s not realized around them. It takes a lot of strength to become something that your environment might not embrace or support. In my own way, I’m returning to that gentle, very deep strength of singing from a place of belonging and understanding.

Lizz Wright

Lizz Wright sings Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness Of You," Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," Neil Young's "Old Man," Nick Drake's "River Man," Nina Simone's "Seems I'm Never Tired Losing You" and Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" with equal aplomb and skill, as eclectic a musical amalgam as you’ll find. Her mixture of blues, folk, gospel, jazz and soul is riveting, and her vocal performances are revelatory while transforming these legendary songs. Her approach in reimagining these songs is simple, “You know, by the time you strip a song down to just lyrics and the story that’s inside the lyrics and the first feeling that that provokes in you, you have something personal and you build from there... And it kind of unravels and changes shape on its own as we keep rehearsing it, and I’m learning lyrics and moving the phrases around.” Lizz is also an accomplished songwriter as evidenced by her compositions on six acclaimed releases since her debut in 2003.

Born in Hahira, Georgia, a small hamlet of less than three thousand, Lizz was steeped in the church and the gospel tradition. She grew up singing the pentecostal hymns she learned from her father who was also the church pastor and pianist, and her mother who sang in the choir, "I've been singing in church since I was six - I was drafted into it. My brother and sister and I used to sing as a trio when my dad would preach. If we weren't at home doing homework or chores, we were in the car with our parents and on the way to church and different revivals."

A gifted gospel singer, Lizz participated in several choirs, and as a senior in high school, she won a National Choral Award, "There's something grounding and transcendental about gospel music. Singing it feels like standing in front of the ocean and talking to it like it's kinfolk. I feel seen and understood. It always has me singing something we've all felt or want to say. There are a lot of prayers, tears, hope and blues inside of the gospel tradition, so its offerings are vast, even in the simplest hymn. I'm grateful to come from this tradition."

After graduation from high school, she studied music performance at Georgia State University in Atlanta but left, "I only did one year. When you have a major in music performance, you pretty much have to study classical. So on the side, I would work with small jazz combos so I could learn standards. That's what I really wanted to do." She joined an Atlanta jazz group, In The Spirit, and performed locally before catching the ears and eyes of Verve Records who signed her to a solo contract. She recorded her first album Salt under the auspices of noted producer Tommy LiPuma, drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade and pianist Jon Cowherd. An impressive debut, Salt featured five of her own compositions as well as a song list which reflected her varied influences and interests: "Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly" by Chick Corea, "Soon As I Get Home" from Broadway’s The Wiz, “Afro Blue" by Latin conga master Mongo Santamaria, and "Walk With Me, Lord" from the gospel canon, all my favorite food groups!

Freedom & Surrender (2015) signed by Lizz

Lizz has gone on to work with other distinguished producers on her subsequent releases, Craig Street, Larry Klein, Toshi Reagon and Joe Henry among them. And her tastes have remained as wide open and imaginative as ever, singing Bob Dylan's "Every Grain Of Sand", Jimi Hendrix's "In From The Storm" or the incredibly hip and talented Joan As Police Woman's "Feed The Light" (aka Joan Wasser, a one time Brooklyn neighbor of Lizz).

I saw Lizz perform at the Jazz Standard in New York City in January 2020 before things shut down, including the late lamented (now shuttered) club. It was a treat to see her in an intimate venue, much smaller than the theaters and festivals in which she was used to performing. She was accompanied by her friend and co-conspirator for over twenty years, pianist and organist Kenny Banks, guitarist Chris Bruce, bassist Ben Zwerin and drummer Jack Deboe. Highlights included a sultry “Southern Nights” from the pen of New Orleans wizard Allen Toussaint, much more soulful than the bouncy and buoyant Glen Campbell version, the sumptuous ballad “Stars Fell On Alabama” and an incendiary “Old Man” in which Chris Bruce shredded and channeled the guitar distortion of Neil Young’s Old Black. She also sang a sublime “Walk With Me, Lord,” honoring her gospel roots. It was a compelling night of music.

After the show, I visited with Lizz in her dressing room. At the beginning of her show, she said that she hadn’t performed in a venue this small since she started with pianist Kenny Banks more than twenty years ago, and she mentioned that she had seen shows here when she lived in Brooklyn. “Who did you see here?” I asked. “Oh, lots of great shows, Mingus Big Band on Monday Nights, Bill Frisell, I’m trying to remember the others,” she replied. When I handed her Grace, her most recent release, I asked where the beautiful cover was photographed, “That’s in North Carolina, near where I live now.” Yes, it seems a long way from Brooklyn! I thanked her again for her time and especially her music. There aren’t many artists who can cover Nina Simone or Led Zeppelin as elegantly as she!

An accomplished singer and songwriter of folk, gospel, jazz, soul and everything else, Lizz Wright is as gifted singing secular or sacred. I can’t wait to hear what she sings next.

Dreaming Wide Awake (2005) signed by Lizz

Choice Lizz Wright Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaokIK_XPjI

“Seems I’m Never Tired Loving You” Lizz sings Nina! Live 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpC5RiJoZE0

“Old Man” Lizz sings Neil! Live 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC80I1jF-wg

“Thank You” Lizz sings Led Zeppelin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8epnzRGdHG4

“Get Together” Lizz sings Jesse Colin Young 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf7q8bWTuSM

“To Love Somebody” Lizz sings Bee Gees!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UtZ-ab63gQ

“The Nearness Of You” Live at the Apollo Theater, Tribute to Ella

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZvmmuRXeKU

“River Man” Lizz sings Nick Drake!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cXiiQJ85C8

“Southern Nights” Lizz sings Allen Toussaint!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DV3oJO8T6s

“Strange Fruit” Lizz sings Billie Holiday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8epnzRGdHG4

“Hit The Ground” 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yuf_HZgbE4

“Walk With Me, Lord” live Newport Jazz Festival 2003

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHCatotca4M

“This Is” with Toshi Reagon Live. 2011

Booker T and The MGs and Me...

For years, people thought I was white. They just assumed that the leader Booker T. must be one of the white guys. It wasn't until we were on TV later in the 60s that people realized who was who... All of us in the MGs loved the blues and felt privileged we could play music all day. The race thing never existed, it never does for musicians... nothing levels the field like music. When the music is right, race disappears, and people who enjoy it realize they have more in common than they thought.

                         Booker T. Jones

I would say it's a simple, earthy sound...just born out of our blues and country and jazz roots and also gospel. It was a sound that, you know, we consciously tried to keep simple and with a lot of feeling.

                        Booker T. Jones recording at Stax Records in Memphis

Soul Limbo (1968) signed by Booker T, Al Jackson, Steve Cropper, Donald Duck Dunn

Otis was the valet for a band from Georgia. He was carrying the clothes and doing the driving and going for food and coffee and shining shoes or whatever he had to do to keep the band going. And I remember the day he pulled up with - Johnny Jenkins and The Pintoppers was the name of the group he was working for. They just basically came in, and he sat around and waited, and they did their demo for Stax. And after they did their demo, Otis asked if he could sing a song, which was a little inappropriate, but they, we allowed him. (Stax Records owner) Jim Stewart and (guitarist) Steve Cropper and the rest of us allowed him to sing a song with us, and that song was "These Arms Of Mine." And so everyone was moved by that, so at that moment, he became Otis Redding.

                        Booker T. meeting Otis Redding for the first time

If we'd had a kitchen at Stax - we didn't have a kitchen, we didn't have a conference room, we didn't have a restaurant, we didn't have any recreational facilities, so we always went in the middle of the day for our recreation to the Lorraine. That's where we had our lunches, they had a swimming pool, and I remember Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd had the room down at the end of the hall, I think it was 206, booked all the time. I can't remember any hit song that they wrote that they didn't write at the Lorraine. It was a home away from home for us. So if Dr. (Martin Luther) King had been shot in our kitchen at Stax, it would've been the same...

                         Booker T. reflecting on working at Stax and the Lorraine Motel

And Now! (1966) signed by Booker T, Al Jackson, Steve Cropper, Donald Duck Dunn

Arranger, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Booker T. Jones has had a remarkable sixty-plus year career. Whether flexing his considerable Hammond B3 chops on his million selling instrumental hit “Green Onions,” co-writing (with soul great William Bell) the blues standard "Born Under A Bad Sign" for Albert King, performing at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 with his close friend Otis Redding on a revamped and transcendent “Try A Little Tenderness," producing Bill Withers' debut Just As I Am, or producing Willie Nelson's quintuple platinum selling record Stardust, Booker T. has had a towering influence on popular music since the 1960s.

Born in Memphis, Booker grew up in a musical family. His father was blessed with a sonorous voice and sang gospel in the church, while his mother played piano, "The way she played the piano sunk into my being. I was born listening to her. When she sang at the church, the room quieted as she gave renditions of gospel pearls and classic arias... People at church also requested my father, Booker T. Jones Sr., sing "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" a cappella. There were no dry eyes when he finished. His sterling tenor voice with its vibrato and sincere delivery ensured that."

Banging on a toy drum set purchased at a five and dime store gave way to a brand new clarinet given to him by his father and, according to Booker, "my life was changed forever." Lessons followed and Booker proved to be an adroit and quick study. Soon, it was time for a proud father to show off his talented son at Cade's, a local barbershop, for Booker's first public performance, "The shop quieted as I began the first notes. The tune I picked was a very popular song I had heard on a TV show, "Skokian," which I taught myself on my new clarinet. It was the first time I played for an audience - the men recognized the tune instantly. After I played the last note, there was silence. I was thrown off by this. Did they enjoy the song? Did I miss some notes? One by one, they started to smile and applaud, The kept clapping, so long that I felt uncomfortable. I didn't know what to do. I made a nervous bow and rushed over to the window to put my clarinet back in its case and sat down close to my beaming father." How fitting that a barbershop performance would inaugurate a career that is as robust and celebrated today as it was then.

Note By Note. (2019) signed by Booker

A gifted musician and child prodigy, Booker could play the oboe, saxophone, trombone, bass, guitar, piano and organ. His professional debut happened rather serendipitously, "Well, I was in 11th grade, and my friend (songwriter) David Porter knew that Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla were recording, and I guess they had requested a baritone sax part on a song, and David thought of me. David drove over to the high school, came up with some type of hall pass and got me out of class and somehow came up with the band director's keys and keys to the instrument room. So down we went to get the baritone sax out of the instrument room and into the borrowed car and over to Stax Records and through the door, and there I was." The song "Cause I Love You" was a hit for the fledgling record label Satellite Records, which would soon change its name to Stax Records and become a renowned and revered record label. A sixteen year old Booker T. Jones was recruited to join the house band.

It was not without complications, as Booker had to navigate his other responsibilities, "Oh, I convinced them. I actually had a paper route. That was my job in the afternoon, and I convinced them to try me out on the piano and eventually organ. And I played organ on a William Bell song, which they liked, that part of "You Don't Miss Your Water" on one of those sessions. So after I played that part, I had the job."

Stax Records' session work continued with other artists when Booker enrolled in the esteemed Jacobs Music School at Indiana University, where he later received an honorary doctorate. Booker recalled, "The structures that I started to learn at Indiana and the musical rigor started to show up, I think, in my musical choices in the studio. I started to learn the European contrapuntal rules and I started to learn how to write music and write for different instruments, and those tendencies and leanings started to show up in the music of Stax and the studio." It was a heady and hectic schedule. Booker studied classical music composition and theory during the week, and then returned to Memphis on the weekends to record seminal soul tracks with artists William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. No doubt, it was an exhausting pace.

In 1962, Booker T. (still in high school!), guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Lewie Steinberg, and drummer Al Jackson were hired to back a session for singer Billy Lee Riley. Riley was a no show and the band started riffing on "Behave Yourself," an instrumental that featured Booker T.'s organ fills. Stax owner Jim Stewart liked the groove and wanted to record the song as a single. However, he needed a B-side and Booker T. started playing "Green Onions," a song Booker had been playing in local clubs on piano. Booker switched to a Hammond B3 for the recording. Of the song title, Booker revealed, "The bass player thought it was so funky he wanted to call it "Funky Onions," but they thought that was too low class, so we used "Green Onions" instead." There were other rumors about the origin of the title - Steve Cropper suggested it was named after the Green Badger's cat, others felt it was a marijuana reference. No matter, "Green Onions" became a Number One Billboard hit in 1962 when the single was re-released as an A-side and also as a full length album. A beloved instrumental soul groove and standard, "Green Onions" was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library Of Congress in 2012, and it has been featured in the movie soundtracks American Graffiti and Quadrophenia. Not a bad beginning for a then seventeen year old Booker T. Jones and his friends, but they were just getting started!

The Booker T. Set (1969) signed by Booker, Steve Cropper, Donald Duck Dunn

They just needed a band name. When they were the Stax house band supporting Otis Redding, The Staple Singers, Wilson Pickett and others in recording sessions, they were anonymous. That changed when they released their first single, as Booker remembered, "Well, the band needed a name when we recorded "Green Onions." Al Jackson, the drummer was, you know, 'But what will we call it?' He said, 'Well, with Booker T, and the...' and they just came up with the MGs. There was this engineer on the song, Chips Moman, he was driving a little British Leyland sports car, it's called an MG. And so he looked out the window, Booker T. and The MGs."

Booker T. and The MGs released eleven albums from their inception in 1962 to 1971, featuring originals and lots of covers of popular songs. Perhaps, their most ambitious effort was McLemore Avenue, released in 1970, an homage to The Beatles' Abbey Road, replete with Booker, Duck Dunn, Steve Cropper and Al Jackson walking across the street away from Stax Records, dubbed Soulsville, USA to counter Motown Record's moniker Hitsville USA, its chief competitor and rival. Twelve of the Beatles songs from Abbey Road appear as three long instrumental medleys, tracks that exude Memphis soul and grease. As a show of respect, John Lennon, a long time fan of Booker, credited his band on the obscure 1974 instrumental "Beef Jerky" as "Dr. Winston and Booker Table and The Maitre d's,' released as the B-side on Lennon's hit "Whatever Gets You Through The Night."

McLemore Avenue (1970) signed by Booker, Steve Cropper, Donald Duck Dunn 

Unhappy with the new direction at Stax Records with Al Bell as co-owner and producer, Booker headed west to Los Angeles, settling in Malibu, where he bought actress Lana Turner's nearly five acre estate for $89,000 in 1971. Booker explained the curious and unfortunate terms of his purchase in his 2019 biography, Time Is Tight, "With $40,000 down, there was no bank involved and Lana carried the $49,000 balance herself. She made a few surprise visits to collect mortgage payments and survey her investment. The small print in the contract specified Malibu's age-old stigma that no land could be sold to a black. The deed transferred to me anyway..." 

Notwithstanding this dreadful and abhorrent legal clause, California proved to be a welcome respite for Booker. He met Clarence Avant, a founder of Sussex Records, one of the first record labels owned by an African American, "And he had a startup label that he was working with in California, and he had this guy that was building airplane toilets in Inglewood who had songs that he really loved. His name was Bill Withers, and Clarence called up and sent Bill out to my ranch in Malibu. And Bill came up with... a little tablet full of papers and an old, beat up guitar and started to sing songs, and he had some great songs..." That meeting led to Bill's debut Just As I Am, which included soul standards "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands," and launched Bill's impressive career.

A chance meeting with Willie Nelson in 1977 on the beach in Malibu (who knew Willie was an avid jogger?!) led to Booker inviting Willie to his home studio. Always the non-conformist, Willie had decided to record an album of jazz and pop standards from the Great American Songbook, much to the chagrin of his record label who wanted Willie to continue in the outlaw country mode which Willie had been mining so successfully. Willie asked Booker to produce "Moonlight In Vermont" and he was so happy with the result that he asked Booker to produce the entire album. Columbia Records was leery about Willie's drastic style change so, in their astute judgment, they ordered fewer copies to be shipped, as they expected an indifferent and tepid commercial response. Of course, Stardust proved to be an enormous hit, selling over five million copies, the largest seller in Willie's enormous and impressive discography. Thanks in no small part to Booker's clean, spare and thoughtful arrangements.

I was blessed to see Booker T. and The MGs on February 4, 1999 at Tramps, a beloved now shuttered rock club on West 21st Street in Chelsea, New York City. Tramps was a  gritty venue with eclectic programming: Willy DeVille, Bob Dylan, Eminem, MF Doom, Merle Haggard, Modest Mouse, Smashing Pumpkins and Steve Earle all performed shows there. I was excited to see Booker and his fellow reunited MGs: guitarist Steve Cropper (co-wrote "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" with Otis!) bassist Duck Dunn (in The Blues Brothers band along with Steve and Booker) and guest drummer Steve Potts, filling in for his cousin Al Jackson Jr. who was tragically murdered in 1975, a huge loss for music. Booker T. and The MGs performed together sporadically over the years, releasing Universal Language in 1977 and That's The Way It Should Be in 1994, but rarely toured.

The show was exceptional. Highlights included "Soul Limbo," a cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I Was Looking For," "Green Onions," "Hip Hug Her," “Time Is Tight” and "Hang 'Em High," a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western that never sounded so funky and groovy. Each song allowed the players to stretch out and expand their craft and instrumental prowess. Whereas the original tracks released decades earlier were two-three minute sublime soul capsules, these were extended workouts that stretched to seven to nine minutes. It was pure bliss. Presiding over the proceedings was Booker T., an inexhaustible source of soul and funk, a thin smile creasing his face, more Cheshire Cat than a gloriously mad King Lear! The encore had the only vocal, Steve Cropper led a dreaded sing along (yes, it was as bad as it sounds) on "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay," a melody he wrote with lyrics penned by the immortal Otis Redding.

 Jammed Together (1969) signed by Steve Cropper

After the show, I met the band and they signed some vinyl. Booker was mellow and just as cool and collected off stage as on. I thanked him profusely and mentioned my love for all things Hammond B3, including Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff. "Yes, I love Jimmy Smith, he was a big influence," he said with a smile as he handed McLemore Avenue back to me. Booker didn't say much else but he radiated a warmth like the whirring purr of the Leslie speaker that powered his Hammond B3 organ. Steve Cropper was just as nice and welcoming. He loved Jammed Together, a guitar tour de force with Albert King, Pops Staples and Steve shredding, "Wow, I loved playing on this one, it was great fun," he said as he handed it back to me. Duck Dunn, not so much. I had to chase him down on the street as he was hailing a cab. Not sure why he was so reluctant, but he did sign begrudgingly and I wished him well.

Booker T. Jones, an incredible and influential artist. Long may he create!

The Road From Memphis (2011) signed by Booker T

Choice Booker T. Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQgftmOeK_c

“Green Onions”  single 1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vwLFLt8-Jo

“Green Onions”  live 2008

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuEKmt-w0P0

“Time Is Tight”  Uptight Soundtrack  1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbBcXvKvB08

“Time Is Tight”  live in Oakland 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80k4qakPrqA

“Hang ‘Em High”  Booker plays Ennio Morricone   live 1991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWHFa2848uM

“Soul Limbo”   Soul Limbo    1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBT4VhvWTDA

“Soul Limbo”  live with David Letterman 1991 More Cowbell!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVhIiPJohs

“Behave Yourself”   Green Onions   1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffv4suQ3eHQ&list=OLAK5uy_kQxJEBDR90XXxs3zOWts4Fy7XWaXfxVZc

“Golden Slumbers > Carry That Weight…”  McLemore Avenue  1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSx6JCB6tc4

“Cruisin’ “  That’s The Way It Should Be  1994

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZfckuThY3o

“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”  Booker plays U2!

Bonus picks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcOfz21MbMA

“Try A Little Tenderness”  live at Monterey Pop Festival with Otis Redding 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIoQDG-iRn4

“Shake > I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” live at Monterey with Otis Redding 1967

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kg8amuKsAsk

“You Don’t Miss Your Water”  The Soul Of A Bell  1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvVHLyDthoA

“Cause I Love You”  Carla and Rufus Thomas with Booker on baritone sax  1960

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp99XhlEL9w

“Soul Limbo”  Byron Lee  Reggae plays Booker!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cUiP2iW30-M

“Born Under A Bad Sign”  Albert King  1967

The Modern Jazz Quartet and Me...

The MJQ combined centuries of the blues with the knowledge of how careful form can make improvisation more meaningful - the blending of four individuals into a whole that expresses each one.

writer Nat Hentoff

Modern Jazz Quartet (1952) signed by Percy Heath, Milt Jackson, John Lewis

In clubs, we used to sneak up on them by starting out with a soft ballad medley to get the people to stop talking and rattling their glasses. If they continued to make noise, we played even softer. By the time they were ready to listen, we could play our good stuff.

Percy Heath

Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet (1953) signed by Sonny, Milt, Percy, John

If we didn't play 'Django' in a concert, we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense.

               Percy Heath

Django (1955) signed by John, Milt, Percy

John’s music was not easy, you know. The first gig I played, we played all the stuff I heard my whole life. I sat there like I was Connie Kay myself! But the second gig, here at the Blue Note in New York, John wanted to play some of the extended pieces like “A Day in Dubrovnik.” Milt was always argumentative, wanting to play his blues and all that.  Milt and John were always in conflict.  Percy always thought that John had made Milt – and had made Connie and even Percy too! – because of John’s original music, not because of those blues pieces Milt wrote. 

               Albert "Tootie' Heath

 The Modern Jazz Quartet (1957) signed by John, Milt, Percy

The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) played for nearly forty-three years and they had only two substitutions during their lengthy touring and recording career. The original band members - John Lewis on piano, Milt Jackson on vibraphone, Ray Brown on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums - met when they played in Dizzy Gillespie's big band in the mid-1940s. The rhythm section would play an interlude between the big band sets. As Ray Brown said, ''Dizzy had a lot of high parts for the brass in that group, so he said, 'I have to give these guys' lips a little rest during concerts, and while they're resting, you should play something.' '' The audiences loved it so much that they left to start the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1950, and then, the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1952 when Percy Heath replaced Ray Brown. Connie Kay replaced Kenny Clarke in 1955 and the MJQ personnel would remain intact until Connie's unfortunate stroke in 1992.

No Sun In Venice (1957) signed by Milt, John, Percy

The Grand Canal, Venice painted by J.M.W. Turner 1835

It was an incredible and unprecedented run considering they hated each other. Drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath, brother of Percy, explains: when MJQ was traveling they took "two separate limos. Also, they asked for the four corners in first class, to be as far from each other as possible. These guys did not get along. Until they got onstage, when it was phenomenal. Well, they would play cards up until showtime. During the card-playing they would get loosened up, start laughing a bit. But after the gig, bam, they were strangers. Amazing! Forty-two years of this bullshit."

Anthology (1960( signed by Percy, Milt

They were four unique and talented individuals.

John Lewis was a classically trained pianist and the principal composer.His songs were baroque, elegant, and funereal. A direct contrast to the florid jazz piano of Art Tatum or Oscar Peterson, John Lewis' manner and mode could well have been borrowed from Mies Van Der Rohe's dictum "less is more." His lyrical restraint was also influenced by the classical composers Bach, Bartok and Stravinsky, especially on Blues on Bach, a 1973 release which featured MJQ's interpretations on Bach compositions.

Blues On Bach (1973) signed by John, Milt, Percy

Milt Jackson was the vibraphonist. If Lionel Hampton helped to popularize the vibraphone in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, Milt became its virtuoso thereafter. Milt loved the blues and wrote the jazz standards, "Bag's Groove", "The Late Late Blues", and "Bluesology." There was no one more swinging and bluesy than "Bags." He was nicknamed "Bags", it was said, after he showed up for a gig after a late night of revelry with his eyes bleary and swollen. I heard a different story which I will share another time....

The Sheriff (1964) signed by John, Milt, Percy

Artwork by Stanislaw Zagorski

Percy Heath was the bassist and the oldest brother of the renowned Heath brothers, a jazz family. Percy was tall, 6'3", all sinewy limbs and long fingers as he thumped and thwacked his upright bass, setting an immaculate groove. He was also an accomplished cellist.

Third Stream Music (1960) signed by John. Milt, Percy

Drawing by Dino Abidine

Connie Kay was a drummer who played with Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker before joining MJQ, In addition, he played drums for Atlantic Records in the early 1950s on Big Joe Turner's "Shake Rattle and Roll" and some early Ruth Brown R&B classics. Connie was one of the only drummers in the 1950s to play chimes, finger cymbals, timpani, and triangle, and John Lewis' compositions were richer with his deft shadings and contributions. It is not a straight line from Connie's enhanced drum kit in the 1950s to the mega-kit of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in the 2000s, but it had to start somewhere!

The Best Of The Modern Jazz Quartet (1970) signed by John, Milt, Percy

I saw MJQ twice: once at the Café Carlyle (aka "The House That Bobby Short Built") and at The Blue Note in New York City. The Carlyle gig was extraordinary. The band was dressed impeccably in tuxedos and presented a recital of their unique chamber jazz. Mickey Roker was sitting in on drums as Connie Kay had just suffered a debilitating stroke. I brought along a couple of albums and they were gracious in signing.

Fontessa (1956) signed by John, Milt, Percy

drawing by Norman Sunshine

At The Blue Note in 1993, I saw MJQ again with some unlikely guests. I had been at a bar with some friends after work and I mentioned that I would be leaving shortly to see MJQ. My friend, who was anything but a jazz fan, stopped me cold. "Wait a minute, my dad used to have a cassette in his 1973 Thunderbird and the only thing he played was The Modern Jazz Quartet. Can I come with?" "Sure" I said uneasily. "But MJQ is a very serious band, so we need to be on best behavior", I counseled. "Not a problem", he assured me.

Under The Jasmine Tree (1968) signed by John, Milt, Percy

So we roll into the Blue Note raucous and well lubricated, and the bar is surprisingly empty except a tuxedoed John Lewis who is ordering a drink. I intercept the bartender, with "This one's on me, Mr. Lewis. We're really big fans and I'd like to introduce you to my friends." Danny Sullivan then goes into his dad's Thunderbird cassette story and we're all laughing and slapping each other's backs. John leaves and then Percy Heath comes to the bar from his upstairs dressing room. I buy him a drink and we do the same shtick. Each band member signed a bunch of albums and they enjoyed their libations with my boisterous friends. The show was great, of course, until one of my friends lit up something he shouldn't have. Fortunately, I didn't get thrown out, but he did. His nickname wasn't "The Wrench" by accident, it was justly earned. MJQ finished their impressive performance without further disturbance.

Plastic Dreams (1971) signed by John, Milt, Percy

artwork by Stanislaw Zagorski

The Modern Jazz Quartet, such beauty arising from such inner conflict and turmoil.

Plastic Dreams (1971) full gatefold

artwork by Stanislaw Zagorski

MJQ Choice Cuts (by BK's request!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i10qbIWIRqk

The Golden Striker - MJQ Live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDo8Fz04888

One Never Knows - No Sun In Venice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW-QCiO9_xE

Django - MJQ Live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLqnXtQ1Z-Q

Precious Joy - Blues on Bach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlEAUHlWFDc

The Late Late Blues - Milt Jackson and John Coltrane

The Modern Jazz Quartet Plays For Lovers (1960) signed by Milt, Percy

Porgy And Bess (1965) signed by Milt, Percy

Tipsy: This One’s For Basie (1985) signed by Milt, John, Percy

Marc Ribot and Me…

I have always, for years, been doing projects that are essentially rock bands in disguise. Rootless Cosmopolitans was a rock band disguised as a new music band. Los Cubanos Postizos was really a punk rock band disguised as a Cuban music band. A lot of things I've done, even the Albert Ayler project (Spiritual Unity), because it translates to guitar, is some kind of weird punk rock disguised as playing the music of Albert Ayler. Although it's true that the definitions break down somewhere near that border.

Saying 'disguised' is a little bit of an exaggeration. In other words, I like approaching things indirectly. For example, if I were a saxophone player, I would never have done the Albert Ayler project. Something interesting happens when you try to translate something. I never think in verbal language or musical language. Translation simply does not create the original meaning, it creates a new meaning whether you want it or not, but I want it to. I knew that bringing the Ayler material into guitar was going to change it and also change the guitar. I knew in advance so it wasn't entirely an unconscious thing. I wanted to draw some connections. I knew when I played that material on guitar it was going to mess with some people's assumptions about what jazz is as well. People who only listen to a certain type of punk rock would find themselves being moved by an Albert Ayler composition. It wasn't exactly like I had a dirty secret and was trying to hide it. I knew that was where I came from and there's nothing I could or would want to do about that.

Marc Ribot

Actually, I've gotten most of my inspiration from saxophone players like John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, but Albert Ayler in particular. He was definitely an enraged punk rocker of the saxophone, More than that, he brought it to a religious intensity. What he was doing was common to the best rock show I've ever been at, in that he was trying to create a ritual - an event right there for the people - a ritual that would bring them to create a deep emotional response, or a visceral response.

Marc Ribot

Songs Of Resistance 1942-2018 (2018) signed by Marc

It’s not that we’ve never written a set list. At least once every tour, I try to write one, but we have never in the history of this band - and probably in the history of all my bands - actually played the set list that I wrote. So there’s always a lot of messing around. It’s not only in terms of what tune we play next, there’s a lot of rearranging the tunes while we do them. A lot of improvising between tunes, during tunes, in spite of tunes. So yeah, it’s how we look at what we do.

Marc Ribot

Making a record is always a process of discovery. Things change and they change up till the last minute. Things that we toured with on the road that were the big rave-up numbers on the road, sometimes sound like shit when you record them, or even just when you get into the studio. So yeah, nothing ever turns out - or at least in my case - nothing ever turns out like you plan it. I know that for a lot of composers, like when I work with John Zorn, I feel like when he goes into the studio, he wants to realize his compositions, whereas for me, a lot of composition occurs within the studio. The composition, or the art, doesn't live in the abstract, or on a piece of paper, or even as a conception. It's very much dependent on what sounds good over those mics in that room.

Marc Ribot

Rain Dogs (1985) signed by Marc

The first ones, the Rain Dogs ones, were astounding.. It was one of those things, the people involved, the room was great and it was my first time working with Tom (Waits). Yeah, that whole period I remember as being super creative. He's very creative as a producer. That was recorded in a big old studio that doesn't exist anymore - the old RCA Studio A on 6th Avenue in New York, Mid Town. We just set up in the middle of this huge room and played like a garage band. It was really fun.

One of the most interesting directions was when I started to play in the style that I had used previously and he said, 'The minute that people know what something is, they stop listening.' In other words, play what the song needs. And Waits very much thinks like a theater director in terms of what the characters are, who the character that's speaking is - 'cause he's a lot of different characters, ya know - when they're speaking and where they're speaking. Are they whispering something in their lover's ear? Or are they in a rowdy bar, and where is the bar? Is it in Germany in the Weimar era? Or is it in Detroit? And each one of those different scenarios implies a different kind of guitar sound. Not only the sound, but there's a different kind of reverb implied. How close are you supposed to be? The way he works is he calls people who are capable of getting an understanding of his project, what he's trying to do on each different tune. Open mindedness is important and also a willingness to make the lyric be first. Not, man, I gotta do a bitchin' solo, you know what I mean? Because sometimes it calls for a moronic solo!

Marc Ribot on recording with Tom Waits

Rain Dogs (1985) back cover signed by Marc

A skilled and talented guitarist, Marc Ribot has had an amazing career as a leader on over twenty-five albums, while also supporting a wide variety of artists on hundreds of recordings and tours. Everyone from soul legends James Brown, Solomon Burke and Wilson Pickett, to chanteuses Marianne Faithfull, Norah Jones and Diana Krall, to avant-garde composers Arto Lindsay, John Lurie and John Zorn, to jazz artists Jack McDuff and McCoy Tyner, to rockers The Black Keys, Elvis Costello and Robert Plant, to the incomparable sui generis of Tom Waits (yes, Waits deserves his own category!). It is hard to imagine a more versatile and varied guitar discography.

Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954, Marc grew up the son of a prominent physician. The rigors and study of medicine was not the course that Marc would take as he was smitten by music. First, he played trumpet, “I actually started playing trumpet like kids do when they are in school. I wanted to play guitar starting when I was ten, and a big influence on me when I first started was a friend of my family, the Haitian born classical guitarist Franz Casseus. I wasn't interested in classical music per se, but starting from when I was six or seven, I heard him play at family gatherings and it just amazed me to hear a real musician playing the guitar like that." Soon, Marc took guitar lessons with Franz and a musical career was born.

Saints (2001) signed by Marc

Originally, Marc came to New York City in the late 1970s to play jazz, joining the Hammond B3 master Jack McDuff, a peerless guitar scout who had enlisted other jazz guitar legends George Benson, Grant Green and Pat Martino in his earlier bands. Marc lasted four months, as he found the experience surprisingly stultifying, "When I moved to New York in 1978, the first thing I thought about was cheap apartments, and I managed to find them for quite some time. This played a part in what enabled me to experiment with music and pursue my own style even when I was low on cash... At the time, I thought I was going to be a jazz musician. That didn't work out for a lot of reasons. I mean, I tried but the people on the jazz scene didn't like my playing so much, and I found out that most of them really just played weddings for a living. Before that, when I was in Maine, I had assumed jazz was the music of freedom and rock music was simply a popularity contest. I discovered the opposite in New York. The jazz musicians there were all versed in the same repertoire, and everybody was trying to be George Benson. I wasn't that well acquainted with the Loft and the avant-garde scene, so I started going to CBGB and started checking out the rock bands there, and there was a real creative energy there that drew me in... There was a lot of interesting things going on. What became known as the downtown scene was really a mixture of experimental trends in the rock world, the jazz world, and the so-called downtown classical world. So I started listening to these people and found my own way through it."

The Prosthetic Cubans (1998) signed by Marc

So Marc became a denizen of the downtown scene, and joined the Lounge Lizards, a band helmed by saxophonist John Lurie and his brother Evan, a pianist. He remembered, "I have had a lot of formative years. I think I'm still having them, hopefully. Yeah, an important time for me was when I started working with the Lounge Lizards and was listening to a lot of No Wave players and musicians in New York. I was listening to DNA, Arto Lindsay. I mean, I'd studied jazz stuff, but what Arto played seemed to me to be closer to the music I liked than what any jazz guitarist was doing. He was playing complete noise." No Wave was a short lived New York movement of musicians who combined classical, jazz and rock music in atonal and experimental excursions. It was a protest against New Wave which was seen as too commercial. Marc thrived on the discordance and dissonance. The Lounge Lizards' performances would include knotty original compositions as well as deconstructed Thelonious Monk covers which were more free jazz and Ornette Coleman, and bore little resemblance to bebop and Dizzy Gillespie.

Muy Divertido (2000) signed by Marc

Marc released his first album as a leader in 1990 and followed up with seven others before he had a surprising hit with The Prosthetic Cubans in 1998, an homage to the great blind Cuban composer and guitarist Arsenio Rodriguez. Marc explained, "I'd been listening to this Arsenio Rodriguez stuff for about six years, really loved it, and I put together a band with some old friends. I figured we'd book into some obscure bar, a once-a-week gig. But obscure bars are getting harder and harder to find apparently, because on our third gig, we got offered a deal by Atlantic Records." The music and melodies worked better than anyone would have thought: the songs were sensuous Cuban rhythms played through the filter and lens of a distorted, downtown thrash guitar. Marc released a follow up album, but his restless creativity and relentless exploration craved other opportunities. For the past decade, he has performed with Ceramic Dog, a guitar trio with punk rock shadings, and The Young Philadelphians, an homage to Philly Soul, replete with Teddy Pendergrass, MFSB and Van McCoy covers, all the while showcasing his extraordinary guitar skills. The Young Philadelphians are not your parent’s soul music, rather they are a translation via the Bowery and Knitting Factory, downtown habitues for the eternally hip.

The Young Philadelphians (2015) signed by Marc

I have seen Marc perform several times with Tom Waits and also with Marianne Faithfull over the years. I was lucky to see Marc on September 26, 2019 at the Iridium in New York City, six months before things got really weird. Marc was performing with the Jazz Bins, a trio featuring Greg Lewis on Hammond B3 and Chad Taylor on drums. They opened with some bluesy grease, Marc seated and hunched over, bending soulful notes which led to some frenetic and furious runs, while Greg Lewis was scorching the Hammond, channeling Charles Earland, The Mighty Burner, driving the bass and bottom with his foot pedals. They mixed in a gorgeous ballad with tasty brushes by drummer Chad Taylor, then moved uptempo driven by Taylor's crisp, crackling snare shots and some rococo flourishes, while Lewis added “On Broadway” riffs into the mix. Next, it was some straight up funk filth with "TSOP," the eternal MFSB soul groover. Marc said nary a word to the audience until the encore: "If there's anything to be nostalgic for, it might as well be this," before he launched into a gorgeous and sensitive “Stardust," the beautiful Hoagy Carmichael standard. It was a phenomenal performance which showcased the singular talents and eclectic song book of Marc Ribot and his cohorts.

Marc Ribot The Iridium September 26, 2019

After the show, I met Marc and I told him that it seemed like he was getting back to his roots, the organ trio of Jack McDuff, "Yes, that's exactly right, that's what I meant from the stage." To get some Hammond B3 cred, I told him that Jimmy McGriff played my wedding, That raised an eyebrow, “Wow, that tells me you have really good taste in music." 'Yes, that's why I'm here,' I replied. I mentioned that I was disappointed that he didn't mention the song titles. I heard snippets of "On Broadway," "Zippity Doo Dah," Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't," and Hoagy Carmichel's "Stardust." What were some of the other songs? "Oh, sorry about that, they were all obscure, deep tracks, like The Mindbenders, Mike Clark and Joe Jones. Not Philly Joe or (Basie drummer Papa) Jo, just Joe Jones ( a New Orleans songwriter who falsely claimed writing "Iko Iko," but a talent nonetheless). You know, obscure people like that." As he signed Rain Dogs, I mentioned that I saw him perform with Waits twenty years earlier at the Beacon Theater in NYC, and Keith Richards was seated a couple of rows behind me. "Yes, I heard he was there and I saw him at the after party." An amazing show, I said, 'It's great that you have such a long term relationship with Waits, playing and recording with him for over thirty years, any chance you tour with him again?' "I hope so. If he calls, I'm ready to go anywhere," Marc said with a big smile. I thanked him for his time, and especially his brilliant music.

Marc Ribot, a singular talent on guitar, whether playing Cuban sons, Philly soul classics, jazz standards, or experimental thrash. Long may he shred!

YRU Still Here? (2018) signed by Marc

Choice Marc Ribot Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfUCS_Ogrgo

“Dearly Beloved” live 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9ZgkkQc3zA

“Fat Man Blues” live with Henry Grimes 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHz_oxa7NPk

“No Me Llores Mas” The Prosthetic Cubans. 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGSI8CuH1nQ

“Aurora en Pekin” live with Prosthetic Cubans 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0T_Y4kXaQ4

“The Hustle” live with the Young Philadelphians 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOdlT7INluk

“Love TKO” The Young Philadelphians 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvUJtOWnCok

“Cold Water” Mule Variations 1998 Tom Waits vocals, Marc Ribot guitars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U7lVXoN3cg

“Bella Ciao” Songs Of Resistance 1942-2018 with Tom Waits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i84IToJdqeQ

“Easy Come, Easy Go” Marianne Faithfull in the studio with Ribot atmospherics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JGNe8XSFno

“You’ve Ruined Me” The Fall Norah Jones with Marc Ribot guitars

Greg Lewis and Chad Taylor The Iridium September 26, 2019

Jimmy LaFave and Me...

I was so into Dylan when I was a kid. So, I started figuring out who Woody (Guthrie) was from there. I also knew of him from growing up in Oklahoma. I'd hear older folks talking about him. So in high school, I started listening to him. My two favorite songwriters are him and Dylan. I first heard of him in Stillwater. There was This Land Is Your Land, everyone knew that. But, even then, at that time in Oklahoma, you'd hear a lot of his songs. So Long Been Good To Know You, even Dust Pneumonia Blues and the dust bowl ballads. I got a hold of the Folkways recordings and pretty much all the Ash recordings I could find. I immersed myself in all of the Woody stuff. Sometimes, we'd take a midnight run to Okemah back then, when the walls of Woody's house were still standing and we'd go there. The town of Okemah didn't acknowledge him for a long time, like they thought of him as this communist or something. Now, today it's totally the opposite. Now they have a statue, they've embraced him. I think it was because of local politicians back then that he got swept under the rug.

Jimmy LaFave

There's so much music that's come from Oklahoma - Woody Guthrie, J.J. Cale, Chet Baker, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Reba, Leon Russell...There's a cool music scene around Tulsa and Stillwater that has its own sound, like Memphis or New Orleans. They call it 'red dirt music.'

Jimmy LaFave

The Night Tribe is the name of my band that I have used since my early days of playing music in Oklahoma. It is also the name I use to describe all of the after-hours people who exist in my world of music. They are the Kerouac people, the all-night waitress, the 24-hour truck stop attendant, the after-midnight radio host, modern day Beatniks and poets, creative, restless insomniacs up all hours of the night searching for truth.

Jimmy LaFave

There's just more of a mood at night, just more of a groove. The night is kinda a comfort zone for me, more of a soft place to fall into. Maybe it's just the darkness itself that lends a lot to a song. Maybe it's unexplainable, and maybe that's the beauty of it.

Jimmy LaFave

Playing with Jimmy was like heads-up ball – they were extemporaneous arrangements. I never rehearsed with him once. When he was ready for a solo (from another guitarist), he would look at the player. It was up to you to figure out how to take and how to get out of a solo and then to hand it back – it was a test of musicianship. Everybody loved Jimmy. There was a sort of chemistry there. It was always fresh, live. He was the best live act I ever worked with.

                         John Inmon, guitarist extraordinaire and longtime accompanist 

Born in Willis Point, Texas, raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and based in Austin, Texas for over thirty years, Jimmy LaFave was a talented singer-songwriter and a peerless interpreter of other songwriters. His music is an infectious blend of blues, country, folk, rock and cajun, especially when accompanied by the virtuoso stylings of Radoslav Lorkovic on piano and accordion. Over the years, Jimmy has released ten studio albums and produced highly acclaimed tributes to Woody Guthrie, Ribbon Of Skyway, Endless Highway, and Looking Into You: A Tribute To Jackson Browne, which features Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams and many other artists. He has also released five albums in a series called Trail, comprised of live recordings from bootlegs and soundboards sent to him by appreciative fans.

Jimmy's main influences are Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, and he has covered Woody Guthrie tunes and more than thirty Bob Dylan songs. Part of Jimmy's genius is the way he transforms a Dylan, Guthrie, Townes Van Zandt or Neil Young song with his high, lonesome tenor and the simple, tasteful instrumentation of guitars, piano, accordion, bass, and drums. His singing is plaintive, soulful and dripping with emotion, and he changes the tempo or slightly alters the melody which results in Jimmy re-imagining their songs until they become wholly his own.

For five years, Jimmy performed a free show at the Ballard Park in Ridgefield, Connecticut through the largesse of an anonymous patron. Two of the past four years, the show has been moved indoors to the Ridgefield Playhouse because of inclement weather. It is an intimate theater with five-hundred seats, and Erin and I saw Jimmy perform there in 2016.

Jimmy always had great musicians as accompanists: John Inmon, longtime guitarist with Jerry Jeff Walker's Lost Gonzo Band, Glenn Schuetz on upright bass, Bobby Kallus on drums, and as a special guest, Richard Feridun on second electric guitar, "All the way from Hoboken," said Jimmy by way of Richard's introduction. The set opened with an obscure Neil Young composition, "Journey Through The Past", took a detour through the blues with Ray Charles' "I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town" and Big Bill Broonzy's "Key To The Highway", a rocking treatment of Fats Domino's "I'm Ready," and of course,Bob Dylan: "Simple Twist Of Fate" which Jimmy introduced as, "John (Inmon) makes we do this song because it makes him cry. I guess it's because I'm singing" he added with a self-deprecating laugh, a rollicking "Queen Jane Approximately" and a twin guitar-fueled jam on "All Along The Watchtower" as Inmon and Feridun traded furious licks. Jimmy told me after the show, "I usually don't play that song, but with two guitars, I knew I needed something to push them." Jimmy also played some of his originals: "Never Is A Moment", "River Road" and "Hideaway Girl", songs he and his band delivered with great gusto.

After the show, Jimmy came to the merchandise table to visit with fans. Erin and I were waiting. We thanked him for his performance and I handed him a couple of CDs to sign. We implored him to release his work on vinyl, as it is a much better medium, especially with his distinctive artwork. "Yes, I guess I should, it seems all the kids these days are listening to vinyl", he admitted. I handed him a Woody Guthrie album signed by Pete Seeger, "You should have been on this album." He smiled and signed the album, "You know, I have a postcard signed by Pete, but it's a long story." "I'd love to hear it", I beckoned. "Well I was playing a Woody tribute show and Pete was there and Nora (Woody's daughter). Nora asked me to play "Deportee." She liked the way I played it, really mournful, not a sing-song chantey like Pete's version. So I finish the song, Nora's happy, the audience is happy, and a couple of days later, I get a postcard from Pete Seeger. It says 'Jimmy, it is important to maintain the integrity of songs like "Deportee". The tempo and melody should not vary.....' I was blown away. I mean, Pete took liberties with everyone else's songs and did what he wanted. It just didn't make any sense. So that postcard is displayed prominently in my home..." As it should be!

"Deportee" is one of Woody Guthrie's most haunting songs, written after Woody saw a New York Times' account of a plane crash with migrant workers in the Los Gatos Canyon on January 28, 1948. The pilot and crew were identified by name but not the twenty-eight migrant workers, they were just "deportees." Woody thought it was racist and his lyrics tell the heart wrenching tale:

“The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves? 
The radio says, "They are just deportees" 

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? 
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit? 
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees?”

With all due respect to Pete, there's nothing jaunty or "sing songy" about "Deportee", and at a slower tempo, Jimmy reveals the intensity of this rueful ballad and he performs it beautifully. Nora and the Guthrie Family have been so impressed with Jimmy that they have asked him to put some unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics to music, which Jimmy has been working on for the past ten years. Hopefully, new music will surface similar to the Jeff Tweedy/Billy Bragg 1998 Mermaid Avenue project which yielded the later Wilco concert staples "California Stars" and "Hesitating Beauty", Woody lyrics augmented by Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett music. After all, Woody only recorded seventy songs or so in his career which was curtailed by the ravages of Huntington's disease, and there are hundreds and hundreds of songs and lyrics which remain unreleased and unfinished.

The last words belong to Jimmy:

"As Woody Guthrie says, 'Left wing, right wing, chicken wing.'

I keep my mind open. Whatever you believe, it’s all a mystery in the end."

Thanks, Woody. Thanks Jimmy.

Choice Jimmy LaFave Cuts (per BK's request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGD1qanImq4

"Deportee" Live at WoodyFest Okemah, OK 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcZjDuJQmQ0

"Red River Shore" Jimmy sings Dylan Depending On The Distance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_OSQqutYxY

"Walk Away Renee" Jimmy sings The Left Banke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky-NbkW-wBo

"Not Dark Yet" Jimmy sings Dylan again....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu5xUqFY04w

"Journey Through The Past" Jimmy Sings Neil Young The Night Tribe 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Ot50vbfQQ

"Queen Jane Approximately" Live 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1sAaTxE0y8

"Have You Ever Seen The Rain" Jimmy sings CCR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlFy7lYsUJ0

"I Shall Be Released"  with Stonehoney/Red Molly Live 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QiHGx_V2sQ

"Hideaway Girl"   Jimmy sings LaFave

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie and Me...

An eighth note is an eighth note and a quarter note is a quarter note. Now, how you interpret those notes is the key. The notes on your chart don’t change; it’s down to how you interpret it, whether it’s jazz, blues, gospel, reggae or whatever. It’s how you express it to tie in with the piece of music you’re given to work on. Now if you can refine that, well, you’ll never, ever be out of work in the studio. 

               Bernard "Pretty" Purdie

The Last Poets: Delights Of The Garden (1977) signed by Bernard

I tell everybody, see the music, feel the music, play the music. If you do it this way, you will never, ever, ever have a problem. It means that you are listening to what somebody else wants and you become the catalyst. Remember also, time is money in the studio, and you have to respect that too. Somebody is paying for that session, so in my sessions, I need to expedite the work as quickly and as effectively as possible, so it makes it viable for musicians to create and the job to get done at the same time. I got called in the studio five, maybe six days a week for practically most of my life for twenty-five years.

               Bernard "Pretty" Purdie

Soul Drums (1967) signed by Bernard

You’d do a first take, and he’d put on his overcoat as if he was about to leave. The problem was that some of the other musicians had just become comfortable with the chords. You had to cajole him to do some other takes, so everyone else could polish up their parts a bit...I guess we expected more of a regular shuffle, and he started playing something very complex. We were amazed, because it was perfect for the tune. "Babylon Sisters" has this dark mood to it, and the beat seemed to accentuate the floating dark mood that the song required.

               Donald Fagen, Steely Dan co-founder

Purdie Good! (1971) signed by Bernard

Well, I did all that but I really got tired of doing the same thing all the time, so I use to throw in what I call my locomotion and put in my variables to the straight shuffle. Where it really came in was in the slow songs with the triplet feel in 12/4, and that’s where I could sneak in the half time. I started moving the feel from a 6/8 to 12/4 to sixteenth notes, and adding my ghost notes kept it subtle. You push the feel with the ghost notes, when I had to excite the feel, I held back on the ghost notes and accented the backbeat and that’s how I allowed the rhythm to breathe. The best way is to clip it with the hi-hat and on the bell of the ride, so I could keep it rising and now it’s not on my left hand as much but transferred to my right hand, and that’s where the dynamics kicked in.

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie describes the Purdie Shuffle

Shaft (1973) signed by Bernard, Houston Person

You may not know the name Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, but you have definitely heard his drums. "The Purdie Shuffle", an intoxicating mix of triplets, half beats, ghost notes and hi-hats, was borne of humble beginnings. Bernard remembered, "It comes from the train near my house where I grew up, When I first started working this out, I was eight years old, and I called it the locomotion because that’s what I was trying to capture: whoosh, whoosh, whoosh." The shuffle has become ubiquitous as a rhythm and synonymous with hits. Everyone, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Joe Cocker, Marvin Gaye, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Beck ("Devil's Haircut"), has benefited from "Pretty" Purdie's luminous percussive skills. Moreover, countless hip hop artists like The Chemical Brothers and Massive Attack continue to sample his soulful drums in their modern recordings. Although Bernard makes the claim that he is "the World's Most Recorded Drummer" - I think studio session ace Hal Blaine of Los Angeles' legendary Wrecking Crew might have that title with more than 35,000 recordings - there is no dispute that he is one of the most recorded, sampled and versatile drummers among Blues, Jazz, Rock and Soul. Bernard "Pretty" Purdie simply excels in any genre, especially on the more than 4,000 albums he has graced in his enduring recording career.

A Change Is Gonna Come (1966) signed by Bernard, Jack McDuff, George Coleman, Pat Martino

Born in Elkton, Maryland, the eleventh of fifteen children, Bernard grew up banging on pots and pans, just like Big Joe Turner once admonished in song, "Get in that kitchen, make some noise with the pots and pans." Bernard's first love was jazz and he briefly took lessons from Eddie Heywood, before sitting in with Heywood's orchestra as a teenager. Other early jazz influences were Papa Jo Jones, Buddy Rich and Art Blakey. Bernard, a quick and facile learner, had his first session in New York and it was a redo of "Love Is Strange", a hit by Mickey & Sylvia in 1959. As he has said, he was "nineteen or twenty. When we came to New York, we went straight to the Bronx and stopped at the Comet Club, a really nice club. The Blue Morocco was about ten blocks away, which was owned by Sylvia Robinson of Mickey & Sylvia. We invited them over to hear us, and they asked me to come to the studio that Sunday. I had the time of my life."

Come Together (1973) signed by Bernard, Jimmy McGriff

Bernard continued to hone his craft, and his first recording session in Baltimore in 1963 yielded a Top 10 hit, "Just One Look" for Doris Troy. Originally recorded as a demo, it was the only Top 10 hit in Doris Troy's career. As Bernard recalled, "I had no studio experience in Baltimore, but I wasn’t gonna tell people I didn’t have it. All I know is, when I got to that studio, in four hours I made $80. I’d never made that much money. I was rich. No one could tell me otherwise. I bought all the drinks for everyone that night." Soon, Bernard had three signs made which he alternately affixed to his drum kit when he was recording in the studio: “Pretty Purdie The Hitmaker. Call Me.”, “If You Need Me, Call Me. Little Old Hitmaker. Pretty Purdie.” and “If You Need Me, Call Me. The Hitmaker. PrettyPurdie.” And the hits and gigs kept coming, until he finally took the signs down in the mid-1970s, "I didn’t feel like I had to put them up anymore." Indeed.

Indigo Blue (1983) signed by Bernard, Hank Crawford, Dr. John, Howard Johnson, David Fathead Newman

As a studio session musician, Bernard was often asked to "sweeten" drum parts on other artist's recordings, a very common studio practice in the 1960s and early 1970s. Bernard would overdub a musician's drum parts, and in keeping with the "sweetener's code", he would be paid without receiving credit and his contributions would remain anonymous. Many years later, when Bernard was teaching students at the New School, he broke the code and a controversy erupted. In his autobiography, Let The Drummer Speak, Bernard related, "Purdie kept his mouth shut for fifteen years, until, while teaching a music course at The New School, some of his students began holding up Ringo Starr as one of the greatest drummers of his era, He couldn’t let such a statement go unchallenged.” Bernard asserted that he had performed on as many as twenty one early tracks for The Beatles, claims that have been largely dismissed by Beatles' cognoscenti and historians, notwithstanding the  impressive invocation of the third person in Bernard's writing!

Midnight Ramble (1983) signed by Bernard, Hank Crawford, Dr. John, Howard Johnson, David Fathead Newman

I saw "Pretty" play recently at the Iridium in New York City in May, as a special guest of Oz Noy, a guitarist with some ferocious chops. It appears that Oz has never encountered a gadget he didn't covet and, attempting to channel his inner Jimi Hendrix while playing his white Fender Stratocaster, Oz had more floor pedals at his disposal than his Hammond B3 accompanist, Jerry Z, a contemporary boogaloo player. Adding to the overwrought and loud spectacle in the intimate club was bassist Will Lee, formerly of the David Letterman Band. Opening the set was an unrecognizable "Bemsha Swing" from the pen of Thelonious Monk, followed by Brian Wilson's ethereal and gorgeous ballad "God Only Knows."  No remnants of the exquisite Beach Boy harmonies were audible here as Oz started shredding with some lengthy, discordant feedback that rendered the melody irrelevant. Next, the gospel call and response of Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman" received a faithful and favorable treatment. Then, a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", again, lots of fuzz, wah-wah pedals, distortion, and a muddy mix given the thick warmth of Jerry Z's Hammond B3 organ being obscured by Will Lee's incessant pogoing on bass. Yes, Will believed he was still on a massive stage somewhere, and he was hopping around like he was Joey Ramone! There's a reason why most of the great Hammond B3 players like Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff and Jack McDuff perform without a bass player: the Hammond B3 organ's foot pedals make the bass player unnecessary, redundant and intrusive. I guess Oz Noy never read that memo. The show concluded with The Beatles "Eight Days A Week" featuring the unremarkable lead vocals of Will Lee.

Soul Survivors (1986) signed by Bernard, Hank Crawford, Jimmy McGriff

The standout of the band was the resolute and crisp drumming of Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. His posture behind his kit was erect and sturdy, and the Purdie Shuffle was unmistakable. Thunderous rim shots exploded off cymbals and snare drums like cannon fodder. As he explained in a recent interview, "I’ve tried to keep up with the beats and the rhythms. The one thing I haven’t changed is that I’m a timekeeper. No matter what I play, I groove. I like to keep the time and tempo constant, so I’m known as the groove maker. I’m known as the timekeeper. I am the Swiss watch."

After the show, I visited backstage with Bernard. He was gracious as he signed the vinyl. He was particularly interested in The Last Poets album, Delights Of The Garden. "Yes, we were just talking about this album at soundcheck," he said. The Last Poets were one of the founding fathers of politically charged Hip Hop, a decade before The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" introduced Hip Hop to a mainstream audience. Gil Scott-Heron, another seminal figure, went to a Last Poets concert while attending Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1969, and approached singer/poet Abiodun Oyewole after the show and purportedly asked, "Listen, can I start a group like you guys?" Yes, The Last Poets are an important touchstone in music history and it's not surprising that "Pretty" Purdie provided percussion. I asked Bernard if he was aware of how many samples his rhythms had fostered. "Yes, I hear my shuffle everywhere and once in awhile, I get a royalty check, which is nice." Imentioned that I loved his work with Hammond B3 master Jimmy McGriff, especially the show I saw at S.O.B.s in New York City in 1999 with Reuben Wilson on Hammond B3 and Grant Green, Jr. on guitar. "Yes, that was a great band, a classic organ trio," he replied. His wife couldn't resist, "Yes, I liked that show a lot better than tonight!"

Amen, Purdie Wife, Amen.

Choice Bernard "Pretty" Purdie Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ldtieSEyQM

"The Purdie Shuffle" Steely Dan talk Purdie Shuffle with Bernard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM_nfDPgcuI

"Just One Look" with Doris Troy 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umSW_wvdZoA

"Shaft" Bernard "Pretty" Purdie Shaft 1973

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSaLEIRILII

"Don't Play That Song" with Aretha, Billy Preston, and King Curtis conducting Fillmore West 1971

I never witnessed anything like that because, I'm telling you, we literally rose off of the floor. When we made that record, we were on another planet. The people could drown you out ... There was nothing but pure love in that room and that house, those three nights, there was nothing like it. I don't think I'll ever see it again, but I'll never forget it.

Bernard on recording with Aretha Franklin at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, 1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcbJBHqEksM

"Song For Aretha" Soul Is....Pretty Purdie 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umSW_wvdZoA

"It's A Trip" The Last Poets Delights Of The Garden 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2rByT541zk

"Tighten Up Part 1" Live with David T. Walker, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Phillips, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-U04wFe_8Q

"Tighten Up Part 2" Live with David T. Walker, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Phillips, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lzq0Man_9vY

"It's Your Thing" Jimmy McGriff Straight Up 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Q042KlxI4

"She's Gone" Hall & Oates Abandoned Luncheonette 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTP6N-OhJFs&list=PLkKYvi0hSe-Wt4Ufex_-mGFW-_QMHISiP&index=6

"Things Ain't What They Used To Be"  Come Together  Jimmy McGriff and Groove Holmes  1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKvXSTyULs0

"When A Man Loves A Woman"  Hank Crawford  Down On The Deuce  1984

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umSW_wvdZoA

"Frim Fram Sauce"  Jimmy McGriff & Hank Crawford  Soul Survivors  1986

Chick Corea and Me…

As an artist I’ve learned what I think is the wisdom of putting those kinds of changes, like attention, on a lower mechanical level, in order to focus on the essential thing that happens in music between an artist and an audience. No matter what culture you’re in or what period of history, human beings communicating comes down to the same basic thing: the desire to get someone’s attention and to maintain his attention. For you to have an exchange that not only makes sense but is pleasurable is, I hate to throw out this word but I think it’s the correct one, “archetypical.” It’s built into the human way of living. The essential thing that happens in music is an element that was there from the beginning of time and will never change until the end of time. And that’s human spiritual contact.
Chick Corea

It’s up to us as performers to be responsible for making sure there’s a good groove there. My rule number one of ethics as a performer is that you can never blame the audience for being a bad audience. You hear players say stuff like “They weren’t so good tonight.” C’mon! That’s not their job. They paid to come into the hall to see us. It then becomes our job to give them something that they can hold and enjoy. … I’ve made music that totally loses the audience sometimes. Not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t give ’em enough hooks, enough familiarity. That’s part of our job, and it’s one of the reasons I like to talk between tunes. Because it brings us down to earth together for a moment. I’ll tell a little bit about what we’re about to do, to get them oriented. Honestly, I like it when the audience gets what we’re doing.
Chick Corea

Inner Space (1966 and 1969 recordings, 1973 reissue) signed by Chick

I’ll tell you one thing that happened that was really important to me. After Mongo’s band, Willie Bobo, who was the timbale player, formed his own Latin-jazz band and hired me. After the gig the first night, I was at the bar at Birdland having a drink. I think I might have been down on myself—feeling like I could have played better. It was just me at the bar, the end of the night. I notice this guy walking toward me. When he got close up I recognized him as Tommy Flanagan, and he just pointed at me and he said, “You got something fresh.” I was on cloud nine for two weeks.
Chick Corea

That was the ultimate apprenticeship! I was definitely an apprentice with Miles. We all were, the whole band. By 1968, when I joined the band, everyone playing for Miles was apprenticing for him. Horace Silver was one of Miles’ first pianists, on Miles’ solo albums, and Horace was also a mentor for me. I’ve had the best teachers and I’ve been so lucky to have experienced all of that. Miles was the greatest silent teacher, with very few words and only a demonstration with his horn of what he wanted. What he chose to do with his music was an endless learning experience for me, for two and a half years.

                       Chick Corea on Miles Davis

Friends (1978) signed by Chick, Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez

I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright, it is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.

And to my amazing musician friends who have been like family to me as long as I’ve known you: It has been a blessing and an honor learning from and playing with all of you. My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly — this has been the richness of my life.

                     Chick Corea - Facebook post - 11 February 2021

Not many artists write their own epitaph, not many are as talented and influential as Chick Corea. He passed away recently, but what a legacy of recordings he left, a treasure trove of everything from straight ahead jazz to Latin jazz to free jazz to fusion to classical improvisations. He was an artist who was constantly exploring and challenging his fans with new musical directions. His loss was all the more shocking, since he appeared so vital on Instagram during the scourge that has been the Covid lockdown, as he conducted master classes and concert recitals...then he was gone, felled by a rare and rapacious cancer. But his music will resonate forever, especially his collaborations with Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, Blue Mitchell, and his fusion supergroup Return To Forever.

Chick Corea Plays (2021) signed by Chick

Nominated for more than sixty Grammy awards and winner of a staggering twenty-five, Armando "Chick" Corea had an amazing and decorated career. Born to an Italian immigrant family in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Chick was surrounded by music, as his father played trumpet in a Dixieland band in Boston. As a youngster, Chick played piano and drums, and was largely self taught except for a short stint studying classical music with concert pianist Salvatore Sullo.

Chick started to play professionally outfitted with a tuxedo furnished by his father, "In high school, I had one fortunate gig with a Portuguese trumpet player named Phil Barbosa. He had a little quartet, and the conga player was Bill Fitch, who played with Cal Tjader later on. I knew nothing about Latin music. When we went to play the first time, I didn’t know what to do, and Bill showed me how to make a rhythm background on the piano, like the Latino guys. That was my beginning. And then he played me records—Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Cachao, a whole bunch of people. That music and those rhythms just completely opened me up. It went straight to my heart. I was like, “I know this somehow. I’ve been here. I don’t know when or where. But this is really natural.” Nothing like the Latin masters to open your heart and ears.

Another formative experience was playing with Cab Calloway's Orchestra, "That was an interesting gig. I did that for a week in a showroom at a hotel in Boston. He had a revue with scantily clad dancers and I was wearing my dad's loose fitting tuxedo. I think I was a junior in high school. I could read music so I could read and do the show. Musically, it was kind of fun, and watching Cab communicate with people was interesting and new for me. He was doing his thing and I was so far from being able to do that, it was inspiring. An interesting sidelight of that gig was getting a piano lesson every night from Herman Chittison in the hotel's lounge. He was an older black pianist in Boston who had Art Tatum's flowing style in his blood and could play those beautiful standards. Every intermission I had during the week with Cab, I'd go sit near Herman and watch him play."

Upon graduation from high school, Chick moved to New York City and studied music at Columbia University before transferring to the Juilliard School. He found the curriculum unsatisfying and quit to join Mongo Santamaria, a Cuban percussionist of renown as well as gig with other Latin influenced bandleaders Herbie Mann and Cal Tjader. He also worked with Blue Mitchell whom Chick recalled fondly, "When I got the gig with Blue Mitchell,I was over the moon, because that's the music I grew up with, sort of hard bop rhumba. I was basically stepping into Horace Silver's band, and Horace was one of my mega-heroes. I transcribed more Horace, particularly his tunes, more than any other transcription thing I did. And the gigs were an adventure. We did two or three stints at Minton's Playhouse, long stints like four to five weeks at a time, and six nights a week playing three or four sets a night. Me playing on a shitty piano." His days playing on a shitty piano would soon end.

The Bill Evans/Chick Corea Sessions (1964, 1967 recordings, 1976 reissue) signed by Chick, Ron Carter, Richard Davis

Chick began touring with Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan, two mentors who helped him considerably in his early days, "Sarah was the ultimate solo singer, but she encouraged interaction between me and her. She'd say, 'Chick, go take the trio out on stage and warm up the audience.' I'd go out and play a five minute tune and then she'd come on. She liked it so much that she'd ask me to play longer before she came out. So I'd play a  half-hour set and play things like "Matrix" and all my wild stuff... Sarah was very encouraging and I started writing some arrangements for her. I really learned from her, and I improved at accompanying a soloist - her - who was so rich in melody and expression, and learning how to make an interesting background for them, not just a plodding backdrop, but a piece of music that would make something beautiful out of it."

Stan Getz was equally supportive, "Stan was the tenor saxophone soloist. He had a beautiful, lyrical sound. Again, I was fortunate that he pretty much gave me the freedom to play what I liked. When I first got in the band, he tamped me down because my solos were too long, and my intros were too long and weird and he wanted something simpler. But Stan helped encourage me as a composer, because he started playing my song "Windows" and, later on, "La Fiesta." 

Lyric Suite For Sextet (1983) signed by Chick, Gary Burton

The gigs as a sideman led Chick to his first recording as a leader, Tones For Joan's Bones, released on Atlantic Records in 1968 featuring Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Farrell on tenor sax, Steve Swallow on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums. Chick recalled the excitement of his first record, "That was important for me because I always thought I was copying everybody, because I was! I remember about six months after my first solo record Tones For Joan's Bones came out. I found it in a record shop and bought it. Joe Farrell was on that - he was my elder by several years and I looked up to him. Anyway, I took it to his apartment and we made some peanut butter sandwiches and sat down and listened. And every time my piano solo came, he'd be listening to the piano solo, I'd play a lick and he'd go, 'Horace (Silver).' Few seconds later, another lick and he'd go 'Wynton (Kelly).' He was blowing me up because he was kinda right. I could hear what he was saying." Chick took this message earnestly and his next release, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, featured his original compositions with the redoubtable Roy Haynes on drums and Miroslav Vitous on bass. Critically acclaimed when released, it has become an influential recording with the title track inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Spaces (1970) signed by Chick, Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, Miroslav Vitous

Spaces back cover personalized by Larry Coryell

After his stint with Sarah Vaughan, Chick had a two and half year sojourn with Miles Davis which culminated in Chick's participation on Bitches Brew, a seminal jazz album released in 1970 which has become a lodestar among rock, soul and funk musicians. The sounds of Miles were becoming more electric and featured the blistering electric guitar of John McLaughlin and marked Chick's first foray on electric piano, an instrument he would feature in his new group Return To Forever, which he co-founded with bassist Stanley Clarke.

Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy (1973) signed by Lenny White, Stanley Clarke

Chick remembered their inauspicious beginnings, "That first one for ECM was the first thing we did as a group—we had no record company for it at the time. We’d been performing regularly, and all we did was go in and play our set down and that was the record. We took the tapes to Germany and Manfred (Eicher, the ECM record label founder) was in on the mix. Light As A Feather happened after that, and I think Crystal Silence was before the first Return to Forever. The records didn’t come out in the order they were recorded. … They’re all quite a stretch from each other. I had two tunes, “Some Time Ago” and “La Fiesta,” and I put a band together based on that. The first guy I bumped into was Stanley Clarke, we played a gig with Joe Henderson here in Philly … then I asked Joe Farrell, then Flora (Purim) came to a rehearsal and brought her husband Airto, who I had played with earlier in Miles’ band. Our first gig was at the Vanguard. I went to see (Village Vanguard owner) Max (Gordon) and told him I had a group he would like. He said “Well, I can pay you blah-blah, and you can open for Roy Haynes’ group this weekend.” So we played two nights and it was such a hit that he hired us again to do a week. At that point I was booking the gigs and me and Stanley were carrying the Fender Rhodes around.” 

No Mystery (1975) signed by Lenny White, Stanley Clarke

The heavy lifting was about to end as Return To Forever took off and soon they were playing theaters and festivals, their surging success and renown more akin to the popularity of rock musicians. They went on to sell millions of records, but the restlessness of Chick's artistry was unrelenting. Through the years, he would explore free jazz with Circle, an avant garde collective with Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, and Barry Altschul, release duets with Gary Burton, Herbie Hancock and Bela Fleck (even banjo pickers were not immune from Chick's curiosity and creativity!) and write and perform his first piano concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra. As prolific as he was creative, Chick had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of inventiveness.

I was blessed to see Chick Corea several times over the years. The most memorable concert was at the Blue Note in New York City in December 1999. Chick was reprising Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, released thirty years earlier with his original cohorts Roy Haynes and Miroslav Vitous. The crowd was buzzing as it was a treat to see Chick in such an intimate setting with his superb accompanists. We were not disappointed. Highlights were improvisations on Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning” and “Eronel” which displayed Chick’s light and airy fluency rather than Monk’s heavy percussive dissonance. As always, Roy was hard hitting and propulsive on drums, and Miroslav was laying down the bottom with melodic and resonant bass lines. Chick’s composition, “Matrix”, was the closer in all its knotty disjointedness.

Trio Music (1982) signed by Chick, Roy Haynes, Miroslav Vitous

After the show, Erin and I had a chance to visit with Chick and he was gracious when he signed his albums. When I handed him the Stan Getz reissue of 1967 recordings, "Oh, I love Stan, I learned so much from him.” When I gave him Spaces,which already had the signatures of John McLaughlin, Larry CoryelI and Billy Cobham, Erin mentioned it was my birthday, so Chick was kind enough to personalize it with “Happy Birthday Neil.” He loved Trio Music, "Wow, this is why we're here. We had a great time recording this." I was struck by the remnants of a thick Massachusetts accent, though dulled over the years, it was still noticeable as 'r' became 'h'. As a fellow unrepentant Masshole, who occasionally lapses into similar speech patterns, I couldn't help but encourage Chick with a "Go Sawx," as I thanked him for his music.

Chick Corea, one of the most important pianists in jazz, a whirlwind of activity and creativity on and off stage, I wish peace and blessings to his family.

Chinese Butterfly (2017) signed by Chick, Steve Gadd

Choice Chick Corea Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKuQ6gwbPqk&list=PL072336F3168FE5D8

“Now He Sings, Now He Sobs”  1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ovAQNNmWQ

“Someday My Prince Will Come”  live with Herbie Hancock  1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8XcNz4uCVQ

“Afro Blue”  live with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZOprqPzpZY

“The Matrix” Now He Sings, Now He Sobs  1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBfihSAIVKQ

Return To Forever live 1972  Molde Jazz Festival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHfbIPqTCcc

“Windows” live with Stan Getz, Stanley Clarke, Tony Williams, Montreux 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29WR8prMC7M

Trio Music Live with Roy Haynes, Miroslav Vitous 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRh43K2BRo

“Spain” with London Symphony Orchestra 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHDlEMZ-DT0

“Spain” live with Al DiMeola on guitar, Billy Cobham on drums 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uok_WpjCTc

“La Fiesta”  live with Gary Burton 2011

I want to thank all my friends who reached out with condolences who knew that Chick was like a brother to me. We shared many many stages, recording studios, and our passion for Jazz and “Mama Corea’s Beef Cutlets”…..but what really created the bond between us was our similar beliefs in the power of the individual to create the most beautiful and inspiring art, “the great healer,” for people. We sure had fun sprinkling that magic all over the world!!I will miss doing that with him. He was the best all-around musician that I’ve ever stood shoulder to shoulder with. I will miss standing next to him on the stage as much as many of you who have had the pleasure to stand with him. And to all his fans, his impact in musical art was of such a great magnitude that it will be impossible to lose sight of him. His spirit is always with us.I love you Chick and I know you’re doing just fine… Travel well my friend and very very well done…

Stanley Clarke, tribute to Chick

Stanley Clarke, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Me...

I’ve always looked at myself as an acoustic-bass player. I don’t talk about this much because the electric bass is so strong right now. Yes, I play electric bass and I’ve slung it around my arms, I’ve played it with leather pants, I’ve played with the Rolling Stones, I’ve played with all kinds of people. In many people’s minds, I’m an electric-bass player, but in my heart, I’m an acoustic-bass player. The acoustic work I’ve done gives the full picture. I don’t diminish the electric bass in any way, but my musical genesis is the acoustic bass.

Stanley Clarke

Children Of Forever (1973) signed by Stanley, Lenny White

Bandleaders like Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, and Dexter Gordon were very nice to me as a young player, and that opened the door for me to go for it. I can’t remember a single leader who tried to get me to change the basic fundamentals of how I played the bass. Now, in lesser situations, that’s when I would run into guys who might try to change you. So I always keep in mind that the truly great musicians are generous and very open-minded, because they recognize that’s the pathway to greatness. Another reason I work with young players is jazz music has historically traveled down the time track from before Louis Armstrong to now, through what is actually an African concept: You pass it on to the youth. If you’re a band in 1960 and everyone is the same age, that doesn’t work; you have to have young band members to pass it on. 

                         Stanley Clarke

Black Unity (1972) signed by Stanley, Billy Hart, Pharoah Sanders

As I always tell young bassists, a key part of being an artist is to have a compositional makeup, because if you look at all the greats — Bird, Trane, Jaco — how they’re reaching you is through songs. They’re not just moving their fingers fast. That was something Chick Corea cemented in me early on, when we were going to do Light as a Feather. He had heard me playing piano, and he said, “I really want you to write something for this album.” I said, “Chick, that’s your category. I have no interest; you’re the writer in the band.” He said, “Listen, if you write something, it will not only give me a break, it will add another color to the music.” I understood, but I was still skeptical, so he said, “Look, if you write a song for this project I promise you I will name the album after it.” And he kept his word. He was 28 and I was 19, but here was a guy who already understood leadership — that you have to delegate. To be truly powerful, you have to make somebody else powerful. He gave me confidence, and that made all the difference. I became a composer and never turned back.

                         Stanley Clarke 

Prelude (1972) signed by Stanley

I clearly remember being in Stan Getz’s band and having some trouble stabilizing my role in some music we were playing. Tony Williams was there, and he came over to me. He is not much older than me, but he’d already been gigging for years. He said, “Think about Ron Carter. Forget the notes he’s playing; just try to feel his personality. He’s very stoic, like a tree with roots that go deep into the ground.” He went on to explain that the whole Miles band revolved around Ron — where the one was, who defined the harmony and moved it along. And that’s when I had the life-changing realization that the bassist is the only one in the band who truly brings the rhythm and the harmony together. James Jamerson (famed Funk Brother and legendary Motown bassist) was like that. When you listen to a Motown tune, his bass defines the tonal center, and when you figure out how to dance to it and feel it, it’s from the bass, as well. Bass players hold a very powerful position in a band — to me, the most important one. I got all of that thanks to Tony. Another invaluable lesson was learning about how to swing from Art Blakey. He taught me about the three points of a beat: On the beat, in front of the beat, or after the beat. When you grasp his concept, you can create some different feels. That’s the kind of stuff that got passed to me, so I have a duty to pass it on to young musicians.

                         Stanley Clarke

Electric Guitarist (1978) signed by Stanley, John McLaughlin

There were some challenges, for sure. Before me there were not many. You had Quincy Jones, the late Oliver Nelson, and J.J. Johnson; Herbie (Hancock) did a few. What helped me was doing some TV scoring first. Barry Manilow was doing a TV special, and he wanted to play jazz with a real jazz band and singers, and I got the call on bass. The director, Steve Binder, came to me during the show and asked if I’d ever scored a TV show before. He said he had a special episode of Pee Wee’s Playhouse that was about childbirth, and he needed some music that was a little left of center, and he thought I’d be perfect. I was all but talking my way out of it, but he told me to get a DX7, Performer, and some MIDI gear. I did, and I wrote the score with that, and lo and behold I got an Emmy nomination.

As a result, agents started calling me, and I signed on with a great guy named Stan Millander. Based on my TV work, he thought he could break me into feature films, even though there were very few black film composers. He said he was going to send me on meetings, but he warned me that people were going to be skeptical and ask me stupid questions, and he was right. He sent me to do a sports-themed movie, whose title I won’t mention to not incriminate anyone. I did my homework, went through the script, showed up in a suit and tie, and I began outlining what music and ensemble sizes I thought would go with each scene. When I finished, one of the head guys said to me, “Now, Stanley, obviously you’re a great musician with a successful recording career; you have music in your head and in your heart. I get that. But how are you going to get it to other people? Like how are you going to get an orchestra to understand what you want them to do?” It didn’t register with me at first, but what he was essentially saying was, Listen, motherf#cker, we know your black ass can’t read and write music! Fortunately, I knew one of the assistants, and I saw that she was winking at me. That’s when the bell went off in my head, and I realized what he was implying. So I said, “What do you mean? I’m going to write the music down on a piece of paper and hand it to other musicians, the way people have been doing it for hundreds of years.” And he said, “Okay, gotcha.” And that was it. I went home, they hired me, and I did the score.

                         Stanley Clarke 

Stanley Clarke at the Blue Note April 30, 2022

I was blessed to see Stanley Clarke and Gonzalo Rubalcaba perform as a duo at the Blue Note in New York City on April 30, 2022. Stanley was performing a month-long residency and he was playing with all sorts of disparate guests to showcase his versatility and breadth as a jazz bassist and composer. His partner in crime for this evening was Gonzalo Rubalcaba, one of the foremost and accomplished jazz pianists extant. Classically trained, Gonzalo is as percussive and stout on uptempo romps as he is tender and lyrical on ballads. He has such dexterity, his notes have notes: eighths, quarters, halfs and all the rest.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba at the Blue Note, April 30, 2022

They opened with "No Mystery," written by Stanley's long time collaborator Chick Corea, a rollicking start featuring the torridly florid pianism of Gonzalo who even threw in a bit of clave rhythm for added spice and texture. In keeping with Gonzalo's Cuban heritage, I was hoping a descarga might break out in all its full throttled glory! Other highlights were a beautiful rendition of "Five Hundred Miles High," a jazz musician's favorite according to Stanley, with more driving syncopation and percussive call and response between these two jazz masters, and the exquisite ballad "La Cancion de Sofia," which was introduced by Stanley, "You know, when you're a composer you write a lot of songs about a lot of things, and then eventually, you have to write a song about your wife. Well, I didn't have to write a song about my wife, I wanted to, so here's a song that has some roots in Chile where she was born, and also in Argentina where she has relatives." It was a bravura performance by these virtuosos.

No Mystery (1975) signed by Stanley, Lenny White

After the show, I visited Stanley in his dressing room. 'I have your first record,' I said as I handed him Crankin' with Curtis Fuller, "It was my first recording, but not my first release," Stanley corrected me, as Crankin' was not released until 1973 though it was recorded in 1971. Stanley had already appeared on several albums by then, including Under Fire by Gato Barbieri in 1971. "Look," he said as he opened the gatefold, "They spelled my name wrong twice (Stan Clark). That's hard to do, but I didn't say anything back then, I was just a kid, I was nobody." I mentioned that Children Of Forever, Stanley's debut as a leader in 1973, was one of Lenny White's favorite albums, "Yes, it should be, Lenny plays terrific on this. It's really some of his finest work." I asked Stanley if he ever jammed with Keith Richards given his participation with The New Barbarians back in the late 70s, "Yes, we've jammed since then and he still sends me tickets to the shows." I told him that Keith lives in Weston, Connecticut near me, "Yes, I've been there, it's really nice." When he signed No Mystery, he sighed, "Chick (Corea) was such a great composer and musician, I really miss him." Yes, Chick's untimely demise was unfortunate, but what a legacy of music Chick, Stanley, Al DiMeola and Lenny White provided as the jazz fusion super group Return To Forever, and the twelve albums which they released are simply astounding.

Crankin’ (1971 recordings, 1973 release) signed by Stanley, Lenny White, Curtis Fuller, George Cables

Stanley Clarke has had a remarkable and enduring career. Born in Philadelphia in 1951, Stanley grew up in a musical family, "My mother liked opera. She sang around the house, and in the church choir as well. She was a really fine painter and creativity was vital to her. So, for as long as I remember, music and art were part of my life. It seemed natural for me to pursue something creative." Stanley's foray into music started with the school band, and a war of attrition between musical instruments resulted in his studying the bass, "When I tell that story, I usually go straight to the upright bass, but I actually tried to play violin for a second. I picked it up, then I sat for a bit with a cello. When I looked around again, there were no violins left, so the instruments that no one even looked at were an acoustic bass and a sousaphone… the acoustic bass at least looked like something serious, like it had some history to it. The school’s upright was a nasty sounding instrument too, so my first challenge was to make a turd sound good! I still do that today!" The violin's loss was the bass' gain, as a twelve year old Stanley used his lithe, six foot plus frame to master the instrument with devoted and sustained practice.

Stanley Clarke at the Blue Note April 30, 2022

In Philadelphia, Stanley attended the Settlement Music School where "the first four to five years, my studies were strictly classical - old world in the European tradition." Though he was concentrating on the acoustic bass, the siren call of the electric bass gradually infiltrated his life for all the right reasons, as Stanley explained, "The electric bass came as a way to play at parties, look cool, and emulate the bands coming out of England which all the girls liked. When I started on electric bass, I’d be a liar if I said I played like guys play it now. I was wild. And even though it appeared like I had worked out parts, it was mostly off the cuff, because I was a jazz player. I didn’t work out solos. Some of it was good and some of it, to be honest, wasn’t that good. But that’s the kind of player I was. Now, it’s like they’re playing Paganini parts – it’s serious business! For me, though, it was a hobby and I didn’t take it seriously – I never studied electric bass, even after I made some records that were popular. The bass players who came after me – Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, and a few others – brought a presentation of the instrument that was really important and really helped move the bass forward.”

Upon graduation, Stanley attended the Philadelphia Musical Academy (known today as the University Of The Arts), and Stanley was struck by the egalitarian meritocracy which he found, "I enjoyed playing anything that gave you a sense of feeling special, where it didn't matter what neighborhood you came out of. It didn't really matter who you knew. It was really more about whether or not you could play. One guy could come from a wealthy family and another could come from Spanish Harlem. I liked that it was simply, 'Do you or don't you have the goods?' And I kept that throughout life."

Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy (1973) signed by Stanley, Lenny White

His chops sufficiently developed, Stanley moved to New York City in 1971 to follow his jazz muse, thereby disposing of his original plan to join the symphony, "My original goal was to be, if not the first African-American, then one of the first African-Americans in the Philadelphia Orchestra. I was planning to do that, and I was pretty much on that path. But I sort of got dissuaded by a teacher, and then I met Chick Corea, and Chick was kinda, “Man, you don’t want to do that, let’s go hang out together. You’re gonna have much more fun hanging out with us.” And you know, he was right. Actually, it was interesting, you know, Chick always being the composer, you really get to know him. He’s a composer even more so than him as a pianist. He’s a real composer. And he says “Yeah, you can write your own music, write your own classical music, write your own stuff. Maybe one day you’ll get an orchestra to play your music. And there’s nothing wrong with playing or interpreting the great masters from years ago.” But, you know, I actually tell students this: If you have a gift of improvisation, if you have a gift of being able to handle composition, to create and write music, you should do that, because that’s what the masters did. They played instruments and they wrote music and that’s what they did.”

Deodato 2 (1973) signed by Stanley

In New York, Stanley worked gigs with jazz legends Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Dexter Gordon and Stan Getz which led to more studio sessions, and eventually Chick and Stanley co-founded the renowned jazz fusion group Return To Forever in 1972. In his storied career, Stanley has won five Grammys (with fifteen nominations!) and he was recently named a prestigious NEA Jazz Master in 2022, a lofty honor for his versatile and lengthy discography and prodigious talent. There simply aren't that many jazz bassists who have had the career Stanley has had in or outside of jazz. Whether recording on Paul McCartney's Tug Of War (1982) and Pipes Of Peace (1983), or forming Animal Logic with former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, or touring with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood in 1979 in the New Barbarians, Stanley's insatiable curiosity and creativity has propelled him relentlessly forward. He has also scored more than seventy film and television series. including credits on Boyz 'N The Hood, What's Love Got To Do With It, The Transporter among others. And Stanley continually gives back to the community, establishing The Stanley Clarke Foundation in 2008 which awards scholarships to talented and deserving young jazz artists.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Stanley Clarke, Blue Note April 30, 2022

Arranger, composer, conductor, philanthropist, producer and performer, Stanley's heartfelt tribute to his colleague Chick Corea when he recently passed perhaps says it best: "I want to thank all my friends who reached out with condolences who knew that Chick was like a brother to me. We shared many stages, recording studios, and our passion for Jazz and "Mama Corea's Beef Cutlets"... but what really created the bond between us was our similar beliefs in the power of the individual to create the most beautiful and inspiring art, "the great healer" for people. We sure had fun sprinkling that magic all over the world! I will miss doing that with him. He was the best all-around musician that I ever stood shoulder to shoulder with. I will miss standing next to him on the stage as much as many of you who have had the pleasure to stand with him. And to all his fans, his impact in musical art was of such a great magnitude that it will be impossible to lose sight of him. His spirit is always with us. I love you Chick and I know you're doing just fine... Travel well my friend and very, very well done..."

Thanks Stanley for your words and music. Like Chick Corea, you are a great healer, sprinkling magic and traveling well with or without leather pants.

Nocturne (2001) signed by Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Skyline (2021) signed by Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Choice Stanley Clarke Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2vGe4VR2xA

“No Mystery” No Mystery 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10ib6qtpY7M

“No Mystery” live duo with Chick Corea, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge0vaqnijB0

"Also Sprach Zarathustra" Prelude 1972

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_gzDQd4zw

“School Days” School Days 1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgJD3o0_44s
"Love In Vain" live with Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and The New Barbarians Capital Center, Landover MD 1979

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHzCQIvMyo

“Spain” live with Chick, George Benson, Hubert Laws, Lenny White 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiI2ZHmxPPo
Live with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, McCoy Tyner, Lenny White 1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5f7gRLVFQ

"Beat It" Live with SMV - Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM9IFk73tac

Live with Jeff Beck, North Sea Jazz Festival 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZOkyQx3jIw

"Cantaloupe Island" Live with Herbie Hancock, Omar Hakim, Wayne Shorter 1991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHuzSDOAcBg

"Sex Machine" Live with Larry Graham 1985

Maria Muldaur and Me…

I could tune in a little country music station from Newark, New Jersey. Aunt Katie used to listen to this station all the time, so at age five I was listening to Kitty Wells, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson - lots of guys named Hank. Ernest Tubb, people like that, you know, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. The first song I remember singing is "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" at age five. I didn't have a major plan to become a singer, I just started being a singer.

                       Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur (1973) signed by Maria Love From The Oasis

They brought Doc Watson and The Watson Family up to a concert. I was, of course, floored by Doc Watson’s playing, pickin’ and singin’, but I especially was drawn to the fiddle playing of his sweet little ol’ father-in-law, Gaither Carlton -- who just played this real simple, sweet style of old-timey fiddle, not nearly as fancy as bluegrass fiddle. I mean, this guy couldn’t have hauled off and played a dazzling version of “Orange Blossom Special” or anything -- that wasn’t the bag; the bag was very sweet old time fiddle. I was drawn to the sound, and they were so gracious -- talk about Southern hospitality. They just said, “Well, come on down and see us, and you can stay with us, and we’ll show you how to play it.” You better believe I was on the next VW bus I could find, me and my boyfriend. We went down there several times. I have great memories of staying with the Watson family, sitting on their porch after supper. Some of their kinfolk would come walking down the mountain, out of the woods, and they’d all sit around on the porch. Word would get out -- “There’s some city folks from New York down to see Doc.” They’d all come, and they all played banjo and sang. Nobody had a TV. It was just wonderful. I’ll never forget it, and I feel really blessed to have been able to be exposed to a little bit of that.

                         Maria Muldaur 

It’s amazing. It’s so weird to me, not a gig goes by that several people don’t come up and tell me exactly where they were when they first heard that. I guess, a happy memory for a lot of people. People tell me they lost their virginity to that song, they got proposed to, they conceived babies - it was a huge hit all over the world. It was God’s way of blessing me, and I’m grateful to that song every day, because it was totally unexpected. That was just the song that happened to click with everybody. So, thank you, God.

Maria Muldaur

Gospel Nights (1980) signed by Maria

Nominated for five Grammys, Maria Muldaur has sold millions of records in her lengthy career, while releasing more than forty albums. Best known for her breezy and sultry 1973 Top 5 hit “Midnight At The Oasis,” Maria has been making records for nearly sixty years. However, she was not an overnight sensation, her career and success was ten years in the making before she hit it big at "The Oasis."

Jug Band Music & Rags Of The South (1978) signed by Maria

Born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D’Amato in 1942 in Greenwich Village, New York City, Maria attended Hunter College High School and soon became enthralled with the nascent folk scene, which was happening in neighborhood clubs like The Bitter End and Cafe Wha?. Bob Dylan, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Richie Havens, and Dave Van Ronk were just a few of the artists developing their crafts, busking on streets and in clubs. It was a fertile and rich environment.

A major part of Maria’s education occurred on field trips in search of new musical experiences and songs, "We would go down South, sometimes armed with just the name of a town as mentioned in a song, like Avalon, Mississippi. Sure enough, we'd go there and find somebody like Mississippi John Hurt. These were just legendary figures to us, who we only had heard on Library Of Congress records or rare, old, scratchy blues records. They were still alive and sitting on their porch, playing guitars and singing, or playing for local dances. I was very lucky to meet these people, as far as I'm concerned, among the major cultural elders of our time." 

The Best Of Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band (1968) signed by Maria

Enriched by their interactions with these seminal blues and folk artists, Maria and her friends returned to New York City where the party and cultural exchange continued, "We had hootenannies every Saturday. They would include people like Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt, whoever happened to be in town. Reverend Davis lived in town, up in Harlem. After the joint would close down, around twelve or one, we'd all adjourn over to my loft. We'd stay up all night and jam, and he'd tell us stories and preach to us, tell us little Bible stories and play little snatches of songs. Then, without even going to sleep, we would drive him back up to Harlem, he'd freshen up a little bit and go right to church and give a sermon. Man, this guy had some energy - he was amazing. So, it was a very incredible time."

Pottery Pie (1968) signed by Maria

Indeed it was an incredible time, Greenwich Village was teeming with talent, and Maria soon joined with other fledgling musicians (at the time) including John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful), Stefan Grossman, Steve Katz (Blood, Sweat & Tears) and Dave Grisman and formed the Even Dozen Jug Band in 1963. They recorded one album before disbanding, a ragged mix of blues, folk, jazz and ragtime colliding with banjos, fiddles, guitars, kazoos, mandolins, pianos and trombones in a cacophonous and lively sound. After they disbanded, Maria joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, where she met her husband Geoff Muldaur, an accomplished guitarist and songwriter. Geoff and Maria would stay with Kweskin for five years before setting off on a solo career.

Garden Of Joy (1967) signed by Maria

Geoff and Maria married and had a daughter, Jenni, an accomplished singer and songwriter in her own right (please read more here https://www.vinyl-magic.com/blog/jenni-muldaur-teddy-thompson-and-me ). They also released two albums together, including Pottery Pie in 1968 which was produced by Joe Boyd and engineered by John Wood, the same team who would go on to do masterful work with Nick Drake and Richard and Linda Thompson. Pottery Pie featured an upbeat version of "Brazil", an Ary Barroso song written in 1939 which had been covered by Desi Arnaz, Frank Sinatra and hundreds of others. The Muldaur's version later gained renown as the opening theme in auteur Terry Gilliam's Brazil, a 1985 film loved for its dystopian charm and offbeat characters, featuring Jonathan Pryce, Robert DeNiro and Katherine Helmond. Though a commercial failure when it was first released, Brazil has since grown a rabid, cult following, thanks in part to its catchy and recurring theme.

Sweet Potatoes (1972) signed by Maria

Although the song was great, the two albums didn’t sell, and Maria found herself at the end of her marriage. She remembered, “In the early ‘70s, our marriage was coming to an end. He was very interested in leaving our musical band and joining up with Paul Butterfield. I had the opportunity to go to L.A. and cut my first solo album... You know, here I was in L.A., broken up with my husband. We’d been not only husband and wife, but a musical team for years, and we had a little girl named Jenni. It was sad, but a few months later, there I am in the studio with Dr. John, Ry Cooder, Dave Lindley, Jim Keltner and Paul Butterfield, and all of a sudden, I didn’t quite miss Geoff so much anymore. I thought, “I’m going to be okay.” Yes, she was going to be more than okay, as her eponymous debut album Maria Muldaur  featured “Midnight At The Oasis” which hit the top of the charts and gave her an enduring career.

Sweet Harmony (1976) signed by Maria

Her second album, Waitress In A Donut Shop, also sold well and featured “I’m A Woman," originally released by the incomparable song stylist Peggy Lee in 1963. Written by Brill Building denizens Leiber and Stoller, Maria’s sultry version seemed a more appropriate rejoinder to Muddy Waters transcendent, “I’m A Man.”  It also helped that she was backed by peerless musicians - Amos Garrett on guitar, John Kahn on bass, Jim Gordon on drums and Paul Butterfield on harmonica. 

Southern Winds (1978) signed by Maria

Maria got more than just a great record from these sessions, as she related, “When we broke up, I felt like a ship without a rudder. I didn’t know what form my career was going to take. So when I found myself in L.A. with all these great players, and they all respected me and what I did, then I took a deep breath and said, “I can go on. This ain’t so bad. In fact, this is great!” After a couple of years, I left L.A. I fell in love with John Kahn, who was Jerry Garcia’s bass player for many years. He pinch-hit for my bass player, who’d gotten a sudden case of dreadful stomach poisoning. We were opening up that night in San Francisco. He showed up and learned 20 songs in an hour. He was a fantastic musician. One thing led to another, and we fell madly in love. I moved up to San Francisco to be with him. At that time, he had Ron Tutt, who was Elvis’ drummer and bandleader. I loved the Garcia Band so much. Donna and Keith Godchaux were in it, and I would go moonlight with them whenever I could. I would show up with my tambourines and stand between John Kahn and Ron Tutt and play tambourine when they did “Mystery Train.” You know, I could just do that for days. Jerry enjoyed having me and eventually asked me to join the band. I did Cats Under the Stars with them and toured with them and had a wonderful time.”

Transblucency (1986) signed by Maria

She moved to the Bay Area and, while her career was proceeding, she was able to jam with Jerry Garcia and John Kahn and so many others. Of her time with Jerry, Maria also offered this interesting insight, “I learned that it isn’t so much the notes or the technical perfection, because he could flub a few notes, old Jerry, you know, but the way he played came from the inside. He would start out on a solo and he’d just feel around. He wouldn’t just come out of the gate with some rip-roaring, dazzling, fancy licks; he would sort of meander around and wait until the spirit came together. He would build a stairway to heaven with his notes. It didn’t have to do with fanciness; it had to do with waiting for the spirit to descend on him and the band. When that happened, the whole audience would get it. It wasn’t about, ‘Look at me, I’m going to do something dazzling.’ It was more about, ‘Let’s all really feel this moment together.’ ...There are a lot of other very accomplished musicians who don’t get the ‘Jerry thing.’ They wondered, ‘How come he’s selling out to millions of people, audiences everywhere, and I’m so good and nobody knows who I am?’ I tried to explain to them, it’s because Jerry was not playing from a place of ego. He was not playing to impress anybody; he was playing because the spirit moved him to play. And John was right there with him. It’s really just a tragedy, the whole scene that surrounded them got more and more involved in drugs. It’s a pity because it brought down two of the best musicians I ever heard or got to work with.” 

It is a shame that both Jerry Garcia and John Kahn eventually succumbed to their addictions, but what a rich musical legacy they left behind. Equally impressive are the collaborations Maria has done in the ensuing decades, with Charles Brown, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Rowan, and Mavis Staples to name a few.

Waitress In A Donut Shop (1974) signed by Maria

In 2002, I saw Maria at Biscuits And Blues, a small nightclub off Union Square in San Francisco. She was in great spirits as she was showcasing songs from her recent release, Richland Woman Blues, the title track penned by her old friend, Mississippi John Hurt. This record also featured other blues chestnuts written by Leadbelly, Memphis Minnie,  Mississippi Fred McDowell and Bessie Smith. Interestingly, throughout her career, Maria was not a songwriter, but always an interpreter of song. In performance, she sang each of these songs with great gusto, with an emphasis on the not so sly double entendres within "Me and My Chauffeur Blues," "Put It Right Here," "It Ain't The Meat, It's The Motion," and "Don't You Feel My Leg." And, of course, her encore was "Midnight At The Oasis" with Maria's bawdy and brazen intro a highlight.

After the show, I met her and she was happy to sign some records. She was blown away by Pottery Pie, "Wow, I haven't seen this in a long, long time. That was a long time ago." When I handed her Maria Muldaur, she signed it "Love from the Oasis" and said, "You know, I sing this song every show and I never get tired of it." Judging from the audience reaction, her fans never tire of it either. I mentioned that I really liked her (then) new album, Richland Woman Blues, "Yes. Thank you, I had a great band and some wonderful guests, I'm very happy with it," she said as she inscribed "Dig These Blues." I thanked her again for her wonderful music.

Maria Muldaur, a wonderful singer, 'dig these blues' or whatever else she wants to sing!

Richland Woman Blues (2002) signed by Maria “Dig These Blues”

Choice Maria Muldaur (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bjzuSO27fA

“Midnight At The Oasis”  live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HtHEgINHO0

“Brazil”  Pottery Pie  1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGSRjTchL38

“Richland Woman Blues”  1966

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDs-7I3NElE

“I’m A Woman”  Maria sings Peggy Lee  (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unms-ABgrgI

“Don’t You Feel My Leg” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF5mctkQ8Xw

“Trouble In Mind” live with Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russell 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsn9iMXsSZc

“Travelin’ Shoes” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8eYScakrK4

“Me And My Chauffeur Blues”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IkNDzvCswU

“It Ain’t The Meat, It’s The Motion”

Maria Muldaur set list Fairfield Theater, Fairfield CT July 24, 2022

John Coltrane, Reggie Workman and Me...

You see, there's something that comes through you when you have developed your being - that you charge your sound with a particular prana, a particular energy that is unique only to yourself. And nobody can sound like that but you, because that is your fiber and transmission. So I think the sound is one of the most important parts of being a musician. And working with young people, I find there are many young people in the school who have tremendous ability to play their instruments and learn all the theory, but they haven't made their own sound. And so I try to help them discover what that is - so they can feel that this is me, this is the sound I want, this is what I want to develop in my musical career. Somehow, they don't think about their personal input to what they're doing. They don't realize that they have their own sound, their own thing to give.

Reggie Workman

Four For Trane (1964) signed by Reggie, Archie Shepp

So you have all kinds of people that you come in contact with: Gigi Gryce, Jackie McLean... My philosophy became that you do the best in every occasion, and it's all about creating a musical dialogue. I want to have the best dialogue I can, just like in spoken conversation. You walk into a room, you don't know who you're going to encounter, it could be anybody. And you're not going to stop talking to someone because they're from a different place than you, you try to find a common thread... I want to be the best I can be at that moment, and maybe there's someone who just wants to play Broadway shows, and they work on just that area. and doing just that is still a helluva feat. But you notice that many of the musicians who came along with me had to do everything - played Broadway shows, played the clubs, played the lofts, and went on the road. They had to be ready. If Miles Davis called me to go on the road, I had to be ready.

Reggie Workman

Karma (1969) signed by Reggie, Billy Hart, Pharoah Sanders

Best known for a stint with his fellow Philadelphian John Coltrane, Reggie Workman is one of the premier jazz bassists of all time. Appearing on hundreds of sessions in his heralded sixty plus year career, Reggie has been the backbone for Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Herbie Mann, Thelonious Monk, Lee Morgan, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Wayne Shorter and so many other acclaimed artists. Appropriately lauded throughout, Reggie received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition in 2020, and he was also named an NEA Jazz Master in 2021, the highest honor that the United States confers upon jazz artists. Though most artists receive these accolades late in their careers as a capstone, Reggie is still a vibrant and creative life force, educating, performing and recording with a ferocity and tenacity that belie his age.

It all began in Philadelphia, as Reggie recalled, "I first started playing in community groups In Philadelphia. My parents recognized my aptitude for music and enrolled me in classes at Gimbels, a local department store in downtown Philly. I studied piano for several years..." A humble beginning and an unusual track, nevertheless Philadelphia was a thriving jazz scene in the 1940s and 1950s, "They called my area of Philly 'brickyard.' Music was everywhere and people came from all over to sit in on jam sessions and enjoy the music. On a given night, you might see Lee Morgan, the Wilson Brothers or Odean Pope. Since Philly was the last stop before New York, I met John Coltrane on several occasions at jams before joining his band. It was an exciting period."

Ugetsu (1963) signed by Reggie, Curtis Fuller, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton

Though he was only with Trane for one year in 1961, his masterful bass playing is evident on Africa/Brass, Live At The Village Vanguard and Ole Coltrane, three classics in the Coltrane canon. From there, Reggie joined one of the finest iterations of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Wayne Shorter on saxophone and Cedar Walton on piano. With Art at the helm, they were as prolific as they were talented, releasing six albums on Blue Note and Riverside Records within a two year period, creating an enduring legacy of classic hard bop records, including Caravan, Ugetsu and Kyoto.

As Reggie recorded hundreds of sessions with other leading jazz artists, he was steadfast in his commitment to give back to the community which had supported him. In 1970, he co-founded Collective Black Artists to assist musicians, as Reggie remembered, "We as black musicians were not getting work, calls for pit work, calls for orchestra spots, not getting record dates that we needed. We're not going to just lay down and say, 'Nobody will hire us.' We're going to hire ourselves and present our own concerts." It was a selfless act of service which is endemic and possibly unique to jazz artists: they willingly pass on their knowledge and traditions to subsequent generations.

Virgo Vibes (1967) signed by Reggie, Roy Ayers, Charles Tolliver, Buster Williams

Though Reggie was a first call session musician and a fluent hard bop practitioner, he was not content to rest on his laurels. He was equally sought after as a free jazz musician and avant garde composer. A restless sonic explorer with Marion Brown, Marilyn Crispell, Yusef Lateef, Roscoe Mitchell, and Sam Rivers, Reggie appeared on many of their seminal and challenging recordings. Probably his longest tenure, aside from his twenty-five plus years as an educator with The New School in New York City, was his participation with Trio 3, a thirty-five year partnership with the saxophonist/poet Oliver Lake, a founding member of the influential World Saxophone Quartet, and drummer extraordinaire Andrew Cyrille, a colleague for many years with the free jazz piano savant Cecil Taylor. Trio 3, a leaderless trio of extraordinary talent, released more than ten recordings in their storied career.

The Beat Goes On (1967) signed by Reggie

Erin and I were blessed to see Reggie and Trio 3 in one of their last public performances at Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on February 6, 2022. The trio had announced their retirement from performances so the excitement was palpable to see these legends at one of their last concerts. Several weeks earlier, Erin and I had bought tickets and we were absolutely giddy as the show approached. The day before the show, Erin spoke with our niece and her husband, music lovers who had recently relocated to Brooklyn from New Orleans to see if they wanted to join us. Unfortunately, the show, touted in the New York Times as a must see, was now sold out. Fortunately, we had a hook in Reggie's niece who is a great friend of ours, so Erin called Gisele and we got the two extra tickets we needed. Thank you Gisele! Thank you Reggie!

Trio 3 with Vijay Iyer, Bruce Williams Dizzy’s Club NYC February 6, 2022

The show did not disappoint. The floor-to-ceiling windows of Dizzy's Club afforded a stunning visual backdrop of Columbus Circle and Central Park amid the swirling intensity of the city below. However, the real action and potency was on stage with the brilliant interplay between these virtuoso musicians. As an added bonus, Trio 3 was augmented by pianist Vijay Iyer and alto saxophonist Bruce Williams, two immensely talented and welcome additions. The show started with just the quartet (sans Oliver Lake), with Reggie anchoring the bottom with his deep and resonant bass. After several sprawling pieces, Oliver joined in the fun, trading solos, squawks, squeals and staccato bursts with fellow saxophonist Bruce Williams. Another highlight was "Refractions - Breaking Glass" featuring a spoken word performance by Oliver Lake that was equally poignant and moving. It was an incredible night, the music, at times, disjointed and dissonant, at others, melodic and soothing fueled by the deeply simpatico and telepathic grooves of Reggie and Andrew. As Reggie once wisely counseled, "The majority of people mistakenly feel like they don't need a live musical experience." Perhaps, there are such unfortunates, happily, Erin and I are not among them.

Reggie digging in with Oliver Lake

After the show, Erin and I visited with Reggie and he was very gracious as he signed some of his vinyl. I told him that I loved his playing on Pharoah Sanders's Karma, "This is a great album, it was a lot of fun to record," he affirmed. 'What was it like playing with (other bassists) Richard Davis and Ron Carter?' I inquired. "Oh, we didn't play together in the studio, that was all done later in mixing," he answered. When he saw the Fredddie Hubbard albums, he smiled, "Wow, I love Freddie, I really miss playing with him." We thanked Reggie for his music and especially his exceedingly cool niece Gisele, and we look forward to new music from this creative juggernaut.

Vijay Iyer, Reggie Workman, Oliver Lake

Reggie Workman, a fearless improviser and an uncompromising artist, endlessly and relentlessly creating, he’s come a long way from Gimbels Department Store. Perhaps his words describe it best, "Those were memorable times, but I don't want to live there. My thoughts are: Okay, that happened and it was good. But my mind is now, what happens tomorrow?" I'm guessing tomorrow there will be more life sustaining music and we can't wait.

Components (1968 recordings, 1980 release) signed by Reggie, Bobby Hutcherson

Choice Reggie Workman Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fz_ZgweERo&list=PLn6hhCaBfMnTZGHyiovYlDL4Jkb4D3vKf

“Song Of The Underground Railroad” Africa/Brass with John Coltrane 1961

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWEvjzbTLR4

“Ole” Coltrane Ole 1961

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjkVMnurFe8

“Ugetsu” with Art Blakey 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6lB7FKxi8

“The Creator Has A Master Plan” Karma 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JRb0jYr7oc

“Naima” Four For Trane with Archie Shepp 1964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l8pkVPYykE

“JuJu” with Wayne Shorter 1965

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMvZ8mehVhM

Trio 3 live at Dizzy’s Club, NYC 2.06.22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oITDUn70uY

“That Old Feeling” live with Art Blakey, Paris 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQZX910CrU

“The Beat Goes On” The Beat Goes On with Herbie Mann 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sjZsFZkHu4&list=RD-sjZsFZkHu4&start_radio=1

“Virgo Vibes” Virgo Vibes with Roy Ayers 1967

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EBPd7c5Zucg

Live with Mal Waldron, Ed Blackwell

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TRU1jTO6NyE

“Softly As In A Morning Sunrise” live in Munich with Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner 1961

New Horn In Town (1960) signed by Reggie

Heavy Spirits (1975) signed by Oliver

Jump Up (1982) signed by Oliver

World Saxophone Quartet Plays Duke Ellington (1986) signed by Oliver

Monty Alexander and Me…

My folks were lovers of music, and l just gravitated to music from I was very young. Four years old I started to pick out tunes on the piano and I heard local musicians playing, and I just got totally knocked out that anybody could make a sound from an instrument, whether it was a guitar or a banjo or a clarinet. It didn’t matter, so I grew up with music all the time.

Monty Alexander

Alexander The Great (1964) signed by Monty

I enjoy dealing with my identity issues, the identity issue of when you’re born in Jamaica you have such a powerful and thoroughly wonderful experience in that world. The thing about the lifestyle, as well as the music thing that happens, which is a strange concoction of things that came out of Jamaica and became popular. We like to say, the rhythm is the thing. You know that feeling in the music is so strong, so powerful, it affected the whole world. Call it reggae, or ska, the whole spirit of Jamaica. And that is in me just as deeply as when I hear jazz. So what I had to do, because I was born diverse—because I’m multi-cultural, multi-racial, all the things people talk about—I love serious forms of expression... and if I play a Jamaican oriented piece, that’s going to have life in it. If I play a bluesy thing which I also heard from the time I was a kid, it’s going to have life in it. If I play a ballad like a Nat Cole song, it’s going to have life in it. I love all these things. I finally came to terms. I’m not going to try and fit in to the status quo of being a jazz musician. I don’t know what that is. I just go play. And if I have an opportunity to play for those people who have never even heard of Louis Armstrong, I’m going to move them.

Monty Alexander

Spunky (1965) signed by Monty

It's me trying to instrumentally talk about a man who come from basic, simple, no trimmings, very underprivileged and creating such beautiful music for the whole world. And because of his spirituality when he gave out his messages, people were not just listening to songs and nice melodies, no, they were affected by it.

Monty Alexander, playing the music of Ras Bob Marley

This Is Monty Alexander (1969)

Us so-called jazz musicians what we might be accused of doing or celebrated for doing is that we take our own music but certainly we get any piece of music and we're not just gonna record it or perform it exactly like it is. We can't even do it if we tried because there's this little bug in us called ‘make it up.’ I call it ‘make it up,’ they say creativity.

Monty Alexander

Here Comes The Sun (1971) signed by Monty

I soaked up everything—the calypso band playing at the swimming pool in the country, local guys at jam sessions who wished they were Dizzy and Miles, a dance band playing Jamaican melodies, songs that Belafonte would have sung. I was fully aware of the rhythm-and-blues, my heroes on piano were Eddie Heywood and Erroll Garner, and, above all, Louis Armstrong was my king. I had one foot in the jazz camp and the other in the old-time folk music—no one more valuable than the other. 

               Monty Alexander

Just The Way It Should Be (1969 recordings, 1973 release) signed by Monty, Ray Brown, Teddy Edwards, Milt Jackson

Somebody I admire and respected a lot talked to me almost like I was an older brother, and it was none other than Ray Brown, who invited me to join him and Milt Jackson on a job in 1969 at Shelly's Manne-Hole. He saw that I was playing here and playing there. I'd already made about eight albums. "You know, you should try playing with some younger guys," he said to me. So I would play with these different guys, all the great bass players, 'cause I was already in that world and I knew what to do. I was leading the troops, if you know what I mean. I always had my own combo. I wasn't playing in somebody else's band or anything. I would get a gig and hire whoever it would be. In New York, I had engaged all these greatest bass players and drummers. So many of them—Ron Carter came to play with me, Roy Haynes came to play with me, Tony Williams. Just name it, a crew of different musicians. They were older than me, guys ten years older, and they didn't tell me what to do. They were following me.

So Ray said, "you should play with some younger guys," and I said "OK." That was when he introduced me to one of these up-and-coming younger bass players named John Clayton. John was just going to school and he told me about this friend from school, Jeff Hamilton. And they'd never played with people who hadn't gone to school. I came up with guys playing at functions with their friends, you know. We called it the university of the street corner. Most of our heroes of jazz were salt-of-the-earth guys who picked it up from one another. So, years went by and John stayed in touch with me. He came out of college, and he called at the exact time I was looking for a bassist. That all started with him and from that point on, I realized "hey, I'm playing with these whippersnappers." Since then, I like musicians who are younger.
Monty Alexander

Montreux’77 (1977) signed by Monty, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, Clark Terry

Well, I have this whole philosophy. Whether you're playing for a small crowd or a large crowd, a small place or a large place, it's all the same thing. It comes from your innards, down in the gut, the spirit. Something comes out and people say, "how'd you play that?" I say "Man, I don't know." It's a magical thing. It's a mystery. That's one thing, one problem I have a lot with music teachers. A lot of them say, this is what it is, that's what it is. It's the same with preachers. I'm more drawn to the guy who says, I wonder what it is. What is it, question mark? How did this happen?

Monty Alexander

We’ve Only Just Begun (1971) signed by Monty

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Monty Alexander studied classical piano as a six year old until he discovered jazz as a teenager. When he saw Louis Armstrong perform in 1957 at the Carib Theater, Monty was never the same. He started hanging around local musicians and sitting in on recording sessions. As he recalled, "The musicians in Kingston where I grew up were really so hospitable and friendly and warm and wonderful. I would go from place to place and hang around and pretty much terrorize every musician - 'Hey man, I love music. Can I play? Can I sit in?' And little by little I would be welcomed to join in with different groups playing. That's how I got involved with the recording studios because even at thirteen or fourteen years old, I used to sneak out of school. I would just say, 'I don't wanna be in school. I want to be where the musicians are.' And I'd go to the studio and that's how I started recording and I ended up making a lot of recordings back in the late 50s/early 60s for the producers at the time, people like Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid..."

Duke Reid: Golden Hits (1969) signed by Monty

Although his performances were uncredited on those early Studio One sessions, Monty formed lasting friendships with the musicians, especially trombonist Don Drummond (a founding member of The Skatalites), saxophonist Roland Alphonso and guitarist extraordinaire Ernest Ranglin (they released nine albums together!). Ranglin remembered Monty's early days. "This guy, from the first time I hear this guy, we don't have to invite him up (on stage), we were dying to get him up." To which Monty responded, "I remember one thing. I came with plenty of enthusiasm. Rather than being light and right, I was wrong and strong!" This was a simpler time in Jamaica, the languid beats and shuffle sounds of "Ska" and "Rocksteady", well before Toots & The Maytals recorded "Do The Reggay" in 1968 which helped usher in the reggae explosion. While the Toots' song gave the music a name and genre, the "Reggay" dance craze did not endure. But the music of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer which followed certainly resonates. Everywhere.

Smackwater Jack (1971) signed by Monty, Bob James

Monty's family moved to Miami in 1961, and a year later he moved to New York City where he became the house pianist for Jilly's, a Frank Sinatra hangout in the 1960s run by Jilly Rizzo, a Sinatra crony. There, Monty often performed with Frank when he came to visit New York and received valuable exposure. In 1964, Monty recorded his first album and he has since recorded more than seventy albums as a leader and many more as a sideman with Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, and Dizzy Gillespie. And in the last decade, Monty has revisited and re-explored his Jamaican roots on additional recordings with Ernest Ranglin which showcase the compositions of the sine qua non Bob Marley, but also the talents of "Toots" Hibbert, Augustus Pablo, and Burning Spear (aka Winston Rodney). One memorable performance I saw in the early 2000s was Monty's solo rendition of "Redemption Song", an exquisite homage to Ras Bob, flawlessly and elegantly played.

With Love (1971) signed by Monty

I saw Monty perform again recently at the Blue Note in New York City. He was playing a week long gig that showcased his many talents and versatility. The first two nights Monty performed with a quintet as a tribute to his early recordings with Ray Brown, Milt Jackson and Teddy Edwards, the second two nights with his trio celebrating their 40th anniversary, and the last two nights with his Harlem-Kingston Express, a reggae inflected juggernaut investigating the sounds of Marley and other island rhythms. I opted for the trio format with John Clayton on bass, Jeff Hamilton on drums and Monty on piano, and I was not disappointed in their virtuosity.

Ivory & Steel (1980) signed by Monty

They opened the set with a bright and bluesy "Satin Doll" from the Duke Ellington songbook, a song which the trio first recorded in Montreux in 1976. They sounded great; Monty ripping off thunderous runs with either hand, John Clayton providing a sturdy bottom with his bass, and Jeff Hamilton dropping precise beats and accents with brushes and shimmering cymbals. Other song highlights were Cole Porter's "Love For Sale" which Monty wove into his composition "Think Twice", a delicious and delightful juxtaposition, and "Sweet Lady", a ruminative ballad which lived up to its name.

Love And Sunshine (1974) signed by Monty

The most interesting song transformation was "Ben", made famous by Michael Jackson in the 1972 eponymous movie. "Ben" was a Number 1 pop hit for Michael Jackson and it was nominated for an Academy Award (it lost to "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure). Not surprisingly, the movie garnered far less acclaim. Following a luminous bowed bass introduction by John Clayton (evocative of the cello of Yo Yo Ma), Monty and his trio refashioned "Ben" as chamber jazz which then settled into a mid-tempo groover. It made me forget the abhorrent movie from whence it came: a sequel to the equally distasteful Willard. I guess killer rats were never my thing no matter how dressed up as a horror or morality tale! The trio's finale was the oft recorded "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" which began as a soulful, mournful gospel and, by skilled turns, became a rollicking, swinging romp. It was a fabulous end to a fabulous night of music.

Triple Treat (1982) signed by Monty, Ray Brown

After the show, I visited with Monty, Jeff and John upstairs near their dressing rooms. As warm and genial as Monty is on stage, he is equally kind and generous off stage. There was quite a crowd of fans and well wishers surrounding him, and he was happy to sign my vinyl. I handed him Soul Fusion, a Milt Jackson album recorded in 1976. Monty saw Milt's signature, paused and said, "You know, I miss Milt more than ever. We made some great music together." I mentioned how much I liked his treatments of Bob Marley, especially "Redemption Song." "Bob is my man", he said quietly. I told Monty that I loved his version of "Ben" but that I hated the movie and the song. He laughed, "Yes, that's what we try to play, songs that most people hate!" Rather then try to explain my faux pas, I decided to cut my losses. It was time to move on.

Soul Fusion (1978) signed by Monty, Milt Jackson, Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton

His band mates, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton were equally kind. John Clayton drew a little bass figure on the cover of Soul Fusion, and apologized when he got bumped by a passerby. I told him that many have his signature, but no one has that signature. The bump made it more valuable, it is sui generis! Jeff Hamilton was also very solicitous when I handed him Soul Fusion. He saw Milt Jackson's signature and said, "it is a great honor to sign anything that has Milt Jackson's name on it." I apologized, "I'm sorry there's not much room on the cymbal, the other fellas signed most of it." Jeff replied, "As a drummer, that is very appropriate. You know, that is a very important cymbal. It was given to me by John Van Ohlen when I was studying with him at Indiana University. John tried out for Benny Goodman but he didn't make the band. He gave me that cymbal to go and make it. And that recording with Milt is when I made it." I was happy that Jeff found room above Monty's signature to add his signature, and he also signed Facets, his wife's favorite album. "You know, this album is about the only recording of mine that makes her playlist and she is more than happy to tell me that," he confided with a smile.

Facets (1980) signed by Monty, Jeff Hamilton

Monty Alexander, a fabulous pianist whether performing solo, with his trio or a reggae band. He said recently about his reggae recordings, "I'd go to the studio with Sly (Dunbar) and Robbie (Shakespeare) who know me from way back. It's simple music, two chords - but life is in those two chords."

Thanks for all the chords, Monty. There's so much life and love in all your music.

Atlantic Jazz Piano back cover signed by Monty, Harold Mabern, Roger Kellaway, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Randy Weston

Choice Monty Alexander Cuts (per BK's request!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVB1NB8lvqM

"Redemption Song" Rocksteady 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApmNziTwU6g
“No Woman No Cry" Harlem-Kingston Express Live! 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ycOeXVjWRM

"The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" Perception 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20rH1NroT00

"Ben" Perception 1974 Monty swings Michael!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2xtUrS26y4

"What A Friend We Have In Jesus" Monty Takes Us To Church! Live 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYMYFViAQJY

"Satin Doll" Live Montreux 1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_D4_apFuT8

"Sweet Lady" Triple Scoop 1987

Bonus cut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJwfh2TbmJg

"Do The Reggay" Toots and The Maytals 1968

Full Steam Ahead (1985) signed by Monty

Slide Hampton and Me…

It's very important for people to know what the real purpose of music is. They think that music often is just for their entertainment, and it's certainly entertaining but it's for a much more serious reason than that. Without music and without art, we'd really be in trouble on this planet. We're in enough trouble as it is, but it's nothing like it would be... Music is very, very therapeutic, very healthy for people.

Slide Hampton, interview 2000

The trombone is the kind of instrument that you can be a natural musician, but you still have to dedicate yourself to it in order to have any level of proficiency. Otherwise, the trombone will give you the impression that it's a very difficult instrument to play, but it's not really the trombone that's difficult. It's your understanding that counts, your willingness to dedicate yourself to developing a rapport with the instrument and understanding the nature of the instrument.

Slide Hampton

Slide Hampton and His Horn Of Plenty (1959) signed by Slide, George Coleman

See, I had a big house in Brooklyn. Eric Dolphy lived there for a long time. Freddie Hubbard lived there, and Wes Montgomery. Trane used to come here all the time, and Wayne Shorter used to live there. We had thirteen, fourteen rooms in the house, right in Fort Greene (Brooklyn), right around the corner from Spike Lee's father, (bassist) Bill Lee. A lot of musicians lived in the area, there were jam sessions and people practicing and rehearsing for years. 245 Carlton Avenue, Eric Dolphy recorded a song on one of his albums called "245."

Slide Hampton, jazz life in Brooklyn

Ego was never a thing for them, they always felt more humble. Dizzy (Gillespie) was a very humble guy and Trane, Trane was very humble, very beautiful and very humane and, "What can I do to help somebody?" This is the healthiest attitude that a person can have. Society has to grow on that kind of energy. Then we won't have all the stuff that's starting to become so common, with everybody being against everybody else. Now you have to be "inferior" if you're different. That's a fool's idea! You know, you can never tell what a person has to offer you unless you're able to be open to that person, and go to them and see what kind of communication you can have.

Slide Hampton interview 2000

Two Sides Of Slide (1962) signed by Slide, George Coleman

The great Slide Hampton passed away November 18, 2021. He was eighty-nine years old and I wish peace and blessings for his family. Slide leaves an impressive legacy of music as a skilled arranger, composer, educator, and virtuoso trombone soloist. He released more than thirty-five albums as a leader and he recorded extensively with jazz legends Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley, Charles Mingus. McCoy Tyner and many others in his lengthy discography. Though he was in declining health the past several years, his music will live an enduring life among jazz aficionados and music fans.

Born in Jeanette, Pennsylvania, raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Locksley Wellington "Slide" Hampton was surrounded by music. Both parents were musicians and his father had a family orchestra based in Indianapolis. One of twelve siblings who played musical instruments, Slide came by his choice of instrument at the direction of his family, “When I was young, there was already a band in existence in the family. There were no trombones and they wanted a trombone player in the family band, so they chose it for me.” A serendipitous choice and a remarkable career followed. Slide is lauded as one of the top trombone stylists in the annals of jazz history, quite an achievement for an unwieldy and somewhat clunky instrument.

Jazz With A Twist (1962) signed by Slide, George Coleman

The Hampton family band had local renown and eventually played Carnegie Hall, where Slide made his debut. It was very heady stuff, as Slide recalled, "First we came and played Carnegie Hall and then we went back to Indianapolis.Then we came back and played the Apollo Theater, the Savoy Ballroom, and after two weeks in the Savoy, we went back into the Apollo Theater by popular demand. I tried to convince my family, 'Let's stay in New York. This is the place we can really develop a career as musicians.' But they wanted to go back to Indianapolis." These initial experiences left an indelible impression, "I wanted to get back to New York as quick as I could 'cause I'd seen and heard Bud Powell and people like that. After that, all of my aspirations were keyed to New York. So as soon as I was old enough and I could go out on my own, I left the family band and I was on my way to New York. It took me a long time to get there."

Slide made it back to New York when he joined Buddy Johnson's rhythm and blues group in 1952. It was a circuitous route which started in Houston where Buddy was based. Buddy Johnson was best known for the jazz standard "Since I Fell For You" which Buddy's sister Ella sang and Arthur Prysock's "They All Say I'm The Biggest Fool." Slide developed his craft, honed his chops and soon joined Lionel Hampton, a brief and unsatisfying experience, "Lionel Hampton is also a great musician, but really not a caring person. He never really tried to give the musicians the kind of conditions that they could work in and would inspire them, and he never really inspired people to go to other heights. If you were with his band and he really liked you, he would almost threaten you if you wanted to leave and go with somebody else. And that was very unfortunate because he was a guy that had possibilities, especially for a lot of the Afro-American musicians, to open doors for them. But he was such an egomaniac, he couldn't consider what was happening for anyone else." An interesting insight which confirmed what I saw when Lionel performed decades later. When Lionel started a solo, even in his late eighties, it went on and on and on... twenty plus years later, I think Lionel is still somewhere banging that same solo!

A Message From Newport (1957) signed by Slide, Maynard Ferguson

Fortunately, Slide's next employer was less egocentric, as he joined the trumpet great Maynard Ferguson, "Maynard was a very nice guy, a very fine musician, and really gave all the musicians a chance to develop musical expertise there. He was the exact opposite from Hamp... He was really very considerate of the musicians and very respectful of us." Slide began to write charts and some of his compositions - "The Fugue," "Three Little Foxes," "Slide's Derangement" - became mainstays of the Maynard Ferguson canon.

After three years, Slide left Maynard to concentrate on his solo career and released several acclaimed records which featured a collection of top flight horn players George Coleman, Joe Farrell, Freddie Hubbard, and Booker Little among them. In the mid 1960s, Slide was enlisted by Motown Records and worked as a music director for Stevie Wonder and the Four Tops, and he helped write arrangements on some of their recordings.

Plays Jazz For Dancing (1959) signed by Slide, Maynard Ferguson

As the interest in jazz waned due to the commercial onslaught of The Beatles and other rock music, Slide toured Europe and stayed in Paris for the next six years, joining a fertile expat jazz community including Don Byas, Kenny Clarke, Art Farmer, Dexter Gordon, and Johnny Griffin. Slide was drawn in part by the extraordinary respect given to jazz artists at that time, "So I went to Europe and found out that there were a lot of opportunities for people that were into that concept of music. I went over with Woody Herman in '68 and we played two weeks in England. Then I went to France, and I lived in France for six years after that. I did television, recording, radio, which they don't have over here. You know, they have radio orchestras and radio programs that are subsidized by the government for a certain amount of jazz - concerts, cultural houses, everything you could think of. It had never been like that over here."

Returning to the United States in 1977, Slide began his impressive and influential career as an educator, first as an artist-in-residence at Harvard, and later serving professorial stints at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, DePaul University in Chicago, and Indiana University. He was a mentor to countless students, not only trombonists, but also arrangers who studied his charts and his deft interplay of the instruments while enhancing the melodies. He also won two Grammys late in his career, as the arranger for Dee Dee Bridgewater’s "Cotton Tail" in 1998 and for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for The Way: Music of Slide Hampton in 2005.

Si! Si! M.F. (1962) signed by Slide, Maynard Ferguson

I was blessed to see Slide Hampton more than twenty years ago at the Blue Note in New York City. He was sitting in with his old friend Maynard Ferguson, and Maynard had reprised some of Slide’s classic arrangements. As an added bonus, Slide layed out on the trombone for a couple of tunes. In Slide’s virtuosic hands, the trombone glided and glistened, and the warm tones were only exceeded by the warmth and kindness he exuded offstage when I met him. After the show, there was a scene in the Blue Note dressing rooms as fellow trumpet greats Jimmy Owens and Jonah Jones came by to pay their respects to Maynard and Slide. I slipped in and Slide was gracious to sign his vinyl. He was of impossibly good cheer and I thanked him for his time and, especially, his music.

Slide Hampton, a virtuoso musician, as impressive on stage as off. His music is emphatically entertaining, healthy and therapeutic!

Swings Through College (1958) signed by Slide, Maynard Ferguson, Jonah Jones

Choice Slide Hampton cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g52wGTQ_s7M

“Night Never Comes” live in Italy 1971

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4P17pAdJ8

“The Fugue” A Message From Newport 1958

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzSuoyp1ljU

“Mack The Knife” Jazz With A Twist 1961

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwoW_JQCZqU

“The Thrill Is Gone” Somethin’ Sanctified 1961

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVXm16mAxz8&list=PLyHn3f7-9IULaKcL7ZLNOw_cH8PgPuQxd

“My Blues” A Day In Copenhagen with Dexter Gordon 1969

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jbbf2quuv6Y

“All In Love Is Fair” Slide plays Stevie Wonder!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvKF82hkReI

“Roots” with Clifford Jordan, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins 1985

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bht4ySeQwjc

“All The Things You Are” live with Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Griffin, Hank Jones 1987

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ7za4mOzSo

“Lament” Slide plays J.J. Johnson! 1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FzQ1i--4QU

“Well You Needn’t” Slide plays Thelonious! 1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzWSNBxe588

“Sunny” Slide Hampton 1970

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEDwNok0nF0

“Solar” Slide Hampton plays Miles! 1985

Bonus picks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AZnXclm0Bs

“I Was Made To Love Her” Stevie Wonder 1966

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ7iEZyrBcQ

“On The Street Where You Live” The Four Tops 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIm1MJqtH5o

“That’s Life” Kim Weston - Count Basie Orchestra arranged by Slide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBHorI2_yOY&list=OLAK5uy_lknmi9DgyFAFkhhBjMO6bIKbhPIzVJajQ&index=12

“Nice ‘n’ Easy” The Four Tops 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_4NTGKVzLs

“The Beat Goes On” Kim Weston - Count Basie Orchestra arranged by Slide

Barry Harris and Me…

Most of us grew up playing in the church, where my mother started me. I studied classical with a preacher named Neptune Holloway, who quite a few of us took lessons from, and also Mrs. Lipscomb which was in a private home. Tommy Flanagan and I took lessons from Gladys Dillard; we were in a recital together one time. My mother was a very gentle and beautiful person, and one day she asked me whether I wanted to play church music or jazz. I said 'I'll play jazz,' and she was cool with that.

Barry Harris

Bull’s Eye (1968) signed by Barry, Charles McPherson

We played for our contemporaries. We played for shake dancers, we played shuffle rhythm, we played rhythm and blues. All of it was part of the deal. I would go to the dance, stand in back of the piano player and steal a couple of chords, then go home and learn how to play them. I remember Donald Byrd one day saying, 'I don't want to play in a bar, I don't want to play in a dance hall. I want to play on the concert stage.' Well, separating the music from dancing might have been the biggest drag that ever happened to us. We knew how to dance.

Barry Harris Downbeat interview 2000

Lee Morgan Memorial Album (1974) signed by Barry, Harold Mabern

Barry always had a nice dynamic attack and approach to the piano. He was quick to get hip to Bud Powell, devoted more time to that style than anyone else on the scene then. He took it another step. He had a lot of confidence too. He was one of the few guys who would just wait for Charlie Parker to come to town and go up and sit in with him. That's more confidence than I had, I just didn't have the nerve.

pianist Tommy Flanagan

I Remember BeBop (1978) signed by Barry, Tommy Flanagan

I sat in with Bird at least three or four times. His band was late one time for a dance at the Graystone Ballroom, so we played just one song with him during the first set, a blues in C. He was beautiful to us. The best experience that I always tell people is a time he was playing a dance with strings at a roller rink called the Forest Club. We stood in front and the strings started, and when he started playing, chills started at your toes and went on through your body, orgasms, everything imaginable. It's really a spoiler. I don't like to go listen to people because I'm expecting somebody to make me feel like that. Bud Powell is important to me, I'm more of a Charlie Parker disciple, even more so now.

Barry Harris Downbeat interview 2000

Stay Right With It (1961/62 recordings, remastered/released 1978) signed by Barry

The great pianist Barry Harris passed away December 8, 2021. He was ninety-one years old and I wish peace and blessings to his family and friends. His performances, filled with elegance, lyricism and grace, were master classes by a master. This tribute was written five years ago after another riveting performance at the Village Vanguard…

Barry Harris is part of the great tradition of jazz artists from Detroit. Pianists Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, trumpeters Donald Byrd, Thad Jones, guitarist Kenny Burrell, drummers Elvin Jones, Louis Hayes and multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef are among Barry's Motown brethren who have had storied careers as musicians and composers. Initially, Barry honed his chops as the house pianist at the Blue Bird Inn (Thad Jones' composition "5021" refers to the actual address on Tireman) where he backed Sonny Stitt, Thad Jones and Miles Davis (for an extended three month stint in 1955 when Miles was trying to kick heroin), and at the Rouge Lounge where he accompanied Ben Webster, Lester Young and Lee Konitz. Eventually, Barry left Detroit to tour with Cannonball Adderley and he relocated to New York City in 1960 where he has remained ever since.

At The Jazz Workshop (1960) signed by Barry, Louis Hayes

Barry has released more than twenty-five albums as a leader, and he has appeared on hundreds as a sideman, including seminal and canonical recordings with Lee Morgan (The Sidewinder), Yusef Lateef (Eastern Sounds), Dexter Gordon (The Tower Of Power!) and Cannonball Adderley (Them Dirty Blues). Perhaps his greatest contribution has been his commitment to teaching. It started in Detroit and it has continued during his long stay in New York. A then fourteen year old Charles McPherson, a budding saxophonist, would practice at Barry's Detroit home and it blossomed into a sixty-five year personal and professional relationship.

Two Trumpets (1956) signed by Barry, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Jackie McLean

McPherson later explained, "He always leaned toward showing people things about harmony and theory, and his house was always a hub of activity. Musicians would come by and hang out with him. He had a reputation that extended not only to local musicians, but to musicians coming through town from New York. I saw everybody there, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball (Adderley). Trane came when I was there saying, 'OK Barry, what are you doing these days? What are you working on?' He's a master pianist, but it's more than knowledge that you can get from someone like Barry. You also get an element of musicality. You get the nuts and bolts, but you also get a sense of how to think about the aesthetics of music and art."

The Other Side Of Benny Golson (1958) signed by Barry, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller

I saw Barry perform again recently at the Village Vanguard in New York City with bassist Ray Drummond and Leroy Williams, his drummer of choice for the past forty years. Opened in 1935 by proprietor Max Gordon as a folk, blues, and poetry space, the Village Vanguardhas become the most famous and revered jazz club in the world. It is a small space with seats for just 123 patrons in a basement off Seventh Avenue South. The acoustics are perfect and the venue has never been altered through the years. The blood red drapes hang heavy behind the small stage at the end of the room, enriched with the smoke and history of legendary performances past. Pictures of musicians line the walls, old lions like Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, and younger lions like Brad Mehldau and Wynton Marsalis, all artists who have recorded extensively here. In fact, there have been more than fifty live recordings issued and, as the late Bruce Lundvall, head of Blue Note Records observed, "The words 'Live At The Village Vanguard' do have a direct and positive influence on an album's sales." Indeed, it has an especially meaningful cachet among jazz aficionados.

Tower Of Power! (1969) signed by Barry, Buster Williams

The Friday night show at the Village Vanguard was sold out and the crowd was a bit raucous, fraught with the tension and anticipation of hearing a jazz lion in his lair. Barry did not disappoint. Although now eighty-six years old, you would never know it when Barry sat at the piano. His phrasing was challenging, lyrical, and swinging. Highlights were "Don't Blame Me", an alluring ballad off his 1960 vinyl At The Jazz Workshop, a bouncy "Isn't She Lovely?" from Stevie Wonder, an elegiac "Come Sunday" from the Duke Ellington songbook, a spritely "I Want To Be Happy", and a properly mournful "Lush Life" from the pen of Billy Strayhorn. It was an elegant performance of exquisite jazz piano.

Blues For Duke (1975) signed by Barry

Midway through the show, Barry announced, "Tonight, we're going to do something I'm sure you all expected to do at a jazz club. We're going to sing Karaoke! And we're going to write a song together." He continued amid the surprise and laughter, "I need some numbers. What are your favorite numbers 1 - 9?" Inwardly, I groaned, possibly my least favorite activity, an audience sing-a-along, and at the Village Vanguard?!. Numbers were quickly shouted by enthusiastic audience members and Barry said, "I heard 6, 7 and 3. I can make this work," and he began to play a greasy blues vamp and sang "6-7-3." Then he asked for participation and timidly, his Vanguard Choir barely mouthed "6-7-3" for three verses until he exhorted, "Come on now, you ain't ever getting into Heaven singing like that!" Suitably challenged, the audience responded with vigor and when we got to the bridge, Barry added "5-5-5-5." The song actually worked far better than I feared as I guess it helps to have a world class pianist and rhythm section! The closing song was Barry's theme, "Nascimento", a Latin rhythm written for an obscure percussionist whom Barry befriended during one of his trips to Brazil, not for noted Brazilian guitarist/songwriter Milton Nascimento as many assume.

Bottoms Up (1968) signed by Barry, Illinois Jacquet

After the show, I visited with Barry and he signed some albums. I greeted him with, "Stevie Wonder never sounded so swinging!" Barry said, "Oh thank you very much. I just had to do that song that way. That's a really fun song to play." It was certainly fun for the audience. When he saw the Sonny Stitt albums, Barry grew pensive. "You know, I sign these albums now, and I'm the only one who is still alive. It's just weird." Changing the topic, I offered, "You know, I love your version of "My Buddy", you do a really uptempo, swinging version. It's one of my favorite songs." "Thank you, that is a great song." He leaned over to his drummer, Leroy Williams who was seated next to him on the banquette, "Do you know that song?" Leroy nodded affirmatively. I couldn't resist, "You play it fast, but it's also beautiful as a ballad, 'Nights are long since you went away....' " Barry smiled at my attempt at the first stanza of the lyric, "Yes, I hope I don't go away any time soon!" Both Leroy and I assured him that was not going to happen, he had lots of new music to play. It was a lovely visit after a lovely night of music.

My Buddy (1976) signed by Barry, Leroy Williams

Pianist Duke Pearson wrote in the 1968 liner notes to Bull's Eye, "Going out to a club to hear Barry is just like a tonic. It restores your faith in beauty. Jazz should be beautiful and Barry's always is." Those words were true then and, almost fifty years later, those words seem truer now.

Barry Harris, a beautiful man with beautiful music.

Atlantic Jazz Piano (1986) signed by Barry, Dave Brubeck, Ray Bryant, Kenny Barron, Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Sir Roland Hanna, Junior Mance, Brad Mehldau, Dwike Mitchell, Andre Previn, Horace Silver, Billy Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Chucho Valdes

Choice Barry Harris Cuts (per BK's request!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJi03NqXfk8

"The Sidewinder"  with Lee Morgan  1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elxQn503iTI

“Nascimento"   First Time Ever   1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YOPadEOCRg
“My Buddy"   Sonny Stitt with Barry    1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBpS9pyvUwo
"My Buddy"  A different take by Jerry Jeff Walker  1975

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFGuFfrpTVc
“Well You Needn't"  Barry and Tommy Flanagan Play Thelonious Monk  Live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doJ8qS1XcaA

"Don't Blame Me"    At The Jazz Workshop   1960

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_sBbARz-M8

“Isn't She Lovely"   Live   2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZuCQFie-Ag
"A Time For Love"   Live   2014

Atlantic Jazz Piano back cover signed by Monty Alexander, Roger Kellaway, Harold Mabern, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Randy Weston

Houston Person and Me…

Well, it's uplifting and important, and a release and a relief. That's what it is...jazz. It's important that it's relaxing. Something that when the end of the day comes, after a hard and frustrating day out in the world, relieves you, relaxes you and makes you feel good. Solid melodies with some improvisation and plenty of blues feel. You always want that dance feeling there, that happy, happy feeling.

Houston Person

Goodness! (1969) signed by Houston

Silence is as much a part of the music as the notes are. After all, if you were to speak to someone and not pause here and there, everything would have equal importance. You use silence to underline something, whether you play it on an instrument or speak it in a conversation.

Houston Person

Person To Person! (1970) signed by Houston

There wasn't so much division as there is now, with everybody insisting on doing their own thing. Back in the day, there were common denominators for just about anybody who could play. It was danceable and had the blues in it. Even people now thought of as abstract, like (Thelonious) Monk or (Charles) Mingus.

Houston Person

Truth! (1970) signed by Houston

I spend my spare time researching stuff. There are good anthologies for all major composers like Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Duke Ellington. I know many of the neglected composers as well... I look at how each of these composers assemble the tune, then I re-study the lyrics to see what they mean as well. Investigating the verses of tunes is interesting. Sometimes, I really learn new things about songs we all think we already know. 

                Houston Person

Houston Express (1971) signed by Houston

I tell young people they should search for their own sound, and see what they hear. Everyone looks for different things.  Me, I just want beauty. I want a pretty sound. It should also fill the room. A big, pretty sound that fills the room, that's what I want to do.

               Houston Person 

I just play good music. I look for a great melody and great lyrics. A composer puts a lot of time into coming up with the perfect melody and I always try to let those melodies speak for themselves and be true to the composer’s intentions.

Houston Person

Good Vibrations (1980) signed by Houston

Few artists, if any, cover John Lennon, Randy Newman, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Thelonious Monk in the same career. Only tenor saxophonist extraordinaire Houston Person had the audacity (and chops) to cover each of these disparate artists in the same album, Broken Windows, Empty Hallways, a 1972 soul jazz classic. "Imagine", "I Think It's Going To Rain Today", "Mr. Bojangles" and "Let's Call This" comprise an unlikely and unique Great Jazz Songbook in Houston's skilled hands. 

Broken Windows, Empty Hallways (1972) signed by Houston

Born in Florence, South Carolina, Houston Person grew up with the earthy, gospel music of the church. Initially, Houston played piano and then switched to the tenor saxophone when he began his studies at South Carolina State College. Learning his craft, he gigged as a sideman at rhythm and blues concerts, following in the tradition of his hard blowing heroes, Gene Ammons and Illinois Jacquet. Of Jacquet, Houston confided, Illinois was "my main influence. He was a great musician, he was a great entertainer. He knew how to approach an audience. He had a wonderful sound and his music was always fun, very impressive."  

The Gospel Soul Of Houston Person (1978) signed by Houston

Houston also performed with a country and western band, an improbable alliance. As he said, "I played in a country and western band with two guitars. That was a challenge to cut through. When you are done with all of that experience, you have something to work with. When you hear my sound, you hear all of that other stuff. You get a little bit of it all." Houston's thick, warm sonorous sound, dripping like slow, honeyed molasses, was a fusion of the blues, country, gospel, and soul music which surrounded him.

The Big Horn (1976 recordings, 1979 release) signed by Houston

Houston's real jazz education began when he joined the U.S. Air Force after college. He was stationed at the Ramstein Air Force base in Heidelberg, West Germany from 1957-58 and jammed on weekends with Don Ellis, Eddie Harris and Cedar Walton, musicians and colleagues who left a lasting impression. Houston was self deprecating about the experience, "They were all really playing. The only person who wasn't playing was me! So they had me to kick around on weekends." When he returned to the United States, Houston took additional studies at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut where, "They didn't have any jazz there, it was strictly classical music."

Heavy Juice (1982) signed by Houston

Houston's first recordings with Johnny "Hammond" Smith, the Hammond B3 maestro, had a big influence developing Houston's expressive and expansive sound, "Oh yeah, you've got to fight that Leslie (woofer and Hammond organ), got to learn how to cut through those sustained chords. But on the ballads, those sustained chords show you how to take your time. I learned a lot from the organ groups, they helped me get it together."

The Best Of Richard Groove Holmes (1969)

Indeed, Houston got it together and has had a prolific recording career with more than seventy-five albums as a leader, and hundreds more as a sideman. Houston is particularly well known for his exquisite blowing on ballads. This skill was enhanced by his time accompanying singers, especially the thirty years he performed with Etta Jones, a wonderful jazz artist. The lyrics and phrasing formed an integral part of Houston's musicianship, a lesson learned from one of his heroes, Ben Webster. Many years ago in a studio recording session, Ben Webster in a gorgeous tenor solo in full flight stopped abruptly. When the producer asked why? Ben chuckled, "Sorry, I forgot the words." The many times I have seen Houston through the years, he has never forgotten the words!

Black Talk! (1969) signed by Houston

I saw Houston Person recently at the Jazz Standard in New York City. He was celebrating his eighty-second birthday with his quartet, John DiMartino on piano, Matthew Parrish on bass, and former Tom Waits drummer, Chip White. They opened with "Why Not?" an upbeat groover that Houston wrote, then the gorgeous ballad, "All My Tomorrows" from the pen of Jimmy Van Heusen and the voice of Frank Sinatra, and a frenetic, hard blowing "Lester Leaps In", a romp written by Lester Young during his stint with Count Basie in the 1930s. Other highlights were a Latin inflected  "Bossa For Baby" by Hank Mobley, and a mid-tempo, strolling treatment of "Nice 'n' Easy", another beautiful song from the Frank Sinatra canon. The encore was "Since I Fell For You", a deep, mournful blues, wrung out and strung out, slowly and sensually rendered by a master balladeer. As always, Houston took his time.

Spicy! (1967) signed by Houston, Pat Martino

After the show, I visited with Houston in his dressing room. I wished him a Happy Birthday and told him I felt (almost!) guilty having him sign his vinyl after bestowing us with such a wonderful show, his music was a gift to all. He smiled, "That's alright. I'm glad you're here, and my daughter brought me a cake! Now, let's see what you got." I handed him Harmony, an album which depicts a comely swimsuit model strategically cradling his saxophone. "What's going on here?" I inquired. A long pause as he searched the cover and the image. "Nothing," came the emphatic and stern reply. Then a broad smile creased his lips, "That was a fun record." I handed him a couple of Richard "Groove" Holmes records, one he played on, one he didn't. He happily signed both, "I can see why you like this cover," he chuckled as he handed me back the aptly titled Spicy. He loved the album The Gospel Soul, a nod to his beginnings in the church. I told him that the album was unavailable digitally. "You should go to Japan. All my stuff is available there," he advised. I couldn't resist a Tom Waits reference, "So, you're big in Japan?" "Yes, they have everything. You need to go there," he replied. I thanked him again for sharing his birthday with us, and especially his gorgeous tenor sound.

Blues All Day Long (1988) signed by Houston

Houston Person, an underrated and relatively unknown tenor Saxophone Colossus. He is pure pleasure.

Pure Pleasure (1976) signed by Houston

Postscript: I saw Houston Person November 26, 2021 at the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown, New York, fronting a great quartet with Larry Fuller on piano, Matthew Parrish on bass and Vincent Ector on drums. The only concession to Houston’s recent eighty-seventh birthday was his approach to perform mostly sitting on a stool. The sound of his tenor saxophone remained resonant and luminous whether he played a lugubrious ballad “As Time Goes By,” a bluesy and brassy “Since I Fell For You,” an uptempo “Blue Moon,” or a bumping and brash “Sunny” to close the set.

Broadway (1980) signed by Houston

Before the show I visited with Houston and he signed some more vinyl. As I handed Underground Soul, he laughed, “This was my first album, that was a long, long time ago.” I mentioned that I loved all his work, but especially the Hammond B3 collaborations with masters Charles Earland, Richard Groove Holmes and Johnny Hammond Smith. “Thank you,” he replied, “You need to check out my latest with Ben Patterson. He’s really good, and they’re selling it at the coat check.” Sadly not on vinyl, only on CD, I bought it and Houston was right, it’s fabulous! I asked him what we was going to play, hoping for a preview. “Yeah, I don’t know, I never know. When I get out there, we just figure it out.” I guess with over eighty-five albums, countless sessions and songs, and seventy years of performing gives Houston that right, and he never disappoints!

Choice Houston Person Cuts (per BK's request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmhKnHRbrE

"Since I Fell For You"  The Blues, Nothin' but the Blues!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PjYQndM-JM

“More Today Than Yesterday"  with Charles Earland on Hammond B3, Melvin Sparks on guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7AJj2AlvTc

“All My Tomorrows"  sumptuous balladry without Frank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfIhwTv9M8
“What's Goin' On?"  Houston swings Marvin Gaye!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-npjVDK2XU

“Let's Stay Together" Houston swings Al Green!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB9fiA_HXmU
"Shaft" Houston and "Pretty" Purdie swing Isaac Hayes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gs_CL7fLkQ
“At Last" Houston swings Etta James!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFjZwmY8eWk
“Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered" Houston swings Frank!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou871xaLpSM
"In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning"   Houston Swings more Frank!

Bonus Track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWIR9mvf-IU 
"Big In Japan"   Tom Waits  Mule Variations   1998

Always On My Mind (1985) signed by Houston

Wild Flower (1978) signed by Houston

Suspicions (1980) signed by Houston

In The Pocket (1982) signed by Houston

Stolen Sweets (1977) signed by Houston

Very Personal (1981) signed by Houston

The Players: Pearls Of Love (1957) signed by Houston

Why Not! (1990) signed by Houston

Hank Crawford and Me…

I asked to be recorded with strings, and I was surprised when I got a yes on it from Neshui Ertegun at Atlantic Records. He agreed, to my surprise, and asked me who did I want to do the arrangements, and I said Marty Paich. I had heard Marty Paich’s small band arrangements when he was writing for Shorty Rogers and Stan Kenton, the West Coast scene, and I liked the way he voiced the strings. I found out the secret; he used french horns with strings to get that real melancholy sound. So Neshui agreed, and we went to California to record the record. I selected all the tunes except one, which really turned out to be sort of a signature tune for me, which was “Whispering Grass.”  Marty Paich suggested that.

Hank Crawford, recording Soul Of The Ballad

After Hours (1966) signed by Hank

And I like all music, man. I’m not trying to put down anybody. I have respect for anybody who gets involved in the business because it’s so competitive. But when I hear a guy that can cross all bridges, and comfortable playing in each setting, that’s what I admire — and don’t feel guilty playing it. I don’t feel guilty playing “Steel Guitar Rag” if I’m called to play it, you know what I mean? I heard that when I was coming up as a kid, man, at 6 o’clock in the morning. Down South, that’s the first thing you’d hear on your radio, is Country & Western and Gospel music...I spent many days listening to Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow and all of those people. And we all liked it! Even jazz musicians, they can’t say they didn’t grow up listening to these people. So I played it as a youngster, and I don’t feel offended by it. I just do my best in it. So it’s music to me. I don’t mind being square because I play this tune. In fact, it’s a blessing to be able to play in all the styles. That’s when your phone keeps ringing!

               Hank Crawford

Indigo Blue (1983) signed by Hank, David Fathead Newman, Dr. John, Howard Johnson, Bernard Pretty Purdie, Melvin Sparks

If musicians had to pay royalties for using someone else's sound the way they have to for recording someone else's songs, David (Newman) and Hank would be billionaires.

               producer Joel Dorn

More Soul (1960) signed by Hank

Listening to him, listening to the sound come out of his horn - that's like an education. That's a year of college right there, I'm telling you.

               saxophonist David Sanborn

Soul Survivors (1986) signed by Jimmy McGriff, Hank “Mr. Frim Fram”

I get asked lots of questions about my record collection, What's the most valuable? Nicest artist? Most disagreeable? No easy answers. The worst place I ever solicited a signature? That's easy, Hank Crawford in the men's room of a now defunct jazz club in lower Manhattan in 1986. Admittedly shameless pandering, here's how it happened...

I went to see Hank perform his alto saxophone wizardry with Hammond B3 maestro Jimmy McGriff, guitarist Wayne Boyd and drummer Don Williams. I was relatively new to stalking artists to sign vinyl and I was determined to get my quarry. Hank and Jimmy had just released Soul Survivors and they were playing their incendiary stew of soul-jazz-funk. After a long solo, Hank left the bandstand mid-song and went to the men's room. I followed. While Hank was finishing his business, I pretended to go as well. After Hank washed his hands, I whipped out The Soul Of The Ballad, a beautiful 1963 album featuring Hank's stirring alto with string arrangements by Marty Paich. "Hank, would you mind signing this? It's one of my favorite albums." He looked at me quizzically, "Alright, but we gotta do this quick, I need to get back on the bandstand." He signed the album and handed it back to me and left to rejoin Jimmy and the band in full flight. Clearly, not my most shining moment but effective nonetheless.

Soul Survivors (1986) signed by Hank, Jimmy McGriff, Bernard Pretty Purdie

To me (and probably only me!), it was reminiscent of the Keith Richards-Johnny Cash encounter at Johnny's Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame induction dinner in 1996. According to Keef's autobiography Life, Keith went to the bathroom and saw Johnny in the next stall. Keefer started singing "Loading Coal", a Johnny Cash obscurity. Keith said, "I'm pissing with Johnny Cash. We need a picture of this!" "No Keith, we do not need a picture of this," Johnny replied resolutely. Johnny Cash explained his perspective, "I was standing at the urinal in the rest room before the dinner and I heard this voice behind me singing 'Loading Coal,' which is probably one of the most obscure songs I ever recorded. I wondered who in the world could be singing that song and when I looked around I saw Keith and he had this big smile on his face. So I turned around and we sang the chorus together. That's when I guess I knew everything was going to be OK."

Now, I didn't sing any songs with Hank Crawford that night in the men's room, fortunately he plays instrumentals, but I did get one of my favorite albums signed by a favorite jazz saxophone star.

Midnight Ramble (1983) signed by Hank, David Fathead Newman, Dr. John, Howard Johnson, Bernard Pretty Purdie

Born in Memphis, Hank Crawford grew up surrounded by the sounds of the church, rhythm and blues, soul, and especially the blues. Hank was trained on piano and then switched to alto saxophone. When he attended Manassas High School in Memphis, some of his peers and classmates were future jazz legends George Coleman, Booker Little, Harold Mabern, Phineas Newborn, Jr. and his brother Calvin. As Hank later observed, "We had a pretty good education just by being around each other."

Mr. Blues (1967) signed by Hank

While still in high school, Hank sat in on some sessions in 1950 with B.B. King, a rising bluesman under the direction of master producer Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records and produced the early recordings of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner, and Howlin' Wolf. Sam Phillips essentially invented rock and roll at his humble, renovated store front studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. In fact, some musicologists cite pianist Ike Turner's 1951 hit "Rocket 88" with Jackie Brenston on vocals as the birth of rock and roll.

Dig These Blues (1965) signed by Hank

After playing locally, Hank joined the Ray Charles big band in 1958 and he became its music director in 1960, serving with distinction until he left for a successful solo career in 1963. As he said about his time with Ray, "He was strict about his music and how he wanted to run his organization, but if you adjusted to how he wanted things done, you could make it very easily. I watched how he liked his voicings, the horns and everything, so I made it like a classroom. Being around him augmented what I was thinking about...my direction."

Down On The Deuce (1984) signed by Hank, David Fathead Newman, Howard Johnson, Cedar Walton

Hank released more than forty albums in his career and he was featured on studio sessions with Etta James, Grant Green, Eric Clapton and many others. His warm, expressive alto was imbued with the sacred and profane which swirled around Memphis in the 1940s and 1950s, and Hank's influence extends far beyond soul jazz aficionados. Hip hop artists like Kanye West, Tupac, Drake and more than twenty other artists have sampled his righteous soul grease on their recent tracks. Hank was also a phenomenal arranger who wrote inspired charts for Ray Charles and he released five albums with Jimmy McGriff, the pre-eminent Hammond B3 soul-blues-jazz master. I was lucky to see Hank and Jimmy perform many times through the years and Jimmy McGriff ended up playing my wedding, but that's another story for another time!

Outside Looking In (1978) signed by Hank, Jimmy McGriff

Hank' s own words best encapsulate his music and approach:

"I found out as a young musician growing up in Memphis that if you weren't reaching people, and having them tap their foot, then there was nothing happening."

Mr. Chips (1986) signed by Hank

Thanks for all the grooves, Hank. There was always toes tappin' and something happenin', especially with Jimmy McGriff.

Steppin’ Up (1987) signed by Hank, Jimmy McGriff

Choice Hank Crawford Cuts (per BK's request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSHMRyY5Drk
"Whispering Grass" The Soul Of The Ballad 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJFMAZT4gcw
"Bill For Bennie" written by Hank, performed with Ray Charles on piano, David "Fathead" Newman on tenor, Hank on baritone, Swing Baby Swing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC88dJ4KuFw
"Wildflower" 1973 sampled by Kanye's "Drive Slow", Tupac's "Shorty Wanna Be A Thug"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THK5FVuptp0
"Every Day I Have The Blues" Hank and Jimmy Live 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nbouwehaMY
"You Send Me" Hank and Jimmy Live 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Cx8Tk4Miw
"The Peeper" Hank and David Sanborn Live 1990

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6jgvlbzy-I
"Frim Fram Sauce" Hank and Jimmy Soul Survivors 1986

Bonus tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__3wWqMKg4I
"Loading Coal" Johnny Cash without Keith!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0"Rocket 88" Ike Turner with Jackie Brenston 1951 - The birth of rock'n'roll

On The Blue Side (1990) signed by Hank, Jimmy McGriff

Still Hard Times (1982) signed by Hank, David Fathead Newman, Jimmy Cobb, Howard Johnson, Larry Willis

Fire! Live At The Village Vanguard (1989) signed by Hank, David Fathead Newman, Stanley Turrentine, David Williams

The Best Of Hank Crawford (1970) signed by Hank

Help Me Make It Through The Night (1972) signed by Hank

Brad Mehldau and Me…

Improvisation is one of the big things I use in my own definition of jazz. You have the ability to make a pretty intricate narrative, to play around with time itself, like a novel does, and your memory, and your expectation of what's taking place. Monk is doing that, Wayne Shorter, Coltrane. Most of my jazz heroes have that narrative aspect. Improvisation usually implies something very non-intellectual at its core, because when it's really working it has a real flow, it's in the moment. But if I listen to Coltrane, he's in the white heat of the moment, but there's also intricacy and complexity; you can enjoy it as a piece of art the same way you enjoy the compositional rigor of a Beethoven symphony or a Bach fugue. And then (you remember) it's being improvised. I think that's what appealed to me as a kid. Why you respond to something like a great Coltrane solo; to what extent you can map that is an interesting question. And particularly for jazz - it's a little less mapped, a little less written about than classical music, which has been a canon for such a long time. It's a little more open.

Brad Mehldau

Ballads And Blues (2014) signed by Brad

The challenge and the thrill are one and the same - there is no net; there is absolute freedom. When jazz musicians improvise in a group setting, they are often following some sort of schema - often it’s variations on the initial theme of whatever they are playing. When you are playing solo, you don’t have to correspond to what someone else is doing. So you might take that approach, but you might decide to chuck it out at a certain point and go off on a tangent that doesn’t formally adhere to what you’ve just been doing. That can be exciting and rewarding. The challenge there though is to make something with integrity - something that has a story to tell.

Brad Mehldau on the art of playing solo

The Art Of The Trio Volume Two (1997) signed by Brad

I was not really sure what I wanted to do because there is always so many different options for a recording. The way it went down was playing at The Vanguard once before with my own trio, I felt a special affinity for that place and a real inspiration that came from playing that room, because of the audiences that are there and the kind of intensity that they have when they’re listening. The room itself, for the kind of music we play, and most people feel that way, acoustically, it is so wonderful because you can hear everything perfectly. So there’s all sorts of subtleties that get lost a lot when you play in other venues, like a festival or whatever. Of course, playing live is a totally different thing than trying to create something in the studio. I asked Matt Pierson, the producer, if I could record the whole week and put it out and he said yes. Then, I just knew I wanted to do it, just because I had the opportunity to. Because, for me, if I had the option in a perfect world, I would make every album live and just put five or six songs on there. Those are my favorite albums, Miles Davis At The Plugged Nickel or Blackhawk or Coltrane At Birdland, where you hear them getting into that place they get when they’re allowed to stretch out and there’s no constraints. The music gets transcendental for me.

Brad Mehldau - recording at the Village Vanguard

The Art Of The Trio Volume Three (1998) signed by Brad

I have several ideas before I go out on the stage, and I usually stick to around half of them. Some things that I thought I would play I don’t when I get on stage because of what takes place when I get out there. For instance, if I play something that goes much longer than I originally intended, I will skip something else. I try for variety and often think of a multi-movement symphonic work or sonata as a model - you’ve usually got one movement that’s more intellectual, one that’s more simple direct, one that’s fast, one that’s slow, one that’s in 3/4 time maybe, etc. - in other words, a variety of mood and texture. In all that, as I’m going along, there is some sort of abstract narrative that presents itself in a concert - I don’t know how else to put it. Sometimes it will come in the form of themes that reappear in the different tunes I’m playing, or harmonic devices, or rhythmic motifs. That presents itself in the act of playing; it’s not something that is planned out.

Brad Mehldau

Suite: April 2020 (2020) signed by Brad

The piano itself is endlessly expressive as an instrument, but it's also rewarding to think more as an orchestrator---to think about ways of organizing sound. Many of the musicians or composers I am influenced by are great orchestrators as well, and I suppose their influence rubs off on me. Brahms seems to be one that I myself notice at least—I always see his music peeking out in what I write. It’s what one of his biographers described as “smiling through tears.” I like a bleeding heart that holds itself in check a bit—that kind of German Romanticism, not all in your face.

Brad Mehldau

Finding Gabriel (2018) signed by Brad

New York City is the greatest city in the world and it's not even close. Notwithstanding the politics, the peril, the naysayers, the nattering nabobs of negativity, no matter the turmoil and sturm und drang which the city endures, it always prevails. It simply does. Exhibit A in my ongoing love affair with all things New York was a recent visit to Mezzrow, a piano listening room on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village, just a couple of blocks from the hallowed and sacred Village Vanguard. On a summery, wind swept Monday night in August, the virtuoso jazz pianist Brad Mehldau performed a solo recital for fifty lucky souls. It was an extraordinary experience.

Seymour Reads The Constitution! (2018) signed by Brad

When I initially stumbled across the announcement for the concert online, I thought it was a mistake. Perhaps it was a streaming only concert, not an actual live performance. After all, Brad was more accustomed to playing concert halls, like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Symphony Hall in Boston, or Carnegie Hall in New York City, not a creaky, dimly lit basement room in Greenwich Village. With skepticism, I bought a ticket and hoped that it wouldn't get canceled, checking almost daily to see if my hopes would be dashed. They weren't.

When I got to the club, a small line of patrons gathered outside the venue and soon I was ushered to my seat, maybe five feet from the grand piano which filled almost the entirety of the stage. A brick wall served as the backdrop and there didn't seem to be much amplification, nor was any needed. Mezzrow is the genius of pianist Spike Wilner, who founded the club in September 2014, a piano room offshoot of Smalls, a well known jazz club since its resurgence in 2004. The club was named after a very colorful character in jazz - Mezz Mezzrow.

Largo (2002) signed by Brad

Mezz Mezzrow, born in Chicago in 1899, was in and out of reform schools and prison while developing a passion for jazz and playing clarinet, especially influenced by the music of his hero Louis Armstrong who was based in Chicago at the time with his fabled Hot Five. In 1933, Mezz's orchestra recorded with jazz luminaries Benny Carter, Teddy Wilson and Willie "The Lion" Smith, the first of approximately one hundred-fifty sides which Mezz helmed with other jazz legends including Art Hodes and Sidney Bechet. While his clarinet skills were pedestrian and lackluster, Mezz was probably best known as a prolific marijuana dealer, with Louis Armstrong his best and most devoted customer. His business exploits were so ubiquitous that ‘Mezz' became slang for marijuana, an important and essential addition to the 1930s hipsters’ lexicon. Thus, the club Mezzrow is a fitting tribute to its namesake who devoted his life to jazz and pleasing others. Still, it was a remarkable and unlikely venue for a Brad Mehldau performance, certainly one of the preeminent and influential pianists extant.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1970, Brad was ten when the Mehldaus moved to West Hartford, Connecticut. Brad’s father was an ophthalmologist, his mother a homemaker, and a piano was a constant presence in their home. He was soon smitten with Jazz, “I started out as a kid playing classical piano and listening to rock. When I first heard jazz when I was eleven or so, it seemed to have something from both of those types of music, but something even more - a deep feeling of dance rhythm and the blues, and also the kind of virtuoso display that I associated with classical piano players that I admired."

Round Again (2019) signed by Brad

The proximity to New York City. proved an inescapable and powerful lure, "I knew that I wanted to come here because it was everything that the suburbs wasn't. I was a white, upper-middle-class kid who lived in a pretty homogenized environment. Yet I was with a couple of other people, like Joel Frahm, the tenor saxophonist, who went to the same high school as me. A group of us were trying to expose ourselves to jazz. So New York for us was sort of the Other, yet it wasn't too far away, a two hour-and fifteen minute car or bus ride. What really cemented me wanting to go to New York was when I came here with my folks during my senior year of high school, and we went one night to Bradley's, and heard the Hank Jones-Red Mitchell duo. That blew me away, seeing someone play jazz like that, about six feet from you. The next night I heard Cedar Walton...with Bobby Hutcherson, Billy Higgins, Ron Carter and Harold Land, small ensemble jazz. The immediacy of hearing Billy Higgins' ride cymbal and seeing Cedar Walton comping, after hearing it for three years on all those great Blue Note records I had. That was it. I knew I had to come here, just from an actual visceral need to get more of THAT as a listener."

Alone Together (1996) signed by Brad

When he graduated from high school, Brad enrolled at The New School in New York City and he had the great fortune to study with some jazz piano masters. Brad remembered, "I had some very good lessons at The New School with Kenny Werner and Fred Hersch, and Junior Mance was my first teacher there. He was a little different than Fred and Kenny. Fred concentrated on getting a good sound out of the piano and playing solo piano a lot, which was great, because I hadn't got there yet. Perfect timing. Kenny showed me ways to construct lines and develop my solo vocabulary specific harmonic stuff. With Junior, it was more that thing I described of soaking it up by being around him. We would play on one piano, or if we had a room with two pianos, we'd play on two. I said, 'I want to learn how to comp better. I listened to you on these Dizzy Gillespie records and your comping is perfect. How do you do that?' He said, "Well, let's do it." So we sat down and he would comp for me, and then I would comp for him and try to mimic him. Yeah, soak up what he was doing. Junior is a beautiful person. A lot of those guys to me still are models as people, for their generosity as human beings, and Junior is certainly one in that sense." Brad was able to soak up those invaluable lessons and, after playing with fellow rising star saxophonist Joshua Redman for eighteen months, Brad formed a trio and was signed by Warner Brothers releasing Introducing Brad Mehldau in 1995. Since then, more than thirty albums have followed including collaborations with revered jazz artists Charlie Haden, Charles Lloyd, Lee Konitz and Wayne Shorter as well as sessions with Daniel Lanois, Willie Nelson, Chris Thile and Allen Toussaint.

Your Mother Should Know (2023) signed by Brad

As eclectic and diverse as that list may be, Brad's real genius is broadening the Great American Songbook to include not only Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Thelonious Monk and Richard Rodgers but also The Beatles, Kurt Cobain, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan and Radiohead. In Brad's deft hands, these melodies become virtuosic explorations and unparalleled sonic excursions. As Brad once said, "I don't make a distinction between genres, I just write and play what I'm feeling. Music in itself doesn't have genres. It's just twelve different tones and how you arrange them in a given point of time."

Long Gone (2022) signed by Brad

Erin and I have been blessed to see Brad many times over the years, as a solo artist, with his trio, and as a sideman supporting his great friend, guitarist Peter Bernstein. The shows were always inspiring, especially with his jaw dropping talent. The gig at Mezzrow was just as rewarding, probably more so given the intimacy of the venue. At the start of the show, Brad sat down at the piano and said, “it’s really great to be back in New York. I’m not going to say a lot about what’s happened, we’ve all experienced the loss. All I can say is, I’m really happy to be here playing for you.” He wasn’t the only one exultant!

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau (2017) signed by Brad

Brad opened with a melodic “Here, There, Everywhere” from the Lennon/McCartney songbook which segued seamlessly into Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Next came “Go To Sleep” by Radiohead and a gorgeous and soulful “Golden Lady” from the pen of Stevie Wonder. Other highlights were an appropriately dissonant “Skippy” by Thelonious Monk, an extended and an appropriately overwrought “Come Rain Or Come Shine” and “Dis Here” by the great soul jazz pianist Bobby Timmons. He finished with more Radiohead, “Little By Little,” exquisitely rendered. Unlike some jazz artists, Brad announced the names of the songs near the end of his program which was appreciated given how much he deconstructs and reinvents the melodies. He also said, “You all are so close, it’s freaking me out.” I think he was kidding. Maybe.

Jacob’s Ladder (2022) signed by Brad

After the show, I met him near the club entrance. I told him what a thrill it was to see him in such an intimate venue having seen him at much larger spaces over the years. ‘This is extraordinary,’ I gushed. “Thank you. You know, Spike (Wilner) is an old friend and I’m really happy to be here.” I handed him some vinyl to sign and told him how excited I was to have some of his music finally on vinyl instead of CDs. “Yes, my label Nonesuch is big on vinyl,” he replied.‘Have you ever heard anything from Thom Yorke or Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead on your treatments of their songs? I mean, they’re very talented songwriters, no doubt, but you’re a virtuoso,’ I asked. “That’s very kind of you to say. Actually, I do know their producer Nigel Godrich and he’s told me they really like what I do with their songs.” I couldn’t resist a shameless Tom Waits plug, ‘You know, I heard you cover Tom Waits on a sketchy bootleg awhile back. I’d love to hear you reinvent some of his songs.’ Brad smiled, “Oh yeah, I did ‘Martha,’ that’s a nice little tune, a beautiful melody.” I saw an opening, ‘You know, you could do a lot with his songs, “Take It With Me,” “Picture In A Frame,” Invitation To The Blues,” those all have great melodies. You could do a lot with them,’ I persisted. “ You know,” Brad said, “his songs are so lyrically driven, they may overshadow the melodies, but they have that melancholy which is essential.” Yes, the Celtic melancholy which inhabits my soul, perhaps one day he will explore Waits! I thanked Brad for his time, talent, generosity and especially his transcendent music.

Brad Mehldau, a jazz master and a gifted songwriter with impeccable taste. Not many can master Bach, Brahms, The Beatles, Dylan, Nick Drake, Nirvana, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder and Thelonious Monk with equal aplomb and conviction. Just arranging twelve different tones and smiling through tears!

Atlantic Jazz (1982) signed by Brad, Dave Brubeck, Ray Bryant, Kenny Barron, Tommy Flanagan, Sir Roland Hanna, Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Dwike Mitchell, Junior Mance, Andre Previn, Horace Silver, Billy Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Chucho Valdes

Atlantic Jazz Piano back cover signed by Monty Alexander, Roger Kellaway, Harold Mabern, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Randy Weston

Choice Brad Mehldau Cuts (per BKs request)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k9bzHNfRCk

“I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” Anything Goes 2004

I wake up every day to this beautiful song, you should too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zBQ52LxWWA

“River Man” Brad plays Nick Drake live in SF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvMaC63vdao

“She’s Leaving Home” Day Is Done 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_JqOlHHiWc

“Bittersweet Symphony > Smells Like Teen Spirit” Brad plays The Verve and Nirvana 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Fk5OMKy7w

“When It Rains” Brad plays Brad Largo 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc0UiB7FvqI

“Song Song” The Art Of The Trio Volume 3 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F3J5BrPtqM

“Moon River” The Art Of The Trio Volume 2 1998

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpF0qKQ4WeE

“And I Love Her” Brad plays The Beatles 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GNuMfQ1N0g

“Tear Drop” Brad plays Massive Attack! Live 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQGKHZ5KmE

“Hey Joe” Brad channels Jimi Hendrix 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-P679ZcwAg

“Little By Little” Brad plays Radiohead 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bCueJXqLYQ

“Dear Prudence” Largo 2002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gJ-s9hDp4

“Stranger In Paradise” live at Smoke, Brad, Peter Bernstein, Jimmy Cobb, John Webber

Bonus picks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Ye4m3bPQ8
Brad Mehldau livestream, Mezzrow 9 August 2021 first set

Thanks, luv and much respect to Spike Wilner and the gang at Mezzrow for their tireless and amazing efforts!

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Sitting in with Brad, “Where Do You Start” written by Johnny Mandel, Smoke, NYC August 12, 2023 early show, with Larry Grenadier and Joe Farnsworth