My friend, the late swiss jazz researcher Otto Flückiger, was a great fan of tenor saxophonist Arnett Cobb (1918–1989). So when Otto went on a trip through the USA in spring of 1980 he took the chance to visit Cobb in his hometown, Houston TX.
Arnett Cobb with Otto Flückiger in Cobb’s home, Houston TX, spring 1980.
Photo probably by Trudi Flückiger.
On that occasion Otto interviewed Cobb about his career, playing with Frank Davis, going to Chicago with Milton Larkin to play at the Rhumboogie, joining Lionel Hampton, forming his own band and the auto accident that dramatically changed Cobb’s life. There are about 40 minutes from this interview on a C90 cassette tape which I found in Otto’s collection:
So I decided to digitize this – unpublished as far as I know – fantastic interview. I just edited out some longer passages of silence and some parts where the conversation is running in circles and into dead ends caused by translation problems. The female voice in the later parts of the interview is Trudi, Otto’s wife, who probably also took the photo of Cobb and Otto shown at the top.
I was always waiting to find the time to transcribe the interview, but I probably never will. So I am putting it up here for you all to hear and cherish yourself:
If you came here because you like Arnett Cobb. I got something more for you. First some nice photographs that Otto Flückiger took when Arnett Cobb appeared in Baden, Switzerland on May 4, 1974 (you can click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge) Arnett Cobb at a concert in Baden, Switzerland, 1974.
Photos by Otto Flückiger
And here is some footage of Arnett Cobb featured with the Lionel Hampton Band in Nice, France in summer 1978.
Last autumn I made – via email- the acquiaintance of a very nice gentleman: Monsieur Georges Mathys, who was born in 1918. Georges Matthys for years and years organized the “Jazz in Yverdon” concert series in the town of the same name in the french speaking swiss canton Vaudois. He was a jazz fan from early on and for example helped to organize the 1946 Don Redman concerts in Geneva as well as in Zurich. Monsieur Mathys was so nice as to supply the autographs of Don Redman’s band members he gathered on one of this concert on the page I did with some fellow researchers on Don Redman’s 1946 european tour.
Autographs of Don Redman’s band members, 1946. From the collection of
Georges Mathys
I asked Georges Mathys about his memories of these days, and he kindly send me the story of his life in jazz and was so nice as to allow me to publish it here, which I am proud to do:
My attention towards jazz began at the time when the french chanson partly became infused with new rhythms that I liked, for example in songs by Charles Trénet or Jean Tranchant. I started to look where this was coming from and that is how I discovered jazz. From time to time in some beer tavern in the Vaudois an enthusing record turned up at the bottom of the pile, for example some Muggsy Spanier on a HMV record.
My investigations than led me to some titles by Duke Ellington: “Solitude”, “Creole Love Call”, music from 1927 that to us was still new.
Later on some meetings I met some friends who by chance also listened to jazz – but to a kind of jazz I did not appreciate yet: Lionel Hampton. This was to harsh for me, i preferred Artie Shaw. But soon enough I discovered I got acclimated and started to penetrate this new musical world.
On invitation we went to the boarding schools to accompany the young girls there to the dance. I always found the same friends there and we profitted from presenting some jazz titles. But we had to be careful, since the school principals did not like this “negro music”. But on each of these evenings we discovered new names, new styles.
In the 1940s I organized some kind of jazz club. I organized meetings and concerts with musicians from the region. I had already penetrated the music and felt that marvellous phenomenon called swing.
Then in 1938 in Yverdon, the first delightful shivers: On two evenings the Bobby Martin orchestra was on stage to accompany the dancers. I did not know the musician’s great reputation yet, but I knew to appreciate them.
Bobby Martin’s orchestra in
Switzerland, 1938. From the Otto
Flückiger collection (there must be
a larger copy somewhere,
I’ll add it when I find it)
After that the war came and records became rare. We succeded in exchanging some records with people in france, – illegally, mostly through Geneva, the large border town. But there was not much coming from there. And then there were some swiss license pressings of american records, priced highly, which allowed beautiful findings.
After the war was over I helped in organizing the Don Redman concerts in Geneva and Zurich.Then came an unforgettable concert in Lausanne in 1948: LOUIS ARMSTRONG ALL STARS! The crowning of our efforts! A lot of people were present, what a wonderful evening!
Louis Armstrong in 1948. Does anyone know the photographer?
From 1942 to 1950 I lived in the german speaking part of switzerland, in Olten. My activity intensified during that period. The founding of several Hot Clubs – jazz appreciation societies – (Olten, Baden, Lenzburg and many others). Being a member of such a club menat taking part in the regular meetings, debates and record presentations. I made the acquaintance of experts like Otto Flückiger, Kurt Mohr, Johnny Simmen Félix Steinmann with all of whom I spent a lot of very interesting moments with. In Olten I founded the Fédération Suisse de jazz (Swiss Jazz Federation) with its magazine, “Hot Revue”. But the different styles unfortunately did not allow a lasting union.
I went back to the french speaking part of switzerland and then came the time of all the festivals and all the concerts I organized in Yverdon with the excellent american soloists and the many recordings of beautiful souvenirs until the end of my activities in organizing jazz events.
Today I am listeing to and watching many bands, but is is still mainly JAZZ!
To see a complete list of the Jazz in Yverdon concerts from 1953 on and see some accompanying photos, go here and click through the years in the left column. In Otto Flückiger’s archives I found many audio and video documents from concerts that Georges Mathys organized in Yverdon. Monsieur Mathys was so generous as to allow me to present some of this audio or video clips on my blog and I am starting here with a sixty minute clip showing the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band (HBHB) in concert at the Théâtre Municipal Yverdon on June 20 1985.
On this occasion the HBJB consisted of trumpeter Bobby Williams, saxophonist/clarinetist Heywood Henry, pianist Stan Greig, Al Casey on guitar, bassist Johnny Williams and drummer Belton Evans. Originally trombonist Eddie Durham was also to be part of the band, but was hospitalized in London shortly before the tour.
Enjoy!
P.S.: Thanks to the Shark for help in translating!
Here’s a little christmas present for you all: The Original Tuxedo Jass Band playing “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” in the TV studios of Südwestfunk Baden-Baden in autumn 1964. This clip is just a part of the band’s appearance that was broadcasted in the series “Jazz gehört und gesehen” (Jazz heard and seen) in 1965.
You will see (and hear!) Joshua “Jack” Willis (tp) Waldren “Frog” Joseph (tb) Joseph “Cornbread” Thomas (cl,vcl) Jeanette Kimball (p) Albert “Papa” French (bj,g) Frank Fields (b) Louis Barbarin (d).
Thanks to the late Otto Flückiger and to Benne Vischer!
As I keep on digitizing all of Otto Flückiger’s old VHS cassettes, I recently found some rare clips, which show some of my favourite piano players. I can really add nothing relevant to what has already been written about these masters. So let’s turn to the lessons they have to teach us right away.
First up is Earl Hines, captured in concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 2nd 1974 (parts of this concert were released on LP and CD as “West Side Story”).
Clip number two gives you nearly twenty minutes of the Thelonious Monk Quartet in Bussum, Netherlands on April 15 1961.Thelonious Monk,Charlie Rouse, John Ore and Frankie Dunlop are playing “Nutty”, “Bemsha Swing”, “Crepuscule With Nellie” and “I Mean You”. Parts of this video have been on (and still are) on youtube. But that is only a part of everything that was broadcast and it is vary faded and greenish. This version is reddish instead – but much clearer. Unfortunately there are two longer gaps in this video, I accidentally left them in. Also Monk is starting to play “Epistrophy” before “Crepuscule …” This footage is missing on the VHS cassette I have here.
The third and final clip was filmed on the same day and in the same location as the Hines track, Montreux July 2 1974 that is. Parts of this concert by piano master Cecil Taylor were released on te LP and Cd under the title “Silent Tongues”. I can not tell you if the music from the LP is in this clip, since I do not have it at hand.
The 1976 European tour of Sun Ra and his Arkestra with concerts in Italy, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands did a lot for the popularity of that band from outer space among european jazz fans. One of the reasons for this besides the impressive show that Sun Ra and band delivered, was that several star owned European TV stations filmed the concerts (or at least parts thereof).
Here is some footage from the concert in Pescara, Italy (uploaded by youtube user chieflittlenuts):
Youtube user chieflittlenuts alo uploaded the first part of the surviving footage from the Montreux concert on July 9th
As I think there can never be enough good quality Sun Ra on youtube, I have uploaded the rest of the known footage from the Montreux concert: Twelve minutes of Sun Ra and his Arkestra playing Billy Strayhorn’s “Take The A Train”. It starts with a long solo introduction by Ra and also offers a classic John Gilmore solo and lots of drumming by Clifford Jarvis.
The November issue of British Music Magazine Wire carries a beautiful shot of german saxophonist Peter Brützmann (now 71) on the cover. Inside you find a long and very interview with Brötzmann focussing not only on his music but also on his rough and brutish visual art. This is followed by a seven page “primer” giving beginners a thorough overview over what one could deem to be Brötzmann’s most important records. All in all a must for fans of Brötzmann.
When I started to listen to jazz in the early eighties, I started with Free Jazz. At that time I lived in the Ruhrgebiet in a town not very far from Wuppertal (which is not in the Ruhrgebiet), where Brötzmann is and was living. Every other months you could find Brötz playing in one of the towns that make up the Ruhrgebiet – at one time solo in maybe a gallery, then in some trio setting in some jazz club, then maybe in a larger venue where he was playing with Bill Laswell, Shannon Jackson and Sonny Sharrock as Last Exit.
I know that Brötzmann hates to be labeled Furor Teutonicus and the like, and yes, I love his romantic solo outings as well as his you-know-what. But let’s be frank: What you look for when hearing Brötzmann, is catharsis and mind clearing abrasive noise. Which is exactly what you get from this little clip I just found on an old VHS cassette:
Peter Brötzmann, Han Bennink, Wolfgang Dauner, Albert Mangelsdorff (not much Mangelsdorff here) at the Theaterhaus-Jazzfestival, Stuttgart 1986.
In late 1984 tenor and soprano saxophonist Nathan Davis (born 1937) formed the Paris Reunion Band to pay tribute to drummer Kenny Clarke (who passed in January 1985) and to evoke the spirit of Paris in the late fifties and early sixties when it was home to many american jazz musicians.
For four or five years the Paris Reunion Band was making the European festival circuit each year. Of course the logistics to gather musicians which have their home in different parts of the planet were enormous and so besides core members Nathan Davis and Woody Shaw the members of the band kept changing.
On March 16, 1986 the Paris Reunion Band played in the Stadtsaal in Burghausen, a small town in the Bavarian part of Germany, during the Jazzwoche Burghausen. At that concert the band consisted of Woody Shaw and Benny Bailey(tp), Glenn Ferris (tb), Nathan Davis (ss, ts), Johnny Griffin (ts), Kenny Drew sr. (p), Jimmy Woode (p) and Alvin Queen (dr). Bavarian TV station BR3 was filming the festival, and I found four tracks on one of Otto Flückiger’s old VHS cassettes – which I am offering you here. I have decided to present the footage in two parts.
Part one consists of the band playing Woody Shaw’s Sweet Love of Mine (solos by Shaw, Griffin, Bailey, Drew) and Slide Hampton’s The Waltz (solos by Davis, Ferris, Davis, Drew).
Part two opens with Johnny Griffin’s feature on Sophisticated Lady, which is followed by the Griffin composition Callitwhachawanna (solos by Drew, Davis, Bailey, Griffin, Ferris, Woode).
In 1976 Milt Buckner was on tour in Europe with his Lionel Hampton Alumni band, a mix of old veterans from the Hampton band such as Arnett Cobb or Eddie Chamblee and younger french musicians.
In Paris they made a stop at the Barclay Studio to record what was to become Eddie Chamblee’s LP “Ten Years After” for the Black & Blue label (one track was later released on a Black & Blue CD of previously unreleased material by the Alumni band, see details in my Milt Buckner discography).
Black & Blue LP 33097
Only recently I discovered some highly interesting footage from the Barclay studio in Otto Flückiger’s large collection of material related to Milt Buckner. Apparently someone had a camera with him on April 30 and filmed the band while it was relaxing and rehearsing. Unfortunately I do not know who is responsible for this footage. It might have well been dutch Milt Buckner fanatic Kees Bakker. If you watch some of the videos of Milt Buckner that I put up on my youtube account – which definitely were filmed by Bakker –, you will notice that they have the very same camera noise.
In this rare and precious seven minute glimpse into the Barclay studios you will encounter: Milt Buckner, Wallace Davenport, Buster Cooper, Earl Warren, Arnett Cobb, André Persiany, Roland Lobligeois, Panama Francis, Eddie Chamblee and visiting guest Sam Woodyard. Enjoy!
When the view outside your window looks something like this:
… which it does right now, did this afternoon, you are in desperate need of the sun – and quick! And here you are! To warm your frozen soul here is Sun Ra and his Omniverse Ultra 21st Century playing at the Theaterhaus-Jazztage in Stuttgart, Germany, in April 1990. This again comes from an old VHS cassette in Otto Flückiger’s collection, kindly digitized by Benne Vischer.
The Arkestra on this occasion is supposed to consist of Ra himself, Ahmed Abdullah, Michael Ray and Jothan Callins on trumpet, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Knoël Scott and James Jacson on reeds and percussion, John Ore on bass, Buster Smith and Samarai Celestial on drums, Elson Nascimento on surdo and percussion and singer June Tyson. Despite the grainy quality: Enjoy!
A figure almost forgotten today is clarinetist, alto saxophonist arranger and singer Campbell “Skeets” Tolbert (1909–2000).
Skeets Tolbert (center)
According to his Wikipedia entry, Tolbert grew up in Lincolntown, North Carolina and first recorded with Dave Taylor’s Dixie Orchestra (Leslie Johnakins who later became known as Machito’s baritone saxophonist was in that band then).
In 1934 Tolbert moved to New York City, where he played with Charlie Alexander before joining the house band at the Savoy Ballroom.
In 1936 he played with Fats Waller, then joined a band fronted by Olympic athlete Jesse Owens in 1937. Shortly afterwards he joined Snub Mosley’s band and took control of it after Mosley’s departure. Freddie Green, Kenny Clarke, Red Richards, Otis Hicks, Carl Smith and Lem Johnson all played in the band, which first recorded in 1939 under the name Skeets Tolbert’s Gentlemen of Swing.
It is said that his sales were poor when he was recording with his Gentleman of Swing for Decca from 1939 to 1942. Nonetheless the company recorded 40 sides with Tolbert. MCA who came to own Decca never bothered to reissue Tolbert’s 78s and fans of fine jump band music had to acquire obscure LPs drawn from 78 records of varying condition to get a taste of Skeetz style that settles somewhere between Johnny Hodges and Louis Jordan. It was only in 1997 and 1998 that french company Chrono(lo)gical Classics issued to CDs worth of Tolbert’s wonderful jive music.
After his Decca recordings we meet Tolbert again in 1944 when his group was doing playback on four tracks (one of them featuring singer Lupe Carterio) for a “Soundies” movie production. These four tracks have appeared and disappeared on youtube over time. But never were all to be seen at the same time. So I decided to edit them all into one clip (which admittedly did not turn out as nice as it was supposed to).
Unfortunately it is not known (at least to me) who the members of Tolbert’s band are on this clip. You will see and hear them play ”‘Tis You Babe”, “No No Baby”, “Blitzkrieg Bombardier”, and “Corn Pone”
Again following Wikipedia, Tolbert completed studies at Columbia University in 1946 and broke up the group to take a job in Charlotte, North Carolina as a high school music teacher. He became a faculty member at Texas Southern University in Houston in 1948. Later in his life Tolbert worked for the American Federation of Musicians and owned a music store. The Wikipedia article about Tolbert is based on Howard Rye’s article about Tolbert in Grove Jazz online. It is a shame that no more is known about such a musically interesting figure and very good to know he was filmed.
So enjoy!
(Click to enlarge) Arnett Cobb at a concert in Baden, Switzerland, 1974.
