John Gordons’ Trombone Inc. feat. Al Grey

So it goes! Right after finishing this blog post about trombonist John Gordon, I discovered that there is a clip showing more of Gordon in Otto’s archives. This one was filmed in autumn 1988 and shows Gordon with the group Trombone Incorporated, which he co-led with trombonist Fred Joiner from Philadelphia. The band’s concept was to add a “name” trombonist to get more people to listen. Among the “third” saxophonists were people like Slide Hampton, Curtis Fuller, Lou Blackburn.

Lafayette Harris, the band’s pianist in 1988 was so nice, as to send me pictures of the first Trombones Incorporated LP, No Tricks, No Gimmicks (Beam International LP T1881), where the personnel consisted of Fred Joiner, John Gordon, Benny Powell (tb) Kenny Barron (p) Leon Dorsey (b) Jimmy Ford (d) and Sam Turner (perc).

For their european concerts in autumn 1988, the third trombonist was the legendary Al Grey. Otto caught this band at the small Q4 jazz club in Rheinfelden – the exact date is unfortunately not known to me (I might find it out though).

So (after a short untitled introduction) you get the Trombones Incorporated playing John Gordon’s composition Landscape which to my knowledge has never been issued commercially.

According to Lafayette Harris jr. (check his website here) the band members on this gig were Fred Joiner, John Gordon, Al Grey (tb) Lafayette Harris jr. (p) Tyrone Brown (b) and Jimmy Ford (dr).

Lafayette also send me an invitation to a memory event in honor of John Gordon some days after his passing on November 27, 2003.

In my opinion it’s really a pity that John Gordon is not better known.

John Gordon: N.Y.C. Trombone Master

From time to time my friend Otto published little booklets and leaflets on musicians close to his heart. Since he had a strong interest in the not-too-well-known names who nonetheless had something special to offer, these booklets are very interesting documents, as they often contain information that might not have been published elsewhere.

One fine example is “John Gordon: N.Y.C. Trombone Master”, the little book dedicated to the career of trombonist John Gordon (1939–2994) that Otto produced in 1982. I decided to scan the whole booklet and put it up here, as it gives a fascinating insight to the everyday work of your average first -class jazz musician hustling in N.Y.C in the 1970s and 1980s.

But first, so you will know whom this booklet is about, here is a clip showing Lionel Hampton’s orchestra in Nice in summer 1978. Solos are by Lionel Hampton (vib), Jimmy Maxwell, John Gordon, Doc Cheatham, Curtis Fuller, Earl Warren and Hampton again (this time on drums).

And here is the track “No Tricks, No Gimmicks” from Gordon’s 1975 Strata East LP “Step by Step”, which you may want to listen to while skimming through the booklet:

And here is the booklet. Just click on one of the pages, a clickable gallery will pop up. Enjoy!

Milt Buckner: Too hot?

I recently acquired some photographs that allow me to tell a little story.

On Wednesday June 27, 1962 Milt Buckner brought his organ into Chicago’s Eden Roc Night Club.

(Click to enlarge) Press photo taken on July 8, 1962.
Photo: Anderson/Chicago Daily News

Unissued Coleman Hawkins in Switzerland

While master tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins was living in Europe in the 1930s he also spend some time in Switzerland where he played with different swiss bands who enthusiatically took the chance to play with one of the originators of a music they were working hard to master, especially in regard to the subtle rhythmic relationships necessary to create a swinging feeling.

Willie “The Lion” Smith (and Bill Coleman)

While looking into some boxes in the Otto Flückiger collection that I had not opened before, i stumbled over a very nice program for a concert by Willie “The Lion” Smith, in Zürich, Switzerland, 1949. Let’s start with page 1:

(click to enlarge)

The concert took place on December 15, 1949 at the smaller of the two halls of Zurichs Tonhalle building. Now on page two we get to know the other musicians as well as their previous occupations:

Lynn Hope – fully dressed

I know some of you have – as I do – a faible for idiosyncratic  r’n'b saxophonist Lynn Hope. Hope was born in Birmingham, Alabama on September 26, 1926 and nobody seems to know what ever  became of him (or do you?).

UPDATE (sept. 21, 2011): The day of Lynn Hope’s passing has been established as February 24, 1993 (see comments)

Down in Otto’s archives I found some gorgeous photos of Lynn. These were published in an unidentified publication – which therefore is also undated. I decided to present them here.

The real Valaida Snow

My efforts to make it clear that a certain photo by William Claxton does not – as you can read on different websites – show Valaida Snow but Lorraine Glover, trumpeter Donald Byrd’s wife, did not bear much fruit. I thought I could do better than to just bemoan the fact that a lot of people draw the Valaida Snow conclusion as soon as they see a vintage photo with a woman holding a trumpet.  So i decided to give you a photo of Valaida in all her glory that you may not have seen before – at least not on the web.

Lionel Hampton: artist under pressure

 

 

Here’s another very nice document from the Otto Flückiger collection: Leeds Music Corporation trying to plug All or Nothing At All, which was composed four years earlier by Arthur Altman, the lyrics were by Jack Lawrence. As we know from Milt Buckner’s interviews with Otto Flückiger and Kees Bakker, Hampton was always open to such suggestions.

Lionel Hampton at Strand Theatre 1948

When I was down at the archives last week looking for documents in relation to Don Redman’s 1946 tour, I accidentally found a batch of gorgeous photos of Lionel Hampton’s band in 1948 and 1949 at New York’s Strand Theatre as well as from  the Howard Theatre Washington 1948.

(click to enlarge)

The photograph above was taken at the Strand Theatre in N.Y.C, between January 23 and February 1948. Unfortunately the photographer is not known (to me at least). On the edge of the photo Otto noted down the names of the musicians to be seen. I photoshopped the edge just enough to make his handwriting (very pale pencil) readable again. Too make identification easier, I have cut up the photo into several parts below.

Walt Dickerson live, circa 1954

What nice little surprises the world sometimes has to offer!

Discographical listings of vibist Walt Dickerson’s (1928 or 1931 – 2008) recordings usually start with his early 1961 dates that led to New Jazz LP  NJ-8254 , This Is Walt Dickerson!  But in fact Walt Dickerson had been recorded before! In the Otto Flückiger archives I recently found a CD with 30 minute AFN broadcast dated as coming from germany, around 1954.

The personnel as announced on the broadcast:

Walt Dickerson: vib, ldr
Lou Blackburn: tb
Carl Hendricks: p
Dave Kleinburg: b
Sammy Mapp: dr

The tunes are:

Intro
Robbin’s Nest
Hallelujah
Isn’t It Romantic
Deep Purple
Sweet Georgia Brown
Time Was
Barbados

You can listen to the first two by clicking. Sound quality is surprisingly good, so: enjoy y’all (and let me know, what you think).

So does anyone know more about Dickerson’s doings in germany around that time, for eaxample where he was stationed (the 7th army is mentioned by the announcer – does this mean anything?)