Dexter Gordon: As Time Goes By

Dexter Gordon at Jazzwoche Burghausen 1980.

At the end of one of the VHS cassettes from Otto Flückiger’s vast collection, I found something very nice: About ten minutes of the Dexter Gordon Quartet at the Jazzwoche Burghausen 1980 in Burghausen, Bavaria/Germany. Since I have nothing to say about Dexter Gordon that you would not know, here is “As Time Goes By”:

 

The personnel is: Dexter Gordon (ts), Kirk Lightsey (p), John Heard (b), Eddie Gladders (dr).

Enjoy!

Slim Gaillard in the 1980s

Slim Gaillard in Burghausen, Germany, 1986

It’s been a while since something happened on this blog. That is because in the last months my regular work was so tiring that I started to lose my interest in music for a while – something you should never let happen. Anyway this blog is back now and offering something special for you: two clips from the 1980s featuring the master of Vout: Slim Gaillard (1916–1991). I found these two clips on VHS cassettes in the collection of my friend, the late jazz researcher Otto Flückiger. The first one was made – I guess – in the mid 1980s, probably either in switzerland or in germany. Apparently this was filmed privately  and I have no information in regard to where it was filmed, when or by whom. It may have been Otto himself or one of his researching friends. If someone knows who filmed this, please let me know. Unfortunately I also do not know who the bassist and the drummer in this clip are:

I know more about the second clip though. This was filmed professionally for the bavarian TV station BR at the Jazz Festival 1986 in Burghausen (does someone know the exact date?). Playing the bass here is versatile swiss bassist/trombonist Isla Eckinger, and the drummer is Michael Carvin.

Enjoy!

The Paris Reunion Band in Burghausen (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).

Enjoy!