R.I.P. Ornette Coleman (1930–2015)

©Downbeat

No words, just music:

Peter Brötzmann playing Ornette Colemans “Lonely Woman” in 1984.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Blues masters galore: Muddy, Gatemouth, Witherspoon, King, Rush and King

When the weather is hot like it’s now, there only two kinds of music I can listen to: Old school dub reggae or the Blues. Since I guess there might be some people among my subscribers who love the Blues as much as I do, I am offering you a bunch of rare concert clips – some of them actually quite long – featuring masters of classical electric blues playing.

The first clip features something different though: Legendary singer Jimmy Witherspoon who is more out of the vintage r’n’b /jazz school. Here is Witherspoon in Nice on July 9, 1979 .

 Witherspoon is accompagnied by Eugene Edwards (g),  Roy Alexander (org) and Maurice Simon jr. (dr). They are playing Everyday I Have The Blues,I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water, See See Rider, and Jimmy Reed’s Big Boss Man.

And here are 26 minutes from the same festival featuring the Muddy Waters Blues Band on July 10, 1977

With Clark Terry (tp) as a guest on one track (I had published that on youtube before) , Bob Margolin (eg), Guitar Junior (eg), Pinetop Perkins (p), Calvin Jones (eb) and Willy “Big Eyes” Smith (dr).

They Are Playing:

Honeydripper Intro, Soon Forgotten, Baby Please Don’t Go, What’s the Matter with the Mill, Stormy Monday Blues (feat. Clark Terry) and Everything Gonna be Alright

The next clip comes from still the same festival. Here multiinstrumentalist Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown is featured with the Wallace Davenport New Orleans All Stars giving us some Street Corner business.

 

Gatemouth Brown appeared at the festival again on July 14 1977 accompgnied by Billy Mitchell (ts); Lloyd Glenn (p); George Duvivier and J.C. Heard (dr). I had already put up a part of that gig on youtube and had presented it in this blog entry. In this part here they are playing: Lets Groove (you know that ain’t it’s title) and If You’ve Ever Been Mistreated in which Brown changes to violin. Gatemouth Brown deserves to be much better known!

 

Next up is half an hour of B.B. King from the 1984 Montreux Jazz Festival. A lot of B.B.’s Montreux apperances are already on youtube, but this one wasn’t up to now. If you know who is playing with B.B. here, please let me know. I do not have the patience to check the setlist right now, but I know you enjoy checking it yourself:

And here is another one from Montreux, this time from 1989: The man with the Flying V, Albert King. Playing with Albert are Amar Sundy (guitar); Nate Fitzgerald, Steve Wilson, Wayne Preston (horns); James Washington (keyboards); Lonnie Turner (bass); Joe Turner (drums) (Thanks, Marc D.!)

 

And finally from Chicago here is Otis Rush, filmed in an unidentified venue somewhere in  Switzerland around 1986 (not from Montreux  as far as I can see). Otis is playing with Professor’s Blues Revue: Professor Eddie Lusk (keyboards), Anthony Palmer (guitar), Fred Barnes (bass), Eddie Turner (drums). (Thanks to Mark D. for information!) Beware though: It takes a while before Mr. Rush appears.

Enjoy!

More music with Clarence “C” Sharpe

A while after I out up some music featuring legendary alto saxophonist Clarence “C” Sharpe in this posting,  canadian born multiinstrumentalist Phil Dwyer contacted me, writing that he found a tape  fom Jerry Thomas’ loft including Sharpe and Sonny Fortune on alto sax, Steve Grossman and Phil Dwyer himself on tenor. Hakim Jamil was playing bass, Jerry Thomas was playing the drums. Phil did not know the pianist and did not get to know him later, so he does not know his name.

Clarence “C” Sharpe. Photo by Otto Flückiger

Here is what Phil wrote to me about this session:

It took place in a loft in Brooklyn belonging to Jerry Thomas and his wife (Mary??). Anyway this was back in 1983 or so (could have been early 1984), during a time where I was living in New York and hanging out a lot with Steve Grossman. As I remember, late one afternoon I hopped in a cab with Grossman to go to Jerry Thomas’ loft for a session. I think it may have been in the Red Hook area, just based on my recollection of the route we took. Anyway I remember it being a nice big, welcoming space, Jerry’s wife made some food for us, it was comfortable. Tough neighbourhood.

Phil Dwyer around 1984/1985. Courtesy Phil Dwyer

I would have just turned 18 at the time this tape was made. I don’t remember recording it, but maybe Steve did and gave it to me. I had been spending way too much time with Grossman and at the time this tape was made I recall being under the influence of [different stuff] (…)

“C” was generally up for a party, at the time he was the same age I am now (46) but had a lot of street miles on him. He totally lit it up on these two tunes though. I hadn’t heard him play before this, but we ended up hanging out a bit in the year or so after this.

Phil was so generous to allow me to post 45 minutes of music from that evening on my blog. You hear the band playing two long tracks.

First we have the standard “Star Eyes”, with the following solo order:

Sharpe, Grossman, Fortune, Dwyer, unknown pianist, Hakim

The second tune is Miles Davis’ composition “Vierd Blues”. The order of soloists:

Sharpe, Dwyer, Fortune, Grossman (fade out)

I know that there are many people out there who cherish every newly found music featuring Clarence C Sharpe and this here is a very fine example indeed, also as regarding the other musicians and last but not least the sound quality which really is fine regarding the circumstances. So my heartfelt thanks go out to Phil Dwyer!

Enjoy!

Max Roach: Complete East Berlin 1984

A while ago I loaded up some parts of a Max Roach Quartet concert 1984 in East Berlin up on youtube. Now Franz Hoffmann (you should definitely check his youtube channel, hoffmanjazz), has uploaded other parts of this concert, and asked me to load up the missing track “Giant Steps”. Since I have now done so, I am presenting here all the material that had been broadcasted by GDR TV (Thanks, Franz)

So here you get Max Roach, Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater and Tyrone Brown 1984 at the Friedrichstadtpalast in 1984 playing “Good Bait” (from the Otto Flückiger collection):

followed by “Giant Steps” (also from the Otto Flückiger Collection)

followed by “Perdido” (also from the Otto Flückiger Collection)

And finally here is “Six Bits”, sung by Roach (courtesy of Franz Hoffmann). Note that although the GDR TV subtitles note “Six Brits” as the title, it should have been “Six Bits” (These are the words Roach sings):

 

Enjoy!

 

Max Roach Quartet East Berlin 1984: “Good Bait”

After I put up the 1984 clip of the Max Roach Quartet playing “Perdido” in East Berlin back in January 2012 I received some requests for more from this TV Broadcast from the GDR. But I was never in the mood since this required working on the audio (there was only one channel on the VHS-tape).

Max Roach Quartet East Berlin 1984

After digitizing the video of Anthony Braxton in East Berlin 1985, I discovered another interesting video on the same old VHS cassette. It’s also from the Jazzbühne series, but a year earlier than the Braxton concert. This one shows Max Roach with Odean Pope, Cecil Bridgewater and Tyrone Brown – Roach’s classic quartet of the 1980s –, filmed on July 16, 1984  in East Berlin.

I have only put up “Perdido” which was the last track of the regular set (before encores), the TV broadcast also ends here. I am sorry for the sound being only on one channel. The complete concert (including encores) was released semi-legally on a CD in the early 1990s as Repertoire (G)REPCD4902-CC.

As you see from the back liner, “Perdido” was not the only piece of classicism the Roach Quartet had to offer that night:

Maybe I  will put up more footage of this concert at later date, let’s see.