After this, this and this post, I was sure that I had digitized all of the McCoy Tyner videos I could find in Otto Flückiger’s VHS collection. But I was wrong. Because recently I found two 1986 TV broadcasts featuring a Tyner band with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, John Scofield, Louis Hayes and Avery Sharpe.
So here to definitely close the series of Tyner clips up are nearly 30 minutes of the band at the Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland on July 14, 1986:
And here, from a day later, is almost an hour of the same group at the Jazz Festival in Umbria, Italy, on July 15, 1986.
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.
It is only just now that I hear of the passing of trumpeter Roy Campbell jr. who died on January 9th – the same day that Amiri Baraka passed. Campbell only reached the age of 62. I saw him playing on two or three occasions in the 1980s and remember liking his playing very much. Wanting to listen to him again now, I find to my surprise I unfortunately have not one record featuring him. But only some weeks ago I happened to digitize a brilliant 45 minute TV broadcast with the quintet of another Great Black Music Legend, Billy Bang, who already had left us in 2011. Campbell is the other main solist besides Bang.
So here is the Billy Bang Quintet at the Jazztage Leverkusen on November 1, 1986. Besides Bang and Roy Campbell the band contains Oscar Sanders (g) William Parker (b) and Zen Matsuura (dr).
Maybe it is unfair to say “there was a time when more jazz was featured on TV”. I would not really know, because I stopped watching TV a while ago. Of course here in switzerland there is still some jazz on the public TV, late at night at some time.
But in the 1980s there was still some jazz to be seen and witnessed by people who did not expect to be treated with jazz when they turned on the TV. There were some broadcasts on swiss TV which you could say were in some kind of “magazine” format. Maybe some news from different regions, a talkshow guest, a funny report — you get the picture. At the end they always had a short slot for musical artists of every genre that happened to be in Switzerland – just a few minutes to promote their tour.
My friend, the late jazz researcher Otto Flückiger, must have scanned the TV program magazines every week to see if an interesting (interesting to him that is) band or musician would appear – since he managed to tape quite a lot of this jazz, blues and soul bits. I am offering you a little potpourri here of different things you could see – if you were aware when and where to look.
Those that have waited patiently can now finally rejoice, because here is the sixth (and final part) of the 120 minute private video from a concert Wild Bill Davis gave at the Hotel Schützen in Rheinfelden, Switzerland in 1986. The other members of Davis’ quartet were saxophonist Jimmy Tyler, the legendary Dickie Thompson on guitar and drummer Clyde Lucas.
Again: If someone who was involved in the making of this video reads this, I would like to hear from you so I can give proper credit.
So here is the Wild Bill Davis Quartet playing “Heaven” by Duke Ellington, “Bottom’s Up” – and a Basie-style “April In Paris” coda.
A few days ago I was contacted by Thomas Schicker, who had been at the Wild Bill Davis concert 1986 in Rheinfelden, of which I have already shown four parts on this blog. Thomas, who is a jazzfan and collector, was so nice as to send me the flyer for this concert, which as you can see took place in the afternoon:
(from the collection of Thomas Schicker)
Thomas also still has the advertisement for this concert which appeared in a local newspaper. And he was so nice as to allow me to publish it here as well:
(from the collection of Thomas Schicker)
So here is part 5 (actually the next to last part) of the 120 minute private video of a concert Wild Bill Davis gave at the Hotel Schützen in Rheinfelden, Switzerland in 1986. The flyer and the add above make clear that it was definitely on April, 13. The other members of Davis’ quartet were saxophonist Jimmy Tyler, the legendary Dickie Thompson on guitar and drummer Clyde Lucas.
I still do not know who filmed this footage. The VHS cassette this is from is in the Otto Flückiger collection, but Otto cannot have filmed it himself, because he can be seen standing to the left of Wild Bill Davis from time to time (for example around 12:00). If someone who was involved in the making of this video reads this, I would like to hear from you so I can give proper credit.
Not much has been happening on this blog here for quite a while, I know. I have been through a period of very bad luck starting when I broke my nose and elbow while stumbling over a piece of wire after a DJ gig. Right after that the bad news from people very near and dear to me did not stop coming in.
So I am only now finding my way back to matters jazz and blues again. I thought I’d start softly with part 4 of the 120 minute private video of a concert Wild Bill Davis gave at the Hotel Schützen in Rheinfelden, Switzerland on (probably) April 13 1986. The other members of Davis’ quartet were saxophonist Jimmy Tyler, the legendary Dickie Thompson on guitar and drummer Clyde Lucas.
I still do not know who filmed this footage. If someone who was involved in the making of this video reads this, I would like to hear from you so I can give proper credit.
So here you get – after some talking – the Wild Bill Davis Quartet playing
– “Honeysuckle Rose” which featrures Dickie Thompson
– Neil Hefti’s “Cute”
– “Satin Doll”
There will be still more to come from this concert – if nobody objects.
McCoy Tyner in Umbria, 1986
