Berlin Calling!

I'm planning to attend Berlinale for the first time and probably because of that one would find me in an essentially German mood. Now, thanks to the Berlin based jazz label Sonorama that feeling is delightfully doubled as they sent me a batch of records that document some of the most remarkable European Jazz of the 50s and 60s.

The first time I encountered a Sonorama release was when I discovered a fascinating recording of The European Jazz All Stars 1961, a meeting between top European jazz musicians during the Cold War which was presented by the Norman Granz of German jazz, Joachim-Ernst Berendt.

The line-up on this rare reissue is composed of no less than 13 musicians from 12 countries who, according to Berendt, couldn't speak in the same language but jazz. However, if you're expecting one of those off-the-cuff blowing sessions, I must say you are on the wrong track, as all the pieces in the repertoire are fully arranged by the Belgian Francy Boland.

Le Jazz à Paris

Duke Ellington in Paris

‎"America is my country and Paris is my hometown." -- Gertrude Stein

Jazz found its second home in Paris, France. Josephine Baker and Charleston dance paved the way for Sidney Bechet and La Nouvelle-Orléans music. It started in Pigalle and moved to Saint-Germain. Surrealist were fascinated by it, but it was existentialists who cherished it. French films used a good deal of it as their soundtrack, or even their story. Cinéma de papa liked it (Marcel Carné) and the rebellious figures of modern cinema, known as Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), liked it even more: a generation confronted another generation, nevertheless jazz stood there as their only concurrent kick.

The anti-colonialist attitude and a certain tendency toward exotica made Paris of post-WWI the place for American drifters and jazz community. They were free, accepted and treated like kings. "The best of America drifts to Paris," said F. Scott Fitzgerald, "the American in Paris is the best American." So it was when Louis Armstrong, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis, Bill Coleman, Don Byas, Bud Powell and many other resided in the city for shorter or longer periods.

Klook Meets the Detroit Jazzmen

Kenny "Klook" Clarke's job as a drummer was, more or less, "establishing a pulse that both band and listener could feel as well as hear," (Joop Visser) and in the first half of the 1950s that pulse became the driving force of many Savoy recordings. Like that legendary rhythm section of Red Garland/Paul Chambers/Philly Joe Jones, the master drummer of bebop, Kenny Clarke, formed a super unit of the first rate musicians for the Savoy label, mostly consisted of Hank Jones on piano and Wendell Marshall on bass. Aside from their accompanying job, the classic Hank Jones Trio LP was an output of the auspicious collaboration. Other groups benefited from the Savoy rhythmic section were Eddie Bert Quartet, Nat Adderley Quintet, Joe Wilder Quartet and Milt Jackson Quintet; all classics of the post-bop era. Also It happened many times that Jones or Marshall were not available, so Klook teamed up with other rhythm suppliers, some of them as good as the absent gentlemen.

Occasionally, between endless sessions which sometimes lasted for 20 hours per day, Klook found time to record albums under his own name. His leadership materialized the famous LP, Bohemia After Dark and some other Savoy outputs. His last date for Savoy, as leader, was composed of, if in not Detroit-born, but the Detroit-raised musicians of extremely high caliber which was named KC Meets the Detroit Jazzmen.

Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop Reunion

Dizzy Gillespie's Bebop Reunion

Chicago, IL @ PBS Soundstage 1976 

Dizzy Gillespie - trumpet
James Moody - sax
Milt Jackson - vibes
Al Haig - piano

Ray Brown - bass
Kenny Clarke - drums

Original broadcast is 58 minute long, with singers Joseph Carroll and Sarah Vaughan.