Tete suite: The Art of Tete Montoliu

A SUPERB ANTHOLOGY OF TETE MONTOLIU VIDEOS WITH GUEST STARS ART BLAKEY, SONNY STITT, HAROLD LAND, AND MANY MORE.

If what I've heard from a Spanish friend is true, then Tete Montoliu could be the only jazz musician who didn't need his ears. The story goes that this blind musician who was also an avid football fan, and listening to the live report of El Clásico had a religious significance for him, was often annoyed by the fact that he had to play gigs during the football match. He, rather ingeniously, came up with a solution: putting an earphone in one of his ears which was not visible to the audience and listening to the live report while playing his gig. But the story becomes very complicated when one considers that the Catalan pianist was also half-deaf!

Myth or fact, he was a pianist of outstanding virtuosity and impeccable technique, as seen on various videos of him from the 1970s and 1980s, some of which presented here.

These nice all-star sessions from Spanish National Television shows him in top form in his heydays with a remarkable array of American visitors. This is a superb homage to one of the most distinctive voices in European jazz.

Ron Carter (b), Art Blakey (d)
Barcelona, April 1981

Oleo

Wynton Marsalis (tp), Bobby Watson (as), Billy Pierce (ts), James Williams (p), Charles Fambrough (b), Art Blakey (d)
Barcelona, April 1981

Billie's Bounce
Brief interview

Crash Course on Bud Powell

"Bud was totally immersed in music -- his one constant reality. Even when there was no instrument available, he could hear the sounds. Once when a friend visited him in hospital, Bud sketched piano keys on the wall. 'Listen, what do you think of these chords,' he asked while he banged his fingers against the drawing."

This anecdote which is narrated by the deep voice of David W. Niven is the essence of Bud Powell, the subject of this new post. And also this post happens to be the 400th on Take the "A" Train, so in a sense you may call it a celebration too.

The plan is to study Bud Powell though the tapes of archivist David Niven. Please note that a few seconds of silence exists between the end of side A of each tape and the beginning of side B. The side reversal happens automatically for each tape.

I've already posted Bud-related materials here, including a note on a Danish film about the pianist, and a handful of interviews. For completion sake, be aware of the seminal Bud Powell book, Wail: The Life of Bud Powell by Peter Pullman which is described by its author as an "unsentimental biography—not hagiography—of a major jazz artist." Pullman continues: "It’s based as much on an exhaustive look at the public record and press on Powell, as it is on eyewitness accounts of his live performances and on personal opinions of his private life—in addition to subjective assessments of his studio recordings. The book treats all of these accounts as so many pathways to understanding the central paradox of the musically explosive yet emotionally impassive Powell: How could he have played with such rhythmic euphoria (and romantic feeling!) and, yet, seldom if ever have allowed anyone to see the physical and psychic pain that he was often enduring?"

For ordering the paper edition of Bud Powell book, email the author directly at pullman_peter[at]yahoo.com.

This crash course features some 500 minutes of Powell's romantic agony (i.e. music), and as it has been the case with great art, his pain will be your incalculable pleasure.

Remembering Paul Weeden

From right: Paul Weeden, Don Patterson, Billy James [source]

Last week I had lengthy sessions with the music of Don Patterson, one of the post-Jimmy Smith Hammond B3 players who, more or less, followed the pattern of early Smith trios with guitar and drums. Nevertheless, he is more of a funky/groovy player for whom Smith was only an starting point from which he saw the possibilities of the organ, as a swinging (and also good-selling) instrument in jazz. So naturally, compared to early recordings of Smith (which in my opinion are among his most powerful), Patterson lacks that rich bebop vocabulary. However, Patterson, like many jazz musicians who pursued a career somewhere between the center to the margins of jazz world, has his own special merits, quite sufficient to enable the listener to stay with his music for a period of time, in my case, as long as a weekend.

Of course, one can argue that his output with Sonny Stitt are his classics, which I neither accept or dismiss. But you might have heard of a certain Paul Weeden who played guitar in Don Patterson Verve recordings of the early 1960s. If not, in a nutshell, his was a Tiny-Grimes sounding, bluesy guitarist which deserves more attention.

Radio Hawkins#13: On the Road with Kerouac

 برنامۀ سيزدهم

جك كرواك و موسيقي جاز

مجموعه قطعاتي از موزيسين هاي محبوب جك، كاري كه به اسم خود او نوشته و اجرا شده. اشعار او با صداي خودش و با صداي آلن گينزبورگ و مروري بر موسيقي بي باپ كه جك شاهد عيني تولد و اوج گرفتن آن بود

همراه با

لستر يانگ، برو مور، كانت بيسي، جرج شيرينگ، ساني استيت، فليپ فليپس، چارلي پاركر، ديزي گيلسپي، تلانيوس مانك

به برنامه سيزدهم در اين جا گوش كنيد

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با كيفيت متوسط و متناسب با سرعت اينترنت ايران در اين جا

 صفحۀ فيس بوك برنامۀ ما

Radio Hawkins#11: Lover Men

 برنامۀ يازدهم راديو هاوكينز: جاز براي ايران

اجراهايي متفاوت از قطعۀ

LOVER MAN

توسط

بلاسِم دي يِري، كانت بيسي، سارا وان، واردل گري، دان باياس، كولمن هاوكينز، ساني راولينز، هري جيمز، ال هِيگ،  جيمي اسميت، جي جي جانسن، جنگو راينهاد، ديزي گيلسپي، ساني استيت

برنامه را اين جا بشنويد

 Download mp3

دانلود با كيفيت بالا دانلود با كيفيت متناسب با سرعت اينترنت ايران

They Remember Bird

Another discovery! An hommage to Charlie Parker by his friends recorded for German TV. The all-star line up of this superb TV gig in 1964 are Sonny Stitt (altos), J.J. Johnson (trombone), Howard McGhee (tp), Walter Bishop (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Kenny Clarke (d).

They play four tunes: Buzzy, My Little Sued Shoes, Lover Man and Now’s The Time. The original program was broadcast under the name of "In Memoriam Charlie Parker", September 26, 1964.
Stitt's solo in Lover man could brings tears to our eyes and the interplay between performers in Now's the time is so magical.

The quality is perfect and the band is represented in his peak of creativity. Like any other TV performance from Germany it has all the standards: beautiful photography, smooth camera moves, very imaginative sets and far beyond the similar concerts in other European or American TVs.