RIP Eddie Bert

RIP Eddie Bert (1922-2012)

From big bands of the forties (Red Norvo, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnett) to the first jazz workshop of Charlie Mingus, trombonist Eddie Bert was an inexhaustible musician in demand with a sonorous sound and an immediate charm. Through his highly illustrious career he can be heard playing in Thelonious Monk's big band, as well as the soundtrack for the ultimate cop movie, The French Connection (a work of Don Ellis the composer). His few, but generally interesting, recordings as a leader are made for Savoy and Jazztone. (now reissued by Fresh Sound)

I have compiled a playlist on Spotify including many of his 1950s sessions and his works in big bands and small groups of the 1940s and 1950s that can be accessed here: the PLAYLIST

Friedrich Gulda Big Band Music

"The jazz greats, along with Bach and Mozart, shall be my role models" -- Friedrich Gulda

One of the problems of contemporary jazz scene, and even jazz fandom, is a certain negligence toward modern big bands of the 1960s and 1970s, especially those assembled in Europe. While the swing big bands of the 1930s and 1940s, and the small-combo jazz of the post-war era enjoy a wide public recognition by being constantly reissued, great European big bands stay alone on the dusty shelves of the old vinyl shops - sacred items for a small bunch of people who want to explore the beauty of modern classical-oriented jazz charts by those European artists who were sharing a same language as the American jazz expatriates.

The 2010 release of Friedrich Gulda Big Band Music brings one of the golden eras of the European big band to the digital age. This double-CD presents Viennese pianist, composer, conductor and arranger Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) and his big bands from 1962 to 1972.

Harry Edison's Girl from Ipanema

The Girl from Ipanema

Wembley Town Hall, Middlesex, United Kingdom

October, 2, 1964
Harry "Sweets" Edison (t), Sir Charles Thompson (p), Jimmy Woode (b), Jo Jones (d).

Ad-Lib#1: Bird, McGhee & Fats

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I came by but you weren't in...later...Bird. [1]


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A visit to the National Jazz Archive, housed in the Loughton library, and going through some Ellington pages (from so many books available at the library) reminded me of the only collaboration between one of the greatest trumpet players of jazz, Howard McGhee, with the Ellington's orchestra.

As you see in the image below, McGhee is filling the trumpet chair of the orchestra for three tracks, recorded on 31 January 1962 for CBS. These tracks, among other materials appeared on Midnight in Paris LP. The complete album is available on Villes Ville blog, a significant member of Ellingtonia in digital. This is the link to the page, but as Villes is undergoing almost everyday changes of the posts and links, just in case have a direct link to the player of the album here.

Paul Desmond Photos

Quincy Jones Big Band 1960

Quincy Jones Big Band

Lausanne, 7/7/1960
Broadcast: Swiss TV
Directeor Pierre Matteuzzi
Duration: 19'15
Set List: Stockholm Sweetnin', My reverie, Ghana, Big Red.
Musicians: 

Trumpets: Roger Guerin (takes first solo), Benny Bailey, Floyd Standifer, ?

Trombones: Ake Persson, Melba Liston, Quentin Jackson, Jimmy Cleveland

French Horn: Julius Watkins

Reeds: Porter Kilbert or Harold McNair, Phill Woods, Sahib Shihab, Jerome Richardson,

Piano: Patricia Anntown

Guitar: Les Spann

Bass: Buddy Catlett

Drums: Joe Harris

Harry Carney, Trains & Strings

Many people think adding string section to jazz was something producers forced on jazz musicians  to make their music more approachable for the average listener; making it more commercial as they used to say. Norman Granz, the legendary jazz impresario, offers an antithesis to this concept by stating that it was jazz musicians who were constantly asking for such accompaniment, believing that they can show their mastery in playing ballads - especially if they were equipped with reed instruments - by having a fluent, romantic background that string section usually endows to music.

Personally, I have nothing against romanticizing jazz, as I believe jazz is one of the last embodiments of the romantic approach to art, especially if it is executed by a giant such as Harry Carney, my favorite Baritone sax player of the first half of the 20th century.

The Berlin Album by Ekkehard Wölk Trio

"Berlin, Berlin, the city is a sin – you never go out the way you walked in!"

After some good years of productive collaboration between Ekkehard Wölk, Johannes Fink, and Andrea Marcelli, Ekkehard has driven them into a new concept which primarily consists of excitingly fresh interpretations of well-known musical standards related to the city of Berlin. The Ekkehard Wölk's new album is simply called The Berlin Album.

In terms of structure, the work is based on the legendary 1929 silent film Menschen Am Sonntag made collectively by Robert and Curt Siodmak, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, and Fred Zinnemann which describes the course of a single Sunday in the lives of four young people in Berlin.

"It seems to me that we have created not only a multifaceted musical kaleidoscope of jazz," says Ekkehard, "but we have also managed to forge an individual and playful reverence for our adopted hometown Berlin."

Ekkehard has incorporated some of Berlin’s most prominent composers from the past whose pieces have made a permanent contribution to the musical iconography of the city.

Art Ford's Jazz Party

Episode 19

18th September 1958 [DOWNLOAD]

Johnny Windhurst, trumpet; Tyree Glenn, trombone; Hank D'Amico, clarinet; Coleman Hawkins, tenor sax; Teddy Charles, vibraphone; Roland Hanna, Alec Templeton, piano; Mary Osborne, guitar; Doc Goldberg, acoustic double bass; Morey Feld, Jackie Cooper, drums; Maxine Sullivan, vocal.

Clark Terry '69

Backstage of Montreux Jazz Festival 1969 with Clark Terry and Norman Granz.