Televised Jazz #1

The 1950s was the golden era of televised jazz. Nearly all jazz greats of the time appeared on syndicated TV. This post is dedicated to them.

CBS producer Robert Herridge (seen talking on first clip) brought to CBS studio 61 in NYC on April 2, 1959 Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb to give us their masterpiece "So What".

This date was taped for The Sound of Miles Davis, an installment of The Robert Herridge Theater. Altoist Cannonball Adderley, a regular member of this band, was absent because of a migraine headache, which may explain why Davis solos twice on "So What," both before and after Coltrane. Broadcast on July 21, 1960. A jazz moment to cherish forever.

Miles Davis Quintet - So What
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

From the same date as above, Miles Davis, John Coltrane on alto, Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers join forces with The Gil Evans Orchestra to give us Dave Brubeck's "The Duke". Big band jazz with a twist indeed!

Personnel:
Miles Davis (tpt, flh); John Coltrane ( as); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d); Ernie Royal (tpt); Clyde Reisinger (tpt); Louis Mucci (tpt); Johnny Coles (tpt); Emmett Berry (tpt); Frank Rehak (tb); Jimmy Cleveland (tb); Bill Elton (tb); Rod Levitt (valve tb); Julius Watkins (frh); Robert Northern (frh); Bill Barber (tuba); Romeo Penque (cl, fl); Eddie Caine (cl, fl); Danny Bank (bcl); Gil Evans (arr, cond)

Miles Davis W/ The Gill Evans Orchestra - The Duke
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

Ahmad Jamal's tasty tune "New Rhumba", same personnel as above

Miles Davis W/ The Gill Evans Orchestra - New Rhumba
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

Gil Evans' "Blues For Pablo", same personnel as above

Miles Davis W/ The Gill Evans Orchestra - Blues For Pablo
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

That's all for now folks, enjoy.

Miles Davis: Isle of Wight 1970

Upturn every jazz stone after the 1940s and chances are that you will see the name Miles Davis written underneath more often than not.

He started his meteoric musical career as a young trumpet player beside Charlie Parker, and it has been upwards ever since.

His Birth Of The Cool sessions of 1949 with his nonet first introduced jazz audiences to the notion of cool jazz. His subsequent quintet of the mid fifties featuring John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb et al, showed the world how hard bop should be.

As if these were not enough, his 1958 "Kind Of Blue" album, THE most successful jazz album of all time, gave the world modal jazz.

His second great quintet with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams of the 1960s explored the new territory of post and freebop.

And finally, his 1969 Bitches Brew album, turned the jazz world on its head with its reckless electric experimentalism, and fusion music was born, not to mention that musicians in the caliber of Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul and many others won instant recognition. Not bad at all.

The 1970 Isle of Wight festival was by far the largest and most famous of these early festivals indeed it was said at the time to be one of the largest human gatherings in the world surpassing the attendance at Woodstock. The most notable of over fifty performers were The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Ten Years After, Joni Mitchell, Melanie, Donovan, Free, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Leonard Cohen, Jethro Tull and Tiny Tim. The unexpected level of the attendees (tickets holders accounted only for 50.000) was beyond that which the festival organizers and local authorities could supply adequate amenities and guarantee public safety for. Such concerns led in 1971, to Parliament passing the "Isle of Wight Act" preventing gatherings of more than 5,000 people on the island without a special license.

The festival was revived only in 2002.

A piece of music history then, Miles Davis in the company of jazz superstars to-be Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira and Gary Bartz, in a 35 minute free form improvisation which Miles, after being asked the title famously replied "oh, call it anything".

Miles Davis At The Isle Of Wight '70 - Call It Anything 1/2
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

Miles Davis At The Isle Of Wight '70 - Call It Anything 2/2
Uploaded by Delta_Mike

Jazz On A Summer's Day (1958)

Hailed by critics to be the best jazz film ever, famous photographer's Bert Stern's Jazz On A Summer's Day lives up to its reputation today.

Shot in Newport, RI during the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival and the America's Cup trials of the same year, initially intended as a full length motion picture, it was downsized to a concert documentary due to lack of funds. We have to thank our good luck for this, as this film broke new ground on how a live music performance should be captured. It literally wrote the book.

Shot in lush color instead of the grim black and white used until then, including scenes in broad daylight, interleaving performances with the sailing races going on simultaneously, it made people look at jazz from an entirely different perspective.

This was half a century ago and it really shows. People hit it off very differently back then, as the amazing crowd scenes attest to. With rock 'n roll just around the corner ready to take the popular music scene by storm, these were merrier, more innocent times. Enjoy.

Bill Evans - London 1965

Bill Evans (August 16, 1929 - September 15, 1980), the pianist's pianist, literally invented modern jazz piano. His use of impressionist harmony, his inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire and his syncopated and polyrhythmic melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists, including Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett.

Here's a rare chance to see the Bill Evans Trio appearing in London on March 19, 1965 for the legendary BBC TV series Jazz 625. Chronologically, this is the third Bill Evans Trio from a lineage of great trios consisting of Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums. The presence of Humphrey Lyttelton as host, a man who has graced Brithsh TV and jazz for decades, only adds to the enjoyment of this musical tour de force.

Bill Evans - Elsa - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Summertime - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Come Rain Or Come Shine - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - My Foolish Heart - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Re Person I Knew - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Israel - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - How My Heart Sings - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Nardis - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Who Can I Turn To - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Someday My Prince Will Come - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - How Deep Is The Ocean - Jazz 625

Bill Evans - Waltz For Debby - Jazz 625

P.S. All videos from my personal collection, posted on various video hosting web sites.

John McLaughlin - Remember Shakti

Ιn the mid-1970's many believed John McLaughlin had committed commercial suicide by abandoning electric instruments and Western sensibilities in favor of an all-acoustic group with Indian musicians. In fact, record sales for this group, Shakti (translates in Sanskrit to "female creative power" or "goddess") were quite disappointing. Sometimes though, a musician has to follow his muse. In this case, McLaughlin was led to create a very fertile groundbreaking group in the form of Shakti. Shakti was really the first band to truly capture the essence of what we now call "World Music." Shakti's dependence on Eastern musical models infused with Western jazz-like improvisation made for an exciting and influential stew.

One doesn't have to look very far into McLaughlin's past to see why such a band would appeal to him. His own inclinations toward Eastern music can be heard on side two of his earlier recording My Goal's Beyond. Certainly, he was influenced even before that outing by the pop mysticism of the times and his own involvement in seeking self-realization through Eastern philosophy, not to mention of course his study of Indian music.

Remember Shakti, formed in the mid 90s, features original Shakti member, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, one of the most respected musicians in India, U. Srinivas on mandolin, Shankar Mahadevan on vocals and V. Selvaganesh on percussion.

Remember Shakti, just like John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, is extremely multinational, and multigenerational.

This is reflective, serious East-meets-West music full of truly virtuosic moments and plenty of drama. Above all, this music is good for the soul.

Let's enjoy this unique group in their appearance in Vienne,France on July 2, 2004.

John McLaughlin / Remember Shakti - Caruna

John McLaughlin / Remember Shakti - Five Peace Band

John McLaughlin / Remember Shakti - Manopa

John McLauchlin / Remember Shakti - Sakhi

John McLauchlin / Remember Shakti - Giriras Sudha

P.S. All videos from my personal collection, posted on various video hosting web sites.

Dizzy Gillespie Sextet 1977

Enough cannot be said about Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz. He is maybe the second most important trumpet player after Louis Armstrong.

Together with Charlie Parker, he is credited with inventing bebop, the de rigeur jazz vocabulary up to this day.

So, let's stick around Montreux a little bit longer for yet another great concert given there on July 14, 1977, a 30-year jubilee of sorts, team up Dizzy Gillespie with Milt Jackson, Monty Alexander, Jon Faddis, Ray Brown and Jimmie Smith and enjoy the ride.

Dizzy Gillespie - Girl Of My Dreams

Dizzy Gillespie - Get Happy

Dizzy - Once In A While/But Beautiful/Here's That Rainy Day

Dizzy Gillespie - The Champ

Dizzy Gillespie - Here'Tis

P.S. All videos from my personal collection, posted on various video hosting web sites.

JATP - Montreux 1977

JATP (Jazz at the Philharmonic), famous jazz producer Norman Granz's (1918-2001) venerable institution, started as a fundraiser in LA in 1944. After a few more similar events, Granz in 1946 began organizing extensive annual tours using classic swing and bop musicians in a jam session setting.

The importance of these sessions cannot be overstated, and many a career was launched through them, like Oscar Peterson's and Ella Fitzgerald's to name just two. Granz paid his musicians handsomely and did his best to fight racism every bit of the way.

Following that fine tradition, we see an all star group who flew all the way to Montreux, Switzerland on July 16, 1975 to give us this jazz gem.

Personnel:

Clark Terry tp, flg
Roy Eldridge tp
Benny Carter as
Zoot Sims ts
Joe Pass g
Tommy Flanagan p
Keeter Bets b
Bobby Durham d


For You.


Autumn Leaves 1/2. A classic


Autumn Leaves 2/2


Sunday


If I Had You 1/2



If I Had You 2/2



I Never Knew (That Roses Grew)



Famous jazz critic Nat Hentoff telling us what a hell of a guy Norman Granz was, may he RIP.


P.S. All videos from my personal collection, posted on various video hosting web sites.

What is this all about

This blog was created to help preserve jazz music, a near- extinct musical idiom today. With the proliferation of hip-hop, electronica, sampling techniques etc, there simply is no commercial room for music played with acoustic instruments.


Jazz great Lou Donaldson in action (pic by yours truly)

I will be mostly presenting videos from my personal collection of past and present masters of this great art form.

Groove on

Barney Kessel - Basie's Blues