I have read your post really interesting and I can understand your thoughts about American politics. Also in Italy we are not doing well. Music is much better than politics.
Horace Parlan - Speakin` My Piece (Blue Note/AudioWave AWMXR-0002) I love this album. In fact, I think I love everything that features Stanley Turrentine on tenor. I also love the sound of this XRCD.
I just put on my copy, stereo A-50/SMAS 90232 Capitol Record Club issue. It's VG+ except for an annoying tick from a fine scratch thru some of Alabama . I can't feel too badly though cause I got it at GW for 60 cents or so and it has a real nice cover. A top 10 of my favorite things from Coltrane.
Agree with all you wrote. I was answering a specific question about why Ron Carter would have less leader dates than Joe Henderson and the specific context for me was the Blue Note hardbop years. You came up with the one exception I can think of for Blue Note - Paul Chambers did get several leader dates. But that is 1 vs hundreds of brass and reed players, which of course is obvious. I’d also wager a dollar that Bass on Top or Whims of Chambers didn’t sell as well as Mode for Joe or Page One. No bass players were harmed in typing this message, love bass players.
Though not considered a jazz musician by jazz fans with a narrow view of what is proper jazz, Josh White was invited to the White House by Franklin Roosevelt. White was a close personal friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. The visit was indeed controversial. Josh White had very strong jazz sensibilities, and was very influential in merging jazz approaches with the blues. From the web: In September 1941, Josh White released Southern Exposure: An Album of Jim Crow Blues, his own anti-segregationist album. In Southern Exposure, White details the plight of the enlisted black man in a segregated army, inspired by his brother’s personal experiences. With help from acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poets Waring Cuney and Richard Wright, White’s album was a lyrical masterpiece and instant hit. It also ignited a maelstrom of reaction and resentment from members of its new white audience. Josh White’s Southern Exposure album featured some hard-hitting themes for a nation torn by racism That reaction was so strong that it quickly reached the President himself. Whereas detractors expected some type of similar reception or even retribution from the god-like hand of FDR, what they got was the opposite: the President invited White to perform the entire album at the White House. After the special concert, performed in front of dignitaries and bigwigs, White went where no black performer had gone before (and few performers have gone since) when he was invited into the private Presidential chambers. With the adroit lubricants of coffee and brandy, the Roosevelts and White discussed the implications of his album. One of the first questions FDR asked was in regards to White’s song “Uncle Sam Says.” According to the intonations of the song, the President pointed out, White was condemning his militaristic actions and calling him to change. With signature brashness, White not only conceded that the song’s condemnatory lyrics were, in fact, in reference to the President before him, he also noted that it was not the first song in which he had chastised Roosevelt. Any other President may have taken offense, but White’s refreshing honesty endeared him to Roosevelt and his wife. Out of that post-performance powwow a genuine friendship was born. White became one of the President’s closest and most treasured confidantes. The two families came together for holidays at Hyde Park, the Roosevelts boosting the Whites’ ascension of the American entertainment totem. White became a regular performer at the White House, such an iconic member of the President’s cadre that the press began to refer to White as the Presidential Minstrel. Josh White’s son, Josh Jr., was the Roosevelts’ godson Josh White remained a close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt for the rest of her life
Yesterday night I listened to Nucleus' We'll Talk About It Later: My vinyl copy is an unofficial reissue, but it sounds fairly good. Nucleus is one of my preferred jazz rock combos. Their music is aged well. I like much the perfect interplay between all members. Really good is the rhytmic use of the guitar by Chris Spedding
Whoa! Is that original Strata East? Good for you! I am waiting patiently for the Pure Pleasure reissue which was supposed to be last Friday but hasn’t hit the stores yet
Unbelievable find in an antique store on my way down to Willmington,NC. I think it was $2 or $3. A bit of bad news... I think I passed this one up at the same store because the cover pic was disturbing and I had no idea what it was.
Though not the first to have a jazz concert at the White House, Jimmy Carter did not have a "private show", he had a jazz festival, with a range of jazz musicians. The article below does not mention Charles Mingus, who attended as a guest, but could not play due to his poor health. In a wheelchair, Mingus broke down in tears as Carter bent down to embrace him (just as I do whenever I think of that moment). Those were the tears of a lifetime of struggle, all released in one embrace. Selected from the NY Times, June 1978: WASHINGTON, June 18—The full spectrum of jazz from ragtime to blues through swing and be‐bop to the avant garde, was compressed into a two‐hour program on the South Lawn of the White House early this evening when President and Mrs. Carter played host to a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival. More than 40 jazz musicians played to an invited audience of 1,000 persons who sat at picnic tables and on the grass. They included representatives of the academic world of jazz, friends and patrons of jazz, the music industry, the jazz press and other jazz musicians. Vice President Mondale and members of the cabinet as well as Senators and Representatives were also present. Before the performance, the President, wearing a white, short‐sleeved, open collared shirt, strolled among the guests, shaking hands with them as they ate a pre‐concert Jambalaya buffet. Mr. Carter said that he had begun listening to jazz when he was quite young. He heard it initially on the radio from New Orleans, he said. When he was in the Navy, he liked to go to Greenwich Village to hear jazz. “Jazz was not accepted at the beginning, I believe, because of an element of racism,” President Carter told the gathering. “This form of art has done as much as anything to break down these barriers.” The performers ranged from 95‐yearold Eubie Blake, the ragtime pianist, and Katharine Handy Lewis, the daughter of W. C. Handy, composer of St. Louis Blues, who sang her father's song, to the two major innovators of the last 20 years, Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. They also included musicians such as George Benson, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea who have reached a mass audience playing “crossover” music, a fusion of jazz and popular styles. In the afternoon, while the musicians were rehearsing, Mr. Carter came out on the lawn to greet them. Mr. Benson, who is a guitarist, presented the President with a guitar. Later, when the evening program started, Mr. Benson found that his own guitar had not come off the plane. He had to borrow back the guitar he had just given to the President. “But I promised I would return it to him immediately after the performance,” he said. Mr. and Mrs. Carter listened to the program sitting on the grass in front of a band shell on which the musicians played. The President was an intent and appreciative listener, applauding solos, grinning appreciatively when Sonny Rollins, the saxophonist, played some particularly strong and urgent passages. After a brief but expressive piano solo by Cecil Taylor, he leaped up and pursued the pianist into a copse of trees behind the stage to congratulate him. Mary Lou Williams managed to play what she described as “a history of jazz” in eight minutes, running from spirituals and ragtime to a contemporary style. Most of the musicians performed in groups. One, representing the music of the 30's and 40's, was led by Benny Carter, the alto saxophon with Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Clark Terry, fluegelhorn, Illinois Jacquet, tenor saxophone, Teddy Wilson, piano, Milt Hinton, bass, and Jo Jones, drums. The 50's and 60's were represented by a quartet made up of Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner. piano, Ron Carter, bass, and Max Roach, drums. After the program ended with “How High the Moon” and “Flying Home,” the President asked Mr. Gillespie to play one of his hop specialties, “Salt. Peanuts.” Mr. Gillespie agreed if Mr Carter would join him in singing the lyrics, which consists of repeated exclamations of “salt peanuts!” during “breaks” in the rhythm. With Max Roach playing sock cymbal (the rest of the drum set had been dismantled by then), the President and Mr. Gillespie joined voices on what: was probably the first public Presidential hot chorus. Dizzy and Max greet Carter. Carter actually told Cecil Taylor after Taylor's performance, "I wish I could play piano like you!" Those around the crying Mingus and Carter could only suppress their own tears by applauding Charles. Mingus died three months later. That was Charles' wife holding his left hand. He was given the seat of honor for the show. About your comment on politics: ....without the ugly, there is no beauty. Beauty will return.
On that last pic it looks like Dickey Betts and maybe Jaimoe from the Allman Brothers Band near top left.
Actually if I add some more heavyweight bass players/composers to your list, like Barry Guy, Graham Collier, Harry Miller, Peter Kowald, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips, Eberhard Weber, Henri Texier, Miroslav Vitous, Marcus Miller, Adam Lane or Per Zanussi, I am inclined to think that bass players have been among prime movers on world jazz scene, certainly on par with pianists and saxophonists.
Very fine post. I knew something about Jimmy Carter's passion for Jazz and Black music but those details were unknown to me. The sight of Mingus in those pictures is deeply touching.
One minor error...Mingus died six months later, not three. I did a four hour Mingus tribute radio program the week after this White House concert, in Pittsburgh, where I lived for a few years. At that time, WYEP-FM invited me in to do specials. After the radio programs (8PM-Midnight), my friend and I would go to the black jazz clubs (no "whites" around) until after closing, then go out for breakfast and get home at dawn.
Yes, it's a U.S. Capitol LP, M-11061, issued 1972. An emblem in the deadwax indicates it was pressed at Capitol's factory in Winchester, VA.
Speaking of albums by bass players, that's a good one. I also like The Skipper at Home. Can you get back to the store, or is it out of your way?
My comments about bass players certainly did not reflect any dismissal of the number of significant bass players, many of whom had led sessions. But there has been a distinct cultural difference between parts of the world in public acceptance of different tonal ranges of music, both instrumental and vocal. In North America and Western Europe, the bass range, especially for singers, but also instrumentalists, has had minimal acceptance for many generations. Bass instruments and bass voices have very rarely been the stars, the prominent leaders. However, in Russia, the bass range has been the central focus for centuries. Bass singers, whether in folk music or classical music, were always at the center - the "people's artists" who drew all the public attention. They were the legendary stars. In America, a bass singer rarely received any attention, and the greatest bass voices were almost always relegated to harmony and rare opportunities to solo. Bass instrumentalists in jazz only started to get more frequent opportunities to record as distinct soloists in the era of independent minor labels where anyone could do anything, even if it did not sell. Players like Mingus and Pettiford had opportunities, but their recordings were essentially horn-based, and drew attention due to the compositional brilliance of the leader. Pettiford is a good example. I believe he would have had a much larger discography if he played a horn. Indeed, many of his recordings have either been reissued under the name of a horn player or have been overlooked completely. In American classical music, the genius contrabassist Gary Karr was warned not to pursue a career as a prominent bass soloist and leader, and was told to take his proper seat at the rear of an orchestra. He ignored all of that, fortunately. But virtually his entire discography, and nearly all of his audience is in Asia. He is still largely ignored in America, but is a true popular star in Asia. The first prominent bassist in recorded classical music was Serge Koussevitzky, a Russian. Even Gary Karr, an American, came from a Russian family. I know people can name bass players and bass singers in the west, but most never achieve widespread acceptance. In Russia and Asia, they would very likely be superstars. It is something about the cultures, about the history of the people.
When I saw Dizzy in Athens, Georgia in the early 80s he prefaced 'Manteca', with its refrain of "Never go back to Georgia", by saying that since Jimmy Carter had been elected President it was now cool to be playing that song in Georgia. Of course, Carter's request for "Salt Peanuts" at the White House was related to his career as a Georgia peanut grower.
