Alex Welsh & His Band – A Jazz Club Session With (2008)

Alex Welsh (9 July 1929 – 25 June 1982) was a Scottish jazz musician who played cornet and trumpet and was also a bandleader and singer.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Welsh started playing in the teenage Leith Silver Band and with Archie Semple’s Capital Jazz Band. After moving to London in the early 1950s, he formed a band with clarinetist Archie Semple, pianist Fred Hunt, trombonist Roy Crimmins, and drummer Lennie Hastings. The band played a version of Chicago-style dixieland jazz and was part of the traditional jazz revival in England in the 1950s. In the 1960s, Welsh’s band played with Earl Hines, Red Allen, Peanuts Hucko, Pee Wee Russell, and Ruby Braff.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, Welsh frequently toured, including many visits to the United States. He was influenced by his fellow trad jazz bandleader Chris Barber and built up and extensive musical repertoire, working from popular music as well as jazz and building up a large mainstream following for ensembles.

Welsh recorded for the British Decca label from 1955 and had four records released that year, I’ll build a stairway to paradise Decca F10538, Blues my naughtie sweetie gives to me Decca F10557 and What can I say after I say I’m sorry Decca F10652 and Dixielanders at the RFH an EP (extended play single) on Decca DFE 6254. Six years later in 1961 the band’s single Tansy on Columbia Records DB 4686 peaked at No. 45 in the BBC Top 50 and remained on the UK Singles Chart for 4 weeks. The single was released as music from the film No My Darling Daughter. The film was based on the play ‘Handful of Tansy’ by Kay Bannerman and Harold Brooke and follows teenager Tansy Carr (played by Juliet Mills) as she runs off with American Cornelius Allingham (James Westmoreland).

In January 1963, British music magazine NME reported that the biggest trad jazz event to be staged in Britain had taken place at Alexandra Palace. The event included George Melly, Diz Disley, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Bob Wallis, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan and Welsh.

Welsh toured internationally and played at the 1967 Antibes jazz festival, the 1968 Newport Jazz Festival, and 1978 Nice Jazz Festival. In the period 1970-1980 Welsh was a performer with his Alex Welsh Band at public house venues throughout the UK having performed at the Bell Pub in Maidenhead, Berkshire where he was a regular in the early 1970s, and the Five Ways Pub in Sherwood, Nottingham in 1981 among many others.

A concert was held in 2016 at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival as a tribute to him.[6] A further festival was planned in his memory in July 2021.

He died in June 1982 in Hillingdon hospital in London, England, at the age of 52. (wikipedia)

This superbly recorded set features a little recorded line-up by the Welsh band.

Archie Semple had left and John Barnes was yet to join and so the reed chair was occupied by the hugely underrated and hugely talented Al Gay.

Al was only with the band just over a year and moved on to Long John Baldry’s Hoochie Coochie Men.

He contributes some magnicent playing on this album which includes tunes rarely recorded by the Welsh band.

As the booklet points out they couldn’t have bettered this set if they’d done it in a studio.

British Jazz at its very best. (propermusic.com)

Any new Welsh Band material is good news in my book and this proves to be no exception. The material derives from the vast collection of material recorded by Alan Gilmour at that famed locale, the hard-to-find Dancing Slipper in Nottingham. It was taped in 1963 and features an unusual, little known line up of the band given that the pianist is Bert Murray, who recorded seldom with the group. Fred Hunt was temporarily absent.

The Welsh-Crimmins front line was augmented by Al Gay, who proves a versatile, articulate reedsman from the outset, with a good clarinet solo on Beale Street Blues. Crimmins follows with a typically suave statement with Lennie Hastings driving the band in exemplary fashion – and I’ve always agreed with sleeve note writer Ralph Laing that the Welsh band rhythm section was just about the best in the business in its field. I didn’t detect any Hastings “oo-yahs” however.

Gay’s influences included Hawkins on tenor and he pays oblique tonal homage on Memphis Blues where Welsh shows some Buck Clayton inspired work. The leader sings, Armstrong-style, on Up A lazy River where Crimmins ventures some wa-wa ‘bone and by Stan’s Dance the band is cooking nicely – note Murray’s good solo here. Gay stretches out on Soft Winds, swinging with verve strongly aided by that crisp, tight and propulsive rhythm section; a good arrangement sees a trombone-and-percussion passage. Gay takes the soprano saxophone honours on On The Sunny Side Of The Street ensuring variety in the front line whilst Welsh takes amongst his best solos on Fidgety Feet where Hastings lays down an insistent beat.

Good arrangements, one or two surprising song selections and a rare band line-up are the principal features of this latest outing from Lake. It’s a good live session, enjoyable and entertaining. (Jonathan Woolf)

Recorded live at The Dancing Slipper, Nottingham, 13 April 1963

Personnel:
Roy Crimmins (trombone)
Al Gay (reeds)
Lennie Hastings (drums)
Bert Murray (piano)
Tony Pitt (guitar, banjo)
Bill Reid (bass)
Alex Welsh (trumpet, vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Beale St Blues (Handy) 5.16
02. Memphis Blues (Handy) 6.21
03. Up A Lazy River (Carmichael/Arodin) 5.07
04. Stan’s Dance (Clayton) 7.14
05. Serenade In Blue (Warren/Gordon) 8.35
06. Soft Winds (Goodman/Royal) 7.46
07. On The Sunny Side Of The Street (Fields/McHugh) 4.35
08. Lester Leaps In (Young) 6.25
09. On The Alamo (Kahn/Jones) 7.11
10. Exactly Like You (McHugh/Fields) 4.36
11. My Blue Heaven (Whiting/Donaldson) 5.59
12. Fidgety Feet (Shields/LaRocca) 4.44

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Hal Blaine – Psychedelic Percussion (1967)

Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. His drumming is featured on 150 US top 10 hits, 40 of which went to number one.

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Blaine moved with his family to California in 1943 and began playing jazz and big band music before taking up rock and roll session work. He became one of the regulars in Phil Spector’s de facto house band, which Blaine nicknamed “the Wrecking Crew”. Some of the records Blaine played on include the Ronettes’ single “Be My Baby” (1963), which contained a drum beat that became widely imitated, as well as works by popular artists such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, Neil Diamond, and the Byrds.

Blaine’s workload declined in the 1980s as recording and musical practices changed. In 2000, he was among the inaugural “sidemen” inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2007 he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum as a member of the Wrecking Crew and in 2018 he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Blaine was born Harold Simon Belsky to Jewish Eastern European immigrants, Meyer and Rose Belsky (née Silverman), in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States.

When he was seven, he moved with his family to Hartford, Connecticut. He began playing drums at the age of eight, and again moved with his family to California in 1943.

From 1949 to 1952, Blaine learned drums from Roy Knapp, who had also taught jazz drummer Gene Krupa. He began his professional career playing overnight sessions in Chicago strip clubs, which allowed him to practice and perfect his sight reading skills.[8] He subsequently played as part of Count Basie’s big band and toured with Patti Page and Tommy Sands before taking up session work. Unlike many of his jazz contemporaries, Blaine enjoyed playing rock and roll and this meant he played on numerous such sessions during the 1950s. Blaine rarely performed live, with the exception of working with Nancy Sinatra at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in the 1960s, and with John Denvers’ band in the 70s.

He was a core member of the Wrecking Crew, the close-knit group of Los Angeles session musicians that played on hit records during the 1960s. Blaine claimed to have invented the name as the “old-school” studio musicians feared these new, younger guys were a “destructive force” in the conservative studio environment of the time.

Blaine played with guitarists Glen Campbell and Tommy Tedesco, bassists Carol Kaye and Joe Osborn, and keyboardists Leon Russell and Don Randi. Mr. Blaine played on thousands of recordings through the mid-1970s. John Denver brought Blaine on tour in the mid-1970s.

Blaine played less session work from the 1980s onwards as computers and electronics began to be used in studios, and producers began to bring in younger players. The popularisation of the drum machine also reduced demand for session drummers like Blaine. He kept busy recording advertising jingles for a number of years, before semi-retiring from performing. He lost most of his wealth following a divorce. At one point, he was working as a security guard in Arizona.

Blaine died of natural causes on March 11, 2019, at the age of 90 in Palm Desert, California. A statement from his family read “May he rest forever on 2 and 4”, referring to the second and fourth beats of a measure in music. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson expressed public condolences and praised Blaine’s musicianship. Ronnie Spector praised Blaine for “the magic he put on all our Ronettes recordings”.

Blaine was a prolific session player and by his estimation played on over 35,000 recordings, including 6,000 singles. He is widely regarded as one of the most in-demand drummers in rock and roll history, having “certainly played on more hit records than any drummer in the rock era”. His drumming can be heard as part of the Wall of Sound on the Ronettes’ 1963 single “Be My Baby”, produced by Phil Spector at Hollywood’s Gold Star Studios. Drummer Max Weinberg wrote, “If Hal Blaine had played drums only on … ‘Be My Baby’, his name would still be uttered with reverence and respect for the power of his big beat.” The pattern was created when Blaine accidentally hit the snare on just the fourth beat, instead of the two and four. It was a mistake that Spector decided to leave in.

Blaine is also credited with popularising the “disco beat” after he recorded a “pshh-shup” sound by opening and closing the hi-hat at appropriate intervals on Johnny Rivers’ “Poor Side of Town”. The effect had been widely used in jazz, but professional recording engineers disliked it because of its resemblance to white noise. The sound subsequently became sought-after by producers in the 1970s.

“Hal Blaine Strikes Again” was a rubber stamp used by Blaine to mark music scores and places where he played. When asked to explain about the stamp, Blaine said, “I always stamp my charts. And there’s a reason why I started that; it wasn’t all ego.”[20] The stamp was used for any piece of music Blaine played on. Another drummer, Mike Botts, then with the band Bread, recalled: “Every studio I went to in the late sixties, there was a rubber stamp imprint on the wall of the drum booth that said, ‘Hal Blaine strikes again.’ Hal was getting so many studio dates he actually had a rubber stamp made. He was everywhere!”

In 2014, Blaine was portrayed by Johnny Sneed in the film Love & Mercy, a biopic of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.

The instrumental song “Hal McBlaine” – a portmanteau combining the names of Blaine and guitarist John McBain – by psychedelic garage rock band Wellwater Conspiracy on their 1999 album Brotherhood of Electric: Operational Directives is an homage to Blaine. (wikipedia)

Psychedelic Percussion definitely sticks to his title. With the help from Paul Beaver of Beaver & Krause (famous keyboard wizard and sound engineer for the likes of Stevie Wonder), vibe master Emil Richards (check is two fantastic album on Impulse! with The Microtonal Blues Band featuring Joe Porcaro, father of the famed Toto brothers) and Gary Coleman (percussionist in the famous Wrecking Crew), Blaine goes wild in the studio with drums, gong, xylophone, organ, bongos, congas and timpani.

Japan front + backcover:

Unusual textures and tones lead the way to 12 instrumental exotic numbers similar in a way to Raymond Scott most visionary experiments. This is pure madness, a record full of breaks and still unsurpassed in many ways. (soundohm.com)

Personnel:
Paul Beaver (electronics)
Hal Blaine (drums, percussion, gong,organ, xylophone)
Gary Coleman (percussion)
Mike Lang (keyboards)
Emil Richards (vibraphone, percussion)

Alternate frontcover from Chile:

Tracklist:
01. Love-In (December) 2.17
02. Freaky (January) 2.23
03. Flashes (February) 2.23
04. Kaleidoscope (March) 2.20
05. Hallucinations (April) 2.24
06. Flower Society (May) 2.26
07. Trippin’ Out (June) 2.38
08. Tune In-Turn On (July) 2.16
09. Vibrations (August) 2.18
10. Soulful (September) 2.23
11. Inner-Space (October) 2.20
12. Wiggy (November) 2.15

Music. Hal Blaine

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CD frontcover:

Charlie Parker – The Magnificent Charlie Parker (1955)

Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as Yardbird and Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique and advanced harmonies. Parker was a blazingly fast virtuoso, and he introduced revolutionary harmonic ideas including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. His tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Parker acquired the nickname “Yardbird” early in his career on the road with Jay McShann.

This, and the shortened form “Bird”, continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as “Yardbird Suite”, “Ornithology”, “Bird Gets the Worm”, and “Bird of Paradise”. Parker was an icon for the hipster subculture and later the Beat Generation, personifying the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist and intellectual rather than just an entertainer. (by wikipedia)

And this album was released in 1955 on the occasion of his death.

Charlie Parker – still absolutely “Magnificent” after 70 years:
With two top-class ensembles, Charlie Parker recorded the brilliant 1951
recordings of “The Magnificent Charlie Parker”.

Although Charlie Parker is widely regarded as the incarnation of bebop, his music was also often deeply deeply imbued with the blues. Perhaps nowhere was this more evident
than on the album “The Magnificent Charlie Parker”, which occasionally circulates under the alternative title “The Genius of Charlie Parker #8: Swedish Schnapps”. in circulation. It brought together single recordings from two sessions in 1955, that the brilliant alto saxophonist recorded in 1951 with completely different but equally but equally top-class quintet line-ups.

The first recording session on 17 January 1951 saw a reunion with Miles Davis and Max Roach, who had already worked on many of Parker’s groundbreaking recordings between 1945 and 1947.
The chemistry between the three was right from the start. The quintet, which in addition to the Parker originals “Au Privave”, “She Rote” and “K.C. Blues” as well as the standard “Star Eyes”, was completed by pianist Walter Bishop Jr. and bassist Teddy Kotick. On the same day, Miles made his first solo recordings for Prestige Records in another New York studio.
The second session took place on 8 August of the same year. This time Parker’s partners were the great Red Rodney on trumpet, the young pianist John Lewis, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke. The programme again consisted of brilliant Parker compositions (“Blues For Alice”, “Si Si” and “Back Home Blues”) and Charlie Shavers’ “Swedish Schnapps”.

The recordings of these two quintet sessions were supplemented by three more
which had also only been released as singles at the time: With Walter Bishop Jr. (piano), Teddy Kotick (bass), Roy Haynes (drums), José Mangual (bongos) and Ralph Miranda (congas), Charlie Parker recorded a groovy version of Cal Massey’s Latin number “Fiesta” on 12 March 1951. “In The Still Of The Night” and “Old Folks” were finally recorded on 25 May 1953 with an octet arranged by Gil Evans (who featured Charles Mingus and Max Roach) and a mixed choir arranged by Dave Lambert. (jazzecho.de)

And …check the line-up !

Personnel:
Tony Aless (piano)
Walter Bishop, Jr. (piano)
Al Block (flute)
Ray Brown (bass)
Kenny Clarke (drums)
Junior Collins (french horn)
Miles Davis (trumpet)
Gil Evans (piano)
Roy Haynes (drums)
Teddy Kotick (bass)
John Lewis (piano)
Tommy Mace (oboe)
Jose Mangual (pecussion)
Hal McKusick (clarinet)
Charles Mingus (bass)
Luis Miranda (percussion)
Charlie Parker (saxophone)
Max Roach (drums)
Red Rodney (trumpet)
Manny Thaler (bassoon)
+
Dave Lambert & His Singers (vocals)

Tracklist:
01. Au Privave (Parker) 2.43
02. She Rote (Parker) 3.06
03. K.C. Blues (Parker) 3.25
04. Star Eyes (DePaul/Raye) 3.32
05. In The Still Of The Night (Porter) 3.23
06. Old Folks (Hill/Robison) 3.34
07. Blues For Alice (Parker) 2.46
08. Si Si (Parker) 2.39
09. Swedish Schnapps (Parker) 3.10
10. Back Home Blues (Parker) 2.47
11. Lover Man (Davis/Ramirez/Sherman) 3.24
12. Why Do I Love You? (Hammerstein II/Kern) 3.06

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More from Charlie Parker:

Eberhard Weber – Once Upon A Time (Live in Avignon) (2021)

Eberhard Weber (born 22 January 1940, in Stuttgart, Germany) is a German double bassist and composer. As a bass player, he is known for his highly distinctive tone and phrasing. Weber’s compositions blend chamber jazz, European classical music, minimalism and ambient music, and are regarded as characteristic examples of the ECM Records sound.

Weber began recording in the early 1960s, and released The Colours of Chloë (ECM 1042), his first record under his own name, in 1973. In addition to his career as a musician, he also worked for many years as a television and theater director. He has designed an electric-acoustic bass with an additional string tuned to C.

Weber’s music, often in a melancholic tone, frequently utilizes ostinatos, yet is highly organized in its colouring and attention to detail. He was an early proponent of the solid-body electric double bass, which he has played regularly since the early 1970s.

From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, Weber’s closest musical association was with pianist Wolfgang Dauner. Their many mutual projects were diverse, from mainstream jazz to jazz-rock fusion to avant-garde sound experiments. During this period, Weber also played and recorded with pianists Hampton Hawes and Mal Waldron, guitarists Baden Powell de Aquino and Joe Pass, The Mike Gibbs Orchestra, violinist Stephane Grappelli, and many others.

Starting with The Colours of Chloë, Weber has released 13 more records under his own name, all on ECM. The ECM association also led to collaborations with other ECM recording artists such as Gary Burton (Ring, 1974; Passengers, 1976), Ralph Towner (Solstice, 1975; Solstice/Sound and Shadows, 1977), Pat Metheny (Watercolors, 1977), and Jan Garbarek (10 recordings between 1978 and 1998).

In the mid-1970s Weber formed his own group, Colours, with Charlie Mariano (soprano saxophone, flutes), Rainer Brüninghaus (piano, synthesizer) and Jon Christensen (drums). After their first recording, Yellow Fields (1975), Christensen left and was replaced by John Marshall. The group toured extensively and recorded two further records, Silent Feet (1977) and Little Movements (1980), before disbanding.

Since the early 1980s, Weber has regularly collaborated with the British singer-songwriter Kate Bush, playing on four of her last six studio albums (The Dreaming, 1982; Hounds of Love, 1985; The Sensual World, 1989; Aerial, 2005).

During the 1980s, Weber toured with Barbara Thompson’s jazz ensemble Paraphernalia.

Since 1990, Weber’s touring has been limited, and he has had only two new recordings under his own name: The 2001 release Endless Days is an elemental fusion of jazz and classical music flavors, fitting well the moniker chamber jazz. His main touring activity during that period was as a regular member of the Jan Garbarek Group. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, in March, 2005 he recorded Stages of a Long Journey, a live concert with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and featuring Gary Burton, Wolfgang Dauner and Jan Garbarek. In 2009 ECM also re-released his albums Yellow Fields, Silent Feet and Little Movements as a 3-CD collection titled “Colours”.

In 2007, Weber suffered a stroke and was subsequently unable to perform. In a January 2010 interview with Die Welt, he spoke about his medical condition and future projects.

Weber was awarded the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff-Preis in November 2009. A box set of his 1970s works was released by ECM Records the same month.

Weber’s latest albums, Résumé (2012) and Encore (2015) comprise solos from his performances worldwide with The Jan Garbarek Group, overdubbed with keyboards/treatments by Weber, sax by Garbarek, and flügelhorn by Ack Van Rooyen.

His autobiography, Résumé, was published in 2015. An English translation by Heidi Kirk – Eberhard Weber: A German Jazz Story – is due to be published in October 2021.

This is his last album (recored live in 1994)

“I played jazz for over fifty years, but I’m incapable of describing what is so fascinating about this music.”

Since a stroke has sadly stopped Weber from playing the double bass, this album is a concert from 1994. Of the seven tracks six are by Weber, the seventh is the jazz standard “My Favorite Things”. This set once again shows Weber’s dexterity on the double bass along with his skills as a composer. Recorded and mixed to high standards, the clarity and warmth of Weber’s bass is solidly to the fore.

The compositions range from an earlier great solo bass album, “Pendulum”, plus a fairly recent album, “Orchestra”. The first track, “Pendulum”, sets the tone for the album. Weber alone with his bass is simply stunning–the intensity, the dexterity–come together for a fine version of this tune. The lengthiest composition here (12 + minutes), “Trio For Bassoon And Bass” , is played on such a high plane of musicality, it’s hard to find words to describe what Weber has created here. If the word “Bassoon” worries you about what you’ll hear–forget that–it’s Weber out front on bass from beginning to end with subtle accompaniment on tape.

“Ready Out There” has Weber playing up tempo which frankly is another showstopper of a performance. The clarity of each plucked note at a rapid pace and the musicality is astounding. “Silent For A While” is closest to that “ECM sound”–atmospheric, and open sounding–showing another side of his playing. “Delirium” is a very musical composition which Weber handles with consummate ability–the double bass has seldom (except for Weber) sounded so musical and complete in a solo performance.

“My Favorite Things” is arranged a bit differently to what most people are familiar with. Using the very catchy melody Weber infuses it with his own interpretation, again with the aid of subtle tape accompaniment. But once again, it’s Weber out front plucking his bass, even bowing a bit to good effect. The last tune, “Air”, is the shortest thing here (3:47) , but it’s impact is as great as anything here. It was a great way to end this beautiful album of introspective, yet searching music on an instrument many people dismiss as a solo instrument.

As with most ECM releases, there’s no liner notes in the booklet except for a track list and recording information, along with a small photo of Weber. The jewel case slips into a cardboard slipcase which has a painting by Weber’s wife, Maja. And if by some chance you’re a Weber fan, look for the book “Eberhard Weber A German Jazz Story”, which is an autobiography which includes occasional b&w photos. (Stuart Jefferson)

Recorded live at the Théâtre Des Halles, Avignon/France, August 1994

Personnel:
Eberhard Weber (bass)

Tracklist:
01. Pendulum 6.13
02. Trio For Bassoon And Bass 12.24
03. Ready Out There 5.10
04. Silent For A While 6.05
05. Delirium 7.10
06. My Favorite Things 5.12
07. Air 3.16

Music by Eberhard Weber,
except on 06. by Richard Rodgers

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More from Eberhard Weber:

Harry Belafonte – Belafonte Sings The Blues (1958)

Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor and activist, who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.

Belafonte was best known for his recordings of “The Banana Boat Song”, with its signature “Day-O” lyric, “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)”, “Jamaica Farewell”, and “Mary’s Boy Child”. He recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He also starred in several films, including Carmen Jones (1954), Island in the Sun (1957), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

Belafonte considered the actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson a mentor, and he was a close confidant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. As he later recalled, “Paul Robeson had been my first great formative influence; you might say he gave me my backbone. Martin King was the second; he nourished my soul.” Throughout his career, Belafonte was an advocate for political and humanitarian causes, such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement and USA for Africa. From 1987 until his death, he was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush presidential administration. Belafonte acted as the American Civil Liberties Union celebrity ambassador for juvenile justice issues.

Belafonte won three Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In 1989, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1994. In 2014, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy’s 6th Annual Governors Awards and in 2022 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category

On April 25, 2023, Belafonte died from congestive heart failure at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at the age of 96. (wikipedia)

An actor, humanitarian, and the acknowledged “King of Calypso,” Harry Belafonte ranked among the most seminal performers of the postwar era. One of the most successful African-American pop stars in history, Belafonte’s staggering talent, good looks, and masterful assimilation of folk, jazz, and worldbeat rhythms allowed him to achieve a level of mainstream eminence and crossover popularity virtually unparalleled in the days before the advent of the Civil Rights movement — a cultural uprising which he himself helped spearhead. (by Jason Ankeny)

Belafonte (center) at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C with Sidney Poitier (left) and Charlton Heston:

Belafonte Sings the Blues is an album by Harry Belafonte, released by RCA Victor (LPM/LSP-1972) in 1958. It was recorded in New York City on January 29 (with Alan Greene as conductor) and March 29 (with Bob Corman as conductor), and in Hollywood on June 5 and 7 (conducted by Dennis Farnon). The album was Belafonte’s first to be recorded in stereophonic sound. (wikipedia)

After flirting with traditional African-American material in his previous albums, Belafonte, for the first time, devotes an entire album to the blues. However, of the eleven songs, only two could be classified as traditional blues: “In the Evenin’ Mama” and “Cotton Fields,” the latter given a five minute treatment. Belafonte would take this song on the road as part of his live act for the next decade. Of the other songs, three were covers of Ray Charles standards (“A Fool For You,” “Hallelujah I Love Her So,” “Mary Ann”). Another highlight is Belafonte’s rendition of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.” With few exceptions, the entire album is understated and not as exciting or riveting as other Belafonte records. Still, it’s solid listening, and taken track by track, thoughtful performances. Footnote: this was the first Belafonte album recorded in stereo. Some releases feature a thick, dark blue spine. (by Cary Ginell)

Superb sound quality and great performance by Mr. Belafonte. Agree with the above that this does not sound like Delta Blues (“traditional blues”). Most of these songs have pretty large ensembles. There is great energy and the emotions are believable. If you have a nice system this one is a good one to show it off. (by Frank Pearce)

This album is saved from inauthenticity by not really being a blues album. Rather it’s an album of songs that exude a “bluesy” feel, with Belafonte backed mostly by small combos of unidentified New York and Los Angeles studio musicians on bass, drums and piano, occasionally augmented tastefully by reeds, brass and guitar. Oh, and it’s also saved by Belafonte’s very believable performances that ring true and never sound forced or artificial.

The astute A&R work, apparently much of it by Belafonte, includes three Ray Charles songs: “A Fool For You,” “Hallelujah I Love Her So” and “Mary Ann” (Ray was all of 28 in 1958 when this album was recorded), Billie Holiday’s “God Bless’ the Child” and Lowell Fulson’s “Sinner’s Prayer.” It even has Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen’s “One for my Baby.”

One of the standouts for me is Charles Calhoun’s “Losing Hand” featuring a slashing guitar on the right channel and a baritone sax on the left. Harry gets down. It’s too bad we don’t know the identity of these players!

Belafonte’s voice has been superbly recorded on both coasts and placed deservedly well out front in the mix. All of the instruments are well-recorded and spread naturally across the very wide soundstage.

As for which were New York recordings (led by Allen Greene and Bob Corman) and which originated in Hollywood (with Dennis Farnon), the only clue is (might be?) the distinctive RCA Hollywood echo chamber on some tracks later heard on Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow and The Rolling Stones’ Aftermath. The New York tracks are drier and when there is added echo it is less expansive and has a faster decay time. Or I’m just hallucinating!

Yes, if given a choice of blues albums by Memphis Slim or Harry Belafonte I’d pick Slim every time (as probably would Harry himself!) but this album remains incredibly popular and well-respected for good reason aside from the spectacularly vidid sound.

It’s a shame we don’t know who engineered in New York (Bob Simpson?) or Hollywood (Al Schmitt?) nor do we know who played but you can be sure they were the cream of the New York and California studio cats and probably include some very familiar names. (by Michael Fremer)

Personnel:
Harr Belafonte (vovals)
+
a bunch of unknown studio musicians

From a 1958 Dutch gum set:

Tracklist:
01. A Fool For You (Charles) 3.40
02. Losing Hand (Calhoun) 4.17
03. One For My Baby (Mercer/Arlen) 4.33
04. In The Evenin’ Mama (Carter) 3.29
05. Hallelujah I Love Her So (Charles) 2.54
06. The Way That I Feel (Brooks) 4.30
07. Cotton Fields (Carter) 5.17
08. God Bless The Child (Holiday/Herzog Jr.) 5.05
09. Mary Ann (Charles) 2.41
10. Sinner’s Prayer (Fulson) 3.41
11. Fare Thee Well (Brooks) 4.41

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More from Harry Belafonte:

Nina Simone – Live At The Fabrik, Hamburg, Germany (1988)

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop.

The sixth of eight children born from a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where, despite a well received audition, she was denied admission, which she attributed to racism. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to “Nina Simone” to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play “the devil’s music” or so-called “cocktail piano”. She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in the United States in 1958 with “I Loves You, Porgy”. Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in southern France (Bouches-du-Rhône).[52] In the same year, her final album, A Single Woman, was released. She variously contended that she married or had a love affair with a Tunisian around this time, but that their relationship ended because, “His family didn’t want him to move to France, and France didn’t want him because he’s a North African.” During a 1998 performance in Newark, she announced, “If you’re going to come see me again, you’ve got to come to France, because I am not coming back.” She suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône), on April 21, 2003. Her Catholic funeral service at the local parish was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti LaBelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and hundreds of others. Simone’s ashes were scattered in several African countries. Her daughter Lisa Celeste Stroud is an actress and singer who took the stage name Simone, and who has appeared on Broadway in Aida.

Simone’s consciousness on the racial and social discourse was prompted by her friendship with the playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Simone stated that during her conversations with Hansberry “we never talked about men or clothes. It was always Marx, Lenin and revolution – real girls’ talk”. The influence of Hansberry planted the seed for the provocative social commentary that became an expectation in Simone’s repertoire. One of Nina’s more hopeful activism anthems, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, was written with collaborator Weldon Irvine in the years following the playwright’s passing, acquiring the title of one of Hansberry’s unpublished plays. Simone’s social circles included notable black activists such as James Baldwin, Stokely Carmichael and Langston Hughes: the lyrics of her song “Backlash Blues” were written by Hughes.

Simone’s social commentary was not limited to the civil rights movement; the song “Four Women” exposed the Eurocentric appearance standards imposed on Black women in America,[58] as it explored the internalized dilemma of beauty that is experienced between four Black women with skin tones ranging from light to dark. She explains in her autobiography I Put a Spell on You that the purpose of the song was to inspire Black women to define beauty and identity for themselves without the influence of societal impositions. Chardine Taylor-Stone has noted that, beyond the politics of beauty, the song also describes the stereotypical roles that many Black women have historically been restricted to: the mammy, the tragic mulatto, the sex worker, and the angry Black woman. (wikipedia)

“The High Priestess of Soul,” Nina Simone was a singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Mostly known as a jazz singer, her music blended gospel, blues, folk, pop, and classical styles. No popular singer was more closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement than Simone.

Simone was billed as a jazz vocalist, but she often rejected the label, viewing it as a reflection of her race more than her musical style and training. She self-identified as a folk singer, with a style that also incorporated blues, gospel, and pop, among others. She was able to cross genres as both a singer and pianist, and her classical background remained an important part of her musical identity.

She released the iconic protest song “Mississippi Goddam” in 1964, in reaction to the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama and the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, both in 1963. The song expressed her frustration with the slow pace of change in response to the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement. She famously performed “Mississippi Goddam” at a concert on April 7, 1968, three days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Simone continued to speak out forcefully about the African American freedom struggle and became associated with the Black Nationalism and Black Power movements. Her albums covered a wide range of styles and included both politically motivated songs and reimaginations of popular songs. “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black” (1969) aimed to make African American children feel good about themselves and “Four Women” (1966) expressed the suffering and resilience of African American women. At the same time, her covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, George Harrison, and the Bee Gees earned acclaim.

In the 1970s, as public attention toward the Civil Rights Movement declined, Simone’s music faded in popularity. She left the United States, eventually settling in France. Simone attributed her move abroad to what she saw as the worsening racial situation in the US. She continued to release new albums and draw fans to her concert tours, but she performed less as the years went on.

Scholars have often overlooked Simone’s legacy because her music crossed genres and could not easily be categorized, but she left a profound mark on American music. Singers such as Aretha Franklin, Rufus Wainright, and Roberta Flack cite her as an important influence. In 2008, Rolling Stone named Simone to its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, and, in 2018, Simone was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.(She passed away in 2003 at the age of 70.) (Mariana Brandman, womenshistory.org)

In 1988 Nina Simone gave a guest performance at the Hamburg Fabrik, Hamburg/Germany and here is the recording of this fantastic evening.

To remember this unique figure you’ll hear a recently unearthed concert recording made in Hamburg, Germany in 1988 recorded by German radio.

This hour long set captures the essence of why she was a legend and treats the audience to a wide array of songs so synonymous with her.

She covers a range of material from her own compositions to arrangements of standards and blues tunes in this performance at the Fabrick club where she was backed by a fine band.

Here is this memorable concert at the Hamburg Fabrik, recorded by Norddeutscher Rundfunk on 6 May 1988.

Al Schackman on guitar and vibraphone, Tony Jones on double bass and Leopoldo Fleming, percussion, accompany the extraordinary singer and pianist through all the splendour and angry melancholy of her music. On this evening, Nina Simone performs moving original songs such as “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, hits like Walter Donaldson’s “My Baby Just Cares for Me” and arranged traditionals like “In The Evening by the Moonlight”.

Thanks to unclewolfi for sharing the show at Dime.

Recorded live at Fabrik, Hamburg, Germany; May 6, 1988
Very good digital broadcast

Personnel:
Leopoldo Fleming (drums)
Tony Jones (bass)
Al Schackman (guitar, vibes)
Nina Simone (vocals, piano)

Alternate frontcover:

Tracklist:
01. In The Evening By The Moonlight (Traditional) 4.37
02. To Be Young, Gifted And Black (Simone/Irving) 5.45
03. Color Is A Beautiful Thing (Simone) 4.45
04. Mississippi Goddamn (Simone) 5.20
05. See-Line Woman (Traditional/Simone) 4.17
06. Announcement 0.31
07. Fodder On Her Wings (Simone) 7.17
08. Announcement 0.51
09. I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Williams/Brymn/Small) 4.21
10. Announcement 0.25
11. Do I Move You (Simone) 3.50
12. Sea Lion Woman (Simone) 1.32
13. Backlash Blues (Simone/Hughes) 3.01
14. Announcement 1.19
15. My Baby Just Cares For Me (Kahn/Donaldson) 5.43
16. Consumation (Simone) 4.55

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“I’m a real rebel with a cause.”
(Nina Simone)

More from Nina Simone:

Schnuckenack Reinhardt Quintett – Musik deutscher Zigeuner (Music by German Gypsies) (1969)

Franz “Schnuckenack” Reinhardt (17 February 1921 – 15 April 2006) was a German gypsy jazz musician (violinist), composer and interpreter.[a] He was considered the “great violin virtuoso of Sinti music.” He was a German Sinto; his music was mostly published and categorized under the contemporary names gypsy jazz or “Musik deutscher Zigeuner” (music of German gypsies). He “made this music accessible to a broad public” and made the most significant contribution to the presentation of gypsy music and jazz in Germany into a concert form. He was the pioneer of this style of music in Germany and directly or indirectly inspired many of the succeeding generation of gypsy jazz players in that country, as well as preserving on record a great many folkloric and gypsy compositions for future generations.

Schnuckenack, a relative of the virtuoso Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt, whom he never met personally, was born on 17 February 1921 in Weinsheim, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. His father Peta, a cousin of Django’s mother, was also a violinist. Like most musical gypsies, he started playing at an early age with his family which at first followed a roaming existence as did most gypsies of that day; he appeared in concerts with the band of his father from the age of twelve. In the 1930s, the family settled in Mainz and Schnuckenack studied music for a while at the Mainz-based Peter Cornelius Conservatory. His nickname “Schnuckenack” – which quickly became his official nickname – comes from the Romani expression “schnuker nak: (“nice nose”).[b] During the Nazi era, as a gypsy he was deported with his family in 1938 to the town of Częstochowa in south-central Poland. They lived there for five years, the family disguised as German-Hungarian musicians, always fleeing from discovery. On five occasions, Schnuckenack barely escaped shooting by the SS; his younger brother was not so lucky and was deported to Auschwitz where he was killed. Schnuckenack himself survived and returned to Kulmbach in Bavaria.

In 1966, during a pilgrimage to Lourdes, Schnuckenack met a young man who would change his life: Sigfried Maeker. This producer convinced the violinist to make the music of the German gypsies accessible to a wide audience.[3] Schnuckenack gathered musicians and formed a Quintett whose drummerless lineup with two rhythm guitars was an exact copy of Django Reinhardt’s Quintette du Hot Club de France and which gave its first concert in November 1967 in Heidelberg. This first Quintett consisted of Schnuckenack on violin and vocals, Daweli Reinhardt and Bobby Falta (who had also played with Joseph Reinhardt in the 1960s) on solo guitars, Spatzo Weiss on rhythm and Hojok Merstein on double bass. In 1967 and 1968, the group performed at the International Waldeck Festivals.[4] In 1969, Bobby Falta and Daweli Reinhardt were replaced by Holzmanno Winterstein on rhythm guitar and the then 18-year old guitar virtuoso Häns’che Weiss, who hailed from East Germany, on lead acoustic guitar. This version of the Quintett released several albums including a live recording with the singer Lida Goulesco.

That version of the Schnuckenack Reinhardt Quintett dissolved in May 1972 with the departure of Häns’che Weiss, who went on to form the Häns’che Weiss Quintet with the teenage prodigy Titian “Titi” Winterstein on violin, Holzmanno Winterstein and Ziroli Winterstein on rhythm guitars, Hojok Merstein on double bass as well as himself on solo guitar.

Schnuckenack then formed a new quintet with the return of Bobby Falta on solo guitar, Schmeling Lehmann, and son Ricardo Reinhardt on rhythm guitars, and Jani Lehmann on double bass. According to Falta’s preference, this quintet was more oriented towards jazz. In the following years, the quintet was replaced, and Schnuckenack’s son Forello was the solo guitarist; the folkloristic part of the repertoire was again emphasized. Until 1991, the formation changed to a sextet, which was also made up of family members. Schnuckenack also performed with his “Talal” project, which followed the migration of the Roma from India to Europe.

One of Schnuckenack’s most prized possessions was the “Pope violin” which was presented to him with a personal dedication by Pope Paul VI in 1965. He never played this instrument for money but it was used solely on religious occasions such as festivals and pilgrimages.

Schnuckenack resided in Sankt Leon-Rot, Baden-Württemberg from 1982 until his death in 2006. In 2000 the film maker Andreas Öhlers made a documentary film about his life called Die Ballade von Schnuckenack Reinhardt (The Ballad of Schnuckenack Reinhardt) which detailed his music as well as his wartime experiences. This film accompanies Schnuckenack Reinhardt on a journey with his sons to places that marked him and his music for life; by taking his sons to the places in Germany and Poland where he was persecuted and to the places where he pursued his musical career after 1945, he wants to pass on the family’s history to them. The last stop on this itinerary is Samois-sur-Seine in France, the burial place of his great inspiration and relative, the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

The Austrian artist André Heller, who was a friend of Schnuckenack, wrote the song “Mein Freund Schnuckenack” together with Ingfried Hoffmann, in which he refers to the life of the musician whose life was affected by both great joy and great sadness.

Schnuckenack Reinhardt died on 15 April 2006 at the age of 85, just after he had announced that he was retiring from performing, given a farewell concert 1 April 2006 in at the Parktheater in Bensheim, Germany, and announced that he was transferring the leadership of his famous Quintett to his brother-in-law Schmitto Kling, leader of the group “Hot Club the Zigan”. He is buried in the main cemetery of Neustadt an der Weinstraße.

Schnuckenack’s music differed from Django’s, being a combination of both swing and Hungarian or eastern European styles with Romani vocals and high energy accompaniment, together with many traditional gypsy melodies and waltzes, but his various Quintetts played an important role in keeping Django’s music alive especially through the 1960s when few others were playing it, and laid the foundation for numerous German Sinto groups that were to follow such as those of Häns’che Weiss, Titi Winterstein, the Hot Club da Sinti and others, also the next generation of great players such as Lulu Reinhardt, Wedeli Köhler and Martin Weiss. (wikipedia)

He was considered the “great violin virtuoso of Sinti music””. Franz “Schnuckenack” Reinhardt was a cousin of the French guitarist Django Reinhardt. He studied violin at the conservatory in Mainz. But at 17, he and his family were deported to Czestochowa in southern Poland – in Nazi terminology, they were Gypsies worthy of life.

There the family eked out a living for five years disguised as German-Hungarian musicians. After the war, Reinhardt returned to Germany and played light music for the US army.

In 1967, the Schnuckenack Reinhardt Quintet was formed, which sounded like Django Reinhardt’s “Hot Club de France” and became the model for many Sinto jazz groups. (by Christian Kosfeld)

And here´s is his first album …

And those who like the great music of Django Reinhardt actually have to listen to this album, because it is also great!
For everyone else, this is a chance to discover this music!

Personnel:
Hojok Merstein (bass)
Bobby Falta (lead guitar)
Daweli Reinhardt (guitar)
Schnuckenack Reinhardt (violin)
Spatzo Weiß (guitar)

Tracklist:
01. Fuli tschai (Traditional) 2.09
02. La Bohème (Aznavour) 2.21
03. Sweet Georgia Brown (Pinkard/Bernie/Casey) 3.11
04. Nadeschi veliona (Traditional) 4.33
05. César Swing (Traditional) 3.23
06. Manoir de mes rêves (Reinhardt) 3.57
07. Rumänische Maika (Traditional) 1.47
08. Some Of These Days (Brooks/Simon) 3
11. Swing Musette (unknown) 1.58
12. Them There Eyes (Pinkard) 3.02
13. Nisch (Reinhardt) 3.48
16. Gari-gari (Traditional) 2.28

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Max Roach – Bremen – Baded-Baden (Germany) (1964)

Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little. He was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1992.

In the mid-1950s, Roach co-led a pioneering quintet along with trumpeter Clifford Brown. In 1970, he founded the percussion ensemble M’Boom. He made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement.

In the early 2000s, Roach became less active due to the onset of hydrocephalus-related complications.

Roach died of complications related to Alzheimer’s and dementia in Manhattan in the early morning of August 16, 2007. He was survived by five children: sons Daryl and Raoul, and daughters Maxine, Ayo, and Dara. More than 1,900 people attended his funeral at Riverside Church on August 24, 2007. He was interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

In a funeral tribute to Roach, then-Lieutenant Governor of New York David Paterson compared the musician’s courage to that of Paul Robeson, Harriet Tubman, and Malcolm X, saying that “No one ever wrote a bad thing about Max Roach’s music or his aura until 1960, when he and Charlie Mingus protested the practices of the Newport Jazz Festival.” (wikipedia)

One of the most gifted musicians in jazz history, Max Roach helped establish a new vocabulary for jazz drummers during the bebop era and beyond. He shifted the rhythmic focus from the bass drum to the ride cymbal, a move that gave drummers more freedom. He told a complete story, varying pitch, tuning, patterns, and volume. He was a brilliant brush player, and could push, redirect, or break up the beat. In 1948 he participated in Miles Davis’ seminal Birth of the Cool sessions before forming his own quintet with iconic bop trumpeter Clifford Brown.

In 1953, he served as drummer in “the quintet” for the historic Jazz at Massey Hall concert, alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and Charles Mingus. Later, the drummer’s seminal 1961 We Insist! Freedom Now Suite set the tone for Civil Rights activism among his peers. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Roach continued breaking new ground. He formed the percussion ensemble M’Boom in 1970, issuing a handful of acclaimed albums including 1973’s Re: Percussion, M’Boom in 1979, and To the Max in 1991.

He worked with vanguard musicians including storied duos with Anthony Braxton (The Long March) and Cecil Taylor (Historic Concerts). During the ’90s Roach taught at the University of Massachusetts and continued to perform. He never stood still musically: he worked in trios, with symphony orchestras, backed gospel choirs, and with rapper Fab Five Freddy. Friendship, his final album in collaboration with trumpeter Clark Terry, was issued in 2002. (by Thom Jurek)

And here is an excellent live recording from his European tour in 1964.
The recordings show how extraordinary Max Road and his accompanying musicians were back then … Jazz at its best !

And on the Baden-Baden concert he played his complete and legendary “We Insist! (subtitled Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite)” album from 1960 !

Recorded live Radio Bremen, Sendesaal, Bremen, Germany; January 14, 1964. (01. – 08.) Very good FM broadcast.
Recorded live WF TV Studio, Jazz gehört und gesehen, Baden-Baden, Germany; January 1964. (09. – 13.)
Very good audio (from TV broadcast).

Personnel:
Clifford Jordan (saxophone)
Eddie Khan (bass)
Abbey Lincoln (vocals)
Coleridge Perkinson (piano)
Max Roach (drums)

Tracklist:

Radio Bremen: January 14, 1964:
01. This High Mountain (Roach) 18:06
02. Ceciliana (Roach) 7:12
03. Mop Mop (Dalmerius/Williams) 5:42
04. Jordu (Jordan) 6:47
05. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington/Mills) 6:13
06. Who Will Buy (Bart) 2:49
07. Love For Sale (Porter) 4:07
08. Lonesome Lover (Roach) 5:57

Baden-Baden: January 1964:
09. Driva Man (Roach/Brown) 8:35
10. Tears For Johannesburg (Roach) 9:51
11. Triptych – Prayer, Protest, Peace (Roach) 7:05
12. All Africa (Roach/Brown) 13:50
13. Freedom Day (Roach/Brown) 7:33

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Eberhard Weber & Colours – Silent Feet (1978)

Eberhard Weber (born 22 January 1940, in Stuttgart, Germany) is a German double bassist and composer. As a bass player, he is known for his highly distinctive tone and phrasing. Weber’s compositions blend chamber jazz, European classical music, minimalism and ambient music, and are regarded as characteristic examples of the ECM Records sound.

Weber began recording in the early 1960s, and released The Colours of Chloë (ECM 1042), his first record under his own name, in 1973. In addition to his career as a musician, he also worked for many years as a television and theater director. He has designed an electric-acoustic bass with an additional string tuned to C.

Weber’s music, often in a melancholic tone, frequently utilizes ostinatos, yet is highly organized in its colouring and attention to detail. He was an early proponent of the solid-body electric double bass, which he has played regularly since the early 1970s.

From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, Weber’s closest musical association was with pianist Wolfgang Dauner. Their many mutual projects were diverse, from mainstream jazz to jazz-rock fusion to avant-garde sound experiments. During this period, Weber also played and recorded with pianists Hampton Hawes and Mal Waldron, guitarists Baden Powell de Aquino and Joe Pass, The Mike Gibbs Orchestra, violinist Stephane Grappelli, and many others.

Starting with The Colours of Chloë, Weber has released 13 more records under his own name, all on ECM. The ECM association also led to collaborations with other ECM recording artists such as Gary Burton (Ring, 1974; Passengers, 1976), Ralph Towner (Solstice, 1975; Solstice/Sound and Shadows, 1977), Pat Metheny (Watercolors, 1977), and Jan Garbarek (10 recordings between 1978 and 1998).

In the mid-1970s Weber formed his own group, Colours, with Charlie Mariano (soprano saxophone, flutes), Rainer Brüninghaus (piano, synthesizer) and Jon Christensen (drums). After their first recording, Yellow Fields (1975), Christensen left and was replaced by John Marshall. The group toured extensively and recorded two further records, Silent Feet (1977) and Little Movements (1980), before disbanding.

Since the early 1980s, Weber has regularly collaborated with the British singer-songwriter Kate Bush, playing on four of her last six studio albums (The Dreaming, 1982; Hounds of Love, 1985; The Sensual World, 1989; Aerial, 2005).

During the 1980s, Weber toured with Barbara Thompson’s jazz ensemble Paraphernalia.

Since 1990, Weber’s touring has been limited, and he has had only two new recordings under his own name: The 2001 release Endless Days is an elemental fusion of jazz and classical music flavors, fitting well the moniker chamber jazz. His main touring activity during that period was as a regular member of the Jan Garbarek Group. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, in March, 2005 he recorded Stages of a Long Journey, a live concert with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and featuring Gary Burton, Wolfgang Dauner and Jan Garbarek. In 2009 ECM also re-released his albums Yellow Fields, Silent Feet and Little Movements as a 3-CD collection titled “Colours”.

In 2007, Weber suffered a stroke and was subsequently unable to perform. In a January 2010 interview with Die Welt, he spoke about his medical condition and future projects.

Weber was awarded the prestigious Albert Mangelsdorff-Preis in November 2009. A box set of his 1970s works was released by ECM Records the same month.

Weber’s latest albums, Résumé (2012) and Encore (2015) comprise solos from his performances worldwide with The Jan Garbarek Group, overdubbed with keyboards/treatments by Weber, sax by Garbarek, and flügelhorn by Ack Van Rooyen.

His autobiography, Résumé, was published in 2015. An English translation by Heidi Kirk – Eberhard Weber: A German Jazz Story – is due to be published in October 2021.

Silent Feet is the third solo album by German double bassist and composer

If YELLOW FIELDS, the first album Eberhard Weber recorded with his group Colours, was a sensation, SILENT FEET (which appeared a year later) turned out to be more conventional, but still highly enjoyable.

SILENT FEET boasts just three tracks performed by four musicians: Weber on bass, Rainer Brüninghaus on pianos (both acoustic and electric) and occasional synth, Charlie Mariano on soprano sax and flute, and John Marshall on drums.

John Marshall had just left the Soft Machine; Brüninghaus’s electric piano sounds similar to Karl Jenkins’s; even Weber’s composing is reminiscent of the Soft Machine’s BUNDLES, which had just appeared when SILENT FEET was recorded. Chances are that if you enjoy BUNDLES, you will also like this. The main difference is, of course, the total absence of electric guitars and organs, with the result that SILENT FEET sounds like a subtler album, less “rocky” than anything the Softs were providing at around this time.

SILENT FEET’s three compositions more or less follow the same pattern: plangent, sometimes mournful melodies dissolve into slow grooves, which gradually pick up speed as one of the soloists struts his stuff, until the solo reaches its climax and the process can start over again. The 17+ minutes “Seriously Deep” boasts extended solos from Weber, Brüninghaus and Mariano. The title track (12 minutes long) is the highlight of the album and one of the highlights of Weber’s career. It’s the only track on SILENT FEET which features a truly fast and exuberant main theme – but the band play the old trick of starting out slowly and soloing on top of the basic chord pattern BEFORE the main theme is played.

The initial solo is taken by Brüninghaus, and (as it speeds up) it’s one of the most exuberant piano solos I know. The only time I’ve ever heard Brüninghaus come close to this, is on Jan Garbarek’s recent live album DRESDEN, where he’s once again given the space to shine.

What you make of Charlie Mariano’s solos will depend on how you feel about soprano sax in general. In my view, Mariano’s playing was more remarkable on YELLOW FIELDS.

Here, it never really catches fire (in spite of those crescendos), not in the way Brüninghaus’s playing does. Weber himself, on the other hand, is absolutely brilliant. SILENT FEET is worth buying just to hear the way he accompanies his fellow band members. He sounds so strong and confident, it’s a joy throughout. As for Weber’s own solos, they’re highly convincing and totally sui generis. Just imagine a fretless bass which sounds more “organic” than any guitar ever could, and which also swoops and trills in unexpected ways… Incredible mastery is all I can say. (by fuxi)

Personnel:
Rainer Brüninghaus (piano, synthesizer)
Charlie Mariano (saxophone, flute)
John Marshall (drums)
Eberhard Weber (bass)

Tracklist:
01. A Seriously Deep 17.48
02. Silent Feet 12.21
03. Eyes That Can See In The Dark 12.18

Music: Eberhard Weber

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More from Eberhard Weber:

John Coltrane – Complete Live in Stuttgart 1963 (2010)

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia after graduating high school, where he studied music. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was one of the players at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.

John Coltrane & Dizzy Gillespie:

Over the course of his career, Coltrane’s music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension, as exemplified on his most acclaimed album A Love Supreme (1965) and others. Decades after his death, Coltrane remains influential, and he has received numerous posthumous awards, including a special Pulitzer Prize, and was canonized by the African Orthodox Church.

His second wife was pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane. The couple had three children: John Jr. (1964–1982), a bassist; Ravi (born 1965), a saxophonist; and Oran (born 1967), a saxophonist, guitarist, drummer and singer

Coltrane died of liver cancer at the age of 40 on July 17, 1967, at Huntington Hospital on Long Island. His funeral was held four days later at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York City. The service was started by the Albert Ayler Quartet and finished by the Ornette Coleman Quartet. Coltrane is buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

Biographer Lewis Porter speculated that the cause of Coltrane’s illness was hepatitis, although he also attributed the disease to Coltrane’s heroin use at a previous period in his life. Frederick J. Spencer wrote that Coltrane’s death could be attributed to his needle use “or the bottle, or both.” He stated that “[t]he needles he used to inject the drugs may have had everything to do with” Coltrane’s liver disease: “If any needle was contaminated with the appropriate hepatitis virus, it may have caused a chronic infection leading to cirrhosis or cancer.” He noted that despite Coltrane’s “spiritual awakening” in 1957, “[b]y then, he may have had chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis … Unless he developed a primary focus elsewhere in later life and that spread to his liver, the seeds of John Coltrane’s cancer were sown in his days of addiction.”

Coltrane’s death surprised many in the music community who were unaware of his condition. Miles Davis said, “Coltrane’s death shocked everyone, took everyone by surprise. I knew he hadn’t looked too good … But I didn’t know he was that sick—or even sick at all.” (wikipedia)

And here´s a brilliant live recording, it was broadcasting by the German radio station called “Süddeutscher Rundfunk”.

More than 1 hour of previously unreleased material by Coltrane!!! The long unavailable concert in Stuttgart on 3 November 1963 by the John Coltrane Quartet now for the very first time on a single CD. The pieces Impressions and Mr. P.C. together already last over an hour and have never been released before. As a bonus, there is also the only song that the same formation played 2 days before the Stuttgart show in the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Including 12-page booklet. (press release)

I’ve been really enjoying the 1963 JC live recordings, including Birdland and Newport. Then Afro Blue Impressions which mostly derives from the Berlin and Stockholm Autumn concerts. Then I tried pulling together other tracks from the European tour scattered across various Pablo releases. The 7 CD European tour box from Pablo proved a fantastic find – this has some tracks from the 1961 tour, slightly more from the 1962 tour, but around half of the box is from 1963, duplicating the Afro Blue Impressions 2CD set, but adding some of the other scattered tracks, and some that I hadn’t come across before – it also supposedly reassembles the Stockholm concert. There are some tracks on the box where the venues and dates have been queried. The three 1961 Hamburg tracks, for instance, may actually be from Birdland according to Discogs (who confusingly refer to these tracks as 1962). The final track on the box is a lengthy Impressions which it says was recorded in Stuttgart 4 Nov 1963. However that track is similar to, but a different recording, to the one on the Domino Stuttgart release.

I’ve really enjoyed most of the Stuttgart concert, assuming that’s where it was recorded. The fantastic photo of Coltrane on the cover is clearly not in the modernist Stuttgart Liederhalle, a bit of Googling shows this was taken in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Most tracks are quite intense. The cover claims only the two lengthy tracks (totalling over an hour) and the orphaned Paris track at the end to be previously unreleased. Comparing the Impressions here with the one on the 7CD box the two are structured similarly and clearly recorded quite close togther in time, both have lengthy unaccompanied Jimmy Garrison solos with Garrison left on his own about 7 minutes into both of these performances – on the Stuttgart set Elvin Jones comes back in after a 7 minute bass solo, closely followed by the rest of the quartet, while the version on the 7 CD box has around 11 minutes of unaccompanied Garrison.

I’m fond of the Promise for Tyner’s piano, but I’ve only come across 4 or 5 live versions, so was pleased to hear it again here. There’s a great Afro Blue, which I find remarkable for the way it ends with such delicacy. I Want to Talk is fantastic – starting quite low key with Tyner’s cocktail bar chords playing unobtrusively in the background, but then he fades away to let Coltrane solo unaccompanied and this is absolutely exquisite, it brings tears it’s so perfect.

Favorite Things I found a bit scrappy – it doesn’t have the preamble that normally starts the track but goes quickly into the main melody (Whiskers on Kittens or whatever) – while Coltrane’s magic is still there, it doesn’t really hang together for me, and he briefly fluffs the handover to Tyner about 3 minutes in – Tyner takes the lead then for about 8 minutes before Coltrane returns, but to my ears not with the fluidity and power of some of the other fantastic versions from 1963. Every Time is a bit of an oddity, it seems quite tame compared to the other tracks, and while I know he played this regularly on the 1962 tour, I hadn’t realised it was also in the 1963 repertoire. The other lengthy track, Mr PC, of course also features another extended solo from Garrison, this time bowed, which the audience loved but which did seem overlong to these ears, forgive me.

Alternate front + backcover:

Overall some fantastic performances, and very good sound quality. I’ll definitely play the first CD a lot, that certainly merits 5 stars. I’ll return to the second CD, but less frequently – it seems mean to give 1963 Coltrane recordings anything less than 5 stars, even though the 2nd CD doesn’t quite do it for me. There are better, and worse, 1963 Coltrane concert recordings, but I guess the only folk who are interested in Stuttgart will already have several of these already, and are hungry to hear more – in which case this is definitely worth adding to the collection.  (by gracefuldad)

Recorded live at Mozart-Saal, Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany, November 4, 1963
(on 01. – 07.)
Recorded live at Salle Pleyel, Paris, France, November 1, 1963 (on 08.) (1)

Personnel:
John Coltrane (saxophone)
Jimmy Garrison (bass)
Elvin Jones (drums)
McCoy Tyner (piano)

Tracklist:
01. The Promise (Coltrane) 18.53
02. Afro-Blue (Santamaria) 6.04
03. I Want To Talk About You (Eckstine) 35.37
04. Impressions (Coltrane) 5.24
05. My Favorite Things (Rogers/Hammerstein) 18.53
06. Every Time We Say Goodbye (Porter) 6.04
07. Mr. P.C. (Coltrane) 35.37
08. Chasin’ The Train (Trane) (Coltrane) 5.25
*
**

(1) According to an update to the book «The John Coltrane Reference», track 2-4 was recorded at Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, October 22, 1963. See session 63-1022, Note [5] on wildmusic-jazz.com

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