BREW LITE & HIS HOLY SPIRITS — PENTECOST JAM — MAY 23, 2010

Dear folks & followers –

It’s a great pleasure for me to present the best of our concert at a small Greek restaurant in Cologne, on Pentecost Sunday three years ago.

Here we go with almost 60 minutes of swingin’ music, as performed on the spot at one of Cologne’s most charming places.

All compositions but #1 & #5 are by yours truly,

Brew

1 – Let’s Cool One (Thelonious Monk) — One of my all-time Monk favorites, working here as an indeed very cool opener. You will find the original version from 1952 with Kenny Dorham on trumpet HERE. — Kenny is quoting “I’ll Be Around” in his 2nd chorus (I did it too); and really: “Let’s Cool One” uses the very same changes.

2 – Kingson, Keeper Of Ghana — Have heard the good news: We will see Mr. Kingson at the Soccer World Cup in South-Africa!

3 – Cool Coke & Sunbeams — One of the first tunes I ever composed. I wrote it during the Summer of 1986 while I was strongly thinking of “Polka, Dots & Moonbeams” in D-Flat though.

4 – 2 X’s 12 Bars For 12 Years — This one is dedicated to my son, when he reached the 12. Anyway, he preferred the “Cool Coke”.

5 – I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face (Lerner/Loewe) — We have played this beautiful ballad for the very first time. When I re-harmonized it, I tried to imagine how Trane would have done it.

6 – Cooling Down A Hangover — No personal experience involved here, no, no! — What?! — This is also a tune from 1986, where I was fooling around with the changes of Cole Porter’s “I Love You”. — Now, hear what happens when we’re fooling around with a hot, but non-existing hangover around 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

7 – Rudi reitet wieder (Rudi Rides Again)

Have tried, and succeeded here for the very
1st time: 27 choruses of E-Flat blues.

This is my personal thank you to Mr. Paul Gonsalves who has inspired, err, challenged me, doing on trumpet what he did on tenor, at “Diminuendo & Crescendo In Blue” (a blues in E-Flat too) at the Newport Jazz Festival, on July 7, 1956.

Alas, our crowds were more discreet, so to speak

BREW LITE & HIS HOLY SPIRITS — PLAYLIST

Bruno Leicht – Trumpet
Martin Sasse – Piano
Volker Heinze – Bass
Marcus Rieck – Drums
– Recorded ‘live’ at “Litho”, Cologne on May 23, 2010

P.S. — Here’s a later “Let’s Cool One” with the Thelonious Monk Quartet in ‘live’ action; it can be purchased HERE

Thelonious Monk (p) Johnny Griffin (ts) Ahmed Abdul-Malik (b) & Roy Haynes (d) – Recorded at the “Five Spot”, NYC, on August 7, 1958:

OUT OF THE WINDOW — JUST A TRACK & A SHEET

This is the tune I’d wanted Chet to play, and I’m glad he never did:

BREW LITE’s MADHATTAN FOUR

OUT OF THE WINDOW (composed in July 1986)

Bruno Leicht – trumpet
François de Ribeaupierre – baritone saxophone
Christian Ramond – bass
Marcus Rieck – drums

TODAY IS *THE* DAY: 60 YEARS AGO – “THE QUINTET OF THE YEAR” @ MASSEY HALL, TORONTO, MAY 15, 1953

The big sleep, eh? Ah, no problem!

I will post only one track from this famous jazz summit meeting which took place on May 15, 1953 …and everybody will be jumpin’ off their seats:

PERDIDO – John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (tp) Charles Christopher “Bird” Parker (as) Earl “Bud” Powell (p) Charles “Chazzer” Mingus (b) & Maxwell Lemuel “Max” Roach (d).

The concert got recorded privately by the amateur engineers Mr. Mingus & Mr. Roach at Massey Hall, Toronto, on May 15, 1953. After dubbing his bass (’cause he was not satisfied with his sound), Charles Mingus published the recorded results on two 10″-LP’s on his Debut label in 1955.

You now lean back and enjoy Juan Tizol’s “Perdido”, and then go and buy those CD’s, the only digital releases which contain the complete concert in its unedited form, and in the correct order of the program:

Jazz At Massey Hall (#1)

Jazz At Massey Hall (#2)

Here’s release #2 for German customers

…or this older issue with splendid liners, but the order of the program not yet corrected:

COMPLETE JAZZ AT MASSEY HALL

It’s a happy, but also a bitter-sweet event which happened 60 years ago. This concert has made the final point of the revolutionary bebop era which lasted ’round ten years.

Just take your time and think of Bird on altosax, Diz on trumpet, Bud on piano, “Mingus-Fingus” at the bass and Max on drums.

Listen to the beautiful All The Things You Are (it’s the 2nd track from the concert I spontaneously decided to post too) where a totally drunken Bud Powell tries to react to Dizzie’s cup-muted trumpet directives.

It’s tragic, but it’s glorious at the same time.

Bird, billed and announced (and listed on the LP) as “Charlie Chan”, can be heard on plastic alto. He liquified it. And he made ‘em scream for more.

And Dizzy? He seemed to be a bit distracted at first… by a boxing match which was going on simultaneously. But as soon as he became aware of the mercilessly wailing Bird, he stopped clowning around and set fire to Yardbird’s ass, and the hall.

That’s all.

At first we could hear Graham Topping’s Big Band (unfortunately not recorded), playing 11 tunes. Then we have the quintet with a furious, almost wrecked “Wee” (a.k.a. “Allen’s Alley”), “Hot House”, where they started getting their stuff together, and “A Night In Tunisia”, featuring one of Bud’s greatest solos ever. – Intermission with Max Roach’s “Drum Conversation”, enthusiastically approved by the crowd.

Then comes the trio, doing a fine set with the rhumba-like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, Bud’s famous arrangement of “Embraceable You”, a short but “Sure Thing”, *the* bebop hymn “Cherokee”, the old warhorse “Hallelujah”, and – Bud’s theme at his Birdland gigs – Sir George Shearing’s “Lullaby of Birdland” (which is based on “Love Me Or Leave Me”).

Then the quintet again with “Perdido” (dig Diz!), “Salt Peanuts” (dig Bird, responding to Diz’s encouraging shouts!) & the highlight (in my opinion) “All The Things You Are”, followed by a chaotic “52nd Street Theme” which closes the globe’s last set of pure bebop; it was also the very last quintet meeting of Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie.

THE END – ? — No!

Epilogue: The Big Band again with three (unrecorded) tunes and a blues (also not taped) where the quintet with the exception of Bud joined the others.

The rest is history, as is the overdubbed bass line of Charles Mingus which could be digested on the LP. …Better not!

Bud Powell plays an encore: Embraceable You (the 3rd track, included here spontaneously because it’s so beautiful!).

P.S. — Thank you so much for this splendid article. Man, I can’t tell you how often I have listened to this concert; and I’m really happy now, that there are CD’s, containing the original recordings without Mingus’ sometimes really too loud overdubbing.

Anyway, I still think that Bud was loaded. But not enough, because he plays great … when it comes to his improvisations. Dizzy was never happy with Bud’s comping.

OK, there are some (minor) irritations when you’re listening closely. At “All The Things You Are” – which is one of the best numbers of the whole concert – Bud gets completely lost during Dizzy’s solo. At the most far-out point, Dizzy tenderly quotes the theme for getting Bud on the right track again.

But this is definitely no “problem”, or a flaw. It’s a very interesting, an adventurous moment, a great example for what’s jazz all about in the first place:

Communication, about listening to your fellow musicians, it’s all about that.

As suspected: “Wee” was the first number they played that evening, as chaotic as it sounds. They had no rehearsals. They used that speedy intro for warming up.

As I wrote at my blog: It was “Hot House” where they all had their stuff together. From then on, everything magically fell into place.

And Dizzy’s “clowning”?

Hey, they still were friends, “partners in crime”, so to speak. When it came to music, Dizzy took it dead-serious. Just listen to *all* his solos: Pure genius, thoughtful, and well conceived; jazz improvisation at its best.

And Bird? As usual: There’s nothing, musically, which could have irritated him. He played his top game, and it was always “a home run”, as Red Rodney told an interviewer.

– Why I think that “Wee” could be the 1st tune they performed with the quintet?

It’s obvious that there are a lot of formal problems occurring during this number, perhaps due to the incredibly fast pace of the performance. Again: They had no time to rehearse.

You’ve made a point with “Perdido”, it’s a nice tune for warming up. But Mingus can be heard, playing “Hot House” (together with Lionel Hampton & Theodore ‘Fats’ Navarro), which proofs that he had no problems with the tune(s).

Mingus’ main problem was his own sound on the tracks, not the music itself (otherwise he would have never released it, right?).

Anyway, here are two recent releases of the concert (#2 has a 16-page booklet); both have the tracks listed with reversed sets:

Although there is no “hard proof” for this order, I’d rather believe that the quintet wanted to start their 1st set with a screamer, an exclamation mark, disregarding the lack of a rehearsal. They were pros, and they knew: “Now, or never!”

They finished their 2nd set with “52nd Street Theme”, which also hints to the “reversed-sets-theory”.

After all, it’s the music that counts. May everyone program their CD-players as they like. This is timeless jazz, and there still will be people listening to it in a hundred years from now.

RE: AMSTERDAM, MAY 13, 1983 — CHET & ME — PERSONAL MEMORIES OF A TRUMPET COLLEAGUE

In Düsseldorf’s commons (Uni Mensa in German), in 1986, Chet arrived one hour delayed. He was announced there with his fine trio, featuring guitarist Philip Catherine and bassist Jean Louis Rassinfosse who played a half-acoustic bass.

The George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet – which was supposed to do their set after Chet – did the first half of the concert. This was power jazz with the wonderful Danny Richmond on drums and Cameron Brown on bass. I only remember their energy.

Then came Chet … in sandals, looking like a monk, to put it nicely. He blew a few notes into the mike, stopped abruptly, put the mike to his mouth and then he yelled, in a sudden outburst: “It’s too loud!” — I don’t know what the engineer behind the desk did, but it was obviously okay then and the concert began.

It was great! What a sound, what an inspiring evening. The forceful, almost violent jazz of George Adams was soon forgotten, it just had squibbed into the air. Do I remember particular tunes? Yes, only one: Chet’s interesting, kinda funky version of Cole Porter’s Love For Sale. But what I clearly remember was an all in all good mood when I left the place of the event.

One year later, in Cologne’s now demolished jazz club Subway: Chet was supposed to do two evenings there. This time with a quartet, he only performed on the second, the Saturday night gig.

I don’t know exactly who was in there but I guess it were those guys: Harold Danko on piano, Rocky Knauer on bass, and John Engels was behind the drums.

The band seemed to be stoned which didn’t seem to bother Chet. He was more worried about his horn which apparently didn’t work properly. There he sat, helplessly pushing the jammed valves, then he eventually grabbed the mike and asked something like:

“Some trumpet player around?” I was seated right in front of him and said: “Yes!” Since the great Chet Baker intended to play on my trumpet, I fetched it from the checkroom and handed it over to him.

He took it, looked at it, and counted: “One, two, three, four!” into a very fast and boppish Conception, George Shearing’s masterpiece, a tune as closely connected to Miles Davis as it was to Chet Baker.

He played it in the key of C, that’s what I remember. After the last note,  Chet waved my trumpet over his head, smiled at me in a sardonic way while he was pretending to bung the horn in some corner. I was quite shocked, but of course got the joke in the same second. This was my first real instrument, a Getzen Capri but with a little hole in the middle tube.

What do I remember yet? He played the rest of the concert on his own horn and … kept my valve oil. When I arrived later at home I found it gone. Chet Baker, a thief!

During the break, I talked to him a little bit, a short chat with Chet so to speak, and asked him if he had time for giving me a mornings lesson. He only said: “That would be kinda lesson!” …I was satisfied.

Then I talked to pianist Harold Danko. I had brought sheet music to the concert, one of my own compositions in the style of Chet, unaware of the fact that he was a lousy sight reader. Mr. Danko understood my request for plugging an own tune; but then he told me that Chet hardly even played new tunes of his own band members because he was simply too lazy for doing rehearsals. And so I took my sheet and just enjoyed the second set.

Well, of course a very moving and tearfully sung My Funny Valentine, Chet’s silent announcement that this would be his last concert in Cologne, and again a very fast number in the key of C, Charlie Parker’s Cool Blues. This time with Chet’s complete solo and not the edited version from the concert with Bird’s quintet in the University of Oregon, on November 5, 1953, where a moron had just chopped off Chet’s solo; and so we can only hear brief glimpses with Chet during a couple of chase chorusses with Shelly Manne.

Now, the title of my tune which would have fit perfectly to Chet’s style: Out Of The Window … I called it that way because I was leaning out of the window when that very line came into my prophetic mind.

I’m a bit sad that Chet Baker never got to know any of my compositions. But you can believe me: I’m very relieved at the very same time that he never played that one!

P.S. #1 — Influences on Chet Baker – A superficial overview

I’m not completely sure about Chet’s musical roots, but I’m certain that he had listened a lot to the big bands, to the “Great American Songbook” as delivered by Tommy Dorsey, or Glenn Miller. Harry James was one of his influences too. One can hear that on his early recordings with Gerry Mulligan’s quartet. He still had quite a vibrato there.

His main influence was of course Miles Davis, but technically and rhythmically he was definitely inspired by Charlie Parker whose harmonic and melodic language he had quasi eaten up.

Many folks claim that Chet lacked technique. The same fellows, mostly critics, also say that about Miles. But I, as an enthused trumpet colleague, can tell you: Both guys had chops and knew how to handle their horns! — Miles and Chet reflected the new style, a certain coolness which stemmed directly from Lester Young who was another big influence.

P.S. #2 — Chet has the last word with a complete concert video. That’s how I remember him: Strong, direct & humorous.

Enjoy!

ⓒ Bruno Leicht

Cologne, May 13, 2008
(Edited & updated by the author on May 14, 2013)

RE: MOTHER’s DAY — JIMMY GIUFFRE: ONE OF THE COOLEST OF ALL “MOTHERS” ;)

What a band, what a sound!

Shorty Rogers (trumpet, arranger) John Graas (French horn) Gene Englund (tuba) Art Pepper (alto saxophone) Jimmy Guiffre (tenor saxophone, arranger) Hampton Hawes (piano) Don Bagley (bass) Shelly Manne (drums) – This is track #1 from the album T-691, ”Modern Sounds’ – Recorded in Hollywood on October 8, 1951 & produced by Gene Norman

And so I shout:

“HÄPPIE MODDER’s DAYIEE, Y’ ALL!!!”