Dear folks & followers –

It’s a great pleasure for me to present the best from 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:

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

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.

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)

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!!!”

I took two screenshots and enhanced them a little bit:

As the timeline on Ellington Web says, short after he’d moved to New York, Ellington played several revues (among them “Dixie Girl”) with “Elmer Snowden’s Washingtonians Black Dots Orchestra” at the Exclusive Club, then at the Hollywood Club (later Kentucky Club) where the film was shot.

The short night club scene belongs to the feature film Headlines (1925).

Here’s the earliest film with sound, exclusively featuring Duke Ellington: Black And Tan (1929). The main soloist is Duke’s man for the lyrical, sometimes Bix-Beiderbecke-inspired trumpet sounds, Mr. Arthur Whetsol.

The featured compositions are “Black And Tan Fantasy”, “Black Beauty” & “Cotton Club Stomp”:

Here is a longer version with lower fidelity, though:

Let’s celebrate it anyway, with Paul Gonsalves, featured in his very special showcase and 35 chorusses + a splendid coda on Diminuendo & Crescendo In Blue (linked with my vintage article on that piece):

Mr. Myers will read from his book Why Jazz Happened at the State University of New York, and I will talk about Lester Young, “The President of the Tenor Saxophone” & Artie Shaw, “The King of Clarinet”, in the chamber music hall at the Cologne Music College.

I will play their recordings, and will also compare their lives and careers which have much more in common than one might guess in the first place.

The topic of my lecture is entitled:

JAZZ BETWEEN AD SEG AND HOLLYWOOD
LESTER YOUNG & ARTIE SHAW – From Swing To Bop

I wish both of us full houses and responsive audiences.

Good luck!

Now, what have the sad eyes of Johanna Sällström to do with this album? — I was kinda shocked when I learned during the 2nd week of our Easter Holidays that “Linda Wallander”, respectively Johanna Sällström had committed suicide as early as 2007. I’ve enjoyed watching her in some of Henning Mankell’s “Wallander’s” on German TV recently, and so I eventually looked her up, and learned the sad story.

She was such a talented actress, a real Swedish shooting star. But before I knew about her untimely passing, it didn’t escape my notice that there was a deep melancholy in her expression, in her way of acting as Wallander’s daughter (Johanna Sällström participated in 13 episodes of Wallander between 2005 and 2006).

Some days later I had an inspiration for a dedication piece for Johanna, a slow waltz which I entitled “The Sad Eyes Of Johanna Sällström” (pictured below). If Art Farmer were still alive, I would have gladly handed it over to him; because, when I wrote this little melody in F minor, the sound, the overall atmosphere of “To Sweden With Love” resonated in my inner ear. — My subconsciousness has also added bits, or rather remote remembrances of Solveig’s Song by Edvard Grieg (although he was Norwegian).

I will provide the sound to the notes as soon as I find the time to make a recording.

Now, just enjoy what my dear fellow jazz blogger Doug Ramsey called “a masterpiece”: “De Salde Sina Hemman” (“They Sold Their Homestead”). — What I love at this particular track is the inner fire, the passion of Art Farmer’s sound, and the congenial accompaniment of the “rhythm section”. It’s all so beautifully balanced, and it sounds so seemingly simple and effortless.

I could tirelessly listen to it again, and again.

Hope you will sympathize with my enthusiasm.

Dear swinging friends,

This is my reply to Marc Myers’ recent article at JazzWax: JAZZ IS UNIVERSAL; which it is indeed.

Yeah!

I’m dedicating this entry to Sabina, and a good friend of mine, an American saxophonist, living in the beautiful Netherlands.

It’s been a very hot Summer, and I was at Sylt again, posting from an internet café (have prepared that post in advance).

The sea is blue, the seagulls scream, and the saxes are swingin’, aren’t they? — We will hear Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, a hard-driving Kenny Clarke, a bursting Oscar Peterson, who is playing the original sax-chorus on the piano, and we will jump right into the sea of saxes by starting off with John Nesbitt’s arrangement of Chinatown, My Chinatown on which Francy Boland’s Sax No End is based on.

Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra with solos from Rex Stewart (cnt), Benny Carter (cl), Claude Jones (tb), Coleman Hawkins (ts), recorded on October 3, 1930:

CHINATOWN, MY CHINATOWN

Now, directly to the year 1967. Francy Boland did a great job with this one. — I purchased the LP in London, while I spent some time there during the also very hot Summer of 1983.

The featured soloist here is Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and the members of the sax-section were: Derek Humble, Carl Drevo, Ronnie Scott, Sahib Shihab and Johnny Griffin. — Recorded in Cologne, on June 18, 1967:

SAX NO END (studio)

The Clarke-Boland Big Band did the same tune in 1969, during a concert. But before we come to that, here’s the fabulous Oscar Peterson with Sam Jones and Bobby Durham on bass and drums.

This is from a semi-private concert, nevertheless for the purpose of being recorded. That’s the Oscar Peterson at the peak of his creativity.

He seems to have more than 10 fingers here. It was the year of rebellion, 1968, when Oscar transferred the 5 saxes to the 88 keys: SAX NO END (Oscar Peterson)

Here we go with the Clarke-Boland Big Band again, now sporting all five saxophonists, but no Eddie Davis: Derek Humble (as), Tony Coe (ts), Johnny Griffin (ts), Ronnie Scott (ts), Sahib Shihab (bs), live in Cologne/Germany, 1969, “Battle of the Bands”:

SAX NO END (‘live’)

Sounds a bit wild and uncontrolled, doesn’t it? But what would you expect from a band in a battle?!

UTuber “Cheeseford” wrote to the below video:

Based on the changes for ‘Chinatown’, here’s a 1968 recording (slightly abbreviated – live, it could go on for 20 minutes) of Francy Boland’s ‘Sax No End’, featuring one of the best saxophone sections of any jazz orchestra ever.

Soloists in order are: Johnny Griffin, Tony Coe, Ronnie Scott, Sahib Shihab & Derek Humble. The solos are great, but just wait for the soli section where all five play as one. Having Kenny Clarke and Kenny Clare behind you helps a bit too…

Amen!

Here it is, as played by Harry James, live in Las Vegas:

Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most.

Harry used almost no vibrato, no schmaltz at all; here he was the serious jazz balladeer without sparkling pyrotechnics, or flashy circus stunts; just some long tones as the song demanded them; a very breathy trumpet sound; a fairylike whisper in the nocturnal desert.

Personnel: Harry James (tp) Ray Sims (tb) Corky Corcoran (ts) Jack Perciful (p) Guy Scalise (g) Red Kelly (b) & Buddy Rich (d), Las Vegas, Spring, 1964.

– Links to Harry James & Other Joys –

Find more, and partly very rare Harry James @ the channel of JazzTuber Chuck Par-Due. This video archive is a horn of plenty for every Harry James admirer!

The above Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most has been transferred by yours truly from a currently unavailable LP-twofer which can be certainly found somewhere else on the internet

Learn more about vibrato in Steve Provizer’s recent article @ Brilliant Corners.

More splendid Spring songs HERE @ this indomitably swingin’ blog.

A whole lot of nice Harry James LP’s can be found HERE.