Sal Nistico: HEAVYWEIGHTS

[king ubu]

got that CD from brownie once - pretty good indeed

[Kyo]

On 3.9.2004 at 0:15 AM, ghost of miles said:

I particularly like the lineup on the first half of the CD (the original HEAVYWEIGHTS LP, minus "Just Friends") which features Nat Adderley on cornet, Barry Harris on piano (really diggin' him on "Au Private"), Sam Jones on bass, and Walter Perkins on drums. Just great, swinging early-60's bop.

The decision to drop a track of the Heavyweights album instead of keeping it intact seems puzzling. I get it, lack of space - but why not drop something from the bonus album instead?

[mikeweil]

FWIW, this Fresh Sound double CD has it all:

[BillF]

2 hours ago, mikeweil said:

FWIW, this Fresh Sound double CD has it all:

Yes, it'a really good one. On a Tubby Hayes album (can't remember which) you can hear him and Hayes having a lengthy discussion about music. It was recorded by British enthusiast Les Tomkins. Fascinating stuff!!

[Kyo]

Yeah, I saw that. Still don't feel good supporting the "PD pirates", especially seeing how expensive all those releases are.

 

On the other hand, if the original label can't be bothered to keep the material in print, that does limit one's options quite a bit.

[sonnymax]

57 minutes ago, Kyo said:

Yeah, I saw that. Still don't feel good supporting the "PD pirates", especially seeing how expensive all those releases are.

On the other hand, if the original label can't be bothered to keep the material in print, that does limit one's options quite a bit.

I understand your dilemma. It's situations like these where I turn to friends who like to "share".

[BillF]

34 minutes ago, sonnymax said:

I understand your dilemma. It's situations like these where I turn to friends who like to "share".

Yes, but what a loss it would be to jazz enthusiasts like me if we didn't have the hundreds of releases from Fresh Sound and other Jordi Pujol labels.

[Larry Kart]

5 hours ago, BillF said:

Yes, it'a really good one. On a Tubby Hayes album (can't remember which) you can hear him and Hayes having a lengthy discussion about music. It was recorded by British enthusiast Les Tomkins. Fascinating stuff!!

Here it is:

 

[BillF]

45 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Here it is:

 

Thanks!

[Michael Weiss]

Great listening to Sal and Tubby talk extemporaneously about the various trials and tribulations of what they live to do. When this interview took place in 1964, Sal was 26 and Tubby 29.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Michael Weiss

[Edlock8718]

Sal Nistico makes a couple quality appearances in Mosaic's recent "Complete Bee Hive Sessions" box:

• His own "Neo Nistico", with Ted Curson on trumpet, Nick Brignola on baritone, Ronnie Matthews on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums.
• Curtis Fuller's "Fire and Filigree", with Walter Bishop, Jr, on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums.

As always with Mosaic, this box overall is a definitely a good compendium of what you would expect from a core group of hard bop veterans keeping the sound alive through the late '70s and early '80s. Nothing new or particularly striking, but solid playing. Worth picking up if you've already thoroughly explored the original hard bop from the '60s, and want to hear more. 

[jlhoots]

On February 10, 2016 at 8:20 AM, Kyo said:

Yeah, I saw that. Still don't feel good supporting the "PD pirates", especially seeing how expensive all those releases are.

 

On the other hand, if the original label can't be bothered to keep the material in print, that does limit one's options quite a bit.

I have the Milestone version which is minus one track & doesn't have the Gibbs material.

[jazzbo]

I got into Nistico thanks to Danny D'Imperio talking about playing with him and talking him up as a player. . . . Danny was right, he was something else.

I keep coming back to this one mentioned several times on the first page of the thread; that's the one I keep reaching for for a Nistico fix, that and an unofficial thing:

 

[soulpope]

IMO "must have" Sal Nistico recordings ....

 

 

[Rooster_Ties]

19(!) Sal Nistico Solos with Woody Herman 1963 & 1964

 

[JSngry]

Here's a brief but really good conversation between Sal & Tubby Hayes.

http://jazzpro.nationaljazzarchive.org.uk/Exchange/HayesNistico.htm

[Rooster_Ties]

Am I crazy for noticing that Sal’s almost(?) non-swinging, regularly articulated eighth notes here (more visible to me in this transcription), remind me of Gary Thomas’ frequent use of fast, regular (non-swinging) fast articulation??  Their basic sound (timbre) isn’t as similar as say Thomas and Billy Harper (Harper being one of Thomas’ single biggest influences, I only just learned a couple years ago).

Also (related), I very distinctly remember the very first time I ever took any note of Sal’s playing (maybe the very first time I ever heard Sal, for all I know) when I heard a fast tune from the Bee Hive Mosaic just a few years ago, from Curtis Fuller’s Fire and Filigree. My wife and I were on a weeklong road-trip with my then 91-year old Dad -- and I'd just got the Bee Hive box a day or two before we left, so I brought the whole thing to listen to in the car that week. Heard just ONE up-tempo solo by Sal (from that Curtis) album, and I immediately had my wife dig out the liners to tell me who the hell THAT was  (while I was driving). I'd never really even heard OF Sal before, far as I know (other than probably having seen his name on this board, never having any idea who he was).

Anyway, is what I’m hearing as a semi-similarly (at least here) with Gary Thomas’ core rythmic approach way off base??  I'll have to find that Fuller track with Sal, and post it here too -- I think the articulation might have been that sort of same "fast, non-swinging" sort of thing, very punchy -- the kind of thing that makes my hair stand up on end (in the very best kind of way).

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

On 3/4/2021 at 8:52 AM, Rooster_Ties said:

Am I crazy for noticing that Sal’s almost(?) non-swinging, regularly articulated eighth notes here (more visible to me in this transcription), remind me of Gary Thomas’ frequent use of fast, regular (non-swinging) fast articulation??  Their basic sound (timbre) isn’t as similar as say Thomas and Billy Harper (Harper being one of Thomas’ single biggest influences, I only just learned a couple years ago).

Still wondering if I'm crazy for noticing back in March (what I think) is some rhythmic similarity between Sal and Gary Thomas (even if their core timbre isn't the same), what I described above -- fast runs of punchy non-swinging eighth notes, very evenly articulated.  I want to say that what I heard from Sal on that Curtis Fuller Bee-Hive album was similar -- fast, punchy (overall), but very evenly articulated.  I guess maybe that's quasi-like a sheets-of-sound thing too (but more in your face, and less of an impressionistic "wash" that Trane's sheets-of-sound produces).

Anyway, I'm probably way over my head trying to talk about this stuff technically, so hopefully what I'm trying to say is making some sort of sense.

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, I couldn't talk about technically either, but I think he's a fantastic player. This Herman clip is awesome.

[JSngry]

Herman Nistico has always struck me as a very personal take on the whole Johnny Griffin bag, or what that was at that time. Both players deepened and evolved over time.

[romualdo]

he has a passing similarity to Tubby Hayes - clip kept reminding me of Tubby

[Larry Kart]

Somewhere on the Internet there is or was a nice double interview with Nistico and Hayes.

[BillF]

4 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Somewhere on the Internet there is or was a nice double interview with Nistico and Hayes.

Great discussion - and included in a Hayes album called Inventivity.

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, BillF said:

Great discussion - and included in a Hayes album called Inventivity.

Is that album worth getting? Line-up certainly suggests so but I can't work out if it's a live recording and therefore potentially not great SQ

[sidewinder]

I saw him at least once - George Coleman’s Octet comes to mind, where the saxes also included Frank Strozier and Mario Rivera. An impressively fast player as I recall and the comparison with Hayes is not unreasonable. Tubby was more lyrical though.

1 hour ago, BillF said:

Great discussion - and included in a Hayes album called Inventivity.

Isn’t that another of those Les Tomkins recordings?

On 12/02/2016 at 4:42 PM, Edlock8718 said:

Sal Nistico makes a couple quality appearances in Mosaic's recent "Complete Bee Hive Sessions" box:

• His own "Neo Nistico", with Ted Curson on trumpet, Nick Brignola on baritone, Ronnie Matthews on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums.
• Curtis Fuller's "Fire and Filigree", with Walter Bishop, Jr, on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums.

As always with Mosaic, this box overall is a definitely a good compendium of what you would expect from a core group of hard bop veterans keeping the sound alive through the late '70s and early '80s. Nothing new or particularly striking, but solid playing. Worth picking up if you've already thoroughly explored the original hard bop from the '60s, and want to hear more. 

Great box !