bertrand Posted November 12, 2005 Report Posted November 12, 2005 (edited) Just came back from a Hank Mobley tribute tonight in D.C., led by vocalist George V. Johnson (who's been working with Don Sickler on this project). George sang with a crackerjack quartet and occasionally was joined by a 6-person choir. The band was Fred Foss (ts), Harrry Appelman (p), Ephraim Wrofolk (sp?), and Nasar Abadey (d). They played about a dozen tunes (plus a couple tangentially related to Mobley), including some obscurities such as 'Looking East'. I need to brush up on my Hank - it's been a while since I listened to him. Bertrand. Edited November 12, 2005 by bertrand Quote
Rooster_Ties Posted November 12, 2005 Report Posted November 12, 2005 I think the answer is "No" RT.←Why not? ← I see an opening for you RT. If you see a commercial opportunity, put up the bucks and cash in. ← Oops. When I brought this thread up, I didn't realize I was the last person to post in it - nor that my (last) post was about unreleased live material. I thought I was just bringing up an interesting old thread. My "why not" comment was in response to what I thought was someone saying "No" to the idea of bringing up the topic in general. (I had only skimmed the first post in the thread, which I remembered as being quite interesting.) Ooops. Quote
Soul Stream Posted November 15, 2005 Report Posted November 15, 2005 Great article. Thanks for sharing. Also, wonderul story from Brownie. Brownie, did you ever see him play in a club environment in Europe? Also, would love to hear these Montremarte tapes. They must not be too rare as a several posts allude to hearing them. Mobley's story is all too common. Echoes my recent conversation with Hank Crawford, who's only played 3 times in the last 2 years he said. Some of it's due to some health complications. The other reason is, in his words..."No clubs to play in. The scene is clean." John Patton had the same problem. I talked to George Braith last week and was lamenting his lack of work. His words..."Hey, it doesn't bother me. I play 10 sets a day in my basement." Quote
brownie Posted November 15, 2005 Report Posted November 15, 2005 Also, wonderul story from Brownie. Brownie, did you ever see him play in a club environment in Europe? Unfortunately, that was my only encounter with Mobley. I was pretty busy at the time with my job and never caught him live when he was in town. Also the club gigs were pretty rare for him then! Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted August 2, 2009 Report Posted August 2, 2009 brownie your story is amazing. hank said you better not come in the hospital and it was over-- can you recount some points hank touched on in your talk-- what was specificially grinding his gears? Quote
AndrewHill Posted August 4, 2009 Report Posted August 4, 2009 brownie your story is amazing. hank said you better not come in the hospital and it was over-- can you recount some points hank touched on in your talk-- what was specificially grinding his gears? Ditto Chewy. Guy, I can't believe you were there when history was in the making. Thank you again for your personal account! I would also love to hear your chats with Hank, if its ok to share. Quote
brownie Posted August 5, 2009 Report Posted August 5, 2009 I recounted all I could remember from that evening in my original post on this thread. Please remember it happened 40 years ago - almost to the day - August 12, 1969. I did not have a tape recorder with me that time. I had a tape recorder when I interviewed a number of musicians (including Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell, Lee Morgan, Charles Mingus among others) in the late 50's and 60's. Some were published in the French review Jazz Magazine, some were not as was the case of the Bud Powell interview because Buttercup kept interrupting whenever Bud started gathering his thoughts which were pretty confused that day! The Mingus interview was available until recently on the internet. All those tapes were piled in a room of my mother's Paris apartment. They were lost when she moved out of the place and junked those tapes! As for why Mobley asked me not to enter the place he was staying, that's because the Hospital where he was allowed a room dealt with gerontology patients which could not be disturbed. The Hospital is still where it was, quite a nice place but with a 'no public entrance' sign at the entrance gate! Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted August 5, 2009 Report Posted August 5, 2009 what did lee morgan discuss in his interview? Quote
sidewinder Posted August 5, 2009 Author Report Posted August 5, 2009 (edited) They were lost when she moved out of the place and junked those tapes! Oh no - what a tragedy ! Such is life... Reminds me of my folks accidentally wiping a heap of BBC jazz broadcasts I had on VHS including Jazz 625s, the Swedish jazz film 'Sven Klang's Combo' and film of Lester Bowies Brass Fantasy at Bath Festival with footage of me in the audience standing on seat. Of course, none of that was ever repeated. Edited August 5, 2009 by sidewinder Quote
AndrewHill Posted August 5, 2009 Report Posted August 5, 2009 Man, no kidding! Kind of reminds me when Van Gogh's mom threw away most of her son's paintings! Quote
brownie Posted August 5, 2009 Report Posted August 5, 2009 (edited) what did lee morgan discuss in his interview? Mobley was 40 years ago. Morgan was 50 years ago so my memories are even less reliable. He was 20, I was one year younger. The interview took place at the hotel across the street from the Club Saint-Germain and I was given a very short time to interview all five Jazz Messengers (Morgan, Golson, Timmons, Merritt and Blakey) before they started their first et at the Club. All five were waiting their turn to answer some questions. And all five were most charming. The interview was published in 'Jazz Magazine' at the time. I enjoyed the music much better than the interview. Edited August 5, 2009 by brownie Quote
brownie Posted August 5, 2009 Report Posted August 5, 2009 They were lost when she moved out of the place and junked those tapes! Oh no - what a tragedy ! Such is life... Reminds me of my folks accidentally wiping a heap of BBC jazz broadcasts I had on VHS including Jazz 625s, the Swedish jazz film 'Sven Klang's Combo' and film of Lester Bowies Brass Fantasy at Bath Festival with footage of me in the audience standing on seat. Of course, none of that was ever repeated. The tapes were a small part of my possessions (including quite a number of old Down Beats, Mad magazines, copies of the Paris Review and assorted magazines) that took the same path They had been stored there for lack of space in my place! My mother's excuse was that I was not in Paris at the time (was on assignment outside France and she could not reach me in those pre-digital days) Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted August 6, 2009 Report Posted August 6, 2009 why didnt she send u a Telex? Quote
brownie Posted October 17, 2012 Report Posted October 17, 2012 Spent a few hours in the family cellar - it's a jungle down there - in the hope of recovering various objects that I had not seen in years. Managed to locate various film negatives from a long lost era. Here are a couple of images I found (photos taken during the Paris Jazz Festival in November 1968 backstage at the Salle Pleyel: Hank Mobley sharing a joke with Art Blakey. In the back Dizzy Gillespie talks to actor-dancer James Campbell. Lady at left might be Elvin Jones' then companion Keiko. (Copyright: Guy Kopelowicz) From left: Sahib Shihab, Elvin Jones, ?, Hank Mobley and Art Blakey (Copyright: Guy Kopelowicz) Mobley did not play that evening but seemed to have a good time! Quote
king ubu Posted October 17, 2012 Report Posted October 17, 2012 Very cool, many thanks for sharing! Quote
paul secor Posted October 17, 2012 Report Posted October 17, 2012 Thanks for posting your photographs, brownie. And glad you were able to recover them. Quote
Dan Gould Posted October 17, 2012 Report Posted October 17, 2012 Hank always had a nice smile ... thanks so much for digging these out and sharing, Guy. Quote
Peter Friedman Posted October 17, 2012 Report Posted October 17, 2012 Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing them with us. Quote
sidewinder Posted October 17, 2012 Author Report Posted October 17, 2012 (edited) Great photos Guy ! These are genuinely priceless. Any more nuggets down there in your cellar? Edited October 17, 2012 by sidewinder Quote
king ubu Posted October 17, 2012 Report Posted October 17, 2012 Yeah, we're still waiting for that book! Quote
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