Tony Fruscella

[brownie]

You'll be very welcome! Bringing in fig jam would be as much a faux pas as bringing California wine

[Trumpet Guy]

Never thought I'd say this...there are 2 Don Joseph videos up at youtube!!!!

[Larry Kart]

Lovely.

[brownie]

Never thought I'd say this...there are 2 Don Joseph videos up at youtube!!!!

Thanks for bringing these videos to our attention.

Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilezfXEtcag...ted&search=

[Niko]

Never thought I'd say this...there are 2 Don Joseph videos up at youtube!!!!

Thanks for bringing these videos to our attention.

Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilezfXEtcag...ted&search=

Wow, thank you Guys!!!

[Stereojack]

Never thought I'd say this...there are 2 Don Joseph videos up at youtube!!!!

Beautiful! Thank you so much.

[AllenLowe]

bringing this back to Fruscella - Bill Triglia told me about going up to see Sonny Rollins at his apartment (not sure of date, probably early 1960s) - and going up the stairs and hearing Rollins playing along with a trumpet player - and when he got up to the apartment it was Tony Fruscella - things were different in those days. Before fame/money (not that I begrudge any jazz player those things) the relationships were a little bit more open and less formal -

Edited March 12, 2007 by AllenLowe

[Niko]

i read Al Levitt's Fruscella article (http://www.jazzmagazine.com/Vies/portraits/fruscella/fruscella.htm) again last night and stumbled across the following:

(Ce groupe ne dura pas très longtemps, mais on peut l’entendre sur un enregistrement réédité récemment et intitulé « Yesterday » -- il s’agit de Stan Getz au Carnegie Hall et au Birdland, mais le trompettiste et la section rythmique sont «inconnus» sur la pochette. En fait, le personnel était : Stan Getz, ténor, Tony Fruscella, trompette, Johnny Williams, piano, Bill Crow, basse, Al Levitt, batterie.)

now there is no recording with Levitt and Crow in Jonathan Kutler's/Michael Fitzgerald's Fruscella Discography, there is however this entry, indicating that the Fruscella/Getz live session with only three tracks was reissued on an lp called Yesterdays...

Title: Yesterdays

Artist: Stan Getz

Format: LP 12" Label: Cicala Cat. Num.: BLJ 8036

06:21 01/23/1955 Get Happy

07:12 01/23/1955 Dear Old Stockholm [Ack Värmeland, Du Sköna]

04:41 01/23/1955 Pernod

Stan Getz (ldr), Stan Getz (ts), Tony Fruscella (t), Johnny Williams (p), Bill Anthony (b), Frank Isola (d)

does anybody know more about this? is there more Fruscella on some cheapo Getz live compilation, or is there just some confusion regarding the people in the rhythm section...? (just see in the discography it says, "Q 013 gives incorrect date as 1953", 1953 seems to correspond to the Crow/Levitt rhythm section from a very superficial research...

any idea on who is right? (guess i have to give up the hope for more Fruscella...) after all Levitt should know, but then...

[Big Beat Steve]

Cicala was an Italian semi-cheapo label found widely in jazz bins in record stores here in the 80s and early 90s ("semi" because back then even reputable lables often had cheap-looking covers and artwork).

From the other Cicala LP's I've seen (and sometimes bought), some of the live recordings they (re)issued duplicated material also released on the U.S. ALAMAC label. Maybe this gives a clue as to the sources.

[brownie]

I have that Cicala Stan Getz LP.

There is a note that I pinned to the back linernotes indicating the Getz/Fruscella/Williams/Anthony/Isola personnel on this Birdland gig. The note was written after I read the Al Levitt article in 'Jazz Magazine'.

Al Levitt knew what he was talking and writing about. I miss not running into him these days. He loved walking the streets of Paris.

The music from Birdland is included in the four CD set 'Tony Fruscella. The Complete Works' from those beloved Andorran pirates

The sound is better (even if not good enough) on the Jazz Factory set.

Edited November 7, 2007 by brownie

[Niko]

thank you! the tracks with Getz are among my favorite parts of that set, especially the version of Dear Old Stockholm... that you made a note indicates there was no personnel on that lp - sounds (a little) like it was the one Levitt had, too (does it also say "Carnegie Hall and Birdland"?; iirc the announcer says "Stan Getz at Birdland and Get Happy", and the same guy announces "Pernod"); who doesn't love walking the streets of Paris?

[Quasimado]

Never thought I'd say this...there are 2 Don Joseph videos up at youtube!!!!

Thanks for bringing these videos to our attention.

Here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilezfXEtcag...ted&search=

Beautiful.

Q

[brownie]

thank you! the tracks with Getz are among my favorite parts of that set, especially the version of Dear Old Stockholm... that you made a note indicates there was no personnel on that lp - sounds (a little) like it was the one Levitt had, too (does it also say "Carnegie Hall and Birdland"?; iirc the announcer says "Stan Getz at Birdland and Get Happy", and the same guy announces "Pernod"); who doesn't love walking the streets of Paris?

The liner notes to the Cicala LP gave the personnel for those tracks as Duke Jordan, Bill Crow, Kenny Clarke plus unknown trumpet

Cicala was a joke as far as accuracy was concerned but this bootleg operation released some material that had not been made available to the public until then.

[Niko]

thank you! the tracks with Getz are among my favorite parts of that set, especially the version of Dear Old Stockholm... that you made a note indicates there was no personnel on that lp - sounds (a little) like it was the one Levitt had, too (does it also say "Carnegie Hall and Birdland"?; iirc the announcer says "Stan Getz at Birdland and Get Happy", and the same guy announces "Pernod"); who doesn't love walking the streets of Paris?

The liner notes to the Cicala LP gave the personnel for those tracks as Duke Jordan, Bill Crow, Kenny Clarke plus unknown trumpet

Cicala was a joke as far as accuracy was concerned but this bootleg operation released some material that had not been made available to the public until then.

coincidentally, on the west coast jazz mailing list they are discussing all day how to convert european dvds so that pianist john williams can watch them with his american dvd player - seems he is still around...

[Late]

More great Don Joseph on EmArcy's "The Jazz School" featured in Art Mardigan's sextet.

Missed this note five years ago. Was this LP a compilation of sorts? Would like to hear it (naturally).

[Niko]

More great Don Joseph on EmArcy's "The Jazz School" featured in Art Mardigan's sextet.

Missed this note five years ago. Was this LP a compilation of sorts? Would like to hear it (naturally).

would love to hear it as well, from jazzdisco.org:

(the gonsalves session has recently been reissued on the fresh sound cd paul gonsalves cookin')

MGW 60002 Various Artists - The Jazz School

Clark Terry (tp) Porter Kilbert (as) Paul Gonsalves (ts) Junior Mance (p) Chubby Jackson (b) Eugene Miller (d)

maybe Chicago, IL, February 6, 1954

W250 | 10359 It Don't Mean A Thing

W251 Take Nine

W252 Everything Happens To Me

W253 | 10358 Don't Blame Me

Don Joseph (cor) Milt Gold (tb) Al Cohn (ts) John Williams (p) Teddy Kotick (b) Art Mardigan (d)

NYC, May 20, 1954

W245 | 10553 I've Found A New Baby

W246 | 10551 Moroccan Blues

W247 | 10550 Old Gold

W248 | 10552 Golden Touch

Joe Gordon (tp) Charlie Rouse (ts) Junior Mance (p) Jimmy Schenck (b) Art Blakey (d)

Fine Sound Studios, NYC, September 3, 1954

W249 | 10954 Evening Lights

same personnel

Fine Sound Studios, NYC, September 8, 1954

W254 | 10951 Body And Soul

** also issued on EmArcy MG 36093.

[Chas]

More great Don Joseph on EmArcy's "The Jazz School" featured in Art Mardigan's sextet.

Missed this note five years ago. Was this LP a compilation of sorts? Would like to hear it (naturally).

http://microgroove.jp/mercury/MGW60002.shtml

I wonder if The Jazz School actually came out on EmArcy at all . The Paul Bley Wing ( recommended ! ) , which is the number right before The Jazz School , only exists on Wing AFAIK .

[Late]

Thanks for that, Chas. I'd forgotten about that Mercury site.

[Niko]

just in case other fanatics are around, just ordered the (youth) autobiography of the son of Fruscella's last girlfrined artist stella waitzkin

fred waitzkin - the last marlin

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Marlin-Story-Fa...6920&sr=8-3

the book has only 10 pages about fruscella, but then it is cheaply available and offers a rare glimpse at tony in the mid-sixites (he doesn't come across too charming, personally i find the part about killing a cat horrible and the thing with robbing a church amusing, non-vegetarians may see this differently, no offense intended) (actually the book doesn't look too bad, haven't read the rest yet, very well-written... it's mostly about fishing though...)

[Niko]

found a new toy ( http://news.google.com/newspapers most stuff is subscription only but not all)

and it got me this 1964 tony fruscella article (bob reisner, village voice)

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6m8QA...=tony+fruscella

also check out the concert ads in the lower left corner... those were the days

[fasstrack]

I was wondering if anyone here has this album, and what they think of it. It looks good on paper. Here's the AMG review.

I've heard it. By all means. I used to talk to the late Red Mitchell for hours on the phone when he came to NY as sort of straw boss at Bradley's. He went on about Tony at length. Probably a lotta cats from that period felt that way.

But I've heard the recording myself, and he's a great, lyrical player. Lotta breath in his sound and it's a dark sound. That's what I recall and music speaks loudest.

[fasstrack]

Yeah but who's got it?

I heard Ira Gitler.

That Fred Stoll tape...I heard Loren Shoenberg(?)has it...

C'mon--share these gems!Don't take em with you!

Fred Stoll is a drummer, right? Wow, haven't heard that name in years. We were in a college program for a minute, if it's the same guy. Kinda blonde, good player.

Two very underrated trumpet players still around----and I can verify this having player with both----John Eckert and Don Hahn. I played with Eckert especially, and know what he can do----anything and with maturity, ideas, blues, swing, can take it out.......Ask Lazaro, he knows. Don is a very melodic lyrical bebop trumpet player in the context I heard him, a loose jam session, with a more-or-less set group, led by Ari Roland that I make sometimes. Probably he can do a lot of other things, too. I know he played with Maynard for years and Maynard supposedly loved him....

[Trumpet Guy]

found a new toy ( http://news.google.com/newspapers most stuff is subscription only but not all)

and it got me this 1964 tony fruscella article (bob reisner, village voice)

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6m8QA...=tony+fruscella

also check out the concert ads in the lower left corner... those were the days

In the above article it refers to Tony's fave trumpeter, Don Joseph, as another of the goof all-stars. Ouch! Interesting he felt so passionately about not being influenced by bop...Did he not consider himself a bopper? What would he call his playing? He must have been a tough dude.

[Trumpet Guy]

Yeah but who's got it?

I heard Ira Gitler.

That Fred Stoll tape...I heard Loren Shoenberg(?)has it...

C'mon--share these gems!Don't take em with you!

Fred Stoll is a drummer, right? Wow, haven't heard that name in years. We were in a college program for a minute, if it's the same guy. Kinda blonde, good player.

Two very underrated trumpet players still around----and I can verify this having player with both----John Eckert and Don Hahn. I played with Eckert especially, and know what he can do----anything and with maturity, ideas, blues, swing, can take it out.......Ask Lazaro, he knows. Don is a very melodic lyrical bebop trumpet player in the context I heard him, a loose jam session, with a more-or-less set group, led by Ari Roland that I make sometimes. Probably he can do a lot of other things, too. I know he played with Maynard for years and Maynard supposedly loved him....

Yes--Fred Stoll the drummer(Staten Island?)--If you know him, get the tape!!!

Just was listening to John Eckert yesterday on Lee Konitz-"Yes Yes Nonet" and he was really kinda impressive and soulful in an interesting old school+ modern touches way--granted 30 years ago! Tom Harrell is also in the group and plays scary good on the record.

Don Hahn I have yet to hear New York Mary fame and taught Jazz at Columbia in the early 80's, I believe.

[fasstrack]

Yeah but who's got it?

I heard Ira Gitler.

That Fred Stoll tape...I heard Loren Shoenberg(?)has it...

C'mon--share these gems!Don't take em with you!

Fred Stoll is a drummer, right? Wow, haven't heard that name in years. We were in a college program for a minute, if it's the same guy. Kinda blonde, good player.

Two very underrated trumpet players still around----and I can verify this having player with both----John Eckert and Don Hahn. I played with Eckert especially, and know what he can do----anything and with maturity, ideas, blues, swing, can take it out.......Ask Lazaro, he knows. Don is a very melodic lyrical bebop trumpet player in the context I heard him, a loose jam session, with a more-or-less set group, led by Ari Roland that I make sometimes. Probably he can do a lot of other things, too. I know he played with Maynard for years and Maynard supposedly loved him....

Yes--Fred Stoll the drummer(Staten Island?)--If you know him, get the tape!!!

Just was listening to John Eckert yesterday on Lee Konitz-"Yes Yes Nonet" and he was really kinda impressive and soulful in an interesting old school+ modern touches way--granted 30 years ago! Tom Harrell is also in the group and plays scary good on the record.

Don Hahn I have yet to hear New York Mary fame and taught Jazz at Columbia in the early 80's, I believe.

New York Mary? A phenomenal guitarist, now deceased, Tim Breen, was in that band. He was something, just f'ed up everyone in NY then he went with Frankie Vali and never came back. He died in Seattle.

To hear two really nice John Eckert solos (fair disclosure: it's on my site, my music) go to www.soundclick.com/joelfass and go to tracks 2 and 5. He plays a beautiful solo on my tune, though the bass and piano turned the time around, which, to his credit, he ignored (along with the drummer and yours truly, but it still made it unreleasable). He's also on other stuff on there with Ralph Lalama (6,7) but those two are my favorite.

Yeah, Tom was in peak shape in the 70s. No doubt about that......

Edited June 29, 2009 by fasstrack