Michael Fitzgerald Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpos...73-570e35e61ba6 Jazz bassist Pierre Michelot dies at age 77; recorded with Miles Davis Canadian Press Monday, July 04, 2005 PARIS (AP) - Jazz bassist Pierre Michelot, who recorded with Miles Davis and arranged music for Chet Baker, has died, a fellow musician said Monday. He was 77. The bass player, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died in Paris on Sunday, said pianist Rene Urtreger, a member of Michelot's longtime jazz trio, HUM. Michelot played with Davis on one of the great soundtracks of the 1950s, for Louis Malle's classic thriller Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows). He recorded with artists including Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and Django Reinhardt, and he arranged music for Baker's 1955-56 Barclay sessions in Paris. Michelot was considered Europe's best jazz bassist in the second half of the 1950s, Urtreger said. "He had a magnificent natural sound, clear, deep and true," Urtreger said. "It was a dream to play with him." Originally trained in classical piano, Michelot learned bass as a teenager, then performed for American troops stationed in France after the end of the Second World War. He was highly sought-after for concerts by American musicians in Paris in the postwar years. Michelot had a role in French director Bertrand Tavernier's 1986 film Round Midnight, about a musician on the skids in 1950s Paris. ======================= http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/commo...55E1702,00.html Jazz bassist Pierre Michelot dies 05jul05 PIERRE Michelot, considered one of the best bass players in Europe who performed with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, has died in Paris at the age of 77, his family said overnight. Michelot died Sunday after battling Alzheimer's disease for several years, they said. Born in 1928 in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Michelot recorded and toured with Davis and worked with other American and French jazz notables such as Sidney Bechet, Stan Getz, Thelonius Monk and Lester Young. The double-bassist, whose stylings were featured on the soundtrack to Louis Malle's 1957 masterpiece Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows), also recorded with the swing guitarist Django Reinhardt just weeks before his death in 1953. ======================== Mike Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Sad news... but thanks for posting it, Mike. I'd only recently been enjoying his leader date from the Jazz in Paris series. Quote
Rosco Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Sad news. One of the great European jazz musicians. Quote
brownie Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Terribly sad news! Michelot was so much part of the Parisian jazz scene and was one of the most reliable musician around. Heard him so many times when he was in the house band at the Club Saint-Germain and at the Blue Note here! One of the very best bass player! Quote
garthsj Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Terribly sad news! Michelot was so much part of the Parisian jazz scene and was one of the most reliable musician around. Heard him so many times when he was in the house band at the Club Saint-Germain and at the Blue Note here! One of the very best bass player! ← I agree with Bownie ... Michelot always made a very solid contribution to whatever session he was playing in ... we have lost a number of great bass players recently ... To me these great musicians of my youth will always be young, but I have to check myself when I realize that my heroes when I was 16, are now all nearing 80 or over! And most of them lead pretty hard lives ... Quote
GA Russell Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 RIP. Michelot was one of those guys who never seemed to be on a bad recording. Quote
brownie Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Since he was one of the studio musicians in constant demand, I'm sure he took part in a number of dreadful sessions (non-jazz). I'm also sure that he was giving his best at each and every session... I'm ready to bet he took part in more sessions than Ron Carter! Michelot was already a veteran at the time Carter got his start. Quote
Guest youmustbe Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Why is it sad that he died at 77? while suffering from Alzheimer's? Michael Brecker is 55 and needs a bone marrow transplant to stay alive. Now, that's sad! Be that as it may, Pierre Michelot was one hell of a bass player. He was the Al McKibbon of France. I have a video from Tokyo of Dexter's group with Pierre on bass...just like Al, straight down the middle. Quote
king ubu Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Because it is sad when someone you like or love or appreciate does die. End of story. R.I.P. Pierre. Will spin the HUM set again soon. ubu Quote
garthsj Posted July 4, 2005 Report Posted July 4, 2005 Because it is sad when someone you like or love or appreciate does die. End of story. R.I.P. Pierre. Will spin the HUM set again soon. ubu ← UBU, I have been playing my 3-CD HUM set all afternoon ... it just confirms what a big loss this is ... One can justify the the welcome of death for someone who is suffering, but at the same time mourn the loss of someone who brought so much pleasure into one's life. Quote
EKE BBB Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 Very sad news. Some JiP discs will be on my stereo today. Small tribute to a great bass player. RIP Quote
sidewinder Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 That's sad news. Michelot was a class act - I like his work with Miles Davis on 'Acenseur' and also the mid-sized group 50s sessions under his own name. RIP. Quote
mikeweil Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 What can I say but thanks a thousand times for the joy his recordings gave me and will give me in the years to come, and RIP. Indeed, a woeful year for jazz bass. Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 I'm doing a tribute show to Michelot today--wish I had the HUM recordings! I do have the JiP leader date and quite a lot of the other material he appeared on in the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as the Round Midnight soundtrack. Hopefully some station with better resources will provide an even more comprehensive tribute to the talents and contributions of Mr. Michelot. Long live the Three Bosses! Quote
king ubu Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 ...the JiP leader date... ← Great one! Wish I had it here! (But I still need to spin some Per Henrik Wallin, as far as memorial listening goes.) Quote
neveronfriday Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 (edited) ...the JiP leader date... ← Great one! Wish I had it here! (But I still need to spin some Per Henrik Wallin, as far as memorial listening goes.) ← I've got it ... It just replaced Goodman at Brussels 1 & 2 on my C D player. Michelot is all over a lot of CDs I have. To be quite honest, I didn't even know how many. I'm just starting to find out. Too many bass players disappearing lately. Very sad. Edited July 5, 2005 by neveronfriday Quote
king ubu Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 ...the JiP leader date... ← Great one! Wish I had it here! (But I still need to spin some Per Henrik Wallin, as far as memorial listening goes.) ← I've got it ... It just replaced Goodman at Brussels 1 & 2 on my C D player. ← There are some beautiful arrangements on this one! Some with soprano part of the reeds - not that usual back then, was it? Quote
neveronfriday Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 There are some beautiful arrangements on this one! Some with soprano part of the reeds - not that usual back then, was it? ← Yes, very nice. I'm having a cool glass of wonderful French Rosé along. Fits perfectly. Quote
MartyJazz Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 (edited) Because it is sad when someone you like or love or appreciate does die. End of story. R.I.P. Pierre. Will spin the HUM set again soon. ubu ← Having cared for a relative similarly diagnosed, I feel especially saddened by the fact that he contracted this horrible disease at a relatively young age. In this case, I feel that death, when it inevitably comes, is a blessing. RIP. Edited July 5, 2005 by MartyJazz Quote
John B Posted July 5, 2005 Report Posted July 5, 2005 R.I.P. I just ordered Round About a Bass and will spin the HUM set in his honor. Quote
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