Allen Eager Uptown

[ghost of miles]

David, how many sides are there? I know there is one track (Churchmouse) on "The Savoy Story" three cd set. I love his sideman appearances on the Winding and Moore cuts on the "In the Beginning Bop" Savoy/Denon cd.

I'm not sure, but AMG lists these vinyl releases:

1946 Allen Eager, Vol. 2 Savoy

1946 Tenor Sax Savoy

1946 New Trends in Jazz, Vol. 1 Savoy

1946 New Trends in Modern Music, Vol. 2 Savoy

I'm sure there's some overlap there, but also sure that there must be enough material for a single Savoy CD... or maybe even several Classics, if sideman appearances of note are included as well.

[brownie]

There was a Savoy vinyl twofer 'Brothers And Other Mothers, vol. 2' that reissued the Allan Eager sessions on Savoy.

- four tracks (with one alternate each) from the November 6, 1947 session with Doug Mettome, Eager, George Wallington, Leonard Gaskin and Stan Levey,

- then the four tracks from the January 22, 1947 session by the Teddy Reig All Stars (Kai Winding, Eager, Marty Napoleon, Eddie Safransky, Shelly Manne.

The twofer also had Savoy sides by Brew Moore, Phil Urso and the Bernie Privin Orchestra (with Al Cohn).

Ira Gitler wrote the liner notes for the album.

[Chuck Nessa]

There was a Savoy vinyl twofer 'Brothers And Other Mothers, vol. 2' that reissued the Allan Eager sessions on Savoy.

Brothers and Other Mothers vol 1 has 8 more Eager tracks - 4 with Ed Finckel, Bob Carter and Max Roach (10/22/48) and 4 with Terry Gibbs, Duke Jordan, Curley Russell and Max (7/15/47).

[jazzbo]

Thanks for the information Brownie and Chuck.

Wow.

or rather WOW!

Sumpin' to look for.

[Brad]

I assume this has not been reissued on cd. Pity.

[jazzbo]

Well, Brothers and Other Mothers Vol 1 was on ebay for a very reasonable "buy it now". . . It's going to be on the way to my house!

[ghost of miles]

I was trying to track down Eager's performance of "Sweet Georgia Brown" on a 1947 Saturday Night Swing Session broadcast and was hipped by a friend to this (relatively) recent release:

Allen Eager: an Ace Face

[jazzbo]

Right, I picked that one up summer 2007 (a horrible time for me, but great swinging music was a help). Quite a nice release including material hard or impossible to find on cd elsewhere.

[ghost of miles]

Amazon lists every single track as "explicit," btw...man, those crazee beboppers and their wild quotes!

[AllenLowe]

when I was first listening to bebop in the 1960s, Eager was this elusive and legendary figure and I tried to locate him to do an interview, even went so far as going through the phone booke and calling people with the same last name - and than Dave Schildkraut told me Eager's family had owned a Catskill resort called Eager's Garden, but that was out of business. I even had a recurring dream about running into Eager and Lester Young at the West End in New York - finally Eager came to NYC to appear at Newport/Jazz in the early 1980s, I think, and I found out which hotel he was staying in and I called him up and he turned out to be one of the biggest jerks I ever spoke to, so I gave up - oh well....

Edited October 16, 2008 by AllenLowe

[Peter Friedman]

As long as Allen Eager is being discussed, his sideman role on the 1955 Tony Fruscella album should also be mentioned. Eager sounds quite nice on this one, in my opinion, though Fruscella's playing is what deserves the major attention on this album.

[Peter Friedman]

I should also mention that I heard Allen Eager live in Los Angeles within a year or two before his death. Listening to him was a painful experience. He sounded terrible. It was as if he was a raw novice and was just learning how to play the tenor. Hearing someone with his legendary reputation from the bebop years play so poorly was sad.

[AllenLowe]

he was terrible at Newport, too - but than, he was sounding weak and unfocused after about 1954 -

[Stereojack]

I saw Eager in Florida around 1987. Big disappointment - sounded sorta like very late Pres, in the worst sense. I was thrilled to see a legend, but there wasn't much left by this time.

[Adam]

But was he a good car racer?

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes.

After the issue of the Uptown collection I was contacted and thanked by Denise McCluggage (search her name). When I told her I remembered a piece she published about driving a Ferrari with Miles and Allen she sent a copy of one of her books with that story included. She was kind enough to inscribe the title page.

Mr Lowe continues to miss the beauties of the Boston session with Twardzik. His loss.

[AllenLowe]

I never mentioned that session, Chuck - is that in the box? haven't listened to it for a while - though the most interesting stuff in the box for me is Eager on alto - I was thinking of the Handyland session where he sounds bored and tired -

Edited October 17, 2008 by AllenLowe

[Larry Kart]

I saw Eager twice in the '80s in Chicago. The first time he was hopeless; the second time, with Al Cohn, was better. The feel of that second gig was strange; Al seemed to be angry/exasperated at Allen -- in part (my speculation) because Allen had squandered so much of his talent, in part because (my speculation again) Allen back in the early days had been so damn good and had made no bones about lording it over the other first generation Pres-based guys on that scene, like Al. In any case, Al played with remarkable ferocity that night, which seemed to boost the level of Allen's playing a fair bit. A strange evening. BTW, I can't be sure now, but I believe that my speculations above were based in part on some things that Ira Gitler told me afterwards when I described to him how that night had gone musically.

[AllenLowe]

just as an aside, and I don't know if it relates, but Bob Mover told me some time ago that his fellow musicians considered Eager to have a terrible ear -

[Gheorghe]

I was trying to track down Eager's performance of "Sweet Georgia Brown" on a 1947 Saturday Night Swing Session broadcast and was hipped by a friend to this (relatively) recent release:

Allen Eager: an Ace Face

Eager´s performance on that "Saturday Night Swing Session" really knocked me out. I first bought it because of Fats Navarro, who plays on those two tracks "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "High on an open mike". The best solos of Eager, together with that sessions I heard on the live-album Tadd Dameron-Fats Navarro from Royal Roost 1948. I´m a freak of Fats Navarro and Tadd Dameron, but Eager really takes care of business. His solos are as well-constructed as Fats´solos and he really has a beautiful sound. The same thing can be said about the BlueNote date from 1948, where Eager and Wardell Gray are playing.

Another great example is on one of the three broadcasts from 1947 ("Bands for Bonds"), where Eager is featured with Bird, Fats, Lennie Tristano etc. and has a great feature on "Grooovin´High".

[Gheorghe]

You are talking about that album "In The Land of Oo Blaa Dee"?

Yes, I purchased it.

Because I always did like Eager´s sound and lines on many sessions from the 40´s , mostly with Fats.

The stuff from Boston 1953 is really nice, a typical club-performance from that time.

I also really like that one track "Some Blues" .

But I remember, one of the last tracks is a slow blues, which would be great, but the drummer is just terrible.

[Quasimado]

Eager´s performance on that "Saturday Night Swing Session" really knocked me out. I first bought it because of Fats Navarro, who plays on those two tracks "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "High on an open mike".

Absolutely some of the very best Fats and Eager!

Q