who's Babs Gonzales?

[hgweber]

did you guys see this already?

 

[mikeweil]

Thanks for posting! 

[JSngry]

character!

[Brad]

4 minutes ago, JSngry said:

character!

Par excellence! I love the cds that I have by him. 

[Teasing the Korean]

File under:  Things that in your wildest imagination you'd never think you'd see!  

[mikeweil]

He had more hipness in one fingertip than that whole French rhythm section. Some are taking jazz a tad too serious ...

[Daniel A]

Drummer Charles Bellonzi might not be as hip, but I think he shared Martial Solal's sometimes whimsical approach in the latter's 60s trios. 

[mikeweil]

They're good players, just not hip enough for Babs.

[Big Beat Steve]

17 hours ago, mikeweil said:

They're good players, just not hip enough for Babs.

I wonder if these were from the same circle of local musicians that I saw as a backing group for Slim Gaillard in Paris in 1988.

Slim was relatively "tame" at that gig but nothing compared to how workmanlike they were. Not bad, just un-hip too.

 

[Claude Schlouch]

and the following

Bennie Green (tb), Budd Johnson (ts), Bobby Tucker (p), John Collins (g), Bruce Lawrence (b, voc), Charles Simon (dm), Babs Gonzales (voc) on all titles + Earl Johnson & Wynton Kelly (voc)

New York City, July 27, 1950

 

Boogie woogie polka                                                                                                                                                              London 575 (78)

Boppin' and jivin'                                                                                                                                                                                       -

125th Street prophet                                                                                                                                                                              578 (78)

Play it real cool                                                                                                                                                                                           -

 

Did some collector on this board have both 78pm?

[EveryMann]

On 9/25/2006 at 1:53 PM, Shannon Dickey said:

Babs was a very fun scat singer. I agree that his autobiography "I Paid My Dues (good times...No bread A story of jazz") is a very great read. "eccentric" doesn't come close!! The bk. is kinda hard to find, Norton Records had found a cache of them somewhere, about 8 years ago, and were selling them for $20.00 a pop, in new condition. By the way it was published by the "Expubidence Pub. Corp." Ha Ha!!

-----HB

Amazing--that cache of Babs' autobiographies at Norton you reference came from me. I was living in what was originally a walk-in closet in the Ansonia building on the UWS of Manhattan and working at a restaurant downtown @1995. On my way in one afternoon, there was a guy selling old paperback books on a table set up outside the subway at 72nd & Broadway; I would have walked right past if the retina-searing cover of "i, paid my dues" hadn't jolted me to attention. I knew Babs put out some records on Blue Note, and thumbing through the pages there, I was hooked. I bought the few copies that were there on the table, and the next morning I found myself outside this guy's apartment up in Morningside Heights where I acquired the last 2 boxes (200 books) at $1 each he had left that Babs had evidently given him as collateral at some point for borrowed $$ that was never repaid.

It's the most brain-sprainingly entertaining book I have ever read. He puts random words in caps that don't seem to convey emphasis, and he will completely throw big-time musicians right under the bus, but then change the name of some random woman he picked up while waiting for a table at a restaurant ("we shall call her Lu so as to protect her identity") of someone nobody would know anyhow. I have re-read it many times: if 1/5th of the tales he tells are true, then Babs lived an amazing life.

Anyway, I brought one box over to Billy & Miriam's Norton HQ in Brooklyn where I swapped it for a stack of King label & Bo Diddley LPs. From the box I kept, I've given them out to friends over the years, and it has just come to my attention that even used copies are commanding pretty big money at this point on the popular auction site (though I'm not sure if anyone is actually paying the asking prices). I still have @20 copies left.  

His records aren't quite up to par with his tome, but I do have Weird Lullaby--with Tadd Dameron tickling the ivories--in my 78 juke. That one really speaks to me.

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by EveryMann
Clarity

[mikeweil]

On 6.4.2018 at 7:18 PM, Claude Schlouch said:

and the following

Bennie Green (tb), Budd Johnson (ts), Bobby Tucker (p), John Collins (g), Bruce Lawrence (b, voc), Charles Simon (dm), Babs Gonzales (voc) on all titles + Earl Johnson & Wynton Kelly (voc)

New York City, July 27, 1950

 

Boogie woogie polka                                                                                                                                                              London 575 (78)

Boppin' and jivin'                                                                                                                                                                                       -

125th Street prophet                                                                                                                                                                          578 (78)

Play it real cool                                                                                                                                                                                          -

 

Did some collector on this board have both 78pm?

That must be about the rarest Babs ever issued.

Read the personnel listing, carefully:

[Teasing the Korean]

2 hours ago, EveryMann said:

Amazing--that cache of Babs' autobiographies at Norton you reference came from me. I was living in what was originally a walk-in closet in the Ansonia building on the UWS of Manhattan and working at a restaurant downtown @1995. On my way in one afternoon, there was a guy selling old paperback books on a table set up outside the subway at 72nd & Broadway; I would have walked right past if the retina-searing cover of "i, paid my dues" hadn't jolted me to attention. I knew Babs put out some records on Blue Note, and thumbing through the pages there, I was hooked. I bought the few copies that were there on the table, and the next morning I found myself outside this guy's apartment up in Morningside Heights where I acquired the last 2 boxes (200 books) at $1 each he had left that Babs had evidently given him as collateral at some point for borrowed $$ that was never repaid.

It's the most brain-sprainingly entertaining book I have ever read. He puts random words in caps that don't seem to convey emphasis, and he will completely throw big-time musicians right under the bus, but then change the name of some random woman he picked up while waiting for a table at a restaurant ("we shall call her Lu so as to protect her identity") of someone nobody would know anyhow. I have re-read it many times: if 1/5th of the tales he tells are true, then Babs lived an amazing life.

Anyway, I brought one box over to Billy & Miriam's Norton HQ in Brooklyn where I swapped it for a stack of King label & Bo Diddley LPs. From the box I kept, I've given them out to friends over the years, and it has just come to my attention that even used copies are commanding pretty big money at this point on the popular auction site (though I'm not sure if anyone is actually paying the asking prices). I still have @20 copies left.  

His records aren't quite up to par with his tome, but I do have Weird Lullaby--with Tadd Dameron tickling the ivories--in my 78 juke. That one really speaks to me.

 

Great story!

[EveryMann]

16 hours ago, mikeweil said:

That must be about the rarest Babs ever issued.

Read the personnel listing, carefully:

 

I thought I'd owned all of Babs' 78s at one point or another, but I'd never even heard of those two London issues. 

As for the St Louis Blues/Prelude to a Nightmare record you reference, you certainly can't say Babs didn't have some heavy hitters playing on his sessions.

My record buying days are pretty much behind me, but I did pick up an original copy of the Voila LP a year or so back with the record in really nice condition, but the cover marked down  by the seller for "writing on cover"...which was actually done by Babs himself.

[JSngry]

I believe that was Sonny's recording debut!

[mikeweil]

Yes it was Sonny's first studio session.

But read the credits, what the guys play: Wynton Kelly and Roy Haynes on box, and tubs, respectively!

Those two London 78s never were reissued. The first Babs CD on Chronological Classics stopped before this session. 

[ghost of miles]

Working right now on a Babs show for Night Lights... next week is his centenary.  Just remember that a dollar is your only friend!

[AllenLowe]

I love Babs; it was Joe Albany who told me that I should take a listen: "Babs was HIP."

[Brad]

43 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Working right now on a Babs show for Night Lights... next week is his centenary.  Just remember that a dollar is your only friend!

“When you’re down and out

A friend won’t even shake your hand.”