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John Patton Tribute on MySpace

Soul Stream

By Soul Stream
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Soul Stream Newbie

Soul Stream

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John Patton My Space

I put up a little John Patton tribute page up on MySpace. Check it out. There's also a wonderful and extensive biography in the blog section. It's something John gave me that a friend of his did. For anybody really into John and his work, this is about the best thing you'll ever read on the man!

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sidewinder Mentor

sidewinder

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This is interesting:

"To cite just one example, the poll results for organ appearing in the August 25, 1966 issue of Downbeat has Count Basie and Clare Fischer listed. At present, the year 2000, it is safe to say that Count Basie's work in the oeuvre of organ playing, with all due respect to his other achievements, is nothing more than a triviality, and perhaps just a way the record companies were cashing in on Basie's name with the popularity of the organ in that era. Likewise with Fischer, whose work on organ is now also considered an anomaly. Though this may actually have no bearing on why he is there, it is notable that Fischer is the only white artist on the list.[202] Today, neither of them is considered to be influential in any way in terms of the development of the style and it is rare for them to be even mentioned when speaking of jazz organ among aficionados. At the time, Patton mentions, "I'd never even heard Clare Fischer play organ," and of Basie, that it was a conversation piece among organists, but not something that was taken seriously among him and his peers. And yet, because it was Basie, it automatically garnered more attention because of the politics involved with Basie's legendary status (albeit in other fields). "You know, those guys [people like Basie and Fischer], they couldn't get the whole thing going. They didn't attack that bass line like we [the "real" organists] did, that was a whole other thing."

Soul Stream Newbie

Soul Stream

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Thanks for the nice comments ya'll. I think that bio piece is just amazing. Once you've read it, there will be many things to think about. I re-read it constantly and always find interesting things I missed previously. The interviews with Harold Alexander, Marvin Cabell, Ben Dixon and John himself are just fascinating reading.

andybleaden Apprentice

andybleaden

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Great site mate. Lovely info too

Many thanks from another BJP nut! :)

Thanks especially for sharing the thesis which is really interesting to read. Fascinating story of a fascinating man

Thumbs all round for the site which looks cool and snazzy too

Well done mate...a job that he deserved to have done properly

Andy

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K1969 Newbie

K1969

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Great site mate. Lovely info too

Many thanks from another BJP nut! :)

Thanks especially for sharing the thesis which is really interesting to read. Fascinating story of a fascinating man

Thumbs all round for the site which looks cool and snazzy too

Well done mate...a job that he deserved to have done properly

Andy

great read, thanks :tup

Interesting the nation of Islam stuff: the row over the white girl on the cover of That Certain Feeling; the effect that had on BJP's limited output thereafter. Also interesting to know that the tight musical bond between BJP and Alexander was grounded in thier close working relationship: Alexander's description of Patton as "egoless" is just what I had always sensed from his music and role as band leader. Good description of Walker's drumming as "a one man percussion circle". Lots of great insights here, thanks!

K1969 Newbie

K1969

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gun incident? can u relate the story for those of us who cant do myspace beacuse it crashes our computer?

"Things were picking up for Patton in the summer of 1962, working regularly in Donaldson's group on tour and around New York. At a gig with Lou Donaldson at Minton's Playhouse, Patton's wife, Mary Lois, accused another woman of wanting her husband and a heated argument with the woman ensued. The argument soon turned into an all-out brawl between the two, with Patton himself caught in the middle trying to straighten out the situation. The two women eventually ended up out on the street fighting in front of Minton's. Patton recalled, "She [Mary Lois] grabbed the girl by the hair and threw her in the street. Then she started pulling her hair out, yelling and screaming." The police eventually came and broke up the fight and no arrests were made. Patton insists that he was innocent in the situation and that Mary Lois' jealousy was unfounded. Mary Lois was not convinced, and as Patton said the first time he spoke to me of the situation on January 29, 1999, "that goes into a long, long, drawn out thing." Several days passed, and Mary Lois turned her anger toward Patton. She purchased a .22 caliber rifle.

Patton had no idea she had done this and went to sleep early on an off night from gigging after being kept up for three days straight by Mary Lois. He was sleeping on his stomach when Mary Lois put the barrel of the rifle in his lower back and shot Patton at point blank range. The bullet became lodged in his lower back about two inches to the left of his spine, and "at first, they weren't going to take it out. But eventually, they took it out." The events of that night are a blur in Patton's mind, he survived the gunshot, was taken to the hospital, Mary Lois was arrested and that was the end of their marriage of nearly four years. The situation was, obviously, a traumatic one, and Patton did not want to talk about it at all for some time. He has, either consciously or unconsciously, forgotten many of the details of his marriage to Mary Lois, including their exact date of marriage (he thinks it was around 1958, "when I was with Lloyd, Ben [Dixon] was the best man"[96]) and her maiden name. The injury took a serious toll on him physically, and he still feels repercussions from the incident to this day."

Soul Stream Newbie

Soul Stream

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Thanks everyone...! If you send a friend request in the future, please let me know what your myspace name is. I've been getting alot of mass weirdo/crappy band requests and have just vetoed a lot of stuff I wasn't sure of. I checked Dr. Lonnie Smith's site recently and he had some porn posted in the comments section, so I'm trying to avoid that at all costs. If for some reason your request didn't go through, let me know and we can try again! Thanks.... :D

Soul Stream Newbie

Soul Stream

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Found this in an old Downbeat today.... I posted it in the blog section of the Patton tribute myspace page.

Downbeat Review Of "Along Came John" Oct 10, 1963

by Don Nelson

Three Stars

On his first date as leader, Patton emerges as a musician who seems capable of a better report than this. He possesses a creditable array of equipment: a crisp articulation, a light but not limp touch, a rather fertile imagination, and, as annotator Joe Goldberg points out, an approach that is less orchestral than many of his fellow organists. He never buries the listener in sound.

Yet his work here is curiously bland, despite some cooking moments on Gee Gee and Pig Foots and a fine performance on I'll Never Be Free. He plays the rest of the tunes agreeably enough, but he rarely seems to dig beneath the crust and spill out the innards. He seems somewhat restrained, as if reluctant to really let go and wail.

No such malaise afflicts Fred Jackson or Harold Vick, who supply almost all of the excitement that exists on the album. Both are forward looking tenor men, especially Jackson, and together they generate a considerable amount of heat.

Jackson can explore the harmonic possibilities of a tune with searching vigor, yet never get so absorbed that he lets the melody fly out of his grasp. His solo on Gee Gee is a pip, well-constructed and well-played in a Coltrane-ish fashion. He is far more lyrical in this vein than many saxophonists who have been affected, more or less, by the Coltrane persuasion. When either he or Vick, who is slightly more traditional in approach, command the stage, the music leaps to life: yet these breakthroughs are not sufficient to transform the album as a whole into a winning achievement.

Green, a skilled interpreter of the blues, plays well throughout, though occasionally (Silver Meter, Pig Foots) he gets hung on devices that grate the listener's nerves.

Dixon, a good drummer, shows himself a capable writer, too, with Meter, Spiffy Diffy, and Foots. Patton himself wrote two dreditable efforts, Along Came John and Gee Gee.

AndrewHill Newbie

AndrewHill

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I guess I got shuffled in with the spam/weirdo stuff that you denied :o:huh::lol: I sent another friend request, I'm Big Tuna over there. Thanks!

HG

Sorry... :blush: I'll get ya on there! :g

No problem -_- Thanks for the add. Again, a very well-done professional-looking job. Hats off.

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