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Horace Silver at Newport 1958


JohnS

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Yeah, Louis suffered a stroke two years ago. He's getting out more though still dealing with redeveloping his speech. Friends in Ann Arbor said he and his wife were in the crowd at Hill Auditorium recently for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra's version of Ellington love songs. He was seen talking to friends and is otherwise on the mend. Great guy. His concert at Blue Lake in the 1980's, with the late pianist Eddie Russ, is still a favorite tape to pull out and enjoy.

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Yeah, Louis suffered a stroke two years ago. He's getting out more though still dealing with redeveloping his speech. Friends in Ann Arbor said he and his wife were in the crowd at Hill Auditorium recently for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra's version of Ellington love songs. He was seen talking to friends and is otherwise on the mend. Great guy. His concert at Blue Lake in the 1980's, with the late pianist Eddie Russ, is still a favorite tape to pull out and enjoy.

I caught Louis SMith a couple of times in 2004 and 2005 (including the '05 Detroit Jazz Festival). I'm pretty sure he said he was teaching in Ann Arbot at this time and playing pretty regularly at a local club. (I've got it in the back of my mind that Organissimo played there too, but I could be nuts.) I can't say he was playing at the same level as that excellent first Blue Note album (with Cannonball (Buckshot) Adderly!), but it was still a joy to hear him.

Nice 14-page interview with Smith. (Not mine.)

http://www.alexander-graham.com/louis_smith.pdf

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Got it yesterday - the music is very good, though I think two of the heads are played a little sloppily. Solos are all good - notice how different Louis Hayes' snare sound is compared to the RVG studio sessions!

And I wish they'd have done Cool Eyes at the slower tempo like on the only Silver Epic LP (where its titled To Beat or Not To Beat) - I think the slower tempo fits the theme much better.

Oh well ...

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The interaction among Horace, Gene Taylor, and Louis Hayes during Horace's solos is something else -- Hard Bop par excellence, on a level with the interaction among Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe on the title track of "Cool Struttin,'" which in its own way is as compositional as Morton's Red Hot Peppers. Back to the Newport album, the whole band sounds so fresh and foxy -- everyone is digging everyone else and bouncing right out to us their pleasure in what's bouncing back at them from their fellows. Yummy.

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I commented about this in my own poll about how I should use last weekend's Borders coupon, but I might as well post here, too:

This CD belongs in every hard bop lover's collection! And Louis Smith is a serious mo-fo!! It would be great if some listen to this recording and decide to check out his late-career Steeplechase recordings.

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At the "Itunes" store, the only track available as a single download is the introduction! 99 cents for Willis Conover talking for 44 seconds!! Is there a market for that? Do people load up their Ipods with this sort of thing??

If you load in some Phil Schaap pause tracks, you can extend a 44 second introduction to 3 or 4 minutes or so.

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At the "Itunes" store, the only track available as a single download is the introduction! 99 cents for Willis Conover talking for 44 seconds!! Is there a market for that? Do people load up their Ipods with this sort of thing??

If you load in some Phil Schaap pause tracks, you can extend a 44 second introduction to 3 or 4 minutes or so.

But what if Orrin is running the stopwatch?

:g

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