Art Blakey's Golden Boy by David Weiss

[brownie]

From the Music section in The New York Times

Sounds like an interesting rediscovery of this hard-to-get album!

[Mark Stryker]

For anyone in the metro Detroit area interested in this album -- and it's a great one! -- I saw a copy yesterday at Encore Records in Ann Arbor in excellent shape for $18.87.

[Brad]

Thanks for posting Brownie. Isn't David Weiss a member here?

[brownie]

Yes, he is. And obviously too modest to post his achievements!

[bertrand]

The Iridium web site shows that the gig this week-end is called Charisma, but they are playing the music from the Maupin-Harper era. I saw this last time - fabulous show.

Bertrand.

[Aggie87]

I saw David's Golden Boy tribute show last November at the Iridium, and it was a fine performance! Lou Hayes on drums, with Brian Lynch, Craig Handy, Charles Fambrough, Steve Turre (subbing for Curtis Fuller that night),

[BFrank]

That "Charisma!" group is coming to Yoshi's in February.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

hmm.........you know golden boy IS hard to find! does it ever pop up on the ebay? its on colpix, right?

[umum_cypher]

  chewy said:

hmm.........you know golden boy IS hard to find! does it ever pop up on the ebay? its on colpix, right?

IMHO it's the best non-BN Blakey album from that period by a long way. Blakey wears a karate or judo suit on the front. Why I wonder? Is it to do with the plot of the musical?

[bakeostrin]

  umum_cypher said:

  chewy said:

hmm.........you know golden boy IS hard to find! does it ever pop up on the ebay? its on colpix, right?

IMHO it's the best non-BN Blakey album from that period by a long way. Blakey wears a karate or judo suit on the front. Why I wonder? Is it to do with the plot of the musical?

It appears to be, and consistent with the theme of the play, a boxer's robe. "Golden Boy" was a play about a young boxer's struggle to the top; filmed a couple of times, 1939 w/William Holden and as a musical, Kid Galahd w/Elvis in the 50's.

[bakeostrin]

  Baker said:

  umum_cypher said:

  chewy said:

hmm.........you know golden boy IS hard to find! does it ever pop up on the ebay? its on colpix, right?

IMHO it's the best non-BN Blakey album from that period by a long way. Blakey wears a karate or judo suit on the front. Why I wonder? Is it to do with the plot of the musical?

It appears to be, and consistent with the theme of the play, a boxer's robe. "Golden Boy" was a play about a young boxer's struggle to the top; filmed a couple of times, 1939 w/William Holden and as a musical, Kid Galahd w/Elvis in the 50's.

My apologies for neglecting the playwright, Clifford Odets, who also wrote the screenplay for "The Sweet Smell of Success" in which Chico Hamilton appears and plays.

[brownie]

The original vinyl cover and the French Colpix version...

[Peter Johnson]

I'm going to try to attend this Saturday. What a lineup! Anyone else going to make it out?

Celebrate the music of trumpet legend Lee Morgan with an all-star ensemble comprised mostly of members of his last working bands plus other special guests

Billy Harper: Tenor Sax

Bennie Maupin: Tenor & Soprano Sax and Bass Clarinet

David Weiss and Charles Tolliver: Trumpet

Geri Allen: Piano

Christian McBride: Bass

Victor Lewis: Drums

  bertrand said:

The Iridium web site shows that the gig this week-end is called Charisma, but they are playing the music from the Maupin-Harper era. I saw this last time - fabulous show.

Bertrand.

[BFrank]

  Peter Johnson said:

I'm going to try to attend this Saturday. What a lineup! Anyone else going to make it out?

Celebrate the music of trumpet legend Lee Morgan with an all-star ensemble comprised mostly of members of his last working bands plus other special guests

Billy Harper: Tenor Sax

Bennie Maupin: Tenor & Soprano Sax and Bass Clarinet

David Weiss and Charles Tolliver: Trumpet

Geri Allen: Piano

Christian McBride: Bass

Victor Lewis: Drums

  bertrand said:

The Iridium web site shows that the gig this week-end is called Charisma, but they are playing the music from the Maupin-Harper era. I saw this last time - fabulous show.

Bertrand.

Hey, Peter. Give us a review afterwards.

I'll do the same in February ... (after Yoshi's)

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

ive never seen this. i have a ronnettes 45 on colpix, why cant i find this?>

[david weiss]

For being a pretty obscure record, I've never had a problem finding a copy. When I needed to find a stereo copy to transcribe the music (I always had a mono copy), I found one, a mint one at that, on ebay within a week and won it for $20 without any competition so maybe I was lucky but this never really went for big money, it's just a matter of running into one. It's a great record, if you don't have it you should all seek it out.

Brownie, that's a great image of the cover, I wish I had it to give to the club who used the image (a lesser version) for press releases and posters.

Supposedly this was Blakey favorite Messenger record.

The Times piece was nice and accurate. It was a bit sloppy out of the gate but after the first set everything went great and it turned into a wonderful thing. This time around we had Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes, Mulgrew Miller, Peter Washington, Javon Jackson, Jeremy Pelt and Donald Harrison among others.

I learned a few more things about the show this time around. A Charles Strouse expert was in the audience and we talked a while after the show. Apparently Strouse is still alive and I was also told he loved the jazz interpretations of his music. For the guys who are trying to figure out the recording date, this guy said that the show was on the road a year or so before it opened in New York so this might explain why the record was out so soon after the show opened on Broadway. Apparently Ellington did a jazz version of one of Strouse's earlier shows (a year or two earlier) so this was apparently a continuation of that. He also told me the real title of Theme from Golden Boy but I forgot. Also he said Yes I Can never made it into the final version of the play.

[brownie]

  david weiss said:

Apparently Ellington did a jazz version of one of Strouse's earlier shows (a year or two earlier)

That was 'All American'. The Ellington album has been mentioned in this recent thread!

[bertrand]

Strouse donated his collection to the Library of Congress a year or two ago. Expect it to be fully cataloged and available to the public for research in the next 20 years or so.

David, did you get a contact info on the Strouse expert you spoke to, by any chance?

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[david weiss]

  On 12/10/2009 at 12:44 PM, bertrand said:

Strouse donated his collection to the Library of Congress a year or two ago. Expect it to be fully cataloged and available to the public for research in the next 20 years or so.

David, did you get a contact info on the Strouse expert you spoke to, by any chance?

Thanks,

Bertrand.

He told me his name but of course but I forgot. Sorry.

[ghost of miles]

Dusty Groove's been stocking Golden Boy of late. I got a copy about a week ago and have listened to it three times so far...still can't bring myself to file it away yet. I think umum_cypher's comment about it being Blakey's best non-BN date of the period is spot-on, and I can certainly understand why David was inspired to do this tribute performance.

[jlhoots]

Took me 3 times to get a copy from Dusty Groove. Kept going out of stock.

Finally got it. I like it, particularly the Wayne Shorter contributions.

[jazzbo]

Wayne is definitely the highlight for me, and also the great sound of the new cd (and the six or seven others I've bought in this new series).

[Brad]

Added it to the want list. Thanks Ghost.

[DMP]

I'm a little surprised by the praise for what I think is a pretty innocuous Blakey album - okay, sure, a nice try in the then fashionable jazz versions of whatever show was currently playing vein, and the sound of the new CD (as mentioned above) is good. But of the 1000 Blakey albums out there, I can't go higher than 117, slightly above Buttercorn Lady. (Best non-BN of the period? That might be Ugetsu.) But I wish I was at the Weiss gig - bet it was a lot of fun.

[samnat]

I luckily found it this past weekend at the DC Record Fair for around $10 in good shape. For anyone that saw the blurb and photo in the Washington Post Weekend section, that was my thumb holding a Mosaic Miles Davis record from the last record fair. My thumb's 15 minutes of fame.