Chicago hardbop

[ghost of miles]

Hey all, I'm working on a Night Lights show about Chicago hardbop and wanted to solicit some suggestions from the Chi-town experts here on the board... Johnny Griffin, of course, Ira Sullivan, Clifford Jordan/John Gilmore, Von Freeman, Wilbur Ware, Gene Ammons for starters...other suggestions? I'm particularly interested in featuring several unsung players as well, along the lines of Gene Shaw, MJT + 3, etc. (In fact, the show could end up featuring only the "unsung" side of the equation, given all of the musicians who could fit into this topic.) Period I'm covering is roughly 1950 to 1975 or 80.

Thanks much in advance.

[J.A.W.]

Trumpeters Willie Thomas and Paul Serrano, alto saxophonists John Jenkins and Bunky Green, pianists John Young and Chris Anderson.

[BeBop]

Among the younger cats, Mike Smith might be considered. http://hardbop.tripod.com/msmith.html

I think Eddie Harris and Tony Williams were born in Chicagoland, though they aren't as closely associated. JR Monterose?

Hey, and Jimmy Heath wrote CTA, right?

[BeBop]

IF you really want to stretch the Chicago connection, that's where I first saw Organissimo, at Andy's. (Sorry gotta get in a "plug".)

[Chuck Nessa]

Among the younger cats, Mike Smith might be considered. http://hardbop.tripod.com/msmith.html

I think Eddie Harris and Tony Williams were born in Chicagoland, though they aren't as closely associated. JR Monterose?

Hey, and Jimmy Heath wrote CTA, right?

No JR connection (though I went there with him to see Coltrane at the Plugged Nickel) but Eddie Harris was very much an Chicagoan.

[Larry Kart]

Nicky Hill, Jodie Christian, Wilbur Campbell, E. Parker McDougal.

[marcello]

John Young

John Young in the Andy Kirk band at the Band Box, 1946. From left to right: Ben Thigpen (drums); Harry Lawson (trumpet); Johnny Walker (trumpet); and Aaron Bell (bass).

Lurlean Hunter with John Young at the piano and Bruz Freeman at the drums.

[brownie]

Vito PRICE!

[sidewinder]

Julian Priester !

[papsrus]

That is a great photo.

[Patrick]

Perhaps outside the parameters, pianist Don Bennett. Maybe something off of Sleepig Giant (Southport) [reissued as Chicago Calling (Candid)] like "Dance of the Night Child"?

[BeBop]

I'll send you my secret recording of Chuck Nessa singing and playing the tambourine on Navy Pier.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Red Holloway is one who's not often thought of in this context.

And don't miss Brother George!

MG

[rpklich]

Duke Payne was a very good tenor player, played bagpipes too. He did a record with Eldee Young. Joe Farrell was from Chicago. Nobody has mentioned Joe Daley.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Duke Payne was a very good tenor player, played bagpipes too. He did a record with Eldee Young.

Damn right! He was also in Odell Brown and the Organizers.

Which Eldee Young album is he on?

MG

[rpklich]

I recall the JRM selling it in the mid 80's. I believe it was self-produced and a live recording(I have a foggy memory). Eldee's quartet also had Ari Brown in it. They used to play regularly at the Backroom on Rush St. I can't recall the drummer.

Kenny Mann was another good tenor player out of Chicago. Became a lawyer and moved to Calif. Did a record with Britt Woodman in the late 70s early 80s. Heard him when was backing Joe Williams and at some jam sessions.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I recall the JRM selling it in the mid 80's. I believe it was self-produced and a live recording(I have a foggy memory). Eldee's quartet also had Ari Brown in it. They used to play regularly at the Backroom on Rush St. I can't recall the drummer.

Doesn't seem likely that I could pick that up, then. Ta.

MG

[Larry Kart]

Bassists Victor Sproles, Bob Cranshaw, and Donald Garrett, drummers Dorel Anderson and Walter Perkins, tenorman Johnny Board (recently mentioned on another thread). As RPKlich said, Joe Daley for sure. Trumpeter Art Hoyle. Venturing toward the relatively obscure and probably unrecorded, tenorman Dick Kroll (Mobley-esque and a frequent associate of Ira Sullivan in '56-'57) and tenorman/altoist Haig Tchician (who had a "pecking" style a la Shafi Hadi/Curtis Porter, though Tchician sounded that way before any Hadi/Porter recordings emerged).

[Tom in RI]

If you wanted to include someone a little younger, try Ryan Cohan, I think his Here and Now release is aces.

[Peter Friedman]

Bass player Larry Grey

Did piano player Willie Pickins spend time in Chicago

Junior Mance

[Larry Kart]

Bass player Larry Grey

Did piano player Willie Pickins spend time in Chicago

Junior Mance

Pickens and Mance would certainly qualify. Grey can function in that style but came along well after the era when hardbop was an urgently "present" music in Chicago, which is what I think David has in mind as the organizing principle for the show.

A guy who I'm pretty sure came to Chicago after the city's hardbop era but who spent a lot of time there, was a significant figure on the scene, and who certainly fits in stylistically would be tenorman Lynn Halliday, whose at times erratic but at best striking work can be found on several Delmark albums.

BTW, in that new coffee table book about photographer W. Eugene Smith's NYC jazz loft, which is put together quite scrappily IMO, one startlingly intense passage is a transcription of a 1961 or '62 conversation between Halliday and his friend Sonny Clark (Smith had tape machines running in the loft all the time, recording just about everything), whom Halliday fears has just taken enough heroin to kill himself. It seems quite clear from what is being said that if Halliday and his girlfriend hadn't been there, Clark would have died on that night rather than (of related causes) on Jan. 13, 1963.

Link to the W. Eugene Smith Jazz Loft book:

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Loft-Project-Photographs-1957-1965/dp/0307267091/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261531183&sr=1-1

[ghost of miles]

A guy who I'm pretty sure came to Chicago after the city's hardbop era but who spent a lot of time there, was a significant figure on the scene, and who certainly fits in stylistically would be tenorman Lynn Halliday, whose at times erratic but at best striking work can be found on several Delmark albums.

BTW, in that new coffee table book about photographer W. Eugene Smith's NYC jazz loft, which is put together quite scrappily IMO, one startlingly intense passage is a transcription of a 1961 or '62 conversation between Halliday and his friend Sonny Clark (Smith had tape machines running in the loft all the time, recording just about everything), whom Halliday fears has just taken enough heroin to kill himself. It seems quite from what is being said that if Halliday and his girlfriend hadn't been there, Clark would have died on that night rather than (of related causes) on Jan. 13, 1963.

Larry, yes--my God, that is an intense passage. There's also a reference to Halliday's girlfriend having saved Clark through CPR not long before that night as well. I didn't flash on Halliday's Chicago connection, though I'm sure Stephenson probably mentioned it.

Everybody--thanks much for all of the wonderful suggestions. I've been rereading the early chapters of George Lewis' book (will be revisiting Larry's as well) and will be scouring some older jazz journals at the IU School of Music Library this week too.

[ghost of miles]

Apparently Joe Segal wrote a monthly (or near-monthly) column about the Chicago jazz scene for Metronome in 1956 and '57. I was just over at the IU School of Music library, frantically copying numerous 1950s/60s articles (Seagal's among them) before they closed at 5 p.m... they're not scheduled to re-open till Jan. 4, 2010. Dangerous for me to open up those old Downbeat and Metronome volumes--can easily get distracted by numerous other articles in any given issue.

[ghost of miles]

A guy who I'm pretty sure came to Chicago after the city's hardbop era but who spent a lot of time there, was a significant figure on the scene, and who certainly fits in stylistically would be tenorman Lynn Halliday, whose at times erratic but at best striking work can be found on several Delmark albums.

Delmark just put out this CD:

[Michael Weiss]

John Jenkins

Charles Davis