Was this a lot or little for a ticket in 1974?

[sidewinder]

My first time at Ronnie's I sat just behind Pete Townshend watching Roland Kirk. This was his Whistleman period - must have been 68 or 69.

Nice ! Did the vice squad call in to confiscate the whistles?

Was there for Woody Shaw. Ronnie Mathews was on piano - you'll have remember the others for me!

Would that have been the Junior Cook/Louis Hayes Quintet gig back around 1976 where Cook fell out with the rest of the band (if my memory is right)? I know that Melody Maker had a story on this - slightly before my time at Scotts unfortunately.

The Woody Shaw group I saw was a few years later and had Mulgrew Miller on piano, Stafford James on bass and Tony Reedus on drums. Steve Turre on trombone, of course. Just before they recorded 'Lotus Flower' for Enja Records.

Edited August 18, 2010 by sidewinder

[BillF]

My first time at Ronnie's I sat just behind Pete Townshend watching Roland Kirk. This was his Whistleman period - must have been 68 or 69.

Nice ! Did the vice squad call in to confiscate the whistles?

Was there for Woody Shaw. Ronnie Mathews was on piano - you'll have remember the others for me!

Would that have been the Junior Cook/Louis Hayes Quintet gig back around 1976 where Cook fell out with the rest of the band (if my memory is right)? I know that Melody Maker had a story on this - slightly before my time at Scotts unfortunately.

The Woody Shaw group I saw was a few years later and had Mulgrew Miller on piano, Stafford James on bass and Tony Reedus on drums. Steve Turre on trombone, of course. Just before they recorded 'Lotus Flower' for Enja Records.

I wonder if it was the Woody Shaw/Louis Hayes Quintet with René McLean, Ronnie Mathews and Stafford James who recorded a Swiss Radio Days album in Lausanne in 1977? Mind you, it's surprising that I wouldn't remember Louis Hayes. If they didn't appear at Ronnie's, that settles it. It wasn't them!

[sidewinder]

I wonder if it was the Woody Shaw/Louis Hayes Quintet with René McLean, Ronnie Mathews and Stafford James who recorded a Swiss Radio Days album in Lausanne in 1977? Mind you, it's surprising that I wouldn't remember Louis Hayes. If they didn't appear at Ronnie's, that settles it. It wasn't them!

Yes, 1977 sounds about right (back in the day when the Melody Maker carried good writeups of the key jazz gigs). There was an altercation on stage I believe. If only they would get round to putting MM on-line as is promised, we could check the details !

[A Lark Ascending]

If only they would get round to putting MM on-line as is promised, we could check the details !

That would be fascinating! I can still remember reviews that made me experiment with things (Jarrett, Westbrook) - I'd love to read what caught my interest again.

[sidewinder]

If only they would get round to putting MM on-line as is promised, we could check the details !

That would be fascinating! I can still remember reviews that made me experiment with things (Jarrett, Westbrook) - I'd love to read what caught my interest again.

Likewise - and not getting your hands pasted in black and red ink as you turned the page would be a bonus too !

[A Lark Ascending]

I was mainly an NME reader but used MM too. Can't recall what NME's jazz coverage was like. Not as strong, I suspect, though during the mid-70s it had a very catholic approach to music so there must have been jazz stuff in there.

[A Lark Ascending]

There's an article here from January about the digitalisation of MM:

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-ipc-may-re-publish-premium-melody-maker-archive-online/

Gramophone have done it so it should be possible for MM - though Gramophone has been a monthly for most of its life so there are only 12 (13?) issues for each year to digitalise as opposed to 52 for a weekly.

[mjazzg]

I was mainly an NME reader but used MM too. Can't recall what NME's jazz coverage was like. Not as strong, I suspect, though during the mid-70s it had a very catholic approach to music so there must have been jazz stuff in there.

I was also an NME reader but a little later and I can remember into the early 80s some Jazz coversage. The review of Charlie Haden's Ballad of the Fallen (consequently one of my first Jazz purchases), full-page illustration accompanying a Monk obit and an article about the Blue Note re-releaase progamme which introduced the concept of 'brown-bagging' (you could buy any of them in a brown bag and they'd alll sound good?)

And as for Ronnies, again somewhat later than other memories, the dreaded sandwich had disappeared but the chips had replaced them, the beer was still very costly but The Leaders, Geri Allen and Elvin Jones were all very memorable. The night buses north were as crazy as the ones described earlier travelling west - they probably still are

[Jazzjet]

And as for Ronnies, again somewhat later than other memories, the dreaded sandwich had disappeared but the chips had replaced them, the beer was still very costly but The Leaders, Geri Allen and Elvin Jones were all very memorable. The night buses north were as crazy as the ones described earlier travelling west - they probably still are

It was on one of those night buses that Stan Tracey mapped out 'Under Milk Wood'. Difficult to imagine any musician travelling home by night bus nowadays.

My first time at Ronnie's I sat just behind Pete Townshend watching Roland Kirk. This was his Whistleman period - must have been 68 or 69.

Nice ! Did the vice squad call in to confiscate the whistles?

Not sure which Kirk visit it was but on one occasion he led members of the audience out through the club, into the street and back again. A policeman's helmet was 'borrowed'. Allegedly.

[sidewinder]

I was mainly an NME reader but used MM too. Can't recall what NME's jazz coverage was like. Not as strong, I suspect, though during the mid-70s it had a very catholic approach to music so there must have been jazz stuff in there.

I used to buy the NME on occasions - but not as much as MM and the jazz content was distinctly less. I remember NME from that crazy cartoon strip ('The Lone Groover'?) and young upstarts like Julie Burchill writing for it.

Some of the articles in Melody Maker I would definitely like to see again. Like Steve Lake (or was it Richard Williams?) on Miles Davis Japanese import releases (Dark Magus/Black Beauaty/Pangaea - then rare in the UK) and a great essay on Basil Kirchin's 'Worlds Within Worlds'.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I was mainly an NME reader but used MM too. Can't recall what NME's jazz coverage was like. Not as strong, I suspect, though during the mid-70s it had a very catholic approach to music so there must have been jazz stuff in there.

I used to buy the NME on occasions - but not as much as MM and the jazz content was distinctly less. I remember NME from that crazy cartoon strip ('The Lone Groover'?) and young upstarts like Julie Burchill writing for it.

Some of the articles in Melody Maker I would definitely like to see again. Like Steve Lake (or was it Richard Williams?) on Miles Davis Japanese import releases (Dark Magus/Black Beauaty/Pangaea - then rare in the UK) and a great essay on Basil Kirchin's 'Worlds Within Worlds'.

I don't remember ANY jazz in the NME from the late fifties/early sixties, before I gave it up and took to the Record Mirror, where there was good coverage of R&B. The best thing about the Melody Maker, as far as I was concerned, was that sometimes (slow news weeks?) they published a US gospel LP top 10. I remember one week, every LP on the chart was on Savoy!

MG