Gigi Gryce - Doin' The Gigi

[mjzee]

Details via Amazon

[jlhoots]

Hope the music is as great as the cover.

[Larry Kart]

Good (maybe great) news. Don't think I've ever managed to hear the Orch-tette with Eddie Costa on vibes, except maybe once in passing a LONG time ago.

[ejp626]

Can't tell from the Amazon blurb whether this does or does not include Gryce's Reminiscin' LP. I would tend to think not and it focuses on the unreleased material, though this LP seems pretty rare at the moment. I will welcome it either way.

[papsrus]

Great news. Thanks.

Definitely would love to hear more of Gryce with Williams.

[bertrand]

Do we have song titles?

Bertrand.

[Dan Gould]

Very very cool. Glad to see that Uptown is still releasing stuff like this and given the limited entries in Gryce's discography (not to mention Eddie Costa), I'd say this is a little more important than, say, the Kenny Dorham release.

That of course is assuming that the material from the studio sessions is worthy of release.

[John L]

Good news!

[colinmce]

Very cool!

[jazzbo]

They're also releasing a Johnny Richards sound track/air shot cd, and a Charlie Christian cd.

[JSngry]

Do we have song titles?

Sure! How many do you need and when do you need them?

[Fer Urbina]

Do we have song titles?

Bertrand.

Noal Cohen put his (and Mike F's) discography on-line a few months ago: http://www.attictoys.com/jazz/GGdisco.HTM

The Birdland tracks and the unissued studio stuff are there, from "possibly Fall 1960" onwards.

F

Edited June 11, 2011 by Fer Urbina

[Fer Urbina]

It could be this, at least in part:

Date: possibly fall 1960

Gigi Gryce (ldr), Richard Williams (t), Gigi Gryce (as), Richard Wyands (p), unknown (b, d)

a. 01 Sonor (Sonar) - 3:35 (Gerald Wiggins, Kenny Clarke)

b. 02 Down Home - 4:19 (Curtis Fuller)

c. 03 Take the "A" Train - 4:02 (Billy Strayhorn)

d. 04 Stompin' At the Savoy - 2:38 (Benny Goodman, Edgar Sampson, Chick Webb)

e. 05 I'll Walk Alone - 4:35 (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn)

f. 06 Caravan - 5:01 (Duke Ellington, Juan Tizol, Irving Mills)

All titles unissued.

This is a Gryce demo LP held at the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies. The source of the disc is the estate of Willard Alexander. The recording date is unknown but probably in 1960, prior to the Mercury sessions. The pianist is assumed to be Wyands but the bassist and drummer could be any of a number of musicians who worked with Gryce during this period.

Date: November 7, 1960

Location: New York City

Label: Mercury

Gigi Gryce (ldr), Richard Williams (t), Gigi Gryce (as), Eddie Costa (vib), Richard Wyands (p), Reggie Workman (b), Bobby Thomas (d)

b. 20628 In A Strange Mood (Gigi Gryce)

unissued

c. 20629 A Premonition Of You (Premonitions Of You, Baby G) (Gigi Gryce)

unissued

Date: ca. 1961

Location: A & R Studios, New York City

Label: Gigi Records

Gigi Gryce (ldr), Richard Williams (t), Gigi Gryce (as), Eddie Costa (vib), Richard Wyands (p), Julian Euell (b), Mickey Roker (d)

a. Blues In Bloom - 3:03 (Norman Mapp)

b. Dancing the Gigi (Strange Feelin') - 2:32 (Gigi Gryce)

Both titles unissued.

The exact recording date is unknown. The identities of the bassist and drummer shown are likely but unconfirmed. These tracks were recorded for issue on Gryce's label, "Gigi Records" but it appears that never happened; however, the existence of two one-sided demo 45-RPM lacquer discs with these titles is confirmed (auditioned by discographers). Track b is not the Strange Feelin' recorded on June 7, 1960 for the New Jazz label.

Date: August 19, 1961

Location: Birdland, New York City

Label: [radio broadcast]

Gigi Gryce (ldr), Richard Williams (t), Gigi Gryce (as), Eddie Costa (vib), Richard Wyands (p), Julian Euell (b), Mickey Roker (d)

a. 01 Blues In Bloom - 11:00 (Norman Mapp)

b. 02 A Premonition Of You (Premonitions Of You, Baby G) - 4:30 (Gigi Gryce)

c. 03 A Night In Tunisia - 7:15 (Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli)

d. 04 Down Home - 5:30 (Curtis Fuller)

All titles unissued.

This is a Boris Rose recording. The personnel comes from recollections of drummer Mickey Roker. Reggie Workman might be the bassist but this seems unlikely since he was playing with John Coltrane at this time.

Date: September 30, 1961

Location: Birdland, New York City

Label: [radio broadcast]

Gigi Gryce (ldr), Richard Williams (t), Gigi Gryce (as), Eddie Costa (vib), Richard Wyands (p), unknown (b, d)

a. 01 Unknown Title - 7:15

b. 02 Take the "A" Train - 4:30 (Billy Strayhorn)

c. 03 Down Home - 5:00 (Curtis Fuller)

All titles unissued.

This is a Boris Rose recording. The bassist and drummer are unknown. The vibraphonist could be Hagood Hardy.

[J.A.W.]

Slightly off-topic, but I wish Universal or a licensee would reissue the Reminiscin' LP on CD.

[Tom 1960]

This is great news! I love the last 3 albums Gigi recorded with Richard Williams. The Rat Race Blues, The Hap'nins, and Sayin' Somethin'!

[J.A.W.]

This is great news! I love the last 3 albums Gigi recorded with Richard Williams. The Rat Race Blues, The Hap'nins, and Sayin' Somethin'!

Not the last ones: Richard Williams also played on the 1961 Gigi Gryce album Reminiscin', while the three you mentioned date from 1960. As far as I know it's never been reissued on CD.

Edited June 12, 2011 by J.A.W.

[king ubu]

Very cool news! (Johnny Richards, too!)

Any info on the Christian?

[Justin V]

I don't have any of Gryce's leader dates, but I like what I've heard of him. I'm hoping that it includes some of those dates with Wyands and Williams.

[mjzee]

Very cool news! (Johnny Richards, too!)

Any info on the Christian?

Release date 7/19/11:

Amazon

[jazzbo]

Going to be interesting to see what's really on the Christian. The blurb mentions Minneapolis recordings on Columbia. . . I think that was only a few tracks. If they found more. . . well that's great, but wouldn't they be touting that to high heavens? I would!

[brownie]

Great releases from Uptown!

The cover for the Johnny Richards CD :

[mracz]

The Gryce looks very promising, especially with Costa on board (always good value IMO). What I'm really appreciating about the Uptown reissues is getting the air-shots from major artists (by which I mean Kenny Dorham, Lucky Thompson, Dupree Bolton, AND Gigi Gryce), and a really vivid sense of how they sounded stretching out at gigs (The Dorham with Joe Henderson was a real revelation for me, although I know all the studio recordings of both of them from the period). In general there seems to have been a dearth of reissues of broadacasts from this period apart from a small number of artists (Miles, Coltrane, Blakey and a few others) and I've always wondered what else had been captured (particularly in the 60s when home taping off the radio became a more realistic proposition). Are there any Hank air-shots (as leader or sideman) from the 60's? Anything else by Horace Silver with Woody Shaw (I've heard a few live tracks)? Etc, etc. In any case, I look forward to the good work continuing! The Christian intrigues, as I assumed that more or less every scrap had been issued (particularly by the French Masters of Jazz label who seemed to have a talent for unearthing stuff that no-one else managed to get their hands on). It would be nice to have the Minneapolis tracks in better sound, but if it's reissues of the usual Goodman sextet air-shots and jam sessions, then I'm not sure I'm going to push the button on this one.

[Dan Gould]

There is a Hank Mobley live set recorded in the late 60s in Europe, with Kenny Drew. Not an air-shot though, the sound is fair to OK. Three discs of music circulate among what used to be called tape traders. There is also a European gig with Johnny Griffin, that might be an airshot come to think of it, I want to say there is an announcer interrupting now and again.

There's a Wynton Kelly "Live at the Left Bank" release with Mobley sitting in. Not an airshot but also "in concert".

Last but not least there are a couple of pre-1960 Mobley recordings that are air-shots. Very short recordings.

[king ubu]

There is a Hank Mobley live set recorded in the late 60s in Europe, with Kenny Drew. Not an air-shot though, the sound is fair to OK. Three discs of music circulate among what used to be called tape traders. There is also a European gig with Johnny Griffin, that might be an airshot come to think of it, I want to say there is an announcer interrupting now and again.

There's a Wynton Kelly "Live at the Left Bank" release with Mobley sitting in. Not an airshot but also "in concert".

Last but not least there are a couple of pre-1960 Mobley recordings that are air-shots. Very short recordings.

The Griffin-Mobley is definitely radio - rather good quality but it wouldn't be enough for a CD (I have 36 minutes including stage intro and announcer talk... some music is cut, too. Bet there'd be more in someone's vault (maybe even in some radio station's vault, but lots of stuff has been destroyed since those days).

Anyway, we're talking of 1969-09-01 in Cologne, Germany. There are three tunes on the first/main source plus one more from Italian radio. The Copenhagen material has been around - don't think anyone would release (other than RLR or some other such enterprise) though, sound isn't really good. It's from March 1968 and a little bit too much to fit onto two CDs.

[cohens2]

Michael Fitzgerald and I contributed the booklet essay to the upcoming Gryce Uptown CD. Supa Groover is correct in his speculation as to the content of the CD. So yes, it contains the 6 titles from the demo recorded at Nola, the 2 titles from the Gigi Records session at A&R studios and the 4 live performances from Birdland, August 19, 1961. In addition, Uptown included 5 brief performances from the Tonight Show TV broadcast of June 24, 1957 with a quintet of Gryce, Cecil Payne, Duke Jordan, Wendell Marshall and Art Taylor. Biased though I may be, I think you will enjoy this CD which includes 2 previously unissued Gryce compositions. Nothing from the Mercury session is included. Universal should do a CD that combines Reminiscin' with the 1958 Gryce quartet Metrojazz session (reissued by Fresh Sound).