Bill Hardman

[Peter Friedman]

During the '50's, '60's, and '70's there were many hard bop trumpet players on the scene. Players such as Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd and Blue Mitchell received most of the attention. But there were quite a few other very fine trumpet players who were also highly deserving. Bill Hardman was one of them. Bill is probably best known for his sideman work with Jackie McLean and with Art Blakey.

I personally became strongly attracted to Hardman's playing when he was with McLean and Blakey. His solos appealed to me as logically organized and very swinging. His playing on the Blue Note album titled Hank Mobley that also featured Curtis Porter and Sonny Clark shows how good a soloist Hardman could be.

In his later years Bill joined forces with Junior Cook. Once while in New York City I was able to catch the Hardman / Cook Quintet with Walter Bishop,Jr., Paul Brown, and Leroy Williams.

It was a marvelous evening of music. Hardman's solo were particularly strong.

I am not aware of a previous thread on Bill Hardman, so decided to begin one.

[Chuck Nessa]

I heard Hardman with Blakey in the late '70s at Robert's Show lounge in Chicago. I think Ramon Morris was in the band. I also heard him lead a band, again with Morris (if memory serves) at an incarnation of the Five Spot around the same time.

I also really liked his Muse lps, poorly served on cd.

I hired Bill, Junior Cook, Lou Donaldson and Ray Crawford for a Jimmy Smith Jam Session at the Chicago Jazz Festival. I wanted Blakey, but he was touring in Japan at the time.

It was broadcast and if anyone can supply a recording I'd be very pleased.

[Jim R]

One from 2005:

One from 2008 (started by you ):

[Chuck Nessa]

Memory is not too faulty, beyond typing this info earlier. :-0

[marcello]

Thanks Jim, so I don't repeat myself with the same information!

[jazzbo]

I like the Muse lps. Would be nice if they were assembled together in a set, but probably will never happen.

Like a good jazzer, he had his own tone and sound.

Edited March 20, 2014 by jazzbo

[Larry Kart]

I heard Hardman with Blakey in the late '70s at Robert's Show lounge in Chicago. I think Ramon Morris was in the band. I also heard him lead a band, again with Morris (if memory serves) at an incarnation of the Five Spot around the same time.

I also really liked his Muse lps, poorly served on cd.

I hired Bill, Junior Cook, Lou Donaldson and Ray Crawford for a Jimmy Smith Jam Session at the Chicago Jazz Festival. I wanted Blakey, but he was touring in Japan at the time.

It was broadcast and if anyone can supply a recording I'd be very pleased.

That was one hell of a set. A perfect choice of players; IIRC Ray Crawford was the cream in the coffee.

[jlhoots]

I like the Muse lps. Would be nice if they were assembled together in a set, but probably will never happen.

Like a good jazzer, he had his own tone and sound.

I agree. Very distinctive player, at least to me.

[Eric]

I also really liked his Muse lps, poorly served on cd.

.

Agree on both points, love his Muse records!

[soulpope]

Bill Hardman Quintet "Saying Something" (Savoy) 1961 - at least this one was recently available as Cd, although via rather dubious sources....

[BillF]

Have just about all the albums by the Hardman, McLean/Griffin, Dockery, DeBrest Messengers. Like the rest of that band, Bill plays with great fire.

[Head Man]

I too was wondering recently why there seems to be so little currently available by Bill. As well as the album mentioned by soulpope above, he can be heard to good effect on this recently re-issued session by Art Blakey:

which also contains some, but not all, of the tracks from his Savoy album.

Like others I agree his Muse albums should all be re-issued......they contain some of his best playing.

[sidewinder]

I heard Hardman with Blakey in the late '70s at Robert's Show lounge in Chicago.

I was sure that I'd seen him but had forgotten exactly where. It was around that time so most likely with Blakey - before Wynton joined the lineup.

[king ubu]

.. I hired Bill, Junior Cook, Lou Donaldson and Ray Crawford for a Jimmy Smith Jam Session at the Chicago Jazz Festival. I wanted Blakey, but he was touring in Japan at the time.

It was broadcast and if anyone can supply a recording I'd be very pleased.

missed this in the earlier thread ... I'll ask around, haven't seen/heard this though, so I guess chances are rather slim

[Peter Friedman]

What may have been the last album by Bill Hardman as leader is this one.

Bill Hardman Sextet - What's Up - Steeplechase

With Junior Cook, Robin Eubanks, Mickey Tucker, Paul Brown, Leroy Williams

Recorded July 7, 1989

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm sure I'm overlooking a few other dates I have that he's on, but in MY mind - Hardman is "the trumpeter that's on those two live Jazz Messengers dates with Billy Harper from 1968!" -- which are both amazing documents (and probably my favorite Blakey leader-dates, though almost entirely for Harper's inclusion in that band). Shame they never recorded in the studio, or didn't last long. (But at least there's more documented - 2 albums' worth - than the version of the Messengers with Tyrone Washington and Woody Shaw on the front line, which was never recorded at all, afaik.)

What other Hardman from the 1965-75 timespan is notable?

Maybe not a lot of records (released dates) during that particular timeframe, but I know he turns up on video here and there, for example...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPrK1HGX_cs

Edited March 21, 2014 by Rooster_Ties

[johnblitweiler]

He used to play a lot of notes, but they were really musical notes - more rewarding music than some virtuosos trumpeted. I interviewed him in Down Beat in 1976; nice guy, serious.

[soulpope]

I'm sure I'm overlooking a few other dates I have that he's on, but in MY mind - Hardman is "the trumpeter that's on those two live Jazz Messengers dates with Billy Harper from 1968!" -- which are both amazing documents (and probably my favorite Blakey leader-dates, though almost entirely for Harper's inclusion in that band).

Agreed - whenever Billy Harper contributed good things happened - was there ever an thread about him ? Too tired for searchin`........

[Larry Kart]

He used to play a lot of notes, but they were really musical notes - more rewarding music than some virtuosos trumpeted. I interviewed him in Down Beat in 1976; nice guy, serious.

Also, especially evident at up tempos, all those notes were part of striking rhythmic-melodic designs. His lines really "spoke," almost literally at times. Interesting, too, how individual he was -- I think he cited Navarro and maybe Freddie Webster as key early influences, and there certainly was some Gillespie in the mix, but you could never mistake him for anyone else. The title of one of his sides with Blakey kind of sums up the Hardman presence, at least early on -- "Stanley's Stiff Chickens" (co-written by him and Jackie McLean).

[Joe]

A good example of Hardman's "running trumpet"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esMpCaLSMIs

Hardman with Horace Silver, 1968 (I'd not previously known of this association)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1CilMzT55M

[Stereojack]

The Horace video is delightful!

I saw Bill a couple of times: with Art Blakey around 1974-75 when David Scnitter was in the band, and around 1980 when he was working with Junior Cook and Walter Bishop. I agree with everyone's assessment. A fine musician, and worthy of greater recognition.

[johnblitweiler]

Thanks, Joe, it's good to hear Hardman in the vido. Intriguing Bennie Maupin solo - he seems to try to seize that theme and it keeps escaping him.

[soulpope]

his final recording date, me believe......

[Dan Gould]

Was ready to find a copy of that but fortunately I already own it ... now it will go in the next batch for the CD case in the car.

[Joe]

A whole lot more Bill Hardman, here with Blakey's Messengers in 1976.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vgvJLuloCn0