Nice guy musicians

[sidewinder]

Lenny Tristano scared the hell out of me.

Was present when Lenny Tristano took a BBC interviewer to pieces. (It was Peter Ind who got me in.)

Who was that Bill - Humph, Steve Race?

A bloke from BBC Yorkshire radio with an exaggerated RP accent (Lennie's laid-back hip snarl was a real contrast) and very square, as we used to say in those days. It was at the Harrogate Festival in the later 60s - one of Lennie's very rare visits to the UK. Peter Ind, who was teaching on the pioneer jazz course at Leeds College of Music, was behind the whole thing. One of my great jazz moments, I suppose. Thinking about it brings this to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uo1miqVbfE

Fascinating !

[MomsMobley]

Fred Hopkins

[paul secor]

Not much mention of the rock N roll world, so I'll just say that the late Rick Danko of The Band was a very down to earth nice guy the one time I met him.

[BeBop]

I neglected to mention one of my former teachers who deserves a place on this "roll call": Chuck Israels. It's no surprise he went into education; seems like it'd be a great place for nice guys.

Zoot Sims was pretty nice the twice I chatted with him. Milt Hinton too.

[umum_cypher]

I was just reading one of the interviews I did with Jymie Merritt. An extremely nice guy, with a fascinating take on things.

[AllenLowe]

Stan Getz was a nice bunch of guys.

[BillF]

The older generation of British jazz musicians - Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes, Stan Tracey, Phil Seamen - didn't suffer fools gladly. Peter King says in his autobiography that he was scared stiff of them as an aspiring musician. I heard Ronnie say to Ed Dipple, who as a student had organised a visiting Scott quintet gig showcasing Freddie Hubbard, "Whoever organised this gig should have a pineapple shoved up his arse!" But for me the exception from that generation was Joe Harriott, who was always the nice guy when I met him.

[Al in NYC]

I was never that much into his music, but Dave Brubeck was literally the nicest person I've ever met. I sat next to him on a plane from San Francisco to Detroit and he was just friendly, open, fascinating, full of stories, and even invited me over to his house. He later sent me copies of some old newspaper clippings to illustrate some things we had talked about. Whenever I saw him thereafter in NYC or Detroit he would always wave at me and, if he had some time, come over and ask me how I was doing.

I've had the good fortune to have great experiences with some musicians who, in other contexts, were sometimes seen as cantankerous, difficult, or standoffish. Clifford Jordan, Lee Konitz, and Max Roach come directly to mind.

Milt Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, and the Jones Brothers were all people I met through my family when I was a kid, and they were all great to me. Thad Jones particularly stands out as a man who was open, funny, and genuinely friendly and interested in you, and Dizzy never failed to make my little kid self split a gut laughing. Through Bags we met John Lewis and Percy Heath who were a couple of other guys who were just great with children.

As so many others have said, Clark Terry stands out as a particularly wonderful man. Don Cherry, at least to me, was another one.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Al in NYC

[AllenLowe]

Max changed a lot over the years; Triglia told me that in the '50s, if you saw him coming down the street, you crossed over to the other side so he wouldn't shake you down; when I met him he was extremely open and friendly.

Chet Baker was also, in my one conversation with him, very nice and open.

Edited June 3, 2014 by AllenLowe

[Cyril]

Art Farmer......Jimmy Woode......Mal Waldron.....

I like to add Andrew Cyrille, Benny Bailey, Charles McPherson, Johnny Griffin, Bud Shank, Teddy Edwards, Abraham Burton and all the others ....

Edited June 3, 2014 by Cyril

[PHILLYQ]

I met Hank Crawford once, he was very cool, same with Kenny Barron.

[BeBop]

Chet Baker was also, in my one conversation with him, very nice and open.

I was going to mention my one conversation too, not long before the end. He was pleasant (despite the fact that he claimed to be living in his car) and chatty. Based on my "one-off" I was reluctant to place him in the "nice guy" category.

Thiking of it another way, I wasn't sure if I just caught him in a good moment.

But now we've got two votes.

Edited June 3, 2014 by BeBop

[Hot Ptah]

I've met relatively few jazz musicians but Les McCann, when I did meet him a few years ago, fully lived up to the way he projects through his music.

Junior Mance I haven't met but to see him at work you just know he's a really nice guy. And Chuck Nessa has confirmed that (though I think he was damning him with faint praise )

MG

I find that very interesting about Les McCann. I never met him in person, but he played at an outdoor festival in a park in Kansas City about ten years ago. His opening remark was, "here I am back in this sad ass town", delivered with a snarl. He said some other bitter things from the stage that day. If he was generally nice in person at that time, he must have been having a really bad day. I have never heard any other musician say such negative things from a stage, ever.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Hot Ptah

[Larry Kart]

Frank Zappa -- no, forget that.

[Chuck Nessa]

LOL!! That goes for me too.

[AllenLowe]

I met Junior Mance once, at Bradley's, where Tommy Flanagan introduced me; nice hang, as we say. Mance seemed to be a real gentleman.

[medjuck]

Me too (or three). I interviewed him once and was really shocked by his attitude to women. However he was very intelligent about music.

[Larry Kart]

Me too (or three). I interviewed him once and was really shocked by his attitude to women. However he was very intelligent about music.

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically.

[sgcim]

Me too (or three). I interviewed him once and was really shocked by his attitude to women. However he was very intelligent about music.

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically.

I used to work with a drummer who went on tour with Zappa as a percussionist, and he said that FZ treated the musicians like dogs.

And then there's his two famous quotes about jazz:

"Jazz, the music of unemployment".

"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny..."

[ejp626]

I have had only very brief interactions with Joshua Redman, Eric Alexander, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer but they were all quite pleasant. Redman was just getting started in his career, (though I haven't heard that he has gotten a huge swollen head or anything) and he answered some really dopey questions about his soprano sax playing.

Actually, the very last time I talked to Viyay, it felt a lot more awkward, but I didn't present myself as well as I would have liked either.

[imeanyou]

Me too (or three). I interviewed him once and was really shocked by his attitude to women. However he was very intelligent about music.

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically.

I used to work with a drummer who went on tour with Zappa as a percussionist, and he said that FZ treated the musicians like dogs.

And then there's his two famous quotes about jazz:

"Jazz, the music of unemployment".

"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny..."

Well, that was a dumb forecast if ever there was one, jazz is still here and..you know the rest.

I've listened to a fair amount of Zappa and the sky-high praise for him always had me a bit puzzled, a lot of his output seems to oscillate between juvenilia and academia.

Edited June 19, 2014 by Imeanyou

[Fer Urbina]

Of the ones I've spoken to, Danny Bank, Hal McKusick, Herb Geller, pianist Moe Wechsler, Al Caiola, and Peter Ind have been incredibly generous with their time (Bank even rang me, international call). Jimmy Heath, Bill Crow, Dave Holland are really nice. Hank Jones was incredibly sweet in my first interview in English ever. I've only chatted briefly with Conte Candoli and he was really nice too.

Clark Terry is a category apart.

Have never spoken to him, but Terry Gibbs is hilarious (he's on FB).

F

PS The highlight of my list should be a phone chat with Billy Bauer, 89 at the time, not long before he died. We ended up singing Charlie Parker's solo on 'Now's the Time' in unison

[paul secor]

Me too (or three). I interviewed him once and was really shocked by his attitude to women. However he was very intelligent about music.

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically.

I used to work with a drummer who went on tour with Zappa as a percussionist, and he said that FZ treated the musicians like dogs.

And then there's his two famous quotes about jazz:

"Jazz, the music of unemployment".

"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny..."

Well, that was a dumb forecast if ever there was one, jazz is still here and..you know the rest.

I've listened to a fair amount of Zappa and the sky-high praise for him always had me a bit puzzled, a lot of his output seems to oscillate between juvenilia and academia.

I agree completely with your assessment of Zappa.

[Steve Reynolds]

Me too (or three). I interviewed him once and was really shocked by his attitude to women. However he was very intelligent about music.

We didn't get into his attitude toward women when I interviewed him for Down Beat back in 1968 or '69. But he was on a personal level as mean as a snake, even rather cruel (though I admit that in my still callow relative youthfulness and anxiety to please I left him an opening or two that I shouldn't have). The interview took place by a motel swimming pool with most of the Mothers within earshot, and they (Don Shelton, especially) were more or less appalled at the way Zappa had behaved and gathered around after he'd left to say a good many insightful things about the band that helped to make the experience a success after all, at least journalistically.

I used to work with a drummer who went on tour with Zappa as a percussionist, and he said that FZ treated the musicians like dogs.

And then there's his two famous quotes about jazz:

"Jazz, the music of unemployment".

"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny..."

Well, that was a dumb forecast if ever there was one, jazz is still here and..you know the rest.

I've listened to a fair amount of Zappa and the sky-high praise for him always had me a bit puzzled, a lot of his output seems to oscillate between juvenilia and academia.

I agree completely with your assessment of Zappa.

Fwiw - as do I

[MomsMobley]

Hey, taking a quick break from listening to my Zeppelin remasters; yeah!

Some very inspired musicology popping into up this thread, I'll say that.

And jazz without academia would be where in 2014? (Since 1974 even?)

Also, Larry Kart, did you see Haskell Wexler "Medium Cool" at the time or thereabouts & did you notice the use of Mothers of Invention music therein?