Even If Somebody WAS Gonna Get Killed, It Wasn't Gonna Be Jimmy Rowles

[JSngry]

 

[Joe]

Quite a band!

[Ted O'Reilly]

I was at the Nice Jazz Festival that year...  Didn't catch that performance -- there was so much going on at the same time!  I do remember well a solo piano performance by Rowles in the evening at the amphitheatre.

[Joe]

I think what I most appreciate about Rowles are the degrees of "tastefulness" in his playing. I.e., he has a strong intuitive sense of when not to be so "tasteful."

[BillF]

Tell me about that extraordinary bass technique I see Red Mitchell using (high position of right hand).

[Ted O'Reilly]

Tell me about that extraordinary bass technique I see Red Mitchell using (high position of right hand).

Can't say anything about the technique, but he used cello tuning rather than bass tuning, didn't he?  Maybe that's why...

[Larry Kart]

Five strings, too, I believe.

P.S. Sorry -- I ment that in 1966 he began tuning his bass in fifths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifths_tuning

FWIW, although I admired Mitchell's early work, his latter-day playing pretty much drove me nuts -- horn-like "accompaniments" often played obtrusively in the same register as the horn soloist and solos full of what seemed to me to be self-regarding gestures (swoops, slides, and phrases swaddled in vibrato).

Edited September 21, 2015 by Larry Kart

[.:.impossible]

I'd be grateful for a few Rowles recommendations. I've always loved his playing for reasons so well-stated by Joe, but rarely see his name come up here. 

 

No, I haven't done a search yet...

[HutchFan]

These two immediately spring to mind:

Jimmy Rowles/Ray Brown: The Duo Sessions (Concord)

 

Jimmy Rowles Plays Ellington & Strayhorn (Columbia)

 

EDIT:
One more "must have":

Al Cohn & Jimmy Rowles: Heavy Love (Xanadu/Elemental, just reissued on CD)

Edited September 23, 2015 by HutchFan

[JSngry]

Heavy Love, yes, definitely.

And check him out with Billie on All Or Nothing at all, my personal favorite of her Verve albums. He's on several, actually, but that one is my favorite by far.

[HutchFan]

A few more SUPERB Rowles records (in a sideman role):

Ben Webster - At the Renaissance (Contemporary)
This is the record that made me a Jimmy Rowles fan. Listen to his solo on "Georgia on My Mind." Yowee.

 

  

Zoot Sims - If I'm Lucky and For Lady Day (both Pablo)
In the 70's and early 80s, Rowles made a series of records with Zoot Sims for Pablo and Choice. All of them are worth hearing. But these two are the ones that I've enjoyed the most. For Lady Day wasn't released until 1991, more than a decade after it had been recorded. I'm not sure why it was delayed. The music is magnificent. Rowles is in superlative form. In some ways, it feels like he was the leader of the date, rather than Zoot. (Was that why it didn't get released sooner?) If I'm Lucky is equally grand -- if a bit more rambunctious and a bit less reflective. One other thing: The bassist on both of these dates is George Mraz. His contributions to this music shouldn't be overlooked. In my book, no bassist meshes more perfectly with Jimmy Rowles than George Mraz. He sings right along with Jimmy and Zoot!

 

Edited September 22, 2015 by HutchFan

[mikeweil]

I never was disappointed by any album with Rowles that I bought, and there are still so many more I will not run out of new discoveries until I die. To these ears, one of the greatest jazz pianists in history.

That Columbia Ellington Strayhorn LP was reissued on CD in French CBS' I Love Jazz series.

Edited September 23, 2015 by mikeweil

[HutchFan]

I never was disappointed by any album with Rowles that I bought, and there are still so many more I will not run out of new discoveries until I die. To these ears, one of the greatest jazz pianists in history.

That Columbia Ellington Strayhorn LP was reissued on CD in French CBS' I Love Jazz series.

Ah, didn't know that, mike. Thanks for the heads up.  

EDIT: I deleted the note in my entry above.

Edited September 23, 2015 by HutchFan

[Peter Friedman]

Here are a few more Rowles recommendations. These don't have him as sideman with horns so you get to hear more from Jimmy.

 

[Ted O'Reilly]

I interviewed Jimmy and asked about The Peacocks...he said it was meant to be just a solo record, but (producer) Stan Getz couldn't keep himself in the control room so there were duets, then full rhythm sections to aid the tenorman.

Fine record though, by my measure...

[Morganized]

 

I believe I read somewhere that Jimmy was a teacher/mentor to Diana Krall.

I think you hear this in her phrasing, which is her strongest suit IMHO.

[JSngry]

Jimmie Rowles deserves all this and then some, but geez louise - Jaws jamming with Lee Konitz, notice how  that took place outdoors in France, and not inside a jazz bar in America.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Jimmie Rowles deserves all this and then some, but geez louise - Jaws jamming with Lee Konitz, notice how  that took place outdoors in France, and not inside a jazz bar in America.

I could come across a radio broadcast of Lee Konitz with Sammy Price on piano.  That happened on a Saturday afternoon in Toronto, not inside a jazz bar in America.

[JSngry]

Yeah, there was a time when inside some jazz bars in America might not have always been the kindest place for Lee Konitz to have found himself. Looks like it was his band, though...or maybe Shelly's? Shelly was likely to be safe anywhere.

[fasstrack]

I interviewed Jimmy and asked about The Peacocks...he said it was meant to be just a solo record, but (producer) Stan Getz couldn't keep himself in the control room so there were duets, then full rhythm sections to aid the tenorman.

Fine record though, by my measure...

Absolutely. A classic IMO.

[AllenLowe]

but i'll bet Lockjaw didn't think much of Konitz's playing - 

Edited October 18, 2015 by AllenLowe

[srellek]

 

One other thing: The bassist on both of these dates is George Mraz. His contributions to this music shouldn't be overlooked. In my book, no bassist meshes more perfectly with Jimmy Rowles than George Mraz. He sings right along with Jimmy and Zoot!

Rowles called Mraz "Bounce" -- because George was one bad Czech.

I'd also add to the (already fine) recommendations the SUBTLE LEGEND Vols. 1 and 2: