Who did you miss when they were alive

[Olie Brice]

The biggest regret for me - Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron played duo near where I lived as a teenager, but you needed a credit card to book and by the time I got a parent to do so for me it was sold out... Never heard either live

Missed Andrew Hill on his UK big band tour too - was unemployed and decided I couldn't afford it, wish I'd prioritised differently!

Edited July 12, 2016 by Olie Brice
typo

[Hot Ptah]

I missed Charles Mingus because my ears opened up to jazz about a month after he played live in my city. I never had another opportunity to see him before he died.

Art Pepper was scheduled to play a concert in a park, which I went to, but he died very shortly before the concert. Betty Carter filled in.

I bought a ticket to a Woody Shaw concert in a club, and excitedly went to the club to see him, only to be told that he had played there the night before. I looked at the ticket and sure enough, I was off by one day. I never had another opportunity to see him.

Tommy Flanagan was the last artist to be featured in a subscription series of jazz concerts which I purchased. Before we got to the last concert, he was too ill to perform. Roland Hanna filled in. Flanagan passed away shortly after that.

I was never in physical proximity to any city in which Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Andrew Hill, or Horace Silver played.

I flew to Seattle on business and Benny Carter was playing in a club there with a small group. I had a bad cold and the flight made me feel so congested I just could not get out of bed to go see Benny.

Otherwise I have seen just about every great who I would want to see, who was alive after I became a jazz fan. I have seen many of the greats and near-greats.

Edited July 12, 2016 by Hot Ptah

[jeffcrom]

Looking at from a practical standpoint (meaning factoring in geography, even if that breaks Chuck's "rules"), I've managed to see/hear just about everyone I would have wanted to. The biggest exception is that I never heard Derek Bailey in person, and he played Atlanta and Chattanooga several times. Not sure why I never made it.

Some near-misses: New Orleans trombonist Louis Nelson. On my first trip to the Crescent City in 1990, I saw Kid Sheik's band at Preservation Hall. Louis Nelson had been the trombone player with the band, but at that time he was in the hospital, where he died a few weeks later.

Zydeco legend Boozoo Chavis. On another NOLA trip, I couldn't get my traveling companion to extend our trip one more day to see him at the Rock 'n' Bowl.

And I missed John Tchicai by one day in Copenhagen. That one broke my heart.

[johnblitweiler]

On 6/23/2016 at 9:01 AM, medjuck said:

No idea.  I'd never heard of him at the time and don 't know what he was doing there.  IIRC  John Gilmore was with him. 

Must have been the winter the Arkestra was hung up around the McGill University area. John Szwed's book would have details.

[johnblitweiler]

On 6/23/2016 at 5:40 AM, paul secor said:

Too many. I guess I thought they would live forever.

Me too. Most of all I'm sorry I heard the Ellington band only once, though I did get to hear Ellington's "My People" the season it debuted - I believe some Ellington alumnae  were on that band.

Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase has been absolutely a blessing here in Chicago. Joe brought in an incredible number of old and young musicians to Chicago - even Cecil Taylor at least 3 times, and he never enjoyed Cecil's music.

[medjuck]

I just remembered that when I moved to LA I lived in The Valley and Johnny Guarnieri played  nightly for a  couple of years at a bar/restaurant just down the street from me and I never got around to going!     Victor Feldman performed several times at a small jazz club near me and I never saw him either.   Fortunately shortly  after I moved there I did see Art Pepper, Harry Edison (with Bob Cooper) and Teddy Edwards.  They were either at Donte's or another Valley club the name of which I've forgotten. 

[psu_13]

I did not actually miss him, because later in life did get to see a few live Max Roach shows that were great.

But, I grew up in Amherst, MA where Roach was in the music department at UMass for my entire childhood. Sadly I didn't know anything about Jazz until I left for college.  

[Teasing the Korean]

Divine.  Still kicking myself. 

[fasstrack]

On 12/07/2016 at 1:18 PM, Hot Ptah said:

I missed Charles Mingus because my ears opened up to jazz about a month after he played live in my city. I never had another opportunity to see him before he died.

 

The only time I ever saw Charles Mingus in the flesh he was not performing. He walked into Bradley's in the mid-late 70s. Jimmy Raney was on the stand. Mingus's arms were like tree trunks. I caught a tad of his conversation, something to the effect of 'that's what I been doing'...

On 06/08/2016 at 5:57 PM, psu_13 said:

 

But, I grew up in Amherst, MA where Roach was in the music department at UMass for my entire childhood. Sadly I didn't know anything about Jazz until I left for college.  

I do recall seeing Max Roach once. Don't remember the details, but it was a Dizzy Gillespie event at Lincoln Center, and Paul West was on bass. Max was sort of challenging him by accenting 1 and 3, perhaps to see how West would react.

He came into the Schomberg performance space in the '90s, to hear a tribute to Nat Cole. He was dressed like a king, and beamed when he said to the audience he was amid 'thank you all for coming'. I seem to recall him grabbing my arm at that moment...