Tete Montoliu at Ronnie Scott's

[EKE BBB]

As part of my revived Tete Montoliu Chronology project, I am currently trying to sort out all his concerts at Ronnie Scott's in London. I have already tried to contact the club's management several times, which has proven unsuccessful.

Any help from members with access to UK jazz magazines, The Times or any other British periodical is most appreciated (@sidewinder maybe)

 

From different sources, this is what I have gathered so far:

 

* January 1977: two weeks engagement, starting on 17 January and ending on 30 January, as part of an European tour with George Coleman

According to the interview with Tete published in Quàrtica Jazz #1 (April 1981), they started playing with a local rhythm section, but they ended up playing as a duo, since they were not very happy with bassist and drummer.

The Stage (13 January issue, with calls for the week starting on 17 January; and 20 January issue, same for the week starting on 24 January) only lists George Coleman/Tete Montoliu, also mentioning Marian Williams, most likely as a different act.

Review by Miles Kington, published in the 24 January issue of The Times, mentions Ronnie Matthewson on bass and Martin Drew on drums.  

 

* June 1977: two weeks engagement, starting on 13 June and ending on 26 June

According to the review published in The Times (14 June issue), he was supposed to play as a trio, but finally played as a duo with bassist Peter Ind: "Ronnie Scott's had somehow mislaid its drummer, but the pianist showed no evidence of pining for the prompting one might have provided. Nor did he seemed greatly to rely on the impetus of Peter Ind a willing but somehow four square bassist, trusting instead to the inspiration of his own sudden and trenchant bass patterns" 

However, in the aforementioned interview for Quàrtica Jazz, he mentions he got back to Ronnie Scott's in mid-1977 to play solo (Tete's remembrances didn't use to be the most accurate anyway).

 

* May/June 1978: one week (?) engagement, starting on 29 May

He must have finished by 2 June, since on 3 June he was playing at the Jazz Cava in Terrassa for certain, as a trio with bassist Manuel Elías and drummer Ramón Farrán.

 

* July 1979, one week engagement starting on 9 July: duo with Joe Pass

Listings in The Stage (5 July issue) confirm this engagement.

Tete recalls playing for twelve consecutive days as a duo with Joe Pass and The Stage (12 July issue) also lists Tete, without Joe Pass, for the following week. However, this does not match with the rest of the timeline I have unearthed so far, since he played at the North Sea Jazz Festival on 15 July.

 

Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia mentions several additional gigs in London and its surroundings, but no specifics discovered yet, except for a trio engagement with Herbie Lewis and Billy Higgins ca. October 1979.

Edited January 17, 2017 by EKE BBB

[brownie]

Guy Cosson's French book on Kirk (Éditions du Layeur) mentions à February 7, 1970 concert by the Vibration Society (with Dick Griffin on trombone and probably drummerJerôme Cooper) at the York University Central Hall. 

[Niko]

I know it's off-topic, but as a small remark in case you didn't know: The Bimhuis in Amsterdam has a relatively complete database of groups that played there from some point in the 70s on (?), which might also be handy for ruling out things as unplausible etc (just use the search window at the top of the page). This gives

http://bimhuis.com/gigs/tete-montoliu-trio

Tete Montoliu-piano, Herbie Lewis-bass, Billy Higgins-drums on Jan 20 1990

Joe Henderson-tenorsax, Tete Montoliu-piano, John Lockwood-bass, Mike Hyman-drums on Feb 14 1981

 

for UK magazines, there's the National Jazz Archive, but this doesn't have much about Montoliu (quite a bit about Roland Kirk's stay after the tour with Montoliu though)

http://archive.nationaljazzarchive.co.uk/

 

 

Edited January 17, 2017 by Niko

[EKE BBB]

Thanks a lot for the Bimhuis reference, Niko. I already had the 1990 date, but the Joe Henderson 1981 gig is a new addition to the itinerary of the European tour of the quartet. Already checked the National Jazz Archive; Crecendo and Jazz News article are really interesting.

Thanks for the Kirk info, brownie. At that very same time Tete was in a very long engagement at the Whisky Jazz in Madrid, with Pedro Iturralde, Eric Peter y Peer Wyboris.

Great to see you around when returning to these forums!

[EKE BBB]

First post edited to add info I somehow skipped when starting this thread.

[sidewinder]

'Jazz Journal' in August '77 mentions the Montoliu Trio at Scotts (no date given but presumably June) with Peter Ind on bass and Bill Eyden on drums (presumably subbing for Drew). Also on the bill was Elaine Delmar accompanied by pianist Pat Smythe. Apparently, the attendance at this gig wasn't great.

Can't find any reports on the Jan 1977 gig. That Coleman/Montoliu duet LP on Timeless got good local writeups around that timeframe though.

July 1979 edition of 'Jazz Journal' has a Scotts advert showing the Pass/Montoliu duo for 1 week from July 9th then Montoliu as solo act from July 16th for 1 week.

Right before these gigs, Scotts had the LA4 for 2 weeks then Earl Hines Quartet with Marva Josie for 2 weeks. Those were the days ! 

Unfortunately, I don't have ready access for the moment to 1978 copies.

Its a shame that the 'new' Ronnie Scotts took down the entire online archive of the 'Jazz At Ronnie Scotts' house magazine, which could have thrown additional light. They went down in my estimation as a result of that..

Edited January 17, 2017 by sidewinder

[sidewinder]

Nice to see mention of the late Miles Kington in that 'Times' 1970 review. He was the inventor of the language 'Franglais', much spoken by us Brexit Brits () and great fan of jazz. Recall seeing him perusing the racks on occasion at the now sadly lamented Jazz CD shop in Bath..

Edited January 17, 2017 by sidewinder

[l p]

8 hours ago, Niko said:

http://bimhuis.com/gigs/tete-montoliu-trio

 

thanks. this is a useful site, but their personnel listings for concerts are not always accurate.

[Niko]

@l p: Do you mean something like this

Barney Wilen-tenorsax, Henri Tichet-?, Sean Levitt-gitaar, Al Levitt-drums.

which tells us that "Henri Tichet" most likely played bass, and that there might be a typo in his name (might even be Henri Texier)? That the listing might not include last minute corrections to the line-up (or sit-ins)? Or some more systematic issues?

[l p]

i found these 2

http://bimhuis.com/gigs/archie-shepp-quartet-22
WED 08 JUN 1977
Archie Shepp-tenorsax, Dave Burrell-piano, Cameron Brown-bas, Charles Persip-drums

it's almost certainly Mal Waldron on piano. he's on all the june/july 1977 shows.

and

http://bimhuis.com/gigs/brian-melvins-night-food
SAT 16 FEB 1985
Azar Lawrence-reeds, Paul Moufavizadeh-gitaar, John Davis-piano, Jaco Pastorius-bas, Brian Melvin-drums.

Paco Sery replaced Brian Melvin on drums in the beginning of february.

[EKE BBB]

As for the 1979 engagement, and according the available sources, the most likely calender was:

July 9-14, 1979 - Ronnie Scott's, London - TM (p) & Joe Pass (g)

July 15, 1979 - North Sea Jazz Festival, Faya Lobbi Zaal, The Hague - TM (p)

July 16-22, 1979 - Ronnie Scott's, London - TM (p)

 

An additional concert in the Capital Radio Jazz Festival in the North of London was also mentioned in La Vanguardia (7 July 1979 issue).