Eric Dolphy with the Platters.

[Hardbopjazz]

Wow. I didn't know about this.

 

[sgcim]

He would've been 29 in that. Looked younger than that, but who knows?

[JSngry]

http://adale.org/Discographies/V2/V2EddieBeal.html

[paul secor]

Very cool. Thanks for posting the link, Hardbop.

[GA Russell]

Thanks HBJ!

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

this is like steve howe appearing with tomorrow in 'smashing time' except way better

[Shrdlu]

WTF?

That doesn't look anything like Eric Dolphy.

The idea of Eric playing a baritone gives me the creeps, for some reason.

[bichos]

you can find all Information here:

 

 http://adale.org/Discographies/EarlyRec.html

 

Keep boppin´

marcel

[JSngry]

The dude got a gig. End of story, really.

[clifford_thornton]

Wild, even if it was just a gig.

[JSngry]

Wild now, but think about then - Eric was a young LA guy (did he have a family then), a serious, studious musician trying to establish a professional career. I don't know who the contractor for this gig would have been, but, you know, you're young, looking to work, you get the call, you do the responsible thing and take the gig, right? If he would have died in a car wreck on the way hoe, it wouldn't be wild at all, Eric Dolphy playing on a Platters gig, who the hell is Eric Dolphy, right?

Oh, this is funny - apparently we've had this discussion here before. We've all forgotten!

 

[clifford_thornton]

Oh sure, I know what you're saying. But given the history post-57 it's pretty fun to see.

[JSngry]

hilarious!

[Big Beat Steve]

On 29.1.2019 at 9:45 PM, bichos said:

you can find all Information here:

 

 http://adale.org/Discographies/EarlyRec.html

 

Keep boppin´

marcel

FWIW, the Mercury LP with the soundtrack of Rock All Night was reissued in the late 80s with the original cover and Mercury label number (MG 20293). I have a hunch this was NOT a reissue done by Mercury (they would not have kept all the original details and catalog no. but mentioned the then current "major" affiliation of the label instead etc.). But whoever reissued this went to great lengths in duplicating the original LP (including the label with the Mercury head and the MG catalog number repated in the dead wax), except the paper of the sleeve. My guess it came from the Netherlands (there were a fair number of compilation or repro reissues of 50s records - basically bootlegs, in the end - from that country that hit the record stalls on the Rockin' scene circuit at that time).

 

[sgcim]

On 1/27/2019 at 7:08 AM, JSngry said:

http://adale.org/Discographies/V2/V2EddieBeal.html

I was thinking 

that it would've been great if they played more of Breezin' on the video, but they have the whole cut on this Eddie Beal discography, and I think that's definitely ED on the bari solo, which is very good, IMHO, but there is no way he played any of the cliche-ridden tenor solos. Thanks for posting it!

[Caravan]

Don Byas recorded with the Platters while the latter were in Paris in 1957. Indeed, just a gig, no big deal.

[Big Beat Steve]

1 hour ago, Caravan said:

Don Byas recorded with the Platters while the latter were in Paris in 1957. Indeed, just a gig, no big deal.

But proof too that they were not ABOVE playing such music.

[JSngry]

All the "noise" about cats being "too good" to play this-or-that kind of music is mostly just that - noise. People need to eat, people need to get paid, people know how all that works.

McCoy Tyner took a gig with Ike & Tina Turner - after he had left Coltrane. It didn't last too long, but, still, most players who do this for a living will play a short-term  gig if the setup is legit and the money is right.

Perhaps interestingly, although a lot of the "too good to play music X" is often associated with the "avant-garde", you'd be hard pressed to find a higher concentration of players that had some pretty significant R&B experiences and then brought them directly and unapolgetically into their music that the Midwesterners of the AACM & BAG. Same for the Fort Worth crew around Ornette Coleman.

 

 

[paul secor]

26 minutes ago, JSngry said:

All the "noise" about cats being "too good" to play this-or-that kind of music is mostly just that - noise. People need to eat, people need to get paid, people know how all that works.

McCoy Tyner took a gig with Ike & Tina Turner - after he had left Coltrane. It didn't last too long, but, still, most players who do this for a living will play a short-term  gig if the setup is legit and the money is right.

Perhaps interestingly, although a lot of the "too good to play music X" is often associated with the "avant-garde", you'd be hard pressed to find a higher concentration of players that had some pretty significant R&B experiences and then brought them directly and unapolgetically into their music that the Midwesterners of the AACM & BAG. Same for the Fort Worth crew around Ornette Coleman.

 

 

Didn't know that McCoy Tyner story. Interesting.

Edited February 1, 2019 by paul secor

[JSngry]

Reportedly, the years after Trane but before the Milestone records were lean ones for McCoy. He drove a cab for a while too.

[felser]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Reportedly, the years after Trane but before the Milestone records were lean ones for McCoy. He drove a cab for a while too.

Yeah, I've heard that too.  He was putting out GREAT albums on Blue Note, but I guess they weren't selling that well and that live gigs were limited?  How did going to Milestone improve his lot financially?   Amazing albums there (especially the mighty 'Sahara'), but did they sell better somehow?  Or did the environment change so that there was more gigs, or did he get better pay from Milestone?   

[sgcim]

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

All the "noise" about cats being "too good" to play this-or-that kind of music is mostly just that - noise. People need to eat, people need to get paid, people know how all that works.

McCoy Tyner took a gig with Ike & Tina Turner - after he had left Coltrane. It didn't last too long, but, still, most players who do this for a living will play a short-term  gig if the setup is legit and the money is right.

Perhaps interestingly, although a lot of the "too good to play music X" is often associated with the "avant-garde", you'd be hard pressed to find a higher concentration of players that had some pretty significant R&B experiences and then brought them directly and unapolgetically into their music that the Midwesterners of the AACM & BAG. Same for the Fort Worth crew around Ornette Coleman.

Non-musicians usually aren't aware that back in the days when you could actually make a decent living as a musician, jazz musicians were playing whatever gigs they could pick up to pay the bills. Today, most of those gigs are gone, and you're left with three decisions; get a day gig, teach, or play Broadway shows (and that's almost over now, because new shows are being reduced to largely three or four synthesizers, with no acoustic instruments).

The music of today is all digital/electronic, and there's no place for jazz musicians there. There's no more studio work, DJs have replaced all dance work, and R&B groups like The Platters, that would use people like Dolphy, are a thing of the past. Clubs.don't pay enough to pay your rent, and the revenue from recordings has been all but wiped out by the Net and digital technology.

 

 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

6 hours ago, paul secor said:

Didn't know that McCoy Tyner story. Interesting.

 

 

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, felser said:

Yeah, I've heard that too.  He was putting out GREAT albums on Blue Note, but I guess they weren't selling that well and that live gigs were limited?  How did going to Milestone improve his lot financially?   Amazing albums there (especially the mighty 'Sahara'), but did they sell better somehow?  Or did the environment change so that there was more gigs, or did he get better pay from Milestone?   

All I know is that the Milestone records were HOT from the git-go, got great reviews and plenty of press. And he assembled and kept a great live unit(s) to take out on the road. Records/press/gigs, that's a cycle that builds on itself if properly executed.

That, and backing. The part of the story I've yet to hear is where the initial backing for this endeavor came from. Agent, record label, family friend, gambling winnings, who know, I don't?

36 minutes ago, sgcim said:

...R&B groups like The Platters, that would use people like Dolphy...

and we both know that it's very possible that the Platters didn't have a clue that it was either Eric Dolphy or Don Byas on their gigs. Gigs like that, then and now, go through either a contractor or the musical director, not the artist (unless it's a personal favor for somebody). Even the big bands, if Basie needed a sub, Basie didn't find him, you know. Studio sessions too, especially for singers, the singer wouldn't generally be hiring the players. The got people for that!

[Daniel A]

2 hours ago, felser said:

Yeah, I've heard that too.

In an early 80s interview (the book - The Great Jazz Pianists by Len Lyons - doesn't say exactly when), Tyner seems to say he actually never drove a cab. 

"Tyner: I was actually considering working during the day - I had reached that point. 

[...] 

I had a chance to compromise, and I didn't do it. 

Lyons: You mean you were going to quit, or play pop, or what? 

Tyner: I was thinking about hacking, you know, driving a cab. The guy I went to see about the job couldn't believe it. He used to drive me to the airport when I was working with John's band. He just didn't believe I needed a job, and he never called me back. Also, I had offers to go on tour with Benny Goodman. A lot of guys I knew were going electric or into rock to become more commercial - I just couldn't."