“The Jazz Communicators”

[DMP]

Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron, Herbie Lewis and Louis Hayes. They played a week at the Crawford Grill, here in Pittsburgh, sometime in the fall of ‘67. The only tune I remembered them doing was ‘Backlash.’  I’ve never seen a reference to the group, any recordings...  Obviously short-lived, although if they went to the bother of coming up with a name (as opposed to something like the Freddie Hubbard-Joe Henderson Quintet) it makes me think they may have had plans for the group.  Anyone hear them? Did they have other gigs?  (Those were the days, when you could hear Freddie Hubbard in a neighborhood club.)  Is my mind playing tricks on me?

[Niko]

there's a picture from that gig here

and an ad for it

so it seems it was real

[HutchFan]

The "Jazz Communicators" band was led by Louis Hayes.

See here: https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/louis-hayes-jazz-communicators-lous-idea/ 

His version of the "Jazz Messengers"?

[Mark Stryker]

2 hours ago, HutchFan said:

The "Jazz Communicators" band was led by Louis Hayes.

See here: https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/louis-hayes-jazz-communicators-lous-idea/ 

His version of the "Jazz Messengers"?

That's incorrect. The Jazz Communicators was a cooperative co-led by -- Freddie, Joe, and Louis. The group played a handful of gigs from late 1967 through 1968 and they almost got some traction.

In addition to the 10-day stand at Crawford's in November in 1967 referenced above, the the same line-up played a week at Marty's in Los Angeles in late January 1968 (Leonard Feather reviewed the gig favorably in the LA Times) and what I think was a week at the Both/And Club in San Francisco in early February 1968 (another favorable review in the Oakland Tribune by Russ Wilson). Ralph J. Gleason also mentioned the group as having just formed in a short item in his nationally syndicated column at the start of 1968. The cats were back at Crawford's in July 1968 and in August returned for two weeks to the Both/And in San Francisco. There was also a night at the Washington-Baltimore Jazz Festival in Laurel, MD., where the group subbed for Horace Silver, who according to reports was suffering from arthritis in his fingers.

There was also a one-nighter on July 22, 1968 at the Hartford Jazz Festival. The billing reported in the press was Freddie Hubbard and his Jazz Communicators. James Spalding was on that gig rather than Henderson, and the bassist was Juni Booth. All this suggests that on occasion they might have played under the nominal leadership of one guy or another, but the basic band was a co-op. I assume Kenny Barron did all the gigs on piano, but it's possible someone else stepped in at times. The bassist chair was filled at times by Herbie Lewis and at times by Juni Booth. My understanding is the group also played some neighborhood joints around New York, and it may well have played more out of town gigs that I haven't yet tracked down. I remember reading a reference somewhere that they were playing gigs as early as the summer of 1967 but I can't recall exactly where I saw that.

Alas, no tapes of any of the band's gigs have shown up. Curiously, there are no commercial recordings that bring together Freddie, Joe, and Louis. They all recorded as twosomes -- Freddie/Joe, Freddie/Louis Joe/Louis -- but never as a threesome. I wonder if they had been able to record under the Jazz Communicators name in 1967-68 whether that would have allowed them to sustain the group.

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Mark Stryker

[HutchFan]

Thanks for the clarification/correction, Mark.

Since Hayes resurrected the name, I'd assumed that he was the de facto leader of the group.  

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by HutchFan

[bertrand]

There were several gigs in the DC area, a recording is not impossible but so far no luck.

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks Mark -- definitely have heard of this band, probably read about in liner notes or some such. Must've been a gas to see in concert.

[DMP]

Wow. That clears that up! And thanks Nliko for digging up those pictures. A lot of great music in the neighborhood, we probably thought it would last forever. 

[Michael Weiss]

Nice to see Pittsburgh put a landmark desgnation outside the Crawford's Grill building.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2141+Wylie+Ave,+Pittsburgh,+PA+15219/@40.4455016,-79.9778487,3a,75y,320.54h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sxpi2e3nw2JYsYR3nuL0BIQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dxpi2e3nw2JYsYR3nuL0BIQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.gws-prod.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D320.53622%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x8834f3d90846c81d:0xd9f7cca8f86471b5!8m2!3d40.4456979!4d-79.9780834

Edited August 26, 2020 by Michael Weiss