Times Remembered by Joe LaBarbera

[sgcim]

The last days of the Bill Evans Trio.

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781574418446/times-remembered/

[sgcim]

Finally finished this book, and as you can probably guess, it's not the 'feel-good' book of the year, but it is covered with Joe La Barbera's never ending love for Evans' music, and how thankful he was to be a part of it for the two years they played, and practically lived together.

JLB tells his and Evans' stories very simply, and though he had one of his former drum students turned writer help him (Charles Levin), it's pretty clear that JLB had the final say in the editing of the book.

It should be pointed out that other than the short period of time in the last two years of his life when the influence of coke addiction caused BE to rush tempos, BE's time was perfect on all of his non-bootleg albums. The problem was, there were 26 albums (mostly bootleg) recorded in the two year period this book covers, and you have to make the judgement on rushing yourself, or use JLB's judgement if you want.

When I saw the trio play at the VV for the last time, I didn't enjoy BE's rhythmic/harmonic displacements, but that was 40-years ago, and maybe someday I'll listen to the bootleg album of that night. I play with a pianist who has based his style and BUILT on BE's playing since the age of eleven (he's 67 now) and I love every note he plays, so chances are I wasn't ready for BE's displacements when they first came out.

There's a lot of interesting info on BE and JLB that was new to me, and that's another plus the book offers.
Joe Puma, one of my fave players, turned out to be the person that recommended JLB for the group, and one of BE's closest friends. They used to go to Yonkers Raceway together, to bet on the horses. It turned out that Puma had suffered a stroke that affected his left arm, forcing him to make his own guitar at Jimmy D'Aq'isto's shop that would work for his disability.

One of the central questions JLB brings up over and over again is whether BE wanted to die. 
He weighs the evidence, and concludes that BE did not fear death; he felt that he was happy to accept death as the price he had to pay for living the way that he chose to live.
If death was the price that he had to pay for succeeding in bringing great music to the world, he would pay that price if he had to. He could have seen a doctor sooner, and perhaps lived longer, but he chose to keep shooting dope, because he felt that quitting would have been impossible at that point in his life.

BE's friend Gene Lees described BE's life as one long suicide, and one could look at it in that way, but it was more accurately described as Evans' saying, which is constantly brought up again and again,"I follow my code, and am at peace with myself" ( meaning willing to die).






 

[sidewinder]

I saw him on two consecutive nights in the final London gig and can’t say that I found the tempo thing off putting. What was noticeable was a definite Slavic influence at times. On both nights, the last sets (in one case attended by only about 15 people left in the club) were sublime. The earlier sets got the chattering Gold Card business crowd and I felt Evans was a bit more prescribed, perhaps.

Will never forget though Evans looking in some pain and being literally supported and carried to the piano stool by a couple of women I think - Helen Keane I think, plus his girlfriend Laurie I suspect. Sobering to see as a youngster.

I would like to read this book !

Edited December 14, 2021 by sidewinder

[Larry Kart]

Ordered it.

[sidewinder]

Same here - hope it arrives across the pond by Xmas. I’m looking forward to hearing his recollections of the gigs during that final period.

[sgcim]

12 hours ago, sidewinder said:

I saw him on two consecutive nights in the final London gig and can’t say that I found the tempo thing off putting. What was noticeable was a definite Slavic influence at times. On both nights, the last sets (in one case attended by only about 15 people left in the club) were sublime. The earlier sets got the chattering Gold Card business crowd and I felt Evans was a bit more prescribed, perhaps.

Will never forget though Evans looking in some pain and being literally supported and carried to the piano stool by a couple of women I think - Helen Keane I think, plus his girlfriend Laurie I suspect. Sobering to see as a youngster.

I would like to read this book !

Yeah, towards the end, Helen, Laurie and even Joe La Barbera would carry him to the stand, and then to the ER. There's ten pages on Ronnie Scott's, and actors such as Peter Sellers, Marty Feldman and John Mesurier attended, as well as numerous local musicians.

[sidewinder]

16 minutes ago, sgcim said:

Yeah, towards the end, Helen, Laurie and even Joe La Barbera would carry him to the stand, and then to the ER. There's ten pages on Ronnie Scott's, and actors such as Peter Sellers, Marty Feldman and John Mesurier attended, as well as numerous local musicians.

Fascinating, thanks for that - can’t wait to read this book. I can’t recall seeing John Le Mes (who was himself not well at the time I recall) but I was there just 2 nights of 10 (or was it 12?). Marty Feldman I did see on one occasion at the club - in fact it might very well have been on the 1st night of this stint; he got dragged out between the front tables by the staff, blind paralytic drunk with his eyes rolling, I kid you not - can still picture it now. My table at the club on that first evening of the Evans Trio was shared with Art Garfunkel and his guest. Pretty sure it was him, or it was an exact double. Didn’t say a word, didn’t stay for the final set !

I think I recall seeing Brit pianist Pat Smyth sat at the front on at least one of those late post-midnight sets. Ronnie Scott as well.

Edited December 14, 2021 by sidewinder

[sgcim]

18 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Fascinating, thanks for that - looking forward to reading this book. I can’t recall seeing John Le Mes (who was himself not well at the time I recall, he was dead himself not long after) but I was there just 2 nights of 10 I think. Marty Feldman I did see on one occasion at the club - in fact it might well have been the 1st night of this stint; he got dragged out by the staff paralytic drunk with eyes rolling, I kid you not - can still picture it now. The table at the club on that first evening was shared with Art Garfunkel and his guest. Pretty sure it was him, or it was an exact double. Didn’t say a word !

13 hours ago, sidewinder said:

I saw him on two consecutive nights in the final London gig and can’t say that I found the tempo thing off putting. What was noticeable was a definite Slavic influence at times. On both nights, the last sets (in one case attended by only about 15 people left in the club) were sublime. The earlier sets got the chattering Gold Card business crowd and I felt Evans was a bit more prescribed, perhaps.

Will never forget though Evans looking in some pain and being literally supported and carried to the piano stool by a couple of women I think - Helen Keane I think, plus his girlfriend Laurie I suspect. Sobering to see as a youngster.

I would like to read this book !

Yeah, towards the end, Helen, Laurie and even Joe La Barbera would carry him to the stand, and then to the ER. There's ten pages on Ronnie Scott's, and actors such as Peter Sellers, Marty Feldman and John Mesurier attended, as well as numerous local musicians.

During one of the gigs, a man who was a friend of Evans' came up to the stage and asked Evans if he could tape the gig with his reel-to-reel tape recorder. He promised Evans it would be just for his personal use, and never see the light of day. The recorder was set up on the table in front of the piano, and JLB thinks three mics were used; for the bass, drums and piano. JLB said the sound was decent, but unfortunately, the piano was out of tune.

The fellow promised it was just for his personal use, and would never see light of day. It was later released on Dreyfus Jazz- "Letter To Evan" July 21, 1980. Another album was released on the same label, recorded August 2, 1980, called Turn Out The Stars.

Edited December 14, 2021 by sgcim

[sidewinder]

July 21 would have been the first (Monday) night of the gig - August 2 the final night (Sat). Not entirely sure but I think I was there on Tues and Wed, possibly in the first week.

Interesting about the Dreyfus recording - a similar thing happened some years earlier at Scott’s with those recordings put out on Resonance.

Edited December 14, 2021 by sidewinder

[BillF]

13 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Fascinating, thanks for that - can’t wait to read this book. I can’t recall seeing John Le Mes (who was himself not well at the time I recall) but I was there just 2 nights of 10 (or was it 12?). Marty Feldman I did see on one occasion at the club - in fact it might very well have been on the 1st night of this stint; he got dragged out between the front tables by the staff, blind paralytic drunk with his eyes rolling, I kid you not - can still picture it now. My table at the club on that first evening of the Evans Trio was shared with Art Garfunkel and his guest. Pretty sure it was him, or it was an exact double. Didn’t say a word, didn’t stay for the final set !

I think I recall seeing Brit pianist Pat Smyth sat at the front on at least one of those late post-midnight sets. Ronnie Scott as well.

Didn't Marty Feldman's eyes roll anyway?

 

[mjazzg]

5 minutes ago, BillF said:

Didn't Marty Feldman's eyes roll anyway?

 

That was my first thought too

[Larry Kart]

On 11/16/2021 at 10:50 PM, sgcim said:

The last days of the Bill Evans Trio.

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781574418446/times-remembered/

Book arrived yesterday, and I've almost. finished reading it. It's excellent -- full of information, insightful, and very soulful.

[sgcim]

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

 

 

2 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

Book arrived yesterday, and I've almost. finished reading it. It's excellent -- full of information, insightful, and very soulful.

Yea, Joe still misses playing with Bill every day- even 40 years later!

[JSngry]

Time to move on, maybe?

[sgcim]

or maybe not; 90 replies for a kenny g thread and 13 replies for a new book on BE?

[Ken Dryden]

My copy arrived today and I am nearly through reading it. I am glad that Joe finally completed it, I’ve enjoyed it.

[gmonahan]

Looking at other books in this series I saw Michael Sparke's book on Kenton. Larry, I think you may have mentioned it before. What's the assessment? Worth getting?

 

 

 

gregmo

[Larry Kart]

Don't recall reading Sparke's book, though I did glance at it.  I posted this back in 2019:

Glancing through Michael Sparke's "Stan Kenton, This Is an Orchestra!" (U. of North Texas Press), I noticed FWIW that the a Hollywood Bowl Concert concert (6/12/48), with the Kenton orchestra as the sole attraction, drew 15,000 and grossed $26,000 -- roughly $280,000 in today's dollars. Further, if those sums suggest that tickets for that concert were less than $2 each, tickets for a Hollywood Bowl concert in 2019, depending on the act, can range from $20 to $160 each. Thus the dollar equivalent in 2019 to the Kenton take in 1948 might need to be adjust upwards significantly.

[sidewinder]

Well, the book has arrived ‘over the pond’ and a quick scan through so far has been illuminating. Glad to have it.

The French fan’s recollections in the appendix concerning tune selection certainly gel with my own. Can vividly recall them playing ‘Laurie’ both nights, also ‘Theme From Mash’ (‘Suicide Is Painless’) both nights and ‘Nardis’ being used as set-closer with lengthy Evans solo intro on at least one set per night. Other tunes I remember include ‘My Foolish Heart’ and ‘Elsa’.

The story about Evans setting fire to his hotel bed was new to me.

The ‘signed Ronnie Scott’s flyer’ (folded card on each table) in one of the illustrations is astonishing - just for the quality of the ‘acts’ that season (Chico Hamilton, Art Pepper, Yusef Lateef - Dizzy Gillespie following on from Evans). I didn’t see the Pepper gigs but did catch him at RFH during that stint. Remember at the time being peeved that I couldn’t see Dizzy - work commitments (or maybe impending vacation) ruled it out. Those Summer months were packed with stars at Scott’s as many of these bands were doing the European Festival circuit, including Nice etc.

Edited December 21, 2021 by sidewinder

[gmonahan]

On 12/18/2021 at 1:24 PM, Larry Kart said:

Don't recall reading Sparke's book, though I did glance at it.  I posted this back in 2019:

Glancing through Michael Sparke's "Stan Kenton, This Is an Orchestra!" (U. of North Texas Press), I noticed FWIW that the a Hollywood Bowl Concert concert (6/12/48), with the Kenton orchestra as the sole attraction, drew 15,000 and grossed $26,000 -- roughly $280,000 in today's dollars. Further, if those sums suggest that tickets for that concert were less than $2 each, tickets for a Hollywood Bowl concert in 2019, depending on the act, can range from $20 to $160 each. Thus the dollar equivalent in 2019 to the Kenton take in 1948 might need to be adjust upwards significantly.

Just saw this (traveling for the holidays). I'll be interested in your take on the La Barbera book.

 

 

gregmo

[Larry Kart]

16 minutes ago, gmonahan said:

Just saw this (traveling for the holidays). I'll be interested in your take on the La Barbera book.

 

 

gregmo

Excellent, full of info, musical and emotional, very heartfelt and toward the end  heart wrenching.

[jlhoots]

I always liked Eliot Zigmund, not that that has anything to do with this book.

[Gheorghe]

Sad to hear that BE was so ill he had to be carried to the bandstand. Besides his drug thing, what did he suffer from, not being able to walk himself.

Chet Baker also was a bad junkie all his live long but though his face looked like if he was 70 or even 80 years old, it was astonishing to see that physically he looked quite okay for a  guy towards 60. 
I saw him a few months before he died, but he was very articulate, started on time, made nice announcements and played......oh ..... he played better than ever....

[sidewinder]

8 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Sad to hear that BE was so ill he had to be carried to the bandstand.

Actually seeing that shocks me to this day. I can only recall it happening on one of the two nights though.

[gmonahan]

On 1/4/2022 at 0:55 PM, Larry Kart said:

Excellent, full of info, musical and emotional, very heartfelt and toward the end  heart wrenching.

Thanks!

 

 

gregmo