Alvin Fielder

[.:.impossible]

Good lord almighty. I am a big fan of the drum kit. I go out of my way to hear new drummers from all eras of jazz music. Granted I haven't heard everyone, but HOW HAD I NEVER HEARD OF ALVIN FIELDER BEFORE THIS MONTH? It is 2004 and he is now getting attention?

Are we all asleep on Alvin Fielder? This man is a masterful jazz drummer.

I want to hear from the Chicago area right now. Then I want to hear from the drummers. I hold both groups personally responsible for my ignorance.

Help me find some Alvin Fielder!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Alvin Fielder is a master. He is from Meridien, Mississippi. Alvin and his brother William (trumpet) worked in Sun Ra's band in the late 1950s. When the AACM started in the mid 1960s, Fielder was right there in the thick of it. Recorded on the Roscoe Mitchell album "Sound" - Chuck Nessa ought to have much to say.

He grew up studying the records of Max Roach and Shelly Manne, later with Ed Blackwell, and is a superb technician.

Fielder is also a licensed pharmacist. His father, who died a couple of years ago at around age 100, was too.

You might like this:

http://www.shs.starkville.k12.ms.us/mswm/M...ns/Fielder.html

although there are some minor inaccuracies (it was done by a high school student).

Mike

[.:.impossible]

Thanks Michael. Have you read the Cadence piece? Fascinating.

I still haven't check out Sound. I'm slow on that one.

I do want to hear him in a bebop setting. Can you recommend any albums with him?

He and William Parker were talking about a Clifford Brown/Max Roach recording from the Beehive that was so fast they considered it free. Is anyone familiar? I will post a new thread for this I guess.

[Clunky]

He's on Dennis Gonzales "old time revival" Entropy CD ( which is excellent)

[Pete C]

He and William Parker were talking about a Clifford Brown/Max Roach recording from the Beehive that was so fast they considered it free. Is anyone familiar? I will post a new thread for this I guess.

Sounds like creative hyperbole to me. I don't remember anything qualitatively different when I heard those recordings from other performances by the group.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

I haven't read the Cadence piece. I'll get a look at it next week hopefully.

I've had the pleasure of talking on the phone a few times with Alvin Fielder, and his brother is a very good friend of mine so I know the stories.

What you wrote in the other thread doesn't surprise me a bit. Glad that you were able to check him out.

Mike

[Larry Kart]

Impossible: He and William Parker were talking about a Clifford Brown/Max Roach recording from the Beehive that was so fast they considered it free. Is anyone familiar? I will post a new thread for this I guess.

Pete C: Sounds like creative hyperbole to me. I don't remember anything qualitatively different when I heard those recordings from other performances by the group.

They must be thinking of the "Cherokee" on "Live at the Beehive." I do hear something close to a qualitative difference between this performance and any other Brown-Roach uptempo performance of "Cherokee" (or anything else) I know -- it's so damn fast and Clifford and Max are so united/inspired--and I can see where it would make sense to think if it as "free." That is, while what Clifford and Max are playing sounds co-ordinated, esp. rhythmically, one gets the feeling that in practical terms that's because they're both in their topmost conceivable/executable gears, and those gears happen to coincide. Whatever, it's amazing, extreme music. FWIW, there's a piece about the "Live at the Beehive" set in my forthcoming book "Jazz In search ofd Itself" (Yale U. Press, fall 2004).