Hi Coldfuse:
Thanks to you and all the others who offered congrats on my 80th birthday.
Re: Maynard Ferguson....the guy has an incredible range.The only guy who comes close to Maynard as far as hitting those high notes was "Cat" Anderson who hit all of the screamers with the Duke Ellington band.
My favorite trumpet player,however is Clark Terry who played with Duke and Basie.He's also one of the funniest guys in the world when he scat sings.Listen to "Mumbles" for example with Oscar Peterson.
I also like Chet Baker,Dizzy Gillespie,EARLY Miles Davis,Joe Newman{Basie] and Joe Wilder to name a few.
But the one I never get tired of listening to is Clark Terry.
Hippolips

I feel as though I have been given the gift on your birthday - thanks for your recommendation!

Fuse, I agree whole-heartedly with what Hippolips says, especially about Clark Terry. I want to add one trumpet player, however: Louis Armstrong - the earlier the recording, the better. I wouldn't listen to him after 1950 or so, unless he was playing with other big names. He got very commercial. His work with SIdney Bechet in the 1920s, however, is the closest we will ever get to hear of, if not the Founding Fathers of Jazz, at least the men who first shaped it.

Hear some Armstrong here.

Hey DorianGreyed:
You are so right...how could I have neglected to mention Louie!With the possible exception of Freddie Keppard,Louie was the very first of the Jazz improvisors.Unless my memory fails me ,even on the King Oliver sides , Louie takes the improvised solos.
Louie was the real pioneer where improvisation is concerned ,Louie was like the first man in outer space .He was going where no other man had ever gone before.He had to find the right notes to play as well as the notes not to play.He had to find which notes would work with each chord played in each tune.
There was no one to show him the way...there were no improvisors before Louie that I know of.Even on Louie's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, Louie was light years ahead of all of the other members of the groups. A true pioneer.
On Bechet ...another great improvisor but his bleating tone
drove me crazy.
Hippolips
P.S. When I was about 16 years old I was lucky enough to meet Louie Armstrong at a meeting of the Cleveland,Ohio Jazz Record Collectors Society.Louie sat around as a bunch of the collectors,my Dad included,bombarded Louie with questions about who
played 3rd Alto or 2nd trombone on "Shine"or some other such tune.Questions abounded and Louie very patiently attempted to
answer every question.A very humble and gentle man.The only time I ever heard of Louie losing his cool was when Earl Hines started his own band and swiped several of Louie's sidemen.

More on Terry -
Somwhere, buried in the vast Greyed Family Archives, is a photo of a young Clark Terry at a gig in his hometown, St. Louis. "Portrait of the Artist as an Earnest Young Man"

"Mumbles" is still a joy to listen to, and Terry's "Meet the Flintstones" shows that it isn't always what the music means, but what you make it mean that counts.

Re Bechet: He is still one of my favorites, bleats and all. When I hear "Petite Fluer" I hear New Orleans; I hear the French, the Spanish, the Africans, the Creoles, the Free Coloreds. I see the Promanades and the Funeral Marches. Bechet allows me to see and hear all that just as clearly as Tchaikovsky's 1812 allows me to see and hear Russia. Give me Bechet's bleating anytime rather than the Cheez Whiz that passes for Jazz Sopranos today.

I read about one of the many "All Stars" recording sessions in the late 40s and early 50s, one in which Armstrong was included. As the various players warmed up, Louie walked in, and the place went silent. Armstrong unpacked, and started warming up. One by one, the others put down their horns, and took a break, not out of any lack of respect, but, as one was later quoted as saying, "Man, who is going to warm up after that? That cat's warm up sounds better than everyone else's playing."

In the Greyed Family Library, I have a 1932 recording of Armstrong playing "St. Louis Blues." Quite simply, it is unlike any other version I have ever heard. The is also a brief, but wonderful solo by J.C. Higginbotham in it.


I just ran across this quote about Bechet:

"Bechet was the very epitome of jazz... everything he played in his whole life was completely original. I honestly think he is the most unique man ever to be in this music." - Duke Ellington

Ken Burns on Bechet

Hi DorianGrayed:
If I had to choose between Bechet or the mindless meanderings of Kenny G...I'd pick Sidney in a heartbeat.The sides Bechet made with Charlie Shavers were great.Charlie ,who had been known to resort to really bad taste on occasion,played very tastely on these sides.
Re; Louie ,in my photos,I have a whole series of photos of Louie,Jack Teagarden ,Barney Bigard and my mom and dad who were lucky enough to go on the road with Louie and the band for a week or so some years ago.Altho my dad ,who was drummer in the 20's,
no longer played...he had an enormous record collection including most of Louie's stuff.My dad had a collection of better than 24,000 records when he died.It took me almost a year to get rid of them all
,finally donated the last 3,000 to the Salvation Army.
Re; J.C. Higgenbotham...to me J.C. was the first trombone man to get away from the George Brunis tailgate style.I always loved Jack Teagarden with the fine chromatic little steps he would take on his solos.I think Bill Watrous is what a more modern Teagarden would sound like today.
Re: Clark Terry...glad you like his playing...most people have no idea of who he is.Funny aside... I worked for over twenty years with a fine trumpet and flueglehorn player named Chuck Butler.Chuck never fails to remind me when the subject of Clark Terry comes up that Terry gave Chuck his very first bottle of beer.
Hippolips

LOVE Teagarden! Watrous, too. I took DG Jr, a trombonist, to a clinic given by Watrous a few years ago. My son got to solo with Carl Fontana, with Watrous critiquing my son's performance. Watrous told me that "the boy has it, a nice tone, and he knows what he wants to do, where he wants to go." He urged me to do whatever I had to in order to keep him in music, keep him playing. My son is now a junior in college, majoring in Jazz studies.

Re Teagarden: At another of those All Star recordings, one with Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, during rehearsal, Dorsey was told to solo at a certain part. He refused, saying that he wouldn't with Teagarden in the band, that Big Gate should take that spot. "He plays Jazz; I just play pretty."

By the way, should you happen to find any more of those old records, I assure you they would have a good home here with me, and after, with my son.

Hi Dorian:
I think we had an Answerpol conversation regarding your boy,DG Jr. about a year ago ,if I remember right.Hope he is doing well and chasing his dream ,although Jazz gigs for Jazz Trombonists ,or any other instrument,for that matter are few and far between these days.I hope he has a backup gig to fall back on between Jazz jobs.
Jazz gigs are hard to come by with all of the Rock and Rap crap dominating the music scene these days.Jazz has been goiing downhill since the heyday of the 30's,40's and 50's I;m afraid.
If it wasn't for my cassettes and a few cd's ,I would have very little jazz to find to listen to.I live in a valley between Los Angeles,Long Beach and San Diego and I can't pull in any of the few campus Jazz stations...but the Rock & Roll garbage comes in clear as a bell.
Re: My own personal collection of better than 2,000Jazz LP's I sold several years ago.All I have now is a few hundred cassettes and about 30 CD's which will probably end up in the trash when I kick.
I enjoy chatting with you.
Hippolips

I definitely remember our conversation, a good one, as I recall. Yes, my son has a back up plan. While I told him that he will always have a roof over his head, and food (assuming I am around) as long as he is working towards his goals in music, he decided, on his own, to minor in Computer Science, and also to make sure he qualifies to teach in public schools. He was way ahead of me on that.
Regarding your CDs and tapes - Feel free to put Post It notes on them with my name and address.