Gary Burton with Jerry Hahn (bootleg audio)

As promised in a recent post of a video of the Gary Burton Quartet with Larry Coryell, here is nice authorized  audio bootleg of the Gary Burton Quartet with Jerry Hahn on guitar in Hamburg 1968. Steve Swallow is on bass and  Roy Haynes and drums.  It was recorded at the "Funkhaus Hamburg" in Hamburg (Germany) on November 8, 1968. (See the set list at the end of this post.)




After Larry Coryell left the Burton Quartet, he tried to form a group with pianist Chick Corea, but the chemistry wasn't quite right.  He then heard Hahn who was based in San Francisco on the radio.

Hahn played on three albums with Burton:

• Country Roads & Other Places (RCA, 1969)
• Throb (Atlantic, 1969)
• Good Vibes (Atlantic, 1969)

Country Roads is the most outstanding of the three.

Jerry Hahn grew up in Nebraska, attended Wichita State University, and moved to San Francisco in 1962 where he played and recorded with John Handy from 1964 to 1966. After leaving Burton, Hahn formed the jazz-rock fusion group Jerry Hahn Brotherhood which featured keyboardist and vocalist Mike Finnegan.

Hahn has a website and there is a nice 2008 interview online which covers much of his career.

Here is the set list (clicking the time will take you to approximately the beginning of each tune on YouTube.)

1 Falling Grace (Swallow) (00:00)
2 General Mojo's Well-Laid Plan (Swallow) (3:45)
3 Green Mountains (Swallow) (8:26)
4 Walter L. (Burton) (11:29)
5 Sweet Rain (Gibbs) (15:44)
6 Singing Song (Burton) (18:53)
7 Good Citizen Swallow (Burton) (21:36)
8 African Flower (Ellington) (26:08)

Gary Burton Pioneering Fusion Band in Concert (video)

I recently discovered this outstanding live concert of the Gary Burton Quartet, which can arguably be called the first jazz rock fusion group.




Gary Burton (wikipedia, allmusic.com, website)  has had a very long and distinguished career as a vibraphonist and combo leader. Burton innovated the four-mallet style of playing vibes, a revolutionary and now often emulated method of playing.

Burton was also a pioneer of jazz-rock fusion.  In 1967, he formed the Gary Burton Quartet with Larry Coryell on guitar, drummer Roy Haynes, and bassist Steve Swallow. (Bob Moses is on drums in the video.) The GBQ got there before Mile Davis, who began to turn electric with Miles in the Sky and Files de Kilamanjaro in 1968 and In a Silent Way in 1969. And, they got there with excellence.  Burton was recognized as Downbeat magazine's "Jazzman of the Year" in 1968.

I bought those Davis albums and several of Burton's when they were new and fresh and, you know what, they still hold up.

The Burton Quartet with Coryell recorded these albums

• Duster (RCA, 1967)
• Lofty Fake Anagram (RCA, 1967)
• A Genuine Tong Funeral (RCA, 1968) with Carla Bley
• Gary Burton Quartet in Concert (RCA, 1968)

Coryell left the group in 1968, replaced by Jerry Hahn, and, later, a string of other outstanding guitarists.

More on the Burton group with Hahn in the near future.

Horace Silver, a gem of Blue Note Jazz from Senor Blues

Horace Silver, piano player, jazz composer, and creator of the hard bop school of jazz died on June 18 this week at the age of 85.

I'm not sure when and where I first heard a Horace Silver song, but I do know the first record of his I bought.  Sometime in my sophomore or junior year of high school, I happened across a remaindered compilation album entitled Blue Note Gems of Jazz. which included "Safari" by the Silver Quintet. Silver was also featured on a great version of "Bags Groove" by Milt Jackson.

Remainders, for the younger set, were overstocked albums that were sold at a discount with a corner cut off or a notch cut in a side.  So, I probably got it for $1.99 (or less) instead of $4.99. How this particular remainder got to Winfield or Wichita, Kansas is a mystery or miracle depending on your point of view.

And what a bargain.  Here are the selections:

• A1 Miles Davis Sextet - Tempus fugit
• A2 Bud Powell Trio - A Night in Tunisia
• A3 James Moody and His Modernists - Tin Tin Deo
• A4 Jay Jay Johnson Sextet - Get Happy
• A5 Milt Jackson Quintet - Bags' Groove
• B1 Thelonious Monk Quintet - 'Round Midnight
• B2 Tadd Dameron Sextet - Dameronia
• B3 Horace Silver Trio - Safari
• B4 Clifford Brown Sextet - Easy Living
• B5 Art Blakey and Sabu - Message From Kenya

Safari is a nice, well done tune, but it wasn't one of Silver's tunes that became a standard.  He wrote many that did.  Here's one: a live version of "Senor Blues"


Ray Charles did it for his "Genius+Soul=Jazz" album.

Bluesman Taj Mahal was one of many singers who have performed the tune. This live version features Wichita's Mike Finnegan on piano and organ.

Country Club #28: Bruce Forman's Cowbop Renews Western Swing

Bruce Forman is an outstanding bopish jazz guitarist who has recorded a number of fine CDs. He played and toured with Richie Cole during 1978-1982 and has led his own dates for Muse, Concord, and Kamei. I own a number and have enjoyed his playing.I particularly recommend Forman on the Job.

Now, he is doing something very different and very cool. He has put together a group called "Cowbop," which he describes as "cowboy jazz" and "western bebop," it's an apt name since it not only incorporates bebop elements, such as quotes from Thelonious Monk tunes and bebop phrasings, but it is a smaller group than the traditional Western Swing conglomeration, the same as the evolution from swing to bop.



Cow Bop has recorded four CDs which you can order from their website.

• Swingin' Out West (Blujazz, 2004)
•  Route 66 (Blujazz, 2008) 
•  Too Hick For The Room (B4man Music, 2011) 
•  Cowlifornia Swing (B4man Music, 2012) 

Forman's Cow Bop isn't the only notable recent effort to extend and renew Western Swing.  I'll take a look at an effort from Nashville next wee,.

Nouveau Quintest (gypsy jazz) opens Bartlett Arboretum 2013 Concert Series

Wichita's gypsy jazz group Nouveau Quintent is performing this Sunday March 31 from 2-5 pm at the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine, Kansas. It is the first of their 2013 Tree House Concert series. There are some truly excellent performers on the schedule. Definitely worth checking out. And the arboretum is an important historical, cultural, and ecological institution that deserves support.

Blues on a Saturday: LIncoln Center Jazz Orchestra "Back to Basics"

 The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra gave a great performance Wednesday night at the Orpheum Theater in Wichita.  There was a near-sold out crowd. This is third time I've heard Wynton live in person and he has universally given fine performances.  The rest of the band was outstanding. 

Som other notable jazz events coming up in Wichita. October 8 Craig Owens and the Bodo Ensemble at the Fishchuas (524 S. Commerce St.)--free. October 23 Joe Lovano and Us 5 at Abode Vision. Tickets are $60 ad $100 but they come with lots of perks. Tickets are limited to 150 and 100, but come with lots of perks. There is no guarantees in jazz, but this should be great.

Blues on a Saturday: Louis Armstrong "West End Blues"

It has beena little over 110 years since the birth of Louis Armstrong, perhaps the greatest musician and artist of the 20th century.  Shiraz Socialist has a great essay on appreciating and understanding Armstrong. Here's a great video which analyzes the great "West End Blues" from 1928.




The blog  "Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong" has a great history of the West End Blues. 

Louis Armstrong’s 1928 performance of the tune has probably been the subject of more words and analysis than any other in the history of jazz. Gunther Schuller devoted page after page to it in 1967’s Early Jazz, writing, “The clarion call of “West End Blues’ served notice that jazz had the potential capacity to compete with the highest order of previously known musical expression.” Gary Giddins wrote that this tune “came to symbolize more than any other the ascendancy of a classic American music.” John Chilton called the introduction “a great moment in 20th century music.” Ken Burns devoted an entire segment to it and if you’d like to hear Artie Shaw, Wynton Marsalis and Gary Giddins expound on it, as well as hearing “West End Blues”

And, to close things out, here is a segment of Ken Burns' Jazz devoted to West End Blues

Louis Armstrong’s 1928 performance of the tune has probably been the subject of more words and analysis than any other in the history of jazz. Gunther Schuller devoted page after page to it in 1967’s Early Jazz, writing, “The clarion call of “West End Blues’ served notice that jazz had the potential capacity to compete with the highest order of previously known musical expression.” Gary Giddins wrote that this tune “came to symbolize more than any other the ascendancy of a classic American music.” John Chilton called the introduction “a great moment in 20th century music.” Ken Burns devoted an entire segment to it and if you’d like to hear Artie Shaw, Wynton Marsalis and Gary Giddins expound on it, as well as hearing “West End Blues”

Ken Burn's Jazz devoted a segment to "West End Blues" which is apparently no longer available on YouTube, but it is well worth searching on the Burn's series.

Blues on a Saturday: Bille Holiday "Fine and Mellow"

I recently watched Ken Burn's Jazz and was struck again by this 1957 clip featuring Bill Holiday and one the few blues she wrote and performed "Fine and Mellow" This originally aired live as part of a special telecast ("The Sound of Jazz") on a short-lived CBS Sunday afternoon "cultural program", "THE SEVEN LIVELY ARTS". The man setting the scene for the number is host John Crosby, best known as a TV critic for the New York Herald-Tribune. This was also Billie's last major appearance on network television. the first tenor solo is by Ben Webster, the second by Lester Young, and the third by Coleman Hawkins. The trumpet solo is by Roy Eldridge.

The entire show is on DVD. Well worth watching. And there's a CD as well.

Herb Ellis: Remembering a jazz guitar great

Image via Wikipedia

Herb Ellis, one of the great jazz guitarists in the post Charlie Christian, pre-fusion era died on Sunday.

He was perhaps most famous as part of the Oscar Peterson Trio and for jazz duets with fellow guitarist Joe Pass. Ellis was from Texas and retired to Arkansas.. He had a twangy blues drenched sound and swung like crazy.

Sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, I think, Ellis retired to Arkansas. He continued to play and record. I enjoyed his 1992 Texas Swings on the Justice label, which featured Western swing oriented jazz, including an appearance by Willie Nelson. But it is not my favorite Ellis. That might be Herb Ellis Meets jimmy Giuffre or Nothing But the Blues, which was Ellis' personal favorite.

Here's Herb playing with Barney Kessell, a contemporary who grew up in OKlahoma city and had a similar musical approach

Bobby Watson at Friends

Friends University, a private college here in Wichita, has a very fine jazz education program. One outstanding thing they do is periodically bring in a leading jazz artist to teach, rehearse, and perform with their big bands and combos.

Last night it was KC-based saxophonist Bobby Watson, a former musical director for Art Blakey. Watson played to a good sized --and enthusiastic audience--with two student big bands and the Soulstice small group.

The groups played lots of Watson originals, including one of my favorites "Wheel within a Wheel," which I first heard on the New York Stories CD led by guitarist Danny Gatton.

I found a YouTube version with Art Blakely.




At intermission I bought Watson's new CD, From the Heart which sounds great. One of his better efforts.

Jay McShann, Jazz Giant, Passes

Jay McShann, a giant of jazz, passed away on December 7 at the age of 90. McShann led the last great Kansas City big band in the 1930s and early 1940s. It was with McShann that Charlie Parker cut his earlier records. (Here's a CD of early Bird with McShann that I would like to hear.) McShann's band featured the blues vocals of Walter Brown, but it was a very important band. Check out this collection of his early 1940s sides. The All Music Guide says " last of the great Kansas City swing big bands." I've read that the McShann band was far more adventurous than what was captured on disc. It is also said that the trunk carrying McShann's arrangements was lost and never recovered when he was drafted into WWII.

After the war when big band swing was out of style, McShann regrouped with a jump swing band. There are number of fine cuts by his groups on the Mercuary Blues and Rhythm Story the Southwest and West Coast.

In 1969 McShann was rediscovered and often featuring violinist Claude Williams, he toured constantly, recorded frequently, and appeared at many jazz festivals, being active into the mid-'90s.

Of his more recent recordings, I recommend Last of the Blue Devils, Man from Muskogee, and Still Jumpin' the Blues--recorded when he was 83.

I had the pleasure of hearing McShann live several times in Wichita and Kansas City.

90 Years of McShann (KC Star)

Slideshow with some McShann music--very nice!!!

KC Star story on Clint Eastwood, McShann, and Pinetop Perkins.

"I grew up listening to a record of `Hot Biscuits' by Jay McShann," Clint Eastwood said. "That and a beer was as good as it got when I was a kid."

The official Jay McShann website

NPR Jazz Profile with sound segments both interviews and music

McShann was featured, along with other KC swing giants in the 1979 documentary Last of the Blue Devils, watch an excerpt here.

Remembering Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor long-time Wichita jazz DJ died on Saturday. His "Taylor Made Jazz" program was broadcast from 1988 until 2001 on KMUW FM-89. Dan had a real enthusiasm for jazz and a vast knowledge of the music. Here's the obituary from the Wichita Eagle.

A memorial service for will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Jackson Mortuary Chapel, 1125 E. 13th St.

If you are one of those who believe in mystical coincidences, I note that the same day (Wednesday) that the Eagle published Dan's obituary, jazz alto great Bobby Watson was playing a free artist-in-residence gig at Friends University and that the title of Watson's 1992 big band CD was "Tailor Made."

Jerry Hahn Brotherhood in the New York Times

A real blast from the past. I would have missed this if I hadn't been in Philadelphia for the American Postal Workers Union convention. I picked up the New York Times on Saturday and there was a nice, long column on the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood.

Verlyn Klinkenborg writes:

The other day a song popped into my head, just a few up-tempo instrumental phrases — guitar, bass, drums and a Hammond B3 organ. I knew instantly what it was, though I hadn’t heard it in at least 20 years. It was a passing moment from “Martha’s Madman,” the first song on the first side of an LP called “The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood.” I bought the record when it was released in 1970. I was a freshman at Berkeley.

It would have been easy to see the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood performing that year, though I never did. Its lone record was a sunny mixture of straight-up jazz with a blues spine, a music that wants the latter-day word “fusion,” though that word does so little good. Above all, it was a reminder of the eclecticism of the time. Audiences that would soon diverge found themselves packed in a hall together all night long, like one October weekend at Fillmore West when the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood shared the bill with Van Morrison and Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.

There will probably never be a movie based on the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood, no commercial incentive to remaster and rerelease this album. The story of the band is a good one but all too familiar — the inevitable clash between the artistic and business sides of the recording industry. The band fell apart disputing the honesty of its manager.

What’s left is an orphaned vinyl LP. The inner sleeve, a space for record company promotion, says, “If It’s in Recorded Form, You Know It’ll Be Available on Records.” Well, I wish it were available on CD.

I talked to Jerry Hahn the other day. He teaches jazz guitar in Wichita, his hometown. He’ll be 66 in September, with grandkids. He sounds good. “You should have heard us,” he said

Indeed! I heard the JHB live several times circa 1970. The album is very good, but live they were something else.

Klinkenborg concludes with this plea

...someone needs to find those master tapes, breathe some air into them, and do this minor masterpiece (and all the outtakes) justice at last

It would be also be nice if someone rescued the slightly earlier LP by Mike Finnegan and the Serfs. Finnegan was the Hammand B-3 player and vocalist for the JHB. Finnegan and a couple of his mates from the band are heard on the jam songs on Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland.