Via Open Culture, of course. I had no idea that this piece (the 4th movement, "Psalm," on A Love Supreme) was John Coltrane's translation of his own poem into such a sublime piece of music. Amazing.

Watch John Coltrane Turn His Handwritten Poem Into a Sublime Musical Passage on A Love Supreme

in Music, Poetry | July 4th, 2014


On Vimeo, James Cary describes his video creation:

A few years ago, knowing I absolutely adored the John Coltrane album, “A Love Supreme” my wife gave me this incredible book by Ashley Kahn : “A Love Surpreme/The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.” Reading the book, I discovered something remarkable: the fourth movement, Psalm, was actually John Coltrane playing the ‘words’ of the poem that was included in the original liner notes. Apparently he put the handwritten poem on the music stand in front of him, and ‘played’ it, as if it were music. I immediately played the movement while reading the poem, and the hair stood up on the back of my neck. It was one of the most inspirational and spiritual moments of my life.

I’ve seen some nice versions of this posted on the net, but wanted to make one using his exact handwriting. I also wanted to keep it simple. The music and John’s poem are what’s important. I hope you enjoy this. I hope this inspires you, no matter what ‘God’ you may believe in.

You can find a transcript of the poem below the jump. And while we have your attention, we’d also strongly encourage you to explore another post from our archive: John Coltrane’s Handwritten Outline for His Masterpiece A Love Supreme. Housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, this handwritten document captures Coltrane’s original sketch for his 33-minute jazz masterpiece. It’s truly a treasure of American history.

via Ellen McGirt


I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee O Lord. 
It all has to do with it. 
Thank you God. 
Peace. 
There is none other. 
God is. It is so beautiful. 
Thank you God. God is all. 
Help us to resolve our fears and weaknesses. 
Thank you God. 
In You all things are possible. 
We know. God made us so. 
Keep your eye on God. 
God is. He always was. He always will be. 
No matter what…it is God. 
He is gracious and merciful. 
It is most important that I know Thee. 
Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thoughts, 
fears and emotions – time – all related … 
all made from one … all made in one. 
Blessed be His name. 
Thought waves – heat waves-all vibrations – 
all paths lead to God. Thank you God. 

His way … it is so lovely … it is gracious. 
It is merciful – thank you God. 
One thought can produce millions of vibrations 
and they all go back to God … everything does. 
Thank you God. 
Have no fear … believe … thank you God. 
The universe has many wonders. God is all. His way … it is so wonderful. 
Thoughts – deeds – vibrations, etc. 
They all go back to God and He cleanses all. 
He is gracious and merciful…thank you God. 
Glory to God … God is so alive. 
God is. 
God loves. 
May I be acceptable in Thy sight. 
We are all one in His grace. 
The fact that we do exist is acknowledgement of Thee O Lord. 
Thank you God. 
God will wash away all our tears … 
He always has … 
He always will. 
Seek Him everyday. In all ways seek God everyday. 
Let us sing all songs to God 
To whom all praise is due … praise God. 
No road is an easy one, but they all 
go back to God. 
With all we share God. 
It is all with God. 
It is all with Thee. 
Obey the Lord. 
Blessed is He. 
We are from one thing … the will of God … thank you God. 
I have seen God – I have seen ungodly – 
none can be greater – none can compare to God. 
Thank you God. 
He will remake us … He always has and He always will. 
It is true – blessed be His name – thank you God. 
God breathes through us so completely … 
so gently we hardly feel it … yet, 
it is our everything. 
Thank you God. 
ELATION-ELEGANCE-EXALTATION
All from God. 
Thank you God. Amen. 

JOHN COLTRANE – December, 1964

Some cool jazz for a Saturday morning. As usual, thanks and gratitude to Open Culture for finding all of the most interesting stuff for the rest of us to enjoy.

John Coltrane Performs A Love Supreme and Other Classics in Antibes (July 1965)

April 17th, 2014


John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme came out in 1964, an “album-long hymn of praise,” writes Rolling Stone, “transcendent music perfect for the high point of the civil rights movement” as well as Coltrane’s growing spiritual awakening after kicking his heroin habit. The record amazed critics and jazz fans alike and by 1970, it had sold over half-a-million copies. But lovers of Coltrane would have only one chance to see him perform the full four-part suite live, and not in any stateside clubs but in Antibes, France on July 26, 1965, where he played two nights with his quartet.

You can see twelve of those miraculous minutes above, consisting of the first two movements of the suite, “Acknowledgement” and “Resolution.” This is a gorgeous performance, capturing what saxophonist David Liebman describes as “an end and a new musical beginning” for Coltrane. The second evening’s performance, below, begins with “Naima,” on which, Liebman says, “Trane solos combining a striking lyrical approach offset by multi-noted, densely packed runs.” If you’ve ever wondered what Ira Gitler meant in describing Coltrane’s style as “sheets of sound,” these performances will clear up the mystery.


The mid-sixties was a pivotal time for jazz—before the electronic fusion experiments to come, as hard bop and free jazz combined with the dissonance of early 20th century contemporary classical music, which had “permeated jazz for at least a handful of artists.” Coltrane still spoke the “common language”—the “standard repertoire stemming from the American song book and/or original compositions with similar and predictable harmonic movement,” yet in his case, he “added modality to the mix,” a trick picked up from Miles Davis.

Coltrane sadly died from liver cancer in 1967 at age 40 and did not live to see the strange, surprising turns jazz would take in the decade to come. How his brash, yet enchanting playing would have translated in the 70s is anyone’s guess. Yet, like so many artists who die young and in their prime, he left us with a body of work almost mystical in its intensity and beauty—so much so that his more religious followers made him a saint after his death. Watching these too-brief recordings above, it’s not hard to see why.

The second night’s performances from the Antibes Jazz Festival were issued as a live album in 1988. The first night’s live showcase of A Love Supreme has seen several releases, and if you’re one of those who professes devotion to this amazing piece of work, you’d do well to pick up a copy, if you don’t own one already. “The intensity if the Antibes live performance,” writes Liebman in his 2011 liner notes to the Jazz Icons/Mosaic release of the Coltrane Live at Antibes 1965 DVD, “far exceeds the studio recording” of the album. And that’s saying something.

Related Content:

• John Coltrane’s Handwritten Outline for His Masterpiece A Love Supreme
• Watch John Coltrane and His Great Quintet Play ‘My Favorite Things’ (1961)
• The World According to John Coltrane: His Life & Music Revealed in Heartfelt 1990 Documentary

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

This is another excellent find from Open Culture, especially for lovers of classic jazz. If you are a fan of John Coltrane's experimental and innovative approach to jazz, or if you simply want to know he is held in such high esteem, despite his early death from liver cancer (age 40), then this is the perfect documentary.

Below the video post, I am including the list of interviewees and tracks played in the film.

The World According to John Coltrane: His Life & Music Revealed in Heartfelt 1990 Documentary

April 8th, 2013


In his short life, John Coltrane continually pushed the boundaries of music. From swing to bebop to free jazz, Coltrane was a restless seeker of new sounds. Inspired by the hypnotic, trance-inducing traditional music of North Africa and Asia, Coltrane created a new kind of music that fused jazz and Eastern spirituality.

The World According to John Coltrane tells the story of Coltrane’s quest, from his childhood in a deeply religious household in North Carolina to his early days playing saxophone in the Navy, to his apprenticeship with Miles Davis in the 1950s and his emergence as a bandleader and innovator in the 1960s. Most of the one-hour film is devoted to Coltrane’s later period, when he came into his own. The film is not a biography, in the traditional sense. There is very little about Coltrane’s personal life–his marriages, children, drug problems and declining health. Director Robert Palmer focuses instead on Coltrane’s journey as a musician.

The World According to John Coltrane was made in 1990, and includes interviews with Coltrane’s second wife, pianist Alice Coltrane, and a number of other musicians who knew Coltrane and played with him, including saxophonist Wayne Shorter, drummer Rashied Ali, and Pianist Tommy Flanagan. It provides some excellent insights into one of the 20th century’s greatest musicians.

via metafilter

Related Content:

• John Coltrane’s Naval Reserve Enlistment Mugshot (1945)
• John Coltrane Plays Only Live Performance of A Love Supreme
• John Coltrane: Three Great European Performances, 1960, 1961 and 1965

Additional information:

Musicians interviewed include:

• Roscoe Mitchell (saxophonist)
• Rashied Ali (drummer)
• Tommy Flanagan (pianist)
• Jimmy Heath (saxophonist)
• Wayne Shorter (saxophonist)
• La Monte Young (composer)
• Alice Coltrane (wife, pianist, harpist)

Tracks:

1 - A Love Supreme
2 - Alabama
3 - Blue Monk
4 - Dahomey Dance
5 - Dear Lord
6 - Eight Miles High
7 - Giant Steps
8 - Gospel Song 1
9 - Gospel Song 2
10 - Hot House
11 - Impressions
12 - Impressions 2
13 - India
14 - Koko
15 - Moroccan Folk Song
16 - My Favorite Things
17 - My Favorite Things 2
18 - Naima
19 - Number One
20 - Raga Bhimpalisi
21 - Roscoe In Morocco
22 - Round Midnight
23 - So What
24 - Things To Come

John Coltrane and His Great Quintet Play ‘My Favorite Things’ (1961)

From Open Culture, this is a cool video of John Coltrane giving a classic jazz treatment to a tune from Rodgers and Hammerstein, “My Favorite Things.”

Watch John Coltrane and His Great Quintet Play ‘My Favorite Things’ (1961)
January 25th, 2013


Here’s something to help you slide into the weekend in the right frame of mind: John Coltrane in 1961, playing his hypnotic, dervish-like modal arrangement of the popular Rodgers and Hammerstein song, “My Favorite Things.”

The performance was recorded by German public television in Baden-Baden on November 24, 1961–the same year as the release of Coltrane’s breakthrough solo album, also named My Favorite Things. The quintet includes Coltrane on soprano saxophone, Eric Dolphy on flute, McCoy Tyner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. You can see the complete TV broadcast, along with two others, in our November 21 post, “John Coltrane: Three Great European Performances, 1960, 1961 and 1965.”

Related content:

• John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ Animated
• John Coltrane Plays Only Live Performance of A Love Supreme
• 10 Great Performances From 10 Legendary Jazz Artists: Django, Miles, Monk, Coltrane & More

10 Great Performances From 10 Legendary Jazz Artists: Django, Miles, Monk, Coltrane & More

If you are a jazz fan, these videos are a wonderful holiday gift. From Open Culture, of course. The Billie Holiday song, "Strange Fruit," likely the first popular anti-racism song ever, is one of the great performances of all time, and one of the bravest.

10 Great Performances From 10 Legendary Jazz Artists: Django, Miles, Monk, Coltrane & More

December 18th, 2012

1. Billie Holiday Sings ‘Strange Fruit,’ 1959:


Last week we brought you a post titled “Miles Davis and His ‘Second Great Quintet,’ Filmed Live in Europe, 1967,” featuring Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. The response was enthusiastic, and it reminded us that a great many of you share our love of jazz. It got us thinking: Why not gather the material from our favorite jazz posts and organize it in one place? So today we’re happy to bring you ten great performances from ten legendary artists.

We begin with Billie Holiday (above) singing her painful signature song of racism and murder, “Strange Fruit.” The song was written by teacher and unionist Abel Meeropol, who was horrified when he saw a 1930 photograph of two black men hanging from a tree in Indiana, victims of a lynch mob. Holiday first recorded “Strange Fruit” in 1939 and continued to sing it, despite some resistance, for the rest of her life. The performance above was taped in London for the Granada TV program Chelsea at Nine in February of 1959, just five months before Holiday’s untimely death at the age of 44.

2. Dave Brubeck Performs ‘Take Five,’ 1961:


The legendary pianist Dave Brubeck died earlier this month, just one day short of his 92nd birthday. To remember him on that day we posted the clip above from a 1961 episode of the American public television programJazz Casual, with Brubeck and his quartet performing the classic song “Take Five” from their influential 1959 album, Time Out. The musicians are: Brubeck on piano, Eugene Wright on bass, Moe Morello on drums, and Paul Desmond (who wrote “Take Five”) on alto saxophone. For more on Brubeck, including a delightful clip of the elderly master improvising with a young Russian violinist at the Moscow Conservatory, see our Dec. 5 post,“Remembering Jazz Legend Dave Brubeck with a Very Touching Musical Moment.”

3. Chet Baker Performs ‘Time After Time,’ 1964:


Last December we featured the clip above of Chet Baker playing the Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne standard, “Time After Time,” on Belgian television in 1964. Baker is joined by the Belgian flautist Jacques Pelzer, French pianist Rene Urtreger and an Italian rhythm section of Luigi Trussardi on bass and Franco Manzecchi on drums. Baker sings and plays the flugelhorn. For more of Baker’s music and a poignant look at his troubled life, be sure to see our 2011 post, Let’s Get Lost: Bruce Weber’s Sad Film of Jazz Legend Chet Baker.

4. Duke Ellington on the Côte d’Azur, 1966:


On a beautiful summer day in 1966, two of the 20th century’s great artists–Duke Ellington and Joan Miró–met at a museum in the medieval French village of St. Paul de Vence, high in the hills overlooking the Côte d’Azur. Neither one understood a word the other said, but Miró showed Ellington his sculpture and Ellington played music for Miró. In the scene above, narrated by the noted jazz impressario Norman Granz, Ellington and his trio play a new song that would eventually be named “The Shepherd (Who Watches Over His Flock).” The trio is made up of Ellington on Piano, John Lamb on Bass and Sam Woodyard on drums. To learn more about that day, including recollections from the only surviving member of Ellington’s trio, see our May 10 post, “Duke Ellington Plays for Joan Miró in the South of France, 1966: Bassist John Lamb Looks Back on the Day.”

5. Django Reinhardt Performs ‘J’attendrai Swing,’ 1939:


Django Reinhardt by hexholden
With only two good fretting fingers on his left hand, gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt created one of the most distinctive instrumental styles in 20th century music. The clip above is from the 1939 short film Jazz “Hot”, which features Reinhardt, along with violinist Stéphan Grappelli and the Quintette du Hot Club de France, perfoming “J’attendrai Swing.” (“J’attendrai” means “I will wait.”) To learn about Reinhardt and the fire that cost him the use of most of his left hand, be sure to see our Aug. 10 post, “Django Reinhardt and the Inspiring Story Behind His Guitar Technique.”

6. John Coltrane Plays Material From A Love Supreme, 1965:


In December of 1964 the John Coltrane Quartet recorded its masterpiece,A Love Supreme, in one session. A highly original blending of hard bop and free jazz with spiritual overtones, the album is recognized as a landmark in jazz history. The Smithsonian Institution declared it a national treasure. But Coltrane reportedly played the material only once in public, at a 1965 concert in Antibes, France. You can see a portion of that performance above, as Coltrane and his quartet play ”Part 1: Acknowledgement” from the four-part composition. The quartet is composed of Coltrane on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on Piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. To watch and listen as the band plays “Part 2: Resolution,” see our 2011 post, John Coltrane Plays Only Live Performance of A Love Supreme.

7. Miles Davis on The Robert Herridge Theater, 1959:


Most of the great performances on this page were preserved by government-funded broadcasting companies, particularly in Europe. Left to its own devices, the “invisible hand” of the television marketplace was fairly content to ignore jazz and allow its great artists to pass unnoticed and unrecorded. A notable exception to this trend was made by the CBS producer Robert Herridge, who had the vision and foresight to organize an episode of The Robert Herridge Theater–a program normally devoted to the storytelling arts–around the music of Miles Davis. In an extraordinary 26-minute broadcast, shown above in its entirety, Davis performs with members of his “first great quintet” (John Coltrane on tenor and alto saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums) and with the Gil Evans Orchestra. (The sixth member of the smaller combo, alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderly, can be seen briefly but doesn’t play due to a splitting migraine headache.) The broadcast took place between recording sessions for Davis’s landmark album, Kind of Blue. The set list is: “So What,” “The Duke,” “Blues for Pablo,” “New Rhumba” and a reprise of “So What.” For more on Davis, see our Oct. 25 post, “The Miles Davis Story: the Definitive Film Biography of a Jazz Legend.”

8. Thelonious Monk in Copenhagen, 1966:


Here’s a great half-hour set by Thelonious Monk and his quartet, recorded by Danish television on April 17, 1966. The lineup includes Monk on piano, Charlie Rouse on tenor saxophone, Larry Gales on Bass and Ben Riley on Drums. They play three songs–”Lulu’s Back in Town,” “Don’t Blame Me” and “Epistrophy”–with Monk giving the others plenty of room to solo as he gets up from the piano to do his stiff, idiosyncratic dance. For more on Monk, see our 2011 post on the extraordinary documentary film,Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser.

9. Bill Evans on the Jazz 625 show, 1965:


In March of 1965 the Bill Evans Trio visited the BBC studios in London to play a pair of sets on Jazz 625, hosted by British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton. The two 35-minute programs are shown above, back-to-back. The trio features Evans on piano, Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums. To read the set list for both shows, see our May 31 post, “The Bill Evans Trio in London, 1965: Two Sets by the Legendary Combo.” And for a fascinating introduction to the great jazz pianist’s philosophy of music, don’t miss our April 5 post, “The Universal Mind of Bill Evans: Advice on Learning to Play Jazz and the Creative Process.”

10. Charles Mingus in Belgium, 1964:


In April of 1964 the great bassist and composer Charles Mingus and his experimental combo, The Jazz Workshop, embarked on a three-week tour of Europe that is remembered as one of the high-water marks in Mingus’s career. The performance above was recorded by Belgian television on Sunday, April 19, 1964 at the Palais des Congrés in Liège, Belgium. Mingus and the band play three songs: “So Long Eric,” “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” and “Meditations on Integration.” The group features Mingus on bass, Dannie Richmond on drums, Jaki Byard on piano, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone and Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. A sixth member, trumpeter Johnny Coles, was forced to drop out of the band after he collapsed onstage two nights earlier. For more of Mingus’s music and a look at his troubled life, see our Aug. 2 post, “Charles Mingus and His Eviction From his New York City Loft, Captured in Moving 1968 Film.”

Miles Davis and His ‘Second Great Quintet,’ Filmed Live in Europe, 1967

For lovers of jazz, these two live clips of Miles Davis and his quintet, featuring Davis on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums.


Miles Davis and His ‘Second Great Quintet,’ Filmed Live in Europe, 1967
December 12th, 2012

In the mid 1960s Miles Davis responded to the form-breaking influence of free jazz by surrounding himself with a group of brilliant young musicians and encouraging them to push him in new directions.

The group was Davis’s last with all acoustic instruments, and came to be known as his “second great quintet.” It featured Davis on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Between 1964 and 1968 the quintet recorded a string of innovative albums, including E.S.P., Sorcerer and the transitional Miles in the Sky, in which Hancock introduces the electric Fender Rhodes piano.

For Guardian jazz critic John Fordham, the second great quintet was Davis’s best group ever. “Their solos were fresh and original, and their individual styles fused with a spontaneous fluency that was simply astonishing,” writes Fordham in a 2010 article. “The quintet’s method came to be dubbed ‘time, no changes’ because of their emphasis on strong rhythmic grooves without the dictatorial patterns of song-form chords. At times they veered close to free-improvisation, but the pieces were as thrilling and hypnotically sensuous as anything the band’s open-minded leader had recorded before.”

You can hear for yourself in these two concerts, shown back-to-back, recorded for television during the quintet’s 1967 tour of Europe. The first concert was recorded on October 31, 1967 at the Konserthuset in Stockholm, Sweden. Here’s the set list:

Agitation (Miles Davis)
Footprints (Wayne Shorter)
‘Round Midnight (Thelonius Monk)
Gingerbread Boy (Jimmy Heath)
Theme (Miles Davis)

The next concert was recorded one week later, on November 7, 1967, at the Stadhalle in Karlsruhe, Germany:

Agitation (Miles Davis)
Footprints (Wayne Shorter)
I Fall in Love Too Easily (Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne)
Walkin’ (Richard Carpenter)
Gingerbread Boy (Jimmy Heath)
Theme (Miles Davis)

Related content:

• The Miles Davis Story, the Definitive Film Biography of a Jazz Legend
• ‘The Sound of Miles Davis’: Classic 1959 Performance with John Coltrane
• Mashup Duet: Miles Davis Improvising on LCD Soundsystem

Courtesy of Open Culture, some very cool jazz for a relaxed Sunday morning. The second set of songs includes the amazing Eric Dolphy, one of the most under-rated Jazz musicians of that era (it's tough to get recognition when your peers are Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Stan Getz),

John Coltrane: Three Great European Performances, 1960, 1961 and 1965

November 21st, 2012

These three European television programs from the 1960s capture the evolution of John Coltrane’s journey from sideman to bandleader.

In the first set, recorded on March 28, 1960 in Dusseldorf, Germany, Coltrane was unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight when Miles Davis was unable play that day. It’s basically a performance of the Miles Davis Quintet without Davis. The lineup includes Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

The film was made during a European tour billed as “Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic Presents Jazz Winners of 1960.” Two of the other “Jazz Winners” were Stan Getz and Oscar Peterson, both of whom join Coltrane and the band near the end of the Dusseldorf set. Getz plays on the last few songs. It’s a historic session–the only known recording of the two great saxophone players performing together. At the beginning of the final song, Thelonious Monk’s “Hackensack,” Peterson taps Kelly on the shoulder and takes over on the piano. 

Here’s the set list:

1. On Green Dolphin Street
2. Walkin’
3. The Theme
4. Autumn leaves
5. What’s New
6. Autumn in New York
7. Hackensack

By all accounts, Coltrane was a bit grumpy during the European tour of 1960. He was anxious to leave the Davis quintet and start his own band, but agreed to stay on through the end of the tour as a favor to Davis. In appreciation, Davis bought Coltrane his first soprano saxophone while they were in Europe. The gift would have a significant effect on Coltrane’s music, as revealed in the next half-hour set, recorded on November 24, 1961 at the Südwestfunk television studio in Badan-Baden, Germany. The band includes Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophones, Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and flute, McCoy Tyner on Piano, Reggie Workman on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Here’s the set list:

1. My Favorite Things
2. Everytime We Say Goodbye
3. Impressions

The last set was recorded on August 1, 1965 in Comblain-la-Tour, Belgium, shortly before the European release of Coltrane’s classic album A Love Supreme. The Classic Quartet includes Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophones, Tyner on piano, Jones on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass. Here’s the set list:

1. Vigil
2. Naima
3. My Favorite Things

As in the 1961 set, Coltrane and his combo stretch each song out. “It was about much more than just the length,” writes Ashley Kahn in the liner notes for the Jazz Icons DVD. “It was what the quartet delivered in extended doses: sustained, elevating energy and a marked density of musical ideas, a heightened sense of drama, and a sweat-inducing delivery that seemed to somehow articulate answers to spiritual mysteries.”

Related content:

• John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ Animated
• John Coltrane Plays Only live Performance of A Love Supreme
• ‘The Sound of Miles Davis’: Classic 1959 Performance with John Coltrane

Here is a little classic jazz from Charles Mingus for a cool, rainy, autumn morning (at least here in Tucson). Mingus was one of the legends, and this is a cool 30+ minutes of his brilliance.

Classic Charles Mingus Performance on Belgian Television, 1964

November 6th, 2012

In early 1964 Charles Mingus put together one of the great combos in jazz history. The sextet was composed of Mingus on bass, Dannie Richmond on drums, Jaki Byard on piano, Johnny Coles on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone and the extraordinary multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone, flute and bass clarinet. Mingus called his experimental group The Jazz Workshop.

In April of that year Mingus and his band embarked on a three-week tour of Europe, much of which is recorded on film and audiotape. The tour is remembered as one of the high-water marks in Mingus’s career. As Rob Bowman writes in the liner notes to the Jazz Icons DVD Charles Mingus Live in ’64:

The tour effectively introduced two new compositions, “Meditations On Integration” and “So Long Eric”, while the band walked a fine line between Mingus’s usual amalgam of bop, swing and New Orleans jazz and the free-jazz leanings of the cataclysmic Dolphy. The result, of course, was something that could only be called Mingus Music–a galvanizing, high-energy sonic stew that, while the product of the kinetic interplay of six musicians, could only have been conjured up with Mingus as the master of ceremonies.

The performance above is from Charles Mingus Live in ’64. It was recorded by Belgian television on Sunday, April 19, 1964 at the Palais des Congrés in Liège, Belgium. The band had unexpectedly been reduced to a quintet two nights earlier, when Coles collapsed onstage in Paris and was rushed to the hospital with what was later diagnosed as an ulcer. In the Belgian TV broadcast, pianist Byard makes up for the missing trumpet parts as the band plays three Mingus compositions:

1. So Long Eric
2. Peggy’s Blue Skylight
3. Meditations on Integration

“So Long Eric” was originally called “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” but Mingus renamed the tune in honor of Dolphy, who had announced before the band left America that he would remain in Europe when the tour was over. Sadly, Dolphy fell into a diabetic coma in Germany and died just two months after finishing the tour. Mingus would later call the song “Praying With Eric.”

Related content:

• Charles Mingus and His Eviction From His New York City Loft, Captured in Moving 1968 Film
• How to Potty Train Your Cat: A Handy Manual by Charles Mingus

Open Culture - The Miles Davis Story, the Definitive Film Biography of a Jazz Legend

If you are a jazz fan, and especially if you are a Miles Davis fan, this offering from Open Culture is very cool - a definitive biography of one of the great jazz musicians of all time.

The Miles Davis Story, the Definitive Film Biography of a Jazz Legend

Miles Davis was indisputably one of the greatest musicians in jazz history. This 2001 documentary from BBC Four traces the outline of Davis’s extraordinary life: his musically precocious childhood in St. Louis; his move to New York City after graduating from high school in 1944 (ostensibly to attend Julliard, but really to immerse himself in the jazz club scene and connect with his idols Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker); his early bebop period; The Birth of Cool and his masterpiece, Kind of Blue; and his continued reinvention of himself in the 1960s and 1970s, when he incorporated rock and funk influences into his music.  

The Miles Davis Story features interviews with many of the people who knew Davis best, including his wives and some of the great musicians who worked with him, like Jimmy Cobb, Shirley Horn, Clark Terry and Keith Jarrett. The film also includes older interviews with Dizzy Gillespie and with Davis himself, who died a decade earlier. The Miles Davis Story runs just over two hours, and will be added to our growing archive of Free Movies Online. It’s a great way to learn about the life of Davis, but to actually hear his music we recommend you revisit our earlier post, ‘The Sound of Miles Davis’: Classic 1959 Performance with John Coltrane.

Related Content:

• John Coltrane Plays Only Live Performance of A Love Supreme  
• 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz  
• The Universal Mind of Bill Evans: Advice on Learning to Play Jazz & The Creative Process

A little Friday Jazz courtesy of Open Culture and Thelonious Monk. Enjoy.

Thelonious Monk, Live in Oslo and Copenhagen (1966)

October 10th, 2012

A little present for what would be Thelonius Monk’s 95th birthday today — 100 grand minutes of Monk performing live in Oslo and Copenhagen in 1966. In the spring of that year, Monk brought his legendary quartet (tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley) to Scandinavia to perform two televised shows. The recording, saved for posterity thanks to YouTube, features some Monk classics: Blue Monk, Epistrophy, Round Midnight and others. Sit back and enjoy.

Related Content: 

Advice From the Master: Thelonious Monk Scribbles a List of Tips for Playing a Gig

A Child’s Introduction to Jazz by Cannonball Adderley (with Louis Armstrong & Thelonious Monk)

The Universal Mind of Bill Evans: Advice on Learning to Play Jazz & The Creative Process

Open Culture - Classic 1959 Performance with Miles Davis and John Coltrane

Nearly 30 minutes of serious jazz awesomeness featuring Miles Davis and John Coltrane - "The Sound of Miles Davis" from a 1959 TV appearance. As usually is the case with excellent video finds, this comes from Open Culture.

‘The Sound of Miles Davis’: Classic 1959 Performance with John Coltrane

April 11th, 2012

Here’s an amazing time capsule from the golden age of jazz: Miles Davis and his group–including John Coltrane–performing with the Gil Evans Orchestra on the CBS program, The Robert Herridge Theater.

The show was recorded on April 2, 1959 at Studio 61 in New York. It was a bold departure for The Robert Herridge Theater, a program normally devoted to the dramatic story-telling arts. Davis was slated to appear with his full sextet, but alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley had a migraine headache that day, according to the Miles Ahead Web site, so the group was pared down to a quintet, with Davis on trumpet and flugelhorn, Coltrane on tenor and alto saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

The broadcast took place halfway through the recording of Davis’s landmark album, Kind of Blue. The 26-minute show (see above) opens with the classic “So What,” recorded only a month earlier. Davis solos twice on the song to fill in for Adderley. The group is then joined by Gil Evans and his orchestra. Together they play three numbers from Davis’s 1957 album, Miles Ahead. Here’s the set list:

1. So What
2. The Duke
3. Blues for Pablo
4. New Rhumba
5. So What (reprise)

“There are many ways of telling a story,” says host and producer Robert Herridge. “What you’re listening to now, the music of Miles Davis, is one of those ways.”

Related Content:

• Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and More on the Classic Jazz 625 Show
• 1959: The Year that Changed Jazz
• Classic Jazz Album Covers Animated, or the Re-Birth of Cool
• The Universal Mind of Bill Evans: Advice on Learning to Play Jazz & The Creative Process

Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser

Open Culture found this old film about Thelonious Monk, Straight No Chaser - very cool for lovers of classic jazz music. Clint Eastwood produced this 90 minute film. The summary below is partial - there is more at the Open Culture site.

Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser

In 1981, film producer Bruce Ricker had a chance encounter with director and cinematographer Christian Blackwood on the streets of New York. Ricker had just released a documentary on Kansas City jazz, called The Last of the Blue Devils, and Blackwood told him that he too had done a little work on jazz. When Ricker went to see the footage, he was stunned. The reels, he would later say, were “just sitting there like the Dead Sea Scrolls of jazz.”

The “scrolls” were an intimate look into the life and music of Thelonious Monk, the legendary bebop pianist and composer. Blackwood and his brother, Michael, had received a commission from West German public television in late 1967, and were granted unprecedented access to Monk. They followed him around New York, Atlanta and Europe for six months. The resulting cinéma vérité special aired only once, and was forgotten.

.....

By now, Monk’s place in the jazz pantheon is secure. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser is a fascinating portrait of a truly original artist. The one-hour, 30-minute film is shown above, and can also be found in our collection of Free Movies Online.

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Credits:
Charlotte Zwerin - Director
Clint Eastwood - Producer
Dick Hyman - Composer (Music Score)
Christian Blackwood - Cinematographer
Rudy Van Gelder - Sound Design

Poem - "At the Blue Note" by Pablo Medina

At the Blue Note

by Pablo Medina

for Karen Bentivenga

Sometimes in the heat of the snow
you want to cry out

for pleasure or pain like a bell.
And you wind up holding each other,

listening to the in-between
despite the abyss at the edge of the table.

Hell. Mulgrew Miller plays like a big
bad spider, hands on fire, the piano

trembling like crystal,
the taste and smell of a forest under water.

The bartender made us a drink
with butterfly wings and electric wire.

Bitter cold outside, big silence,
a whale growing inside us.

Tags: At the Blue Note, Pablo Medina, Karen Bentivenga, poem, poetry, jazz, music, National Poetry Month, Academy of American Poets

John Coltrane w/ Eric Dolphy -- Impressions

Dang, remember when jazz was on TV? No, well, me either. Better than anything on TV these days in my opinion. Enjoy!

John Coltrane Quintet with special guest Eric Dolphy from back when jazz had its own quirky TV productions.

Dark room! Steel girders! Hidden musicians! 1961 in Baden-Baden Germany.

OK, no more slacking off, back to my paper.

Tags: music, jazz, television, John Coltrane Quintet, Eric Dolphy, Impressions

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Live)

Weird and wonderful!



Hear the whole concert from 1970 at Wolfgang's Vault.

Tags: Miles Davis, Bitches Brew, Wolfgang's Vault, Music, jazz, culture, live