PRAGUE 1964

Echoes From The Prague Jazz Festival 1964

Various Artists       LP SUPRAPHON (1964, Czech)

It has always been the philosophy of this blog to welcome and encourage collaborations.  I can even say that without a small but expending group of collaborators - some regular (Paul D., onxidlib), some occasional, this blog wouldn’t be what it has become.  This collaborative effort is the most exciting and rewarding  aspect of blogging.

I’m therefore much thankful to El Porco Rojo for sending us this rare Eastern European album  featuring Benny Bailey, Leo Wright, Kenny Drew and Andre Condouant a.o.  He could have posted it on his own blog but he thought it would fit better here, in the company of Andre Condouant’s Brother Meeting and Leo Wright Jazz Studio’s LP (a contribution by Paul D).  Thanks my friend, it is much appreciated.

 

It doesn’t stop here: I’m both pleased and honored to announce that the next post will be a contribution from the legendary El Reza!  So keep posted!

Recorded: October 1964 live in Prague, 

#B3,4 recorded at the Supraphon Studio, 

Issued as issues: 1964 SUPRAPHON ST 55633 (Czech) ; 1964 or `65 SUPRAPHON SUA 15633 ;

Also released as: Ozveny Jazzoveho Festivalu Praha 1964 SUPRAPHON DV 10166 ; Czechoslovakian Jazz / Various Artists SUPRAPHON SV 9005

#A1 & #B1appear  also on Baby Douglas And His Negro Jazz In Europe,

1965 EP SUPRAPHON SUK 35628 (CSSR) (mono)

Tracks

Side A

  1. Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So (Charles)

  2. Dobbing The Red Fox (Moody)

  3. Yesterdays (Kern)

  4. Sonny Moon For Two (Sonny Rollins)

Side B

  1. My Blues (Green)

  2. I Can´t Get Started (Gershwin)

  3. Ain´t Misbehavin´ (Waller/Razaf)

  4. Blues For Festival (Camrda)

Credits

DONALD "BABY" DOUGLAS (voc #A1, B3);

"DR. BLUES" CANDY GREEN (voc #B1?,4; p);

BENNY BAILEY (tp #B2);

ZDENEK PULEC (tb #B4);

LEO WRIGHT (as #A2, B4) or (as #A2, B1-4; fl #A2) ? ;

KENNY DREW (p #A3);

ANDRÉ CONDOUANT (g #A4);

ROLAND HAYNES (b);

FRED BRACEFUL (dr);

PRAGUE DIXIELAND BAND /w K. KRAUTGARTNER (#B3,4);

BABY DOUGLAS & THE BLACK JAZZ IN EUROPE (#A1-4,B1,2)

Note: Leo Wright is wrongly credited as Leon Wrighte

Condouant, Bailey, Wright

Original liner notes

Towards the end of October 1964, the first International Jazz Festival took place in Prague. A number of the foremost European ensembles and soloists participated.

The United States, the cradle of Jazz, was represented by a group of Afro-American soloists who live at present in Europe and whom the singer Donald "Baby" Douglas organized into a group for the express purpose of participating at the Festival.

Douglas, who is 27, comes from LA and is at present studying the piano and cello at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. He is the vocalist of the well-known Swedish Jazz Orchestra headed by Putte Wickman, with whom he visited Czechoslovakia in 1963. It was then that he promised to revisit Prague in the company of a group of eminent Afro-American Jazz soloists, and he fulfilled that promise on the occasion of the Jazz Festival Praha 1964.

Leo Wright, an alto-saxophonist and flutist who came to Prague from West-Berlin (where he played in a nightclub), was really the star of this ad hoc group and its virtual leader. Wright was born in Texas in 1933 and so far has played in several leading orchestras including those of Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie. His perfect phrasing and easy fluency of playing won him a multitude of admirers during his stay in Czechoslovakia. Wright is the soloist (flute) in James Moody´s composition 'Dobbing The Red Fox'.

The second member of the melody section was Benny Bailey, the 40-year-old trumpeter from Cleveland/Ohio, who is at present a member of the Munich Radio Orchestra. Bailey has been a professional performer for 24 years and has been with such Jazz men as Jay McShann, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones and Harold Arnold in Sweden. He proves his extraordinary art in Gershwin´s 'I Can´t Get Started'.

Baby Douglas, Cndy Green, Kenny Drew, Andre Condouant, (sitting), Fred Braceful, Roland Haynes

Kenny Drew, one of the most distinguished personalities in contemporary Jazz, was the pianist of the group. He has played with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and other soloists. Born in New York in 1928, he came to Prague from Copenhagen where he was playing at the time of the festival. Kenny Drew´s playing is not spectacular but his well-thought-out accompaniments are highly functional. He is heard as a soloist in Kern´s song 'Yesterdays'.

Other members of the rhythm group included André Condouant (guitar) from Martinique [actually he is from Guadeloupe !], a former partner, in Paris, of the organist Lou Bennett, the young Parisian bassist Roland Haynes and Fred Braceful, the drummer, who lives in the German Federal Republic. Singers Baby Douglas and "Dr. Blues" Candy Green each contributed a song to the programme: Douglas sang Charlie´s foxtrot 'Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So' and Candy Green, who also plays the piano, 'Mr. Blues'.

Since all the members of this ad hoc group live in different European cities and met in Prague for the first time just before the opening of the festival, they did not include in their programme any very complicated arrangements but concentrated instead on individual solo performances. Two pieces, however, were recorded by Baby Douglas and Leo Wright accompanied by the leading Prague amateur ensemble, the Prague Dixieland Band. These recordiings, made in the Supraphon studio, will certainly be a welcome addition to the record library of any lover of good Jazz.

A variety of groups recorded live at the Prague Jazz Festival - vocalist Candy Douglas singing with the Putte Wickman band with solists Leo Wright and Benny Bailey, Kenny Drew with Andre Condouant, Roland Haynes and Fred Braceful, and several others.

SUPRAPHON: generic sleeve

LIVE AT PHOENICIA

Clarence Big Miller

Big Miller...Live From Calgary

Black Bear Record ‎– BBR 1006, Canada, 1982

It always makes my day when I find records in the most unexpected places.  I found this album last year when strolling thu’ the souks in Rabat's old medina.  Probably left behind by a Canadian expat’ years ago.  I don’t think this album was distributed outside of Canada.

It was pretty dusty but in good condition and played well after a good cleanup.

Clarence “Big” Miller ((December 18, 1922, Sioux City, Iowa - June 9, 1992, Edmonton, Alberta) was a US born, Canadian Blues Shouter / Jazz singer and actor who started as a teenaged blues shouter in Kansas City with Jay McShann during the years 1949-54.  The following year he sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.  He started performing in Canada in the early 60s, travelled to Australia and and toured briefly with the Jo Hendricks’s revue The Evolution of the Blues which left him stranded in Vancouver.

Instead of returning to the USA, Miller began to perform on an itinerant basis in western Canada, settling in 1970 in Edmonton. There he emerged in the mid-1970s as a popular figure on the local jazz scene and, under the aegis of the provincial government, performed in many small Alberta communities and on a promotional tour in Japan. In 1978 Miller sang with the Tommy Banks Big Band at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland; a recording of the performance (Jazz Canada Montreux 1978, RCI 485) received the Juno Award in 1979 for best jazz album. (More here.)

Big Miller (courtesy Edmonton Jazz Society Photos Archives)

Tracklist

A1       Shuckin'

A2       After My Laughter Came Tears

A3       Ain't Nobody's Business But Our Own         

A4       Lullaby

A5       I'll Always Love You So

B1       For All We Know

B2       I Got That Feeling

B3       Sermon

B4       Find Out Yourself

Credits

Vocals – Clarence "BIG" Miller*

Saxophone / Flute – Eric Friedenberg

Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Bob Erlendson

Piano [Yamaha Grand] – Wayne Feschuk

Acoustic Bass / Electric Bass – George Koller

Drums  – Ken Searcy

GOING DUTCH

GOLDEN BLUESSONGS

THE GUIDELINES QUARTET + KAZ LUX

LP Cherry Red Records CHLP3622,  NL, 1988

OK, the tracklist may not be especially enthralling, a collection of old jazz blues warhorses (hence the “Golden Bluessongs” of the album title) but this album has its moments.

It was recorded before it became fashionable for aging rock singers to record an album of jazz standards as a mark of respectability.  As it goes, this album works pretty well.  Kaz Lux‘s voice is well suited to the material and the Guidelines Quartet is top, they really swing these numbers!  No wonder when you look at the credentials of the four musicians making up the Guidelines Quartet:

Peter Guidi is one of Europe’s great jazz flautists (listen to his soli on “Need you by my side” or “What I want”).

Rob van Bavel is a well regarded Dutch jazz pianist and educator with extensive jazz credentials. In the late eighties he was a member of the Ben Van Den Dungen-Jarmo Hoogendijk Quintet (see my old post on the Brand New Orleans album to get the idea how those guys sounded).  

Hans Mantel is a well-known Dutch bassist, musicologist, producer and presenter for jazz on Dutch radio and television.

Drummer Hans van Oosterhout has performed with almost everybody, from Toots Thielemans to Randy Brecker  He has played on over 60 albums.

Vocalist Kaz Lux was the lead singer of 60s Dutch beat band Brainbox.  He also collaborated on a few albums with guitar virtuoso Jan Akkerman. 

Credits

Kaz Lux                      vocal

Peter Guidi                  sax & flute

Rob van Bavel            piano

Hans Mantel                bass

Hans van Oosterhout   drums

Tracks

•       I’m walking
•       Lost and looking
•       Ain’t nobody’s business
•       Need you by my side
•       Please send me someone to love
•       You are my sunshine
•       Route 66
•       Counting my tears
•       What I want

Recorded in Tilburg, NL - 1988

RARITY # 41

MICKEY BAKER – ZANZIE

45 rpm (EP) Versailles, 90 S 370, France, 1963

Let’s start the month of March with some fun music, a French EP by US Rhythm & Blues guitarist (and long time French resident) Mickey “Guitar” Baker.   

It‘s my late tribute to Mickey Baker who left us in November 2012.

I do not have any discography details on the session, done in France with studio musicians See the post on Tony Milton - Rarity # 38 -  to have an idea of musicians who took  part in these sessions.  It was probably recorded around the same time.

Great sixties popcorn / Madison instrumentals.  Very enjoyable if you like that kind of stuff.  I do!

Back sleeve notes by Kurt Mohr.

The rip is mine, the cover pictures are from the web (better than those I took).

Tracks

A1       Zanzie

A2       Baker’s Other Dozen

B1       Baby Let’s Dance

B2       Oh Yeah Ah Ah Ah

Trivia – meeting with remarkable men

Mickey Baker is the only bluesman I ever met on a tramway in Brussels. 

TIME FOR SOME GREASY & GROOVY B-3

SOUL GROOVING
MERL SAUNDERS TRIO & BIG BAND America Records – 30 AM 6093, France - 196? - (Fantasy / Galaxy)

My all-time favourite Merl Saunders album.  Not an easy one to find. My copy is the french pressing on America Records.

No details of the personnel on the sleeve except that the big band arrangements are by Ray Shanklin.

Any additional info on the personnel would be much appreciated.

Tracklist

A1 Soul Roach 2:20

A2 Lonesome Fever 3:55

A3 I Pity The Fool 3:12

A4 Up, Up And Away 2:28

A5 Ode To Billy Joe 3:25

B1 My Train 2:37

B2 Angel Eyes 4:42

B3 Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby 4:41

B4 Tighten Up 2:26

B5 Soul Grooving 2:31

HITTIN’ THE ROAD AGAIN

RED HOLLOWAY – HITTIN’ THE ROAD AGAIN
(JAM 014, 1982 - USA)

Red Holloway died February 25, 2012, one month after Etta James and Johnny Otis, with whom he had worked extensively.  He was 84 and his discreet departure for the Great Cosmic Jam Session went almost unnoticed.  Obituaries here.

On this rather obscure LP, his first set as a leader since the 1960s, Red Holloway is heard on tenor, alto and baritone, in addition to taking a good-natured blues vocal on "Sylvia Is Her Name." Holloway wrote five of the six songs, none of which caught on, and used L.A.-based musicians (keyboardist Dwight Dickerson, guitarist Shuggie Otis, bassist Richard Reid and either Gerryck King or Jimmy Smith on drums) for this likable but obscure straight-ahead outing, which has not yet been reissued on CD.

Side A starts with the dispensable “No Tears (Over You)” which verges dangerously towards smooth jazz  although Red’s playing is quite enjoyable (I don't like the synthetic keyboard). “Sylvia is her name” is a typical West Coast blues shuffle enhanced by the presence of guitar-legend Shuggie Otis.  The serious things start with track 3 (Russel Square) which is straight-ahead, no-nonsense jazz.  It continues in the same vein with “Swiftly” on side B - showcasing Red's mastery of the baryton - followed by a beautiful ballad with Ben Websterian accents (Red Holloway was always excellent on slow, bluesy ballads)  The record ends with the title track, a funky soul jazz track featuring Shuggie Otis again.  I wish Shuggie had recorded more in that vein, he’s good at it. Overall, not a bad record, get it if you can find it.  Found my copy in Brussels a couple of years ago for about 5 €.  No point of paying ridiculous amount on “specialized” websites, just be patient.

Side 1:  No Tears (Over You); Sylvia Is Her Name; Russel Square. 

Side 2:  Swifty (aka Stacos); Music For Making Love; Hittin' The Road Again.

YOU GOT ME RUNNIN' (Muse, 1991)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

I’ll start the year with an album that should have appeared on or be linked  to the Nine Sisters blog as it was issued on the Muse label, but unfortunately this excellent blog no longer exists. 

My first love in Music was the Blues.  I discovered Jazz thru' Jazz Blues records and as such I’ve always been very fond of the great Blues Shouters, people like Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Whiterspoon, Big Miller to name a few. Because these bluesmen sat on the borderline between jazz and  blues, they were often shunned by the rock-fed white blues aficionados, who were never too keen on jazz anyway, prefering the raw harmonica based sound of Chicago Blues to the more jazz-oriented style of the shouters.  Alexis Korner made this remark almost 50 years ago.

The fact is that there aren’t many real blues shouters around nowadays.  I guess Willie Pooch could qualify. He recorded some fantastic sides with Tony Monaco on Hammond B-3.  Highly recommended but I won’t post them as these records are still currently on sale.

A photo of Larry O'Neill, taken
 from  an ad for a show in a
Cafe in Istanbul  in 2009.

The shouter I’ve posted today is not somedody one would call a household name ... unless you live in Turkey. It’s common for US blues artists to try their luck abroad but generally they choose Europe, some try Japan or Australia ... few would decide to become a blues star in Turkey.  Larry O’Neill did.  I don’t know whether he is still living there but the only info I manage to find on the net was from Turkish sources.  He’s apparently a regular visitors to festivals and clubs overthere

The only recording of Larry O’Neill I know is this excellent CD produced by Houston Person and issued on Muse in 1991.  The repertoire is mostly blues numbers and a few ballads but, as AMG states “no one's going to mistake You Got Me Runnin' for a Chess session of the 1950s or 1960s--O'Neill's backing consists of nothing but jazz musicians, including Person on tenor sax, Stan Hope on piano, Randy Johnston on electric guitar, Peter Martin Weiss on upright bass and Cecil Brooks III on drums.”

Tracks

You Got Me Runnin'

I Need You So           

Hard Luck Blues

Woke up This Morning          

I Want a Little Girl

Ain't Nobody Sleepin' in My Bed

Don't Deceive Me

Built for Comfort

How Do You Speak to an Angel

Why Must I Be Lonely

Credits :  Larry O'Neill (Vocals), Houston Person (Sax Tenor, Producer), Stan Hope (Piano), Randy Johnston (Guitar), Peter Martin Weiss (Bass), Cecil Brooks III (Drums).

Currently OOP.  Link in comments.