TWO PAIRS OF LOCKED HANDS

André Persiany - Milt Buckner

Requiem Pour Un Chat

LP LIFDIS / Le Chant Du Monde ‎– A.J 1010 - France, 1973

The locked hands technique developed by Milt Buckner might not be everyone's idea of jazz piano. Some people - starting with my good friend Paul D. - do not like it.  I do and I have always considered this album a must for fans of « old style » piano : stride, blues, swing and boogie woogie.  The first track “Requiem pour un Chat” is a terrific piano blues duet. I just love hearing Milt's grunts as he gets deep in the groove.  The whole album is pretty good and has been a favorite for over thirty years.

Milton Brent "Milt" Buckner (10 July 1915 – 27 July 1977) was an American jazz pianist and organist, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was orphaned as a child, but an uncle in Detroit (trombone player John Tobias) taught him to play. Buckner pioneered the parallel chords style which influenced Red Garland, George Shearing, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson.

He first played in Detroit with the McKinney Cotton Pickers and then with Cab Calloway. In 1941 he joined Lionel Hampton's big band, and for the next seven years served as its pianist and staff arranger. He led a short-lived big band of his own for two years, but then returned to Hampton's in 1950. In 1952 he formed his own trio, concentrating on the Hammond organ. He often played in Europe in the late 60's and recorded prolifically for European labels such as Saba, MPS and Black & Blue.

Buckner pioneered the use of the electric organ. He died in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of sixty-two.

Buckner's brother, Ted Buckner, was a noted jazz saxophonist.

André Persiany was born André Paul Stephane Persiani in Paris on November 19, 1927.  He was a versatile bebop accompanist who led his own groups from 1946 on. Influenced by Milt Buckner, Persiany played in the pianist/organist's familiar locked-hands style. He recorded in Paris with American expatriates like Sidney Bechet, Buck Clayton, Lionel Hampton, Bill Coleman and Mezz Mezzrow until 1956, when he came to America. Persiany spent most of the 1960s working in trumpeter Jonah Jones' quartet.

Persiany's career hit a peak in the 1970s after he returned to France. His expat collaborations continued with Buckner, Cat Anderson, Arnett Cobb, Buckner, Charlie Shavers and Budd Johnson. Among Persiany's own recordings were Swinging Here and There (1958, Pathé), The Real Me (1970, Black & Blue) and Every Night at Furstemburg (1977, Open).

This LP was recorded on March 21,1973 at the Steinway Studio in Paris.

Tracklist

A1       Requiem Pour Un Chat           6:59

A2       Stinky                                     7:09

A3       La Très Jolie Gwendoline       6:37

B1       What A Mess For A Bass        7:15

B2       Tophie's Dream                       5:05

B3       Boogie-Woogie For Edith        4:15

B4       Slide, Jimmy Slide, Flash        1:30

Credits

Piano – André Persiany, Milt Buckner

Bass – Roland Lobligeois

Drums – Roger Paraboschi

Cover by Pierre Mas

With special thanks to Paul D. for the rip, especially considering that he is no fan of block chords / lock hands style.  Merci Paul pour ta patience.

BOOGIE FOR EVERYBODY

Blues & Boogie 
Miriam Klein - Oscar Klein - Henry Chaix - Bob Carter - Hans Peter Giger ‎
LP Europa – E 385, Germany. 1969

Blues and boogie woogie were among my earliest musical loves and this LP has been a favourite for nearly 40 years.  

It’s on the Europa label, a discount label that was often sold in supermarkets.   The same label as the Emil Mangelsdorf album posted earlier and the St Tropez Jazz Octet posted on OIR a good while ago.

It is not even a rare album, it keeps on poppin’ up in used record bins.  I have three or four copies at home, each bought for about 1 Euro.  It probably deserves the title of the Most Overlooked Record– at least in Belgium where nobody seems to have the least idea of the quality of the musicians playing here.

So who do we have here?  Three Swiss, one Austrian and one American-Hawaiian!

Vocal : Swisss vocalist Miriam Klein first came into the public eye when she performed in Paris in the 1950s with Dexter Gordon, Pierre Michelot, Don Byas and Art Simmons. Later she attended Music School in Vienna and went back to Switzerland to work with the ensembles of her husband, trumpeter and guitarist Oscar Klein. It was in the 1960s and 1970 that she became known internationally.  In 1978 her album 'By Myself' was produced by concert management tycoon Horst Lippmann for the L+R label.  

Miriam Klein

Guitar, cornet, harmonica: Oscar Klein (5 January 1930 in Graz, Austria – 12 December 2006 in Baden-Württemberg) has, for many decades, been one of the top trad trumpeters/cornetists in Europe. In addition, he was a fine blues guitarist and a good harmonica player. Oscar Klein was an Austrian born jazz trumpeter who also played clarinet, harmonica, and swing guitar. His family fled the Nazis when he was young. He became known for "older jazz" like swing and Dixieland. In the early sixties he joined the famous Dutch Swing College Band in Holland as first trumpeter and he is to be found on several of their recordings. He was also a member of the Tremble Kids (MPS).  He played with Lionel Hampton, Joe Zawinul, Romano Mussolini ... and as a duo with bluesman Philadelphia Jerry Hicks.  In 1996 he was honored by then President Thomas Klestil.  

Oscar Klein

Piano: Henri Chaix, (21 February 1925, Geneva, Switzerland, d. 11 June 1999)  played piano from an early age, becoming professional while in his late teens. He played with a number of Swiss bands, eventually becoming a leader in the early 60s. He gained a strong local reputation and during the 50s, 60s and 70s was constantly on call as accompanist for visiting American jazz musicians. Among those with whom he played during these years were Sidney Bechet, Buck Clayton, Rex Stewart and Albert Nicholas. He also played an important role at many Swiss jazz festivals and throughout western and central Europe. A powerful and dynamic player, he displayed a marked penchant for the blues, and his solid accompaniment was of considerable merit. His solos demonstrated an imaginative approach to mainstream jazz. He occasionally played trombone.

Bass : Robert Kahakalau, better known as Bob Carter (b. February 11, 1922, New Haven, Connecticut) was an American jazz bassist and arranger.

Carter learned bass and guitar from his father, a vaudeville performer of Hawaiian heritage. He played in local orchestras from 1937 to 1940, toured from 1940 to 1942 and worked with his own trio in Boston in 1944. In 1944-45 he worked in various groups on 52nd Street in New York City, with Tony Scott, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Stuff Smith, and Charlie Shavers among others. Following time spent playing bebop with Allen Eager and Max Roach in 1946, he worked with Charlie Ventura from 1947 to 1949 and again in 1953-54. In the interim he played with Benny Goodman in 1949-50.

After his second stint with Ventura he studied composition with Wesley LaViolette. Later that decade his arrangements were used by Red Norvo, Bob Harrington, and Shelly Manne. He spent 1957-58 in Hawaii, then returned to New York in 1959, where he played with Bobby Hackett. In the early 1960s, he worked in Germany in the orchestra of Kurt Edelhagen. He did little playing after the end of the 1960s.

Drums :  Hans Peter Giger is a Swiss percussionist and bandleader with a musical career stretching over 50 years. In the sixties he worked as studio-musician in Paris, with Claude Bolling and others.  In then moved to Germany and took part in various experimental Kraut bands and projects (Dzyan, Drum Circus - with Joel Vandroogenbroeck) .  He joined the Albert Mangelsdorff Quintet in 1972. In 1977 he went out on his own with his project, the Family of Percussion, a percussion-only quartet, along with Trilok Gurtu, Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas.

Peter Giger

Tracks

A1 Cafe Society Memories Written By – H. Chaix 2:20
A2 Black Sweet And Tall (Voc.) Written By – M. Klein 2:53
A3 Beatin' The Boogie Written By – H. Chaix 2:12
A4 Blue Valves Written By – O. Klein 2:58
A5 Two Timing Girls (Voc.) Written By – M. Klein 2:55
A6 Lazy Foot Written By – O. Klein 2:26
A7 Midnight Written By – M. Klein 1:48

B1 Story Telling Man (Voc.) Written By – M. Klein 3:42
B2 Boogie For Everybody Written By – H. Chaix 2:36
B3 Louisiana Sunset Written By – H. Chaix 2:08
B4 This Little Lamp Of Mine (Voc.) Written By – Trad. / M. Klein 2:02
B5 Red Head Blues Written By – O. Klein 2:47
B6 O.K., A Blues Written By – O. Klein 2:43
B7 Who's Groove (Voc.) Written By – M. Klein 3:11

Made in Germany by Miller International Schallplatten G. M. B. H.


14 tracks, quite generous for a discount label!  And all the tracks but one are originals.  
Now, don’t tell me it wasn’t a well spent Euro !

MY LITTLE ROLLY

Maestro OLEG PLOTNIKOV
(of the Uralsky All Stars)
My Little Rolly (Timeless, NL, 1996)

Another CD found in a discount bin for about one euro.  Two things attracted me to this album: the photo of Oleg Plotnkov on the cover, he looked so square he had to be good!  ... and then there were a couple of numbers with "boogie" in the title. I’m a sucker for boogie woogie  esp. cheesy ones.  I have a whole set of old scratchy 78 rpm with boogie in the titles, played on the most awkward instruments.

Oleg PLOTNIKOV is a Russian jazz pianist now residing in Holland.  I couldn’t find any information on the Net and the record sleeve is useless.  The only information is that he is/was the piano-player in The Uralsky all Stars, a Dixieland / Swing aggregation. That put me off a bit as i dislike Dixieland as much as I like boogie woogie.

So here it is!  

Do not expect avant-garde or  even modal music here, this album is a decent boogie woogie / swing album with a dash of (Oh so very mild) funk (Watermelon Man). One could question his choice of numbers (Blueberry Hills ...!).

Anyway, if you like boogie woogie pianists, this album should make you happy.  Oleg Plotnikov has a solid left hand.  A pianist friend of mine once told me that despite its apparent simplicity boogie woogie was a difficult and physically demanding style: just try holding those fast moving bass notes during 6:30 minutes (as in My Little Rolly), you’ll feel it deep in your muscles !

ARTISTS

Oleg Plotnikov - piano

Serguei Ouzkikh - bass

Andrei Makarov - drums

TRACKS

1) My Little Rolly                   (6.29)                             (Plotnikov)

2) Octave Boogie                   (4.30)                             (Plotnikov)

3) Blueberry Hill                     (6.51)                              ( Benson / Asher)

4) Watermelon Man                (7.13)                             ( Hancock)

5) St. Louis Blues                    (7.44)                             ( Handy)

6) China Girl                           (6.18)                              ( Plotnikov)

7) Singer M. Boogie                (2.37)                              ( Plotnikov)

8) Cat On The Strings              (2.44)                              ( Plotnikov)

Recorded at Farmhouse Studio, Doorwerth, Holland, 19 October and 21 November 1995.

I'm pretty sure that if this album had been issued 25 years earlier, it would be revered and as collectable as any Rob Hoeke or Rob Agerbeek.

GUEUZE 'n BOOGIE

AL COPLEY - Live @ 't LEEUWSKE - 28th June 2011

St Pieters Leeuw is a partly rural village west of Brussels.  The village centre has managed to keep its charm and a unique atmosphere: a beautiful old church and some very friendly cafes on the small cobbled street surrounding the church.  That's where one can find Café Moriau, famous for its traditionnal Gueuze and Kriek (and occasional jazz concerts) and Café 't Leeuwske where I went last night to watch and hear  Al Copley.  Living abroad most of the year, I sometimes forget what a delightful place Belgium could be.  For instance,  one can have the double pleasure of watching / listening to a top-class musical act while drinking some outstanding local beers.   My favourite has always been the Oude Gueze and Kriek ( typical summer beers, very refreshing).  Not always easy to find the real thing, only a handful of small breweries still produce the lambic which is at the base of Gueuze and Kriek.  But in St Pieters Leeuw, you get the real thing; After all, it's the Payottenland, a region that had already inspired Brueghel den Oude and many lesser known painters and poets.  


And yesterday, the Payottenland atmosphere obviously inspired boogie woogie master AL COPLEY (a founding member of Roomful of Blues) who gave a great performance in trio format (piano-contrabass-drums) in Cafe 't Leeuwske.  I've seen Al Copley many times over the year - he's been a regular visitor for some twenty year now and was even resident in Belgium for a few years - but yesterday was one of his better shows.  A small typical Belgian Café, an enthusiastic crowd - some real connaisseurs and some locals who came to have good time, and got lots of it!, but above all, a real piano. Too often nowadays we see blues / boogie pianists playing on electric keyboards that may sound "almost" like a the real thing but almost ain't enough.  

So a great evening of unadultered boogie woogie and - always a crowd pleaser - rock and roll (Copley excels in Jerry Lee's type of rockin' boogie).
Thanks to Bernadette for the pics and to Cool Danny, Thierry & all for organising the concert (and to 't Leeuwske for providing the location and the piano).






Great evening, makes me wish I were in Belgium more often!

Great Balls of Fire

Rock and Roll will never die!

Al Copley (centre) and the bar crew

And thanks to  Boon' brewery (in nearby Lembeek ) for producing such nice beers.  You'll never know how I miss them when I'm thousand miles away!