New Sid Catlett with Louis 1948

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Now and then someone uncovers music gold: Reels of tapes containing magical music no one knew existed. Or if someone did know, they’ve either died or forgotten the music.

Recent examples, The John Coltrane Quartet’s “Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album” (2018). “The Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall” (2005). Duke Ellington – The Complete Concert at Newport 1956 (1999).

On his Facebook page this week, Loren Schoenberg reposted a story of newly discovered tapes of Louis Armstrong and his All-Stars in concert (1948) with this headline: “NEW SID CATLETT WITH LOUIS!!!”

In part, here’s Loren’s post:

Ricky Riccardi

A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN LOUIS ARMSTRONG ALL STARS CONCERT HAS BEEN DISCOVERED AND IS COMING TO YOUTUBE! A good samaritan named Michael Lynch contacted me over the summer to let me know that he acquired eight (!) tapes of the All Stars performing in Minneapolis at two separate concerts, May 8 and 9, 1948.

Yes, you read that correctly. 1948. Louis Armstrong. Jack Teagarden. Earl “Fatha” Hines. Barney Bigard. Arvell Shaw. Velma Middleton. Big Sid Catlett. THE ALL STARS!

Thank you, Ricky Riccardi and Loren for bringing this to our attention.

Big Sid sounds great here. He’s playing, as always, is inventive, musical, and fun. When he was drumming Catlett always seemed to have fun.

And Catlett’s drums sound so good. Calf heads! Open drums. Often imitated, never equalled.

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Neil Peart’s Advice to Anika Niiles?

Posted on October 12, 2025 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: A happy breakthrough. That’s how this video of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson announcing a new Rush tour strikes me. Good for them.

Certainly Neil Peart is smiling at the tour announcement. I can’t imagine Neil would react otherwise. After all, he had finished his last tour roughly ten years ago and was moving on to life without Rush tours. More time for family, writing, and other projects.

Anika Niiles, Rush’s drummer for their upcoming tour, is new to me. Interviewing her about the Rush tour would be interesting.

Neil was a methodical drummer, working out his parts for Rush songs with little room for onstage improvisation. During our interview published in Modern Drummer April 1984 Neil described performing in sync with Alex, Geddy, and all kinds of sequenced electronics. Laughing, I told Neil what he was describing sounded fragile, risky. That one missed cue – a stick drop, a memory loss – would cause the Rush song in question to come crashing in on itself.

Neil, if memory serves, said playing Rush songs was sometimes exactly that fragile. And sometimes, along with human error, electronics went haywire. In either case, the band had to press on.

I’m wondering if Ms. Niiles will have to memorize Neil’s drum parts note for note. As Neil described his method of building out his Rush drum parts, it seems Niiles has no option. In a way, Neil’s approach was similar to classical percussionists, where he knew in advance exactly what he was going to play.

Adding to the Rush 2026 intrigue? Alex and Geddy mention expanding Rush as a trio, at least for some songs, to a quartet or quintet. That suggest Anika will have room to improvise and/or create her own drum parts.

And maybe the new Rush means some new songs.

Neil’s advice to Anika? No one knows for sure. (Although it won’t surprise me if someone finds a Peart essay to his unknown successor.)

But I think Neil would advise Anika Niiles, “Be yourself. You’ll do fine.”

The good news is: Rush is alive and well.

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Jaijai Jackson: “That’s How It’s Done”

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Scott K Fish

SKFNOTE: Jaijai Jackson and I met through her Linkedin “The Jazz Network” and “Not Just Jazz Network. Early on I learned Jaijai’s father is the great jazz bassist and band leader, Chubby Jackson.

Chubby was part of Woody Herman’s classic Thundering Herd rhythm section with legendary drummers Dave Tough and Don Lamond. Chubby Jackson also worked and recorded with drummer Tiny Kahn and many other jazz greats. He was among those musicians who excelled in both Swing and Bebop styles.

Before I dug deep into Chubby Jackson as a jazz musician, I knew him from his local NY tv show airing “The Little Rascals” episodes.

That’s also where I first saw Jaijai’s brother, Duffy Jackson, performing as a kid drummer with his dad. Duffy became a well-respected drummer, performing with the Count Basie Orchestra, Sammy Davis, Jr.’s TV Show big band, Monty Alexander, and his own bands.

But what started as my September 4, 2025 interview with Jaijai about her father and brother expanded into an interview about Jaijai’s fascinating career as a music performer and as a key person ion the business side of the music business.

For example, Jaijai was part of a girl group, including Cathy Rich, singing with Buddy Rich’s Big Band. Jaijai also managed her brother, Duffy, and handled Buddy Rich’s contracts while she served as a key person for the famed Willard Alexander Booking Agency.

These days Jaijai Jackson is interested in educating and promoting up-and-coming jazz artists, as well as writing a book about her father, bassist/bandleader Chubby Jackson.

Visit Jaijai Jackson on Linkedin at her “The Jazz Network Worldwide” & “Not Just Jazz Network.” https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1607627/

Chubby Jackson, Jaijai Jackson, Duffy Jackson
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Added Percussion

Posted on August 16, 2025 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: Friday morning my car was alive with sounds of music.

Listening in my VW Golf Sportwagen, enroute to pick up my grandson, and listening to guitarist Kenny Burrell’s “God Bless the Child” album on the CTI label.

This is a wonderful album with superb musicians including Freddie Hubbard (trumplet), Billy Cobham (drums), Ron Carter (bass), arrangements by Don Sebesky, and percussion by Ray Barretto and Airto Moreira.

Among the album tracks are some pretty ballads: “A Child is Born,” “God Bless the Child,” and “Ballad of the Sad Young Men.” For no apparent reason, this morning I was mostly listening to the percussion instruments. Cobham’s drumset playing, yes. But listening moreso to Moreira and Barretto.

This Burrell album was recorded and released in 1971. On some tunes, I found myself analyzing the percussionists, wondering, if this session took place today, 54 years after the original session, if the producer would allow these percussion sounds on the master tracks. Might those sounds be left out? Or maybe mixed more in the background?

My mindless questioning. I was mostly having fun listeing to the percussionists, picturing the percussion instruments, and imagining how the percussionist (probably Airto) looked while making the sounds I was hearing.

During one song – I forget which – I was driving immersed in a percussion wonderland. Really good.

But when the song ended, I discovered my right blinker clicking had been on the whole time, part of the percussion mix!

Again, driving home with my grandson in the car, listening to Burrell’s music and percussionists, I thought the use of a police whistle was an interesting choice for a ballad. But, it worked. Sort of.”

The next time I heard the whistle I looked at my grandson playing a game on his iPad.

“Is that police whistle part of this music? Or is it part of your game?” I asked.

“It’s part of my game.”

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Al Foster – No Wasted Notes

Posted on May 30, 2025 by Scott K Fish

SKF NOTE: No wasted notes. Al Foster took the musical vocabulary of bebop, funk, and fusion, distilled each into its essentials and no more, and swung always with grace and power.

Thank you, Mr. Foster. You will be missed.

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