SKF NOTE: Two photos from the Gordon Lightfoot Facebook page giving us a drummer’s eye view from the bandstand. In this case, the drummer is Barry Keane.
The photo with the seated audience is taken from the bandshell at the Canadian National Exhibition, September 3, 2022.
The photo showing the pre-concert theater seats is the Pablo Centre in Eau Claire, WI.
SKF NOTE: On his Facebook page, musician Charles Lloyd posted this photo on Tony Williams’s birthday, writing:
“Born on the day the drum Master, Tony Williams – propelling us, dancing us, giving us wings to fly higher I was blessed to be in NYC during this very fertile period. Tony was 19 when we recorded my second album “Of Course, Of Course” together with my dear Pisces brother, Gabor Szabo and the legend himself, Ron Carter.”
SKF NOTE: As 2022 draws to a close, bassist, composer, bandleader Charles Mingus is on my mind. Last night, adding more music from my library to my iPod, I was reminded of the never-before-released Mingus albums I’ve purchased recently.
Mingus’s band at the 1971 Newport Jazz Festival first opened my ears and heart to jazz. The jazz I had listened to was a foreign language. It sounded okay, but I didn’t understand it. Imagine listening to a great speaker narrating an audio book in a foreign language. You might think, “I wish I knew what that guy was saying.”
For me, Mingus was the Great Jazz Translator. The moment before Mingus’s band started playing I didn’t understand the language. A song or two into his set at Newport 1971 something changed. I could understand bits-and-pieces. If music was words, I was understanding some of Charles Mingus’s words. More important, although I still didn’t speak the language of jazz, I could understand it.
After my 1971 Newport experience I bought and listened to as many Mingus albums as I could. There was very little of Mingus’s music I didn’t love. Also, I loved his way of presenting his music as “organized chaos.”
He wanted his musicians to take risks. Forcibly, if necessary. Unannounced, Mingus might stop the rest of the band during one player’s solo, basically to see if the soloist could stand on his own.
Mingus’s music uses stop time, half time, double time, and no time. Organized chaos.
And beautiful melodies. Mingus wrote some timeless melodies. Among them, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” “Better Get Hit In Your Soul,” “Peggy’s Blue Skylight,” “The Shoes of the Fisherman’s Wife Are Some Jive Ass Slippers,” and “Boogie Stop Shuffle.”
The recent Mingus releases in my library, all three of them live dates, are loaded with classic Mingus musicianship. Including the “chaos” moment that have me sharply focused, wondering, “Where is the music going?”
The two drummers on these three albums are Dannie Richmond or Roy Brooks. Among the several times I saw Mingus in concert, Dannie was most often the drummer. But I did see-and was very impressed with-Roy Brooks with Mingus in some New York City nightclub.
So, as I leave behind 2022 and ease into 2023, I find it curious that I’ve reconnected with Mingus. There was a long stretch where Mingus’s music didn’t pique my curiosity. As if I had heard enough of it, and maybe it was time to listen to other music.
But these new Mingus releases, and some reissues I’ve picked up of previous Mingus albums, have renewed my love and interest in this great musician. The Great Translator.
In chronological order, the new Mingus albums I’ve acquired, and their respective drummers, are:
Jazz in Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden (2018) – Roy Brooks.
Mingus At Carnegie Hall (Deluxe Edition) [2021 Remaster] – Dannie Richmond.
The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott’s (Live) (2022) – Roy Brooks
Check ’em out. Happy New Year!
SKF NOTE: Merry Christmas. I’ll share what I think is very goods for music lovers in general, and for drummers in particular: New recordings of never released live dates with some of the world’s great drummers.
Our home power went out here in Maine two days ago. Since then, Eileen and I stayed in a nearby Hilton Hotel. One night, to pass time, I visited my Facebook page. I saw an ad from a new to me record company called The Lost Recordings.
“We travel the world in search of rare or previously unreleased recordings by legendary artists. Using a unique restoration project, we bring this priceless heritage back to life,” begins the label’s introduction on their FB page.
I visited The Lost Recordings‘ “HD Download” page. (Not all their albums are available in digital format.) Here are the album artists of my immediate interest: Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (1958), Dave Brubeck Quartet with Joe Morello (1958), Dave Brubeck Quartet with Joe Morello (1967), Thelonious Monk Quartet with Ben Riley (1967), Stan Getz with Roy Haynes (1966), Oscar Peterson Trio with Ed Thigpen (1961), Bill Evans Trio with Jack DeJohnette (1968), and the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet with Mickey Roker (1972).
I bought the 1958 Blakey album last night and it’s great. I’m looking forward to hearing more of The Lost Recordings music.
SKF NOTE: This is an old favorite of mine Modern Drummer cover shot of Tony Williams.
There are a couple of details worth mentioning. This is “Vol. 2 No. 1” cover means this is the first issue of MD‘s second year.
The magazine was still “Published Quarterly.” That means there were four MD issues per year. Roughly one issue every three months.
Finally, the black-and-white cover photo tells us MD had not yet become a four-color magazine.
I was writing for MD at this time, but my first feature interviews, Mel Lewis and Carmine Appice, wouldn’t appear until the April 1978 MD.
Life Beyond the Cymbals
A Blog about Music and Popular Culture
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Life Beyond the Cymbals
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Life Beyond the Cymbals
A Drummer's Look at Drums and Drumming
Scott K Fish 
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