Jazz for aficionados

orpheus10
Glad you enjoyed the article it was quite extensive and a nice tribute to John Wright. I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment that the music of a time and place is as important in defining that time as any pictures or words maybe even more so. Your memories  and stories relating music two different places and times are always interesting keep them coming!!
 I hope when I receive my John Wright CD and listen to his music that I can capture some of the atmosphere and feeling  of the time& place .
 Obviously I can't come close to your experience as you lived it which makes it so much more special.
 with regards to your  experience with Miles Davis it must have been quite a culture shock. I've read that Legions of fans dropped Miles Davis when he went into his Jazz Rock thing.But miles knew what he was doing he picked up a lot of new fans with the style of music he created at the end of the 60s.   I discovered Miles the opposite of you by first listening to bitches Brew in 1974 . Of course having been exposed to rock music up until this point I thought it was interesting and quite different. When I discovered his earlier work a few years later I was really blown away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aQN6ozACk8
I  will say a prayer for the return of your good health.

pjw you posted a cut from Jackie McClean's Action recently. Are you aware of the album It's Time by McLean which was recorded a little over a month earlier than Action?  it has a slightly different excellent lineup Charles Tolliver& Cecil McBee play on both albums. Herbie Hancock is on the piano & Roy Haynes takes the drum chair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVl5G-gxndM 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiqwsUus-XU

nsp, I do appreciate your prayers for my health, and I'm sure they'll help. I know that just communicating with like minded individuals certainly helps my frame of mind.

In regard to "South Side Soul", I was in my teens, and within walking distance of 63rd and Cottage Grove. This was in the Summer of 56, and Chicago had some of the most spectacular cool nights; you needed a sweater or sport coat in the evenings. My older cousin had a closet full of both.

At this time, you could walk Cottage Grove at night, and feel as safe as in your own yard; the sidewalk was bustling with people; well dressed people I might add.

In the evening, I would choose one of my cousins sharpest sport coats or sweaters, and go strolling on "the boulevard". There was a "Walgreens" with a long lunch counter on 63rd and Cottage, and lots of pretty girls my age would be sitting at the counter enjoying a coke or whatever, but mostly "window shopping". I liked to stroll down the aisle behind them to see how many eyes I caught; that was my evening thrill.

This was only a block away from the fabulous "Pershing Lounge" where star quality people were coming and going; that was the aura in that small part of the "South Side" at that time.

Here are two more "Afro Blakey's"



        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u5WZpSc38g


     
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKvj7z3vLQ



One Miles that everyone likes very much;


        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJEzFvXx3Xw


Plus one from the "infinite Coltrane"; Trane didn't change as much as he "evolved"; there is a big difference.




        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yagO50i6O5E

"I remember Miles, he was the little dark skin kid who was always trying to play the trumpet". That's what the lady who was the most grieved in the funereal limo blurted out.

This was in a funeral limo with people whose families went back to Miles old neighborhood as documented in chapter one of his autobiography. As well as I can remember dates, I can never remember dates of funerals, but I think Miles was still alive at that time. I'm not sure that's even relevant for this story; the real story took place a long time ago.

Back to the funeral limo, and how she came to blurt out that statement. We had been riding a long distance in silence, when someone struck up a conversation about Miles music to lighten things up. This conversation went on for a short while, and the most grieved person in the limo blurted out. "I remember Miles, he was the little dark skin kid who was always trying to play the trumpet", and the limo was dead silent again.

The conversation was about Miles music, not about Miles himself; she was the only person old enough to have known Miles as a child. The time she was referring to is when she lived in a really big house with her husband and his family, that included a music teacher and a musician. This house was located two blocks from Daut's drugstore, where Miles father had his Dental practice.

Any where there were musicians and or, music teachers; Miles could be found if it was close by; she remembered answering the door and letting Miles and his trumpet in to learn whatever they could learn.