Weil ich gerade gemerkt habe, dass die get happy!?-Website abgeschaltet ist – von:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130816190924/http://gethappymag.de/chicagojazz
The Chicago Sound – Jazz in der Windy City
von: Redaktion
Webspecial zu Ausgabe #4
Chicago bietet einen reichen Fundus an Jazzaufnahmen. Schon einige der wichtigsten Tondokumente früher Jazzer aus New Orleans entstanden in der windy city am Lake Michigan. Von Bix Beiderbecke und Art Hodes über Dinah Washington, Gene Ammons und Ahmad Jamal bis zu Sun Ra, dem Art Ensemble of Chicago oder Anthony Braxton und vielen anderen versucht die folgende Liste, einen kleinen Überblick über die unzähligen wichtigen Aufnahmen zu schaffen, die der Jazz aus Chicago bietet.
Traditional Chicago Jazz
Bix Beiderbecke and The Wolverines 1924-1925 (Timeless)
Bix Beiderbecke with Jean Goldkette’s Orchestra 1924-1927 (Retrieval)
Bud Freeman – Chicago/Austin High School Jazz in Hi-Fi (RCA Victor)
Art Hodes – Tribute to the Greats (Delmark)
Art Hodes – Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now (Candid)
Singin’ the Blues
Lorez Alexandria – Lorez Sings Prez (King)
Bill Henderson – Bill Henderson (Vee Jay)
Dinah Washington – Dinah Jams (EmArcy)
Dinah Washington – For Those in Love (EmArcy)
Boogie, Bop and Boogaloo
Gene Ammons – Jug (Prestige)
Gene Ammons – The Black Cat (Prestige)
Johnny Griffin – Way Out! (Riverside)
Lin Halliday – Where or When (Delmark)
Eddie Harris – The In Sound (Atlantic)
Ahmad Jamal – At the Pershing: But Not for Me (Argo)
Clifford Jordan & John Gilmore – Blowing in from Chicago (Blue Note)
Ramsey Lewis Trio – The In Crowd (Argo)
Red Rodney – Modern Music from Chicago (Fantasy)
Sonny Stitt – At the D.J. Lounge (Argo)
Ira Sullivan – Bird Lives (Delmark)
Frank Strozier – Long Night (Jazzland)
Clark Terry – Out on a Limb with Clark Terry (Argo)
Baby Face Willette – Behind the 8 Ball (Argo)
Avantgarde: North Side Chicago
Joe Daley – Joe Daley Trio at Newport ‘63 (RCA Victor, Reissue angekündigt: Phonographic International)
Hal Russell – The Hal Russell Story (ECM)
The Flying Luttenbachers – Destroy All Music (ugEXPLODE)
Witches and Devils – At the Empty Bottle (Knitting Factory)
Avantgarde: AACM
Muhal Richard Abrams – Levels and Degrees of Light (Delmark)
Fred Anderson – Dark Day/Live in Verona 1979 (Message, Reissue: Atavistic)
Art Ensemble Of Chicago – People in Sorrow (Pathé Marconi)
Air – Air Time (Nessa)
Lester Bowie – Numbers 1 & 2 (Nessa)
Anthony Braxton – 3 Compositions of New Jazz (Delmark)
Anthony Braxton – Six Monk’s Compositions (Black Saint)
Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre – Humility in the Light of Creator (Delmark)
Roscoe Mitchell – Nonaah (Nessa)
Revolutionary Ensemble – The Psyche (RE: Records, Reissue: Mutable Music)
Henry Threadgill – Just the Facts and Pass the Bucket (About Time)
Funk from Saturn
Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble – Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble (aka „On the Beach“, Zulu/Katalyst)
Eddie Harris – The Electrifying Eddie Harris (Atlantic)
Sun Ra – The Singles (Saturn/Evidence)
Carrying on the Tradition
Muhal Richard Abrams – SoundDance (Pi Recordings)
Jason Adasziewicz – Sun Rooms (Delmark)
Robert Barry & Fred Anderson – Duets 2001: Live at the Empty Bottle (Thrill Jockey)
Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble – Cape Town Shuffle: Live at Hot House (Delmark)
Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio with Special Guest Billy Bang – Live at the River East Art Center (Delmark)
Vandermark 5 – Simpatico (Atavistic)
Exploding Star Ochestra – We Are All from Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey)
Von Freeman – Vonski Speaks (Nessa)
Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things – Stories and Negotiations (482 Music)
Sticks and Stones – Shed Grace (Thrill Jockey)
Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur libres (Constellation)
Henry Threadgill – Tomorrow Sunny / The Revelry, spp (Pi Recordings)
Friends and Neighbours
Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet + 1 – 3 Nights in Oslo (Smalltown Superjazzz)
Misha Mengelberg – Two Days in Chicago (Hat Hut)
Irene Schweizer/Fred Anderson/Hamid Drake – Willisau & Taktlos (Intakt)
Ken Vandermark Resonance Ensemble – What Country Is This? (Not Two)
Zusammengestellt von Flurin Casura, Kamil Moll, Thorsten Ragotzky, Ingo Rother und Nikolaus Schweizer
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Making a Difference. Ein Gespräch mit Chuck Nessa
Aufnahme-Session zu Roscoe Mitchells „The Maze“ (courtesy of Nessa Records)
Mit kleinem Budget produziert Chuck Nessa seit den Sechzigerjahren auf seinem Label Jazz-Aufnahmen, die einige der wichtigsten Musiker und Bands Chicagos präsentieren. Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Lester Bowie, Wadada Leo Smith oder Von Freeman haben für Nessa Records Aufnahmen gemacht, die zu ihren schönsten zählen. Chuck Nessa war es immer wichtig, Musik zu dokumentieren, die Aufmerksamkeit verdient und musikalische Horizonte erweitern soll.
On your website, you state: „The label was started in 1967 at the urging of Roscoe Mitchell and Lester Bowie. Since then we have cautiously built a small catalog of recordings we feel worthy of attention and support from folks interested in expanding their musical horizons.“ Please tell us how you hooked up with Roscoe and Lester and how you ended up actually heading a record label!
In 1966, while working at the Jazz Record Mart, I convinced [Bob] Koester [of Delmark Records] to begin a series of recordings by members of the AACM. We signed Roscoe, Joseph Jarman and Muhal Richard Abrams to contracts calling for one recording per year for three years. I oversaw first recordings by Roscoe and Joseph but left Delmark before Muhal’s first date was recorded, though I attended the session at Muhal’s request. The following year Roscoe and Lester wanted to make their second record and came to me. I said I would speak to Koester about it but when I did Bob (still angry because I left) started screaming at me and threw me out of the store. When I reported this to the guys they encouraged me to do it myself. The first sessions were done under Lester’s name since Roscoe was under contract to Delmark. I should point out during this period I was in constant contact with the guys at concerts, rehearsals, in our homes, etc.
Given how much jazz changed overall at that time, how did the music scene of Chicago change in the late sixties?
The only real change in Chicago at the time was the proliferation of „self produced“ concerts and gigs. The AACM encouraged members to create their own performance situations. A few took place in bars/clubs but the majority were in schools, theaters, community buildings and churches.
Can you expand on the relation of „your“ musicians and the deep jazz tradition of Chicago? What part do the roots of Chicago jazz, the awareness of its deep tradition play in the music of the avantgarde?
I think all musicians are influenced by their „community“ while developing, and a decent analysis of this is beyond my powers of observation.
I know Von Freeman, Eddie Johnson and Ira Sullivan were all deeply influenced by direct exposure to Bird, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young but these influences were in addition to the information already absorbed from the „community“ – jazz and blues.
One exception with the AACM guys was the appreciation of the musicians of the 1920s: Armstrong, Dodds, Morton, etc. This was a couple of generations earlier and not something they absorbed in their environment, but something they sought out.
What are the differences – musical, social, political – between Chicago’s avantgarde and the more famous free jazzers from New York?
I never spent much time in New York in the 1960s so I can’t add much. I know some of the AACM guys made trips there and the general consensus was that it was „cut throat“ and lacking the cooperative outlook of Chicago.
Roscoe Mitchell (courtesy of Nessa Records)
The band on your first release, Lester Bowie’s „Numbers 1 & 2“, was an early edition of the Art Ensemble of Chicago: Bowie, Mitchell, Jarman and Malachi Favors. The Art Ensemble, particularly Roscoe Mitchell, are core musicians of your label’s catalogue. You recently released – for the first time – an early document of Mitchell’s: „Before There Was Sound“, which at the same time seems to be the earliest recording documenting the AACM. Can you explain what makes Mitchell and the Art Ensemble the extraordinary musicians they are?
When I first heard Roscoe’s group I had no idea what was going on but I could tell the group was completely in control of the material and I wanted to figure it out. I started going to every possible performance and some rehearsals. In very short order I was completely absorbed in the music. I was also helped greatly by discussions with Roscoe and Lester Bowie. They always stressed building a performance by listening to one another, responding with something original or do nothing at all. Form and space were/are very important to them.
On Roscoe Mitchell’s second Nessa release, there is a funky romp by Lester Bowie, „Tatas-Matoes“, with Malachi Favors playing a bass line that would have made James Brown proud. Chicago-based jazz musicians – Lester and Joseph Bowie, Phil Cohran, Eddie Harris, Maurice White – had a particularly close relation to R&B in the sixties. How did that come about?
R&B was everywhere and lots of it was being recorded in the Chess studios. Lester was originally from St. Louis and he toured with a number of groups from there and in Chicago gravitated to studio work at Chess. My friend Terry Martin was just asking if I remembered a Fontella Bass recording session with Lester and Roscoe. Terry was at the session but I was not. Lester also did a bunch of work with Jerry Butler touring and recording. The AACM musicians and the Earth Wind and Fire crowd were of the same generation, went to school together, the whole deal.
Donald Myrick (the Pharaohs and Earth Wind and Fire) went to high school with Roscoe. This takes us back to that „community“ I mentioned earlier.
The track on „Congliptious“ was definitely meant as a tribute to the James Brown band. They admired those guys.
For what it’s worth, remember that we recorded „Congliptious“ in the Chess studios and „Snurdy McGurdy“ was done at Curtis Mayfield’s.
Chicago has a famous tradition of tenor saxophone players. One of its most-treasured exponents was Von Freeman (1923-2012) who kept a low profile but was a mainstay of the local scene. You produced arguably his finest records in 1975, how did that happen?
Von Freeman was in Las Vegas during my first time in Chicago. I was away from Chicago from the Fall of 1968 until Spring of 1975 but managed to hear him on a couple of visits to the city. The first time (August 2, 1970) he was playing with Red Rodney, Dexter Gordon, Jodie Christian, Rufus Reid and Roy Haynes. I had no special impression from that experience.
I later heard him in a 3 tenor thing with Gene Ammons and Hank Mobley. When I returned to Chicago in ‘75 my friends Terry Martin and John Litweiler were trekking to the Enterprise Lounge on 75th Street every Monday night to hear Von. They said he was playing extremely well. After about a dozen trips there I spoke with Von about recording. I suggested using his current group with Wilbur Campbell subbing for his regular drummer and he agreed. The plan was to record like it was a club set no second takes and we would choose material for an LP from the evening’s work. We had a small audience and recorded from 6 until midnight and wound up with 15 tracks recorded.
How did your label evolve? After three productions centred around the Art Ensemble, you produced albums by as varied a bunch of musicians such as: Warne Marsh, Air (Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins, Steve McCall), Charles Tyler, Bobby Bradford and John Stevens with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Wadada Leo Smith, Hal Russell, veteran swing tenor Eddie Johnson, or the lamented late tenor great Von Freeman we just discussed. Was there a creed you followed, do you have some kind of a mission statement?
I never had very much money. A few times I initiated a project and borrowed money from family or friends to complete it. I guess my method was to record music that I thought had to be recorded and the recording could make a difference. Each project evolved individually. I searched out Warne Marsh and spoke with him on the phone a few times and we eventually engineered a weeklong gig in Chicago for Supersax to get Warne to town. I guess it really was me looking around for the best thing to record with the money at hand.
Do you have any favourite moments, remembrances to share from your recording sessions? Any noteworthy events, episodes … ?
In the late spring of 1977 Roscoe Mitchell invited me to his home in Wisconsin to discuss the next project. He had ideas for two new compositions to be written for specific musicians and the sound qualitites of their various instruments. He did not want to expend the effort on these pieces if we couldn’t record them, since performance opportunities would be difficult. I agreed, Roscoe began the work and ultimately we had „The Maze“ for 8 percussionists and „L-R-G“, a trio for woodwinds, high brass and low brass.
The participating musicians were located in the Midwest and East Coast areas and we agreed to do the recordings in the East. First up was rehearsal and recording of „The Maze“. In early July we rented a 19-foot truck in Wisconsin, loaded Roscoe’s instruments and drove to Chicago to pick up instruments from the players from there. Roscoe drove the truck to Woodstock, New York. He had arranged for us to use the Creative Music Studio to house and feed the participants for a week of rehearsal in their facilities. At the end of the week we loaded all the gear into the truck and Anthony Braxton’s van for a trip into NYC for the session. I had rented the famous Columbia Records 30th Street Studio. Studio set-up, recording and tear down took 8 hours. The instruments going back to Chicago were loaded into the truck and in a few days Malachi Favors drove them back home.
Next, Roscoe returned to Woodstock to begin rehearsals with Wadada Leo Smith and George Lewis. I joined them for the last couple of days and we then drove to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to record „L-R-G“. We finished two complete takes in 4.5 hours at RVG’s. George and Leo headed for home in Leo’s car and Roscoe and I loaded the tapes and his horns in a rented car for the journey back to Chicago and Wisconsin.
In the planning stages Roscoe mentioned he wasn’t sure about the performance duration of the two pieces. He said we might have a 2 record set. We had not anticipated having a record and a half. Driving to Chicago we discussed the problem. I knew Roscoe had been compiling a series of alternate fingerings and techniques for multiphonics on his curved soprano sax – he called this his S II book. I suggested recording some of this material as „S II Examples“. On August 17, 1978 we entered Streeterville Studios in Chicago and completed the recording.
This project took over a year to execute and was the most complex production we attemped.
… favourite albums from your catalogue?
They are like children … I have different reasons for liking all of them.
Are there any musicians you regret not having recorded or recorded more thoroughly? Any missed opportunities?
I regret not recording Muhal Richard Abrams, but he was always being recorded so it was not necessary.
I regret not making the one definitive Joseph Jarman recording but the stars were never in the proper alignment.
I always wanted to do a duo date with Roscoe and Malachi, but …
I wanted to do a duo session with Ruby Braff and Earl Hines. Stanley Dance and Dan Morgenstern talked me out of it. They both said it would be a disaster because of the conflicting personalities. I should have done it.
I had two projects thwarted by the artist’s managers because I wasn’t big enough.
One was Cecil Taylor’s quartet with Jimmy Lyons, Sirone and Andrew Cyrille. Years later Cecil told me to always ignore his „people“ and speak directly with him. Sigh.
The other was an Andrew Hill date with Von, Malachi and/or Richard Davis and Wilbur Campbell. Andrew came to me with the idea and his „manager“ killed it.
Nessa Records is unlikely to be an economically lucrative venture – what prompted you to hang in there and keep it going to this day?
Early on, I had dreams of building the company to a level of twelve new recordings a year but I didn’t have the skills to manage that.
What is your personal motivation behind it?
An amalgam of responsibility to the artists, their reputations and now memory combined with a healthy dose of ego/pride in my own work keeps me going.
Interview: Flurin Casura
Photos zur Verfügung gestellt von Nessa Records
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #151: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv – 09.04., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba