Das Piano im Jazz

Anscheinend ist Nate Morgan gestorben, fünf Jahre nach einem Schlaganfall.
http://stompbeast.blogspot.ch/

Dave Douglas verfasste damals, 2008, einen Eintrag für seine Website:

Dave DouglasMorgan, the very definition of the oft-used phrase “musician’s musician,” was a cornerstone of Horace Tapscott’s Ark (it was he who told a teenage Jesse Sharps about this cat named “Horace” and this band he practiced out in front of the Watts Happening coffeehouse) and led the famous late-night jam sessions in the mid-nineties at the 5th St. Dick’s Coffeehouse. He spent a few years in the 1970s with Rufus and Chaka Khan and collaborated in the early 90s with rappers Bone Thugs N’ Harmony. He is also one of the best-kept secrets of Los Angeles jazz: besides his frequent residencies at Charlie O’s in Van Nuys, Morgan most often popped up in a private home salons in Encino given by writer/historian Mimi Melnick, spinning his intoxicatingly fluid.style (heavily influenced by Stanley Cowell and McCoy Tyner) on a prime-condition 1922 Steinway with the likes of Arthur Blythe, John Heard, Charles Owens, Onaje Murray, Michael Session, Roberto Miranda, Nedra Wheeler and Sonship Theus. He provided some of the salon’s best moments, including a memorable “double piano” duet with Elias Negash and a 2-hour solo performance that many who attended consider the best live show they have ever seen, especially when Morgan played his ode to the late Horace Tapscott, “Tapscottian Waltz,” a song that has never been recorded. “I think it’s one of the most beautiful compositions I’ve ever heard–and the way he played it that day, everybody was crying,” writer Steven Isoardi recalls. “I had to get up and leave. I was pacing in the front room. It was just too overwhelming.”

Masabumi Kikuchi (1939-2015)

Pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, one of jazz’s most original musicians, has died in New York, aged 75. Born in Tokyo, Masabumi Kikuchi, known to musicians everywhere by his nickname Poo, played with Lionel Hampton and Sonny Rollins while still a teenager, and made his recording debut in the early 1960s with Toshiko Akiyoshi and Charlie Mariano. In the 1970s he collaborated with Gil Evans and Elvin Jones and led his own groups, drawing influence from Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, as well as from Stockhausen, Ligeti and Takemitsu. Although he recorded only one studio album for ECM – “Sunrise” released in 2012 – he was an inspiration for musicians associated with the label, including Gary Peacock, Paul Motian and Thomas Morgan, admired for his rigorous individuality and his determined distance from all trends. In his last years Poo began to play a more inner-directed music, pursuing what he termed “floating sound and harmony”, and which he documented on many private recordings. “I’m more free now”, he announced at 70, “because I started believing in myself. When I sit down at the piano I do not prepare what I will play nor do I think about how to play, and I believe I found the way of putting out something new, and I guess I could call it my own”.

Photo: Arne Reimer
Quelle (Text und Photo): http://www.ecmrecords.com/news/masabumi-kikuchi-1939-2015/

John Taylor (1942-2015)

It has been announced that the he very great pianist John Taylor, a towering figure in European jazz, died last night, Friday 17th July, He had a sudden heart attack while performing in Stephane Kerecki’s band at the French Saveurs Jazz Festival. He was resuscitated on the spot but died later in hospital. He has been a respected, loved, hugely influential figure over half a century, both as player and teacher. He has recently been playing as well as ever, and had a busy schedule planned for the autumn. He will be sorely missed. In sadness.

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2015/07/rip-john-taylor-1942-2015.html

ich höre mich zur Zeit durch die Bill Evans Verve Box. Tolle Musik, überwiegend, aber die bescheidenen Liner Notes machen es mir unmöglich, den roten Faden bei den Veröffentlichungen zu erkennen. Ich mache mit der Riverside Box weiter.

Ich kann nicht wirklich eine Logik erkennen, weder in der Chronologie noch Vollständigkeit.

nail75Das sind die gesammelten Sessions für Verve angereichert mit ein paar Kuriositäten. Das beste sind sicher die Liveaufnahmen, aber insgesamt ist die Box kein guter Einstieg in der Werk von Bill Evans. Die Riverside Box ist weitaus besser und insofern auch schlüssiger.

Ok, Danke. Ich finde es irritierend, dass im Booklet auf die regulären LP´s verwiesen wird. Ich hatte dadurch den Eindruck, hier wären auch vollständige Alben enthalten.

Finde die Box dennoch insgesamt gut.

Mark WeberWow, I just ordered a copy of recently released CD of pianist Roosevelt Wardell ! Horace always talked about this guy, he was legendary in Watts. The Fresh Sound record company have re-issued his only album. I’ll finally hear this mystery artist. Horace always talked about him and Elmo Hope. You can hear a lot of Elmo in Horace’s piano.

Quelle: aus den Kommentaren hier: http://markweber.free-jazz.net/2012/04/10/horace-tapscott-sextet-session-dial-b-for-barbra/

Auf CD bei Freshsound zusammen mit zwei mir ebenfalls unbekannten Alben von Evans Bradshaw – kennst das schon jemand? redbeans?