Ich hab die letzten Wochen das Gefühl, immer wenn ich nicht da, explodiert hier die Diskussion (nicht die Bildchen, die sind ja schnell nachgeholt) …
@imernst: hätten auch vier oder fünf 
sein können, das war nicht im 1-5 Sterne-Schema gedacht … hab auch CD 2 noch angehört und Deine Liner Notes gelesen – besonders angesprungen bin ich natürlich auf den Punkt mit den Amateur-Musikern. Weisst Du zufällig, ob das Ende der Sechziger gewonnene Jazzfestival in Zürich noch immer das Amateur-Festival war? In der (Deutsch-)Schweizer Jazzszene gab es ja in der Nachkriegszeit und definitiv noch bis in die Sechziger tiefe Gräben, und nur nur die Amateur-Musiker hielten sich für richtige Musiker (die anderen mussten wohl irgendwelche Brotjobs bei Tanzbands oder der Radioband oder so annehmen, um über die Runden zu kommen). Es gibt die ganzen Taxifahrer-Stories, aber auch Pierre Favre, der für Paiste (Schweizer Cymbal-Hersteller) arbeitete und sich als Sekretärin dann Irène Schweizer holte … das ist dann (für Favre) immerhin ein der Amateur-Tätigkeit naher Job, wie es bei vielen wohl nicht der Fall war. Ganz typisch dazu der Wiki-Eintrag zu Bruno Spörri (Spoerri? So schreibt hier den Namen niemand, aber ausser Bruno Spoerri prozessiert hier auch eher niemand gegen Jay-Z und obsiegt dann auch noch), in dem steht: „Zu Beginn der 1960er Jahre arbeitete er als Psychologe und Berufsberater, spielte aber in der Freizeit auch im Quintett von Remo Rau und Hans Kennel.“
Ich glaub vor ein paar Jahren hatte ich die Frage schon mal aufgeworfen, ob es dieses Schisma in der deutschen Jazzszene auch gab – falls ja, dann nicht halb so tief, denn viele Leute waren in DE ja schon in den Fünfzigern oder Sechzigern (als die Diskussion in der Schweiz noch voll im Gang war) institutionell untergekommen oder angedockt. Das dauerte hier deutlich länger (die Jazzschule Bern wurde 1967 gegründet, da waren Favre und Schweizer eben noch „Amateure“).
Was Elvin Jones und Japan angeht, das müsste wohl irgendwo nachzulesen sein? Und ja, hier gefunden (ab S. 83):
EJ: Pardon, me. Well we met in… the first time I saw here was 1962. And she had just come from Japan with her father. We were working a Birdland. And she had wanted to come down to the…she came down. Her father is waiting outside. She came with this bouquet of flowers and she wanted to give it to me, and get an autograph and all that. And she had on this beautiful kimono. And I just said, “Come here baby.” I was crazy! (Laughs) And she ran out of there and I didn’t see her for another four years.
(Keiko interjects. Her speech is inaudible)
AB: Did you get his autograph? (Laughs)
EJ: She’s got it now! (Laughs)
(Keiko interjects. Her speech is inaudible)
AB: So you met him again, four years later, how did that happen?
EJ: Well when we went to Japan on one of George Wein’s tours. This was supposed to be like the drum battle so it was Art Blakey, Tony Williams and myself. Oh yeah Wayne Shorter, Ben Tucker. Who was playing piano? I forgot. McCoy! Yeah, and the next time her father sponsored one of the…when we went to Nagasaki he was one of the sponsors.
(Keiko interjects. Her speech is inaudible)
AB: When, Keiko, when you were first in the country and you were with your father, what was your father’s job?
Keiko Jones: My father, long story but short he wants to sell the public… (Inaudible)
AB: In Nanping?
(Keiko inaudible)
AB: So you were in the states in 1962 and then you went back to Japan? And when did you get back from Japan, cause you meet Elvin in ’66?
Keiko: We were staying in the America for the only six days. New York for two days because I wanted to hear the jazz but I missed the opportunity.
EJ: (Laughs)
AB: (Laughs) That’s a very aggressive drummer in that situation.
(Keiko inaudible)
AB: So you met again in Nagasaki? So you went to Nagasaki to perform during this drum battle tour?
EJ: Yes, right.
AB: How long was that tour?
(Keiko inaudible)
AB: he what?
EJ: He (Tony Williams) was a drug user cause he got caught with, he had some marijuana. I said, “What are you doing?” Cause he’s out there smoking it on the train and everything. I said, I told him, I said, “You know what you better do is flush it down the toilet. That’s the best thing to do cause you’re going to get caught.”
(Keiko inaudible)
AB: So what happened was that Tony Williams was arrested.
EJ: Yeah.
AB: And you were trying to bargain to keep him here one more day, and deport him the next day to finish one more concert?
EJ: Yeah. He told the policemen I was his partner or something. And so he–
(Keiko inaudible)
AB: Ah, one more name.
EJ: And so he gave him mine. So they just arrested me too. Way up north.
AB: Like Hokkaido?
EJ: Yes. It was a long ways.
Keiko: He left I went to the Tokyo to meet him at the airplane. He was handcuffed up and I died.
AB: This is the second time you him?
Keiko: Yes. And I saw him and I said, “How dare!” So I hate Tony Williams from that moment, forever, until he die. Never! How could he do such a thing!
AB: Did you ever talk to Tony, why he did that?
Keiko: No.
EJ: I think what he did was just that he was young guy, and he was scared shitless, so he did whatever the detective told him to do. He became an auxiliary policeman. (Laughs)
AB: What was your relationship with Tony Williams up until this point? (Laughs) We can imagine what it was like afterwards?
EJ: We were just playing the drums! He was a good drummer, he is. He is a fantastic drummer. I thought he was going to go places when I saw him with Miles cause he was fabulous, like magic, the way he played.
AB: That’s tragic. I had never heard this before. So then what happens now? Keiko comes to see you and you’re handcuffed at the airport?
(Keiko inaudible)
AB: So they have you handcuffed, and what do they put you in Japanese prison? So what the rest of the tour goes back to the states?
Keiko: Yes! He did this for the hearing for the not guilty. He didn’t! So I was in another city and I don’t know nothing about what is going on. I was contact promoter’s assistant. His name Akamica and he say, “You gotta’ come up” and it was December and I was so busy with my father so I have excuse. Ask my father, “I have to ride in to Tokyo.” I saw him and he didn’t see me cause after that, thank god he say, “That’s number 11C, Mr. Jones.” That’s the first time I’ve ever been to jail anyways (inaudible) then I spoke to the promoter and I say, “Listen, I’m sorry Elvin is lost” so (inaudible) I almost scream at this promoter. (Inaudible) Once you get deported you can never come back! Elvin got deported February 7th, 1967. (Inaudible) So I went to Tokyo to see the ambassador. American Consult to tell to these guys (Inaudible).
AB: So, thank you so much. So she sees you, so how long were you detained in Japan.
Keiko: October 31 to February 7th.
EJ: Yeah.
AB: You were in a Japanese jail that long?
EJ: Well first I was in… I went to prison to wait for the trail and after the trial I was deported. So I went to the immigration people.
AB: Still under Japanese authority or were you placed under American authority?
EJ: Oh no, I was under Japanese authority. That was Japan.
AB: Okay.
EJ: One of the guards he wanted me to get some exercise. And he let me out of the cell and he said, “I’m going to show you how to play Karate.” And he was giving me Karate lessons.
Keiko: After the trial he has to stay in the jail, I say, “No way.” So we, I and the promoter, work together and to get release for him. So then he’s got a free, and he stay, and we at hotel. And then that’s the reason why he works with Japanese musicians (Inaudible).
AB: They found him guilty again, so the appeal was guilty again?
Keiko: Then I was in Japan and I was in Nagasaki and they say, “he’s gotta deport” and I say, “When?” and they say “tomorrow.”
EJ: Well I lost a good set of drums; I know that, I don’t know what happened to them. Somebody stole them.
Keiko: (Inaudible)
EJ: That’s Art Blakey with his lying ass! (Laughs)
AB: (Laughs) Okay well that fills in a lot of gaps for ’67.
Keiko: (Inaudible)
AB: So 11 years?
EJ: We had the chief of the USSIS and his wife as our guests and the ambassador wrote a beautiful introduction of our program and it came out very well.
Keiko: That’s the only way I take him to Japan. From that moment every year I took him to clear up his name. From next year we have hard time cause we have to stay at hotel in airport.
AB: Narita Airport?
Keiko: Yes. I don’t mind and I explain to Elvin everything and 5 to 6 years later he is the only one who was deported to Japan and come back. He was the only one left free.
AB: What happened to Tony? Was he let free because…Was he let free because he put him in?
EJ: Sure.
AB: So he went back with the rest of the tour, and you’re the only one who had to stay behind?
EJ: Well he didn’t go back with the tour, he was deported, cause the rest of the tour was going on. You know, Kenny Clarke had to take his place, to fill in. And he stayed about three days and he said, “Let me get out of here!” (Laughs)
—
Es läuft zur Nacht, auch aus der aktuellen PM-Reihe:
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Ed Bickert (PM, 1975) – mit Don Thompson und Terry Clarke
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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, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba