Some "Lucky" Thompson ... Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny - Allmusic.com Born in Columbia, SC, on June 16, 1924, tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson bridged the gap between the physical dynamism of swing and the cerebral intricacies of bebop, emerging as one of his instrument's foremost practitioners and a stylist par excellence. Eli Thompson's lifelong nickname -- the byproduct of a jersey, given him by his father, with the word "lucky" stitched across the chest -- would prove bitterly inappropriate: when he was five, his mother died, and the remainder of his childhood, spent largely in Detroit, was devoted to helping raise his younger siblings. Thompson loved music, but without hope of acquiring an instrument of his own, he ran errands to earn enough money to purchase an instructional book on the saxophone, complete with fingering chart. He then carved imitation lines and keys into a broom handle, teaching himself to read music years before he ever played an actual sax. According to legend, Thompson finally received his own saxophone by accident -- a delivery company mistakenly dropped one off at his home along with some furniture, and after graduating high school and working briefly as a barber, he signed on with Erskine Hawkins' 'Bama State Collegians, touring with the group until 1943, when he joined Lionel Hampton and settled in New York City. Soon after his arrival in the Big Apple, Thompson was tapped to replace Ben Webster during his regular gig at the 52nd Street club the Three Deuces -- Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Art Tatum were all in attendance at Thompson's debut gig, and while he deemed the performance a disaster (a notorious perfectionist, he was rarely if ever pleased with his work), he nevertheless quickly earned the respect of his peers and became a club fixture. After a stint with bassist Slam Stewart, Thompson again toured with Hampton before joining singer Billy Eckstine's short-lived big band that included Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey -- in other words, the crucible of bebop. But although he played on some of the earliest and most influential bop dates, Thompson never fit squarely within the movement's paradigm -- his playing boasted an elegance and formal power all his own, with an emotional depth rare among the tenor greats of his generation. He joined the Count Basie Orchestra in late 1944, exiting the following year while in Los Angeles and remaining there until 1946, in the interim playing on and arranging a series of dates for the Exclusive label. Thompson returned to the road when Gillespie hired him to replace Parker in their epochal combo -- he also played on Parker's landmark March 28, 1946, session for Dial, and that same year was a member of the Charles Mingus and Buddy Collette-led Stars of Swing which, sadly, never recorded. Thompson returned to New York in 1947, leading his own band at the famed Savoy Ballroom. The following year, he made his European debut at the Nice Jazz Festival, and went on to feature on sessions headlined by Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis (the seminal Walkin'). Backed by a group dubbed the Lucky Seven that included trumpeter Harold Johnson and altoist Jimmy Powell, Thompson cut his first studio session as a leader on August 14, 1953, returning the following March 2. For the most part he remained a sideman for the duration of his career, however, enjoying a particularly fruitful collaboration with Milt Jackson that yielded several LPs during the mid-'50s. But many musicians, not to mention industry executives, found Thompson difficult to deal with -- he was notoriously outspoken about what he considered the unfair power wielded over the jazz business by record labels, music publishers, and booking agents, and in February 1956 he sought to escape these "vultures" by relocating his family to Paris. Two months later he joined Stan Kenton's French tour, even returning to the U.S. with Kenton's group, but he soon found himself blacklisted by Louis Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, after a bizarre conflict with the beloved jazz pioneer over which musician should be the first to leave their plane after landing. Without steady work, he returned to Paris, cutting several sessions with producer Eddie Barclay. Thompson remained in France until 1962, returning to New York and a year later headlining the Prestige LP Plays Jerome Kern and No More, which featured pianist Hank Jones. Around this same time his wife died, and in addition to struggling to raise their children on his own, Thompson's old battles with the jazz power structure also remained, and in 1966 he formally announced his retirement in the pages of Down Beat magazine. Within a few months he returned to active duty, but remained frustrated with the industry and his own ability -- during the March 20, 1968, date captured on the Candid CD Lord, Lord Am I Ever Gonna Know?, he says "I feel I have only scratched the surface of what I know I am capable of doing." From late 1968 to 1970, Thompson lived in Lausanne, Switzerland, touring widely across Europe before returning the U.S., where he taught music at Dartmouth University and in 1973 led his final recording, I Offer You. The remaining decades of Thompson's life are in large part a mystery -- he spent several years living on Ontario's Manitoulin Island before relocating to Savannah, GA, trading his saxophones in exchange for dental work. He eventually migrated to the Pacific Northwest, and after a long period of homelessness checked into Seattle's Columbia City Assisted Living Center in 1994. Thompson remained in assisted care until his death on July 30, 2005. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lucky-thompson-mn0000302799/biography
GENE KRUPA JAZZ TRIO Here is a radio music library of jazz music by the Gene Krupa Trio recorded from a 16" diameter CAPITOL TRANSCRIPTION radio transcription disc. SONGS: DARK EYES / 10 RITCHIE DRIVE / HOW HIGH THE MOON KING COLE TRIO Here is a music library of King Cole Trio songs recorded from one side of a 16" C P Mac Gregor radio transcription disc. This is the format used to send music libraries and radio programs to radio stations, this one from the 1940. Track 1 - LITTLE JOE FROM CHICAGO Track 2 - RHYTHM SAM Track 3 - HAVE FUN Track 4 - SUNNYSIDE OF THE STREET Track 5 - BACK HOME IN INDIANA
I got really early this morning. I went to YouTube to find Molly Hatchet! I saw them a couple of times in the 80's. One particular time was at The Saddle Rack, when it was in San Jose. I was front row, boy could Danny Joe Brown sing! RIP Danny Joe..
ADRIAN ROLLINI TRIO from 1949 Radio Transcription Here are a couple songs by the Adrian Rollini trio featured on the Treasury Department's 15 minute "Guest Star" radio program promoting Savings Bonds. This program was to be aired after Dec 4, 1949. This recording was made from a 16" radio transcription and has been edited to include only the Adrian Rollini content. DIZZY GILLESPIE RADIO MUSIC LIBRARY c 1946 Here is a great music library of Dizzy Gillespie tunes from about 1946 recorded from an AFRS radio transcription, a 16" diameter record that radio stations used to contain music libraries and radio programs. Featured here is: ANTHROPOLOGY , OL' MAN REBOP , NIGHT IN TUNISIA , and 52ND STREET THEME.
The UK 1940s Radio Station plays music and historical news broadcasts from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, that would have been heard predominantly in England and the USA. Love this stuff!
Our Man In Paris - Dexter Gordon [FULL ALBUM] This 1963 date is titled for Dexter Gordon's living in self-imposed Parisian exile and recording there with two other exptriates and a French native. Along with Gordon, pianist Bud Powell and Kenny "Klook" Clarke were living in the City of Lights and were joined by the brilliant French bassman Pierre Michelot. This is a freewheeling bop date with the band working out on such categoric standards as "Scrapple from the Apple," and "A Night in Tunisia." In addition, American vernacular tunes such as "Willow Weep for Me" and "Stairway to the Stars" are included. Gordon is at the very top of his game here. His playing is crisp, tight, and full of playful fury. Powell, who at this stage of his life was almost continually plagued by personal problems, never sounded better than he does in this session. His playing is a tad more laid-back here, but is nonetheless full of the brilliant harmonic asides and incendiary single-note runs he is legendary for. The rhythm section is close-knit and stop-on-a-dime accurate. Review by Thom Jurek - Allmusic.com http://www.allmusic.com/album/our-man-in-paris-mw0000191916
Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba (1962) - Full Album Partly because of its Brazilian collaborators and partly because of "The Girl From Ipanema," Getz/Gilberto is nearly always acknowledged as the Stan Getz bossa nova LP. But Jazz Samba is just as crucial and groundbreaking; after all, it came first, and in fact was the first full-fledged bossa nova album ever recorded by American jazz musicians. And it was just as commercially successful, topping the LP charts and producing its own pop chart hit single in "Desafinado." It was the true beginning of the bossa nova craze, and introduced several standards of the genre (including Ary Barroso's "Bahia" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Desafinado" and "Samba de Uma Nota Só" [aka "One Note Samba"]). But above all, Jazz Samba stands on its own artistic merit as a shimmering, graceful collection that's as subtly advanced -- in harmony and rhythm -- as it is beautiful. Getz and his co-billed partner, guitarist Charlie Byrd -- who was actually responsible for bringing bossa nova records to the U.S. and introducing Getz to the style -- have the perfect touch for bossa nova's delicate, airy texture. For his part, Byrd was one of the first American musicians to master bossa nova's difficult, bubbling syncopations, and his solos are light and lilting. Meanwhile, Getz's playing is superb, simultaneously offering a warm, full tone and a cool control of dynamics; plus, Byrd's gently off-kilter harmonies seem to stimulate Getz's melodic inventiveness even more than usual. But beyond technique, Getz intuitively understands the romanticism and the undercurrent of melancholy inherent in the music, and that's what really made Jazz Samba such a revelatory classic. Absolutely essential for any jazz collection. Review by Steve Huey - Allmusic.com http://www.allmusic.com/album/jazz-samba-mw0000594010
