{"id":99,"date":"2005-08-07T19:43:32","date_gmt":"2005-08-08T02:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/?p=99"},"modified":"2005-08-07T19:44:03","modified_gmt":"2005-08-08T02:44:03","slug":"missed-basses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"Missed Basses"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you get to be a certain age the number of entries in your address book across which you scribble \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deceased\u00e2\u20ac\u009d begins to increase. I know this, and given that my husband knows more dead people than live ones, I really shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be the one to comment. Still, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but notice that six world-class jazz bassists, five of whom I knew personally, have died in the last three-and-a-half months, starting with former Ellington bassist, Jimmy Woode, who passed away on April 22nd, and ending with Keter Betts who died this past weekend. In between, we lost Percy Heath (April), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (May), Pierre Michelot, and Al McKibbon (July). If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve forgotten anyone, let me know.<\/p>\n

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\nI first met Jimmy Woode in a recording studio in Berlin. It was June of 1969. We (Mom, me, and my best friend Daisy) were with Dad on one of his whirlwind tours \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Berlin all in two weeks. For some reason, we flew into East Berlin where Dad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amplifier did not appear with the rest of our baggage. Thankfully, the bus stopped at an outer building where the amplifier was found, and then took us on to West Berlin. Of course the ride included the obligatory stop at Checkpoint Charlie, where, against explicit instructions, we took snapshots and got away with it. It was a trio recording (Daniel Humair on drums), and as producer Joachim E. Berendt pointed out, it was Dad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first recording of his own in more than ten years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Nice To Be With You\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was a family album, if you will, in that Mom wrote the title tune and I am on the cover. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too thrilled with the cover back then \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at thirteen I would have preferred something more glamorous than eating a bockwurst out of my father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand at the Berlin Zoo \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but that was then, and today I wish I had a copy of the original photo.<\/p>\n

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\nIt was Dad who first introduced me to Percy Heath. Percy was playing with The Modern Jazz Quartet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I think it was the 1966 concert at Carnegie Hall. Listening to my Dad, I was familiar with a tune called Bags\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Groove, and the MJQ played it that night; it was probably the only tune I recognized. In recent years, my husband, John, and I have had the pleasure of hanging out with all three Heath Brothers at annual events like Monterey and IAJE conventions. I especially enjoy it as Beverly and Mona (Mrs. Tootie and Mrs. Jimmy, respectively) often travel with them; seeing Percy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife, June, was a much rarer treat. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funny that we always see them on the road and seldom at home, even though Tootie & Beverly are neighbors. John had breakfast with Jimmy and Tootie at the Heritage Festival in New Orleans the day after Percy died. <\/p>\n

I never knew Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen personally, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be a jazz lover and not know his playing, especially his work with Oscar Peterson. Ray Brown, who left us three years ago (it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem like that long) recommended him to Peterson, reportedly saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He’s the only one I know that might keep up with you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The word virtuoso is often over-used, but NHOP was one, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read that he can be heard on more than 400 recordings. Of the many Pedersen-Peterson recordings, The Paris Concert<\/em><\/a>, recorded live in October of 1978, is often singled out.<\/p>\n

Pierre was not so well-known in the U.S., save by those who recognized him as the unnamed bassist in the movie, ‘Round Midnight<\/em><\/a> or knew his work with Miles Davis on Louis Malle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1957 film, Ascenseur Pour L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c3\u00a9chafaud<\/em>. Serious jazz fans, of course, knew him from recordings with Bud Powell, Coleman Hawkins and Buck Clayton, Django Reinhardt, Dizzy Gillespie, and Clifford Brown, among others. I was in my early twenties when I met him in Paris. He, along with pianist George Arvanitas, was working in the tiny cave (basement) of a little nightclub called Le petit Opportun’ (15, rue des Lavandi\u00c3\u00a8res-Ste-Opportune) with saxophonist Jerome Richardson. I remember Pierre as always swinging and smiling, and I was sad to learn that during the last few years of his life he suffered with Alzheimers.<\/p>\n

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\nAl McKibbon I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written about recently (here <\/a>and here<\/a>). I am not sure when I first met Keter, but I think it was in Nice, France, at Le Grande Parade du Jazz<\/em> (the festival produce by George Wein). I was an impressionable sixteen-year-old on a summer excursion, and he was on tour with Ella Fitzgerald. I saw him many times over the years, usually with Ella, sometimes with Joe Williams, later with Etta Jones, and at recording sessions with everyone who was anyone. At home, he was active in the Washington, D.C.-area schools and music programs, taught at Howard University, and coordinated jazz programming for Black Entertainment Television. <\/p>\n

The beat will go on without them, or perhaps, because of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you get to be a certain age the number of entries in your address book across which you scribble \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deceased\u00e2\u20ac\u009d begins to increase. I know this, and given that my husband knows more dead people than live ones, I really shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be the one to comment. Still, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but notice that six … Continue reading “Missed Basses”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jazz-ears","category-people"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}