GONE TOO SOON - Jazz Legends who died young

[Fiftyfifty]

That was wonderful @moktan ! Both songs performed so evocatively. I hadn't heard Jimmy Greene before and this is a discovery for me. I am often disappointed when listening to a new artiste, because maybe with age, I have stopped enjoying music that is unfamiliar and does not conform to my definition of how jazz should sound. But not this time. I enjoyed this and will look up the album.

Billie Holiday, as we all know, is another legend in the list of those who left us too soon. One of the greatest influences on American music, died of liver disease at 44. Cheated in love, cheated in business and addicted beyond repair - a tragic life that sometimes reminds me of our own star Meena Kumari, who too died of liver disease. As she lay dying, Billie's hospital room was raided and she was placed under police guard, arrested and handcuffed for drug possession. In her final years, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750, which was a tabloid fee, on her person. (@rikhav )

So it goes..........

 

[vivek_r]

Another artist who is so ubiquitous in our (favourite) era of jazz that it is shocking he died in his 30s is Paul Chambers. Again, like Christian for guitar, he defined a bass sound. More melodies, improv and a certain status for bass. You can see him a lot on this classic - am sure Audiophiles have used this as demo!

Monk, Miles, Coltrane- so many iconic albums have his sound.

Ps in case already posted apologies!

 

[Jayant_S]

That was wonderful @moktan ! Both songs performed so evocatively. I hadn't heard Jimmy Greene before and this is a discovery for me. I am often disappointed when listening to a new artiste, because maybe with age, I have stopped enjoying music that is unfamiliar and does not conform to my definition of how jazz should sound. But not this time. I enjoyed this and will look up the album.

Billie Holiday, as we all know, is another legend in the list of those who left us too soon. One of the greatest influences on American music, died of liver disease at 44. Cheated in love, cheated in business and addicted beyond repair - a tragic life that sometimes reminds me of our own star Meena Kumari, who too died of liver disease. As she lay dying, Billie's hospital room was raided and she was placed under police guard, arrested and handcuffed for drug possession. In her final years, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750, which was a tabloid fee, on her person. (@rikhav )

So it goes..........

How about we do a happy thread as well? All the famous Jazz artists who stayed relatively clean and made it big AND lived long happy lives? Could be a very short thread though!

 

[moktan]

Bassist - Jimmy Blanton (1918-1942) one of the most influential bassists ever by elevating it from a time keeping contrivance to a solo voice ..

From the Penguin Jazz Guide ..
Gerry Mulligan said (1992): ‘The arrival of Jimmy Blanton was the birth of the modern rhythm section. It was like putting a new engine into a Rolls-Royce, except this was an engine you wanted to just listen to, and not just drive around with!’

Jack The Bear from Never No Lament (DUKE ELLINGTON The Blanton Webster Band ) is an example...but first the upbeat and swinging title track ...also please check out Sepia Panorama

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Another artist who is so ubiquitous in our (favourite) era of jazz that it is shocking he died in his 30s is Paul Chambers. Again, like Christian for guitar, he defined a bass sound. More melodies, improv and a certain status for bass. You can see him a lot on this classic - am sure Audiophiles have used this as demo!

Monk, Miles, Coltrane- so many iconic albums have his sound.

Ps in case already posted apologies!

Yes indeed, Paul Chambers! "His contribution on Kind of Blue is considered to be some of the most rhythmically and harmonically supportive bass playing in the history of jazz"
He was also among the first jazz bassists to solo with a bow.

 

[Fiftyfifty]

How about we do a happy thread as well? All the famous Jazz artists who stayed relatively clean and made it big AND lived long happy lives? Could be a very short thread though!

No, there were many. Jayant, why don't you start a thread and we can all contribute?

 

[Jayant_S]

No, there were many. Jayant, why don't you start a thread and we can all contribute?

Will do, Kishore. Reading about the sad lives of so many jazz legends gets overwhelming

 

[mpw]

Could be a very short thread though!

My spidey sense agrees..

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Lee Morgan (1938 – 1972)
Instrument: Trumpet
Genre: Bebop, Hard bop and crossover Pop

There's so much to say about this outstanding trumpeter and his life, I'll need to post this in parts. And I don't know where to begin - at the start of his career or at its end!

I decided to start with this wonderful 10 minute interview with Bob Cranshaw where he talks about Lee and his talent. And the making of The Sidewinder. The video includes some 'out-of this world' trumpet playing by Lee. Watch for:
• the very natural sound – played from his heart with genuine expressiveness as well as fireworks
• great articulation, as if he was speaking sentences, with spaces and triple tonguing. Somewhat like the Shehnai or the Sarangi in Indian Classical.

I could watch this a thousand times:

 

[Sushant Sharma]

Lee Morgan (1938 – 1972)
Instrument: Trumpet
Genre: Bebop, Hard bop and crossover Pop

There's so much to say about this outstanding trumpeter and his life, I'll need to post this in parts. And I don't know where to begin - at the start of his career or at its end!

I decided to start with this wonderful 10 minute interview with Bob Cranshaw where he talks about Lee and his talent. And the making of The Sidewinder. The video includes some 'out-of this world' trumpet playing by Lee. Watch for:
• the very natural sound – played from his heart with genuine expressiveness as well as fireworks
• great articulation, as if he was speaking sentences, with spaces and triple tonguing. Somewhat like the Shehnai or the Sarangi in Indian Classical.

I could watch this a thousand times:

"genuine expressiveness as well as fireworks". Hear,Hear.

 

[moktan]

Clifford Brown - Just 4 years of recordings, and he is considered to be the greatest trumpeter of all time. Brown died at 25 in a car accident. This is his story:

He started playing the trumpet at 13. One of the few jazz musicians with a college degree at that time, Cliffford Brown stayed clean - no heroin, no booze! In 1950, when he was just 19, Brown was involved in a serious car accident after a successful gig. During his year-long hospitalisation, Dizzy Gillespie visited the younger trumpeter and pushed him, convinced him to pursue his musical career, which many thought was finished. Brown's injuries limited him to the piano for months; he never fully recovered and would routinely dislocate his shoulder for the rest of his life. The accident delayed his recording debut until 1952.

Brown is said to have been influenced by the playing styles of Fats Navarro and Roy Elridge - note the high register solos and long improvisational lines. He, in-turn, influenced a whole generation of trumpet players, including Woody Shaw, Art Farmer, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Wynton Marsalis and many others.

He formed a legendary band with Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, who played together on many landmark recordings. Brown is credited with 13 compositions, including 'Joy' and 'Dahoud' that have become jazz standards.

The fatal accident

This was exactly four years after the first accident:
"Just hours before his death, Brown had been playing at a Philadelphia record store and the jam was recorded; it featured some of the best music he ever played. The man they called Brownie, who was already being placed in the same league as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, died aged just 25, in a car accident en route from Philadelphia to Chicago. Also killed in the crash was budding pianist Richie Powell, brother of Bud, and Richie’s wife, who was driving. One of jazz’s great hopes turned into one of jazz’s great what-might-have-beens!"

Clifford Brown was posthumously awarded a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement. Several 'tribute' albums have been recorded in his honour, including those by Helen Merril, Duke Pearson and Arturo Sandoval. The composition ‘I remember Clifford’ by famed tenor player Benny Golson is a jazz standard.

A well-known documentary ‘Brownie Speaks’ has been made depicting his life. The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is held each year in Delaware, his birthplace.

Coming up: I will post some interviews and videos of this legendary musician.

Enjoy!

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Lee Morgan: His arrival on the jazz scene

He started playing publicly at 18, first with Dizzy Gillespie and then with John Coltrane. Listen to the 19 year old Lee holding his own with Coltrane on the latter's Blue Train album to fathom the depth of his talent.

With a distinctive style that had influences of Clifford, Fats and Dizzy, Lee joined Art Blakey in 1958. Recorded 25 albums during 1959–61. Blakey taught Morgan how to control an audience, to carry them from climax to climax, leaving them exhausted and begging for more. He also taught him to love heroin. Blakey had said to Lee and pianist Bobby Timmons, “I’ll have you guys turned on in two weeks.” He kept his word.

Both Lee and Timmons got hooked on heroin. Lee was forced to leave the 'Messengers' in 1961 on account of his addiction.

The Sidewinder
In 1963, recorded ‘Sidewinder’ such a hit that Blue note encouraged other bands to emulate the ‘bugaloo’ beat.
"When his band ran out of material to record during a Blue Note date in late 1963, Morgan disappeared into the bathroom. He was gone long enough that his bandmates began to worry he would emerge too high to play, but he returned with “The Sidewinder,” a driving, ten-minute blues number scratched out on a few sheets of toilet paper.
For the next few years he drifted, and the $15,000 he made from “The Sidewinder” slowly disappeared. By 1967, that money was long gone, and Morgan was seen, “sleeping on the curb outside Birdland without shoes, sleeping on pool tables in bars, wearing a dirty suit over his pajamas, stealing a television set from a hotel lobby for quick cash.” More of the story in the next post.....

The attached video shows some of the highlights of Lee's career. You'll also see other amazing musicians who played with him, including saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who later went on to form 'Weather Report' with Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius:

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Helen saves Lee and, 5 years later, shoots him dead:

Lee Morgan was found on the kerb in 1967 by Helen Morgan, who saved and nurtured him like a wife, mother and manager all in one
Quotes from the net in italics:"On an icy night in 1967, one of the world’s greatest trumpeters didn’t own a trumpet. His horn was in the pawnshop, along with his winter coat, sold to pay for heroin. Three years after releasing one of the most successful jazz albums of the 1960s, Lee Morgan was in the depths of a drug habit that had consumed him for nearly a decade. Even if he’d had a trumpet, he was so out of practice that he could barely play. That was the night he met the woman who would save his life. She got the coat back for him, along with his trumpet, and like a lost puppy, he followed her home."

Helen “took over total control of Morgan’s life.” She kept watch over him constantly, waiting until he was asleep to leave the apartment and run errands. She shot him dead 5 years later, at Slug’s saloon in New York

"On February 18, a bitter winter storm snarled traffic throughout New York. Driving to Slug’s, Morgan was turning a corner when his car hit a patch of ice, spun out of control and smashed into the curb, totally wrecking it. Rather than wait for a tow truck, Morgan grabbed his horn and walked the rest of the way to the gig. The wreck steered the talk towards Clifford Brown, Morgan’s mentor from back in Philadelphia, who had died in a car accident on a snowy night fifteen years earlier. “On that Saturday,” Helen said, “I don’t know what possessed me. I said, ‘I’m going to Slug’s.’ She arrived well after midnight, during a break between sets. She entered, saw the woman sitting at Lee’s table, and the shouting began. Finally, Morgan took Helen by the arm and threw her out the front door, sending her sprawling onto a foot-high bank of fresh snow. “And I saw Morgan rushing over there to me and all I saw in his eyes was rage.” So she pulls out the gun and shoots him in the chest. He falls to the ground. They call for the ambulance which is late to arrive because of the snow storm, while Morgan bled to death."

 

[Jayant_S]

Helen saves Lee and, 5 years later, shoots him dead:

Lee Morgan was found on the kerb in 1967 by Helen Morgan, who saved and nurtured him like a wife, mother and manager all in one
Quotes from the net in italics:"On an icy night in 1967, one of the world’s greatest trumpeters didn’t own a trumpet. His horn was in the pawnshop, along with his winter coat, sold to pay for heroin. Three years after releasing one of the most successful jazz albums of the 1960s, Lee Morgan was in the depths of a drug habit that had consumed him for nearly a decade. Even if he’d had a trumpet, he was so out of practice that he could barely play. That was the night he met the woman who would save his life. She got the coat back for him, along with his trumpet, and like a lost puppy, he followed her home."

Helen “took over total control of Morgan’s life.” She kept watch over him constantly, waiting until he was asleep to leave the apartment and run errands. She shot him dead 5 years later, at Slug’s saloon in New York

"On February 18, a bitter winter storm snarled traffic throughout New York. Driving to Slug’s, Morgan was turning a corner when his car hit a patch of ice, spun out of control and smashed into the curb, totally wrecking it. Rather than wait for a tow truck, Morgan grabbed his horn and walked the rest of the way to the gig. The wreck steered the talk towards Clifford Brown, Morgan’s mentor from back in Philadelphia, who had died in a car accident on a snowy night fifteen years earlier. “On that Saturday,” Helen said, “I don’t know what possessed me. I said, ‘I’m going to Slug’s.’ She arrived well after midnight, during a break between sets. She entered, saw the woman sitting at Lee’s table, and the shouting began. Finally, Morgan took Helen by the arm and threw her out the front door, sending her sprawling onto a foot-high bank of fresh snow. “And I saw Morgan rushing over there to me and all I saw in his eyes was rage.” So she pulls out the gun and shoots him in the chest. He falls to the ground. They call for the ambulance which is late to arrive because of the snow storm, while Morgan bled to death."

View attachment 45545

On my turntable tonight. The innocence and brilliance of an 18 year old’s debut album

 

[Fiftyfifty]

On my turntable tonight. The innocence and brilliance of an 18 year old’s debut album

View attachment 45546
View attachment 45547

Can't believe it is his debut album! Listening to it on Tidal now. Lyrical solos by Lee and Horace Silver. Philly Joe Jones too is outstanding!

 

[Jayant_S]

Can't believe it is his debut album! Listening to it on Tidal now. Lyrical solos by Lee and Horace Silver. Philly Joe Jones too is outstanding!

Yes it is an unbelievable debut! 18 YEARS OLD!

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Yes it is an unbelievable debut! 18 YEARS OLD!

On repeated listening I'd like to rename it 'Horace Silver Indeed

 

[Jayant_S]

On repeated listening I'd like to rename it 'Horace Silver Indeed

I hear what you mean
How many such albums have we wanted to rename?
I'd like The (Dave Brubeck) Paul Desmond Quartet for starters!

 

[Fiftyfifty]

Cornet



"The cornet is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality.
Unlike the trumpet, which has a cylindrical bore up to the bell section, the tubing of the cornet has a mostly conical bore, starting very narrow at the mouthpiece and gradually widening towards the bell. The conical bore of the cornet is primarily responsible for its characteristic warm, mellow tone, which can be distinguished from the more penetrating sound of the trumpet.
The cornet was invented by adding valves to the post horn around 1828. The valves allowed for melodic playing throughout the register of the cornet. Trumpets were slower to adopt the new valve technology, so for the next 100 years or more, composers often wrote separate parts for trumpet and cornet. The trumpet would play fanfare-like passages, while the cornet played more melodic passages."

The Cornet in Jazz music

"In old style jazz bands, the cornet was preferred to the trumpet, but from the swing era onwards, it has been largely replaced by the louder, more piercing trumpet.
Louis Armstrong started off on the cornet but his switch to the trumpet is often credited with beginning of the trumpet's dominance in jazz. Cornetists also contributed substantially to the Duke Ellington Orchestra's early sound.
Notable performances on cornet by players generally associated with the trumpet include Freddie Hubbard's on Empyrean Isles by Herbie Hancock and Don Cherry's on The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman."

Quotes from Wikipedia

This post is relevant to this thread. Any guesses why or how? (Spoilers welcome)

 

[Fiftyfifty]

C Melody Saxophone


Like the name suggests, this is a saxophone pitched in the key of C, a full note higher than the tenor saxophone which is in Bb. This saves the saxophonist from transposing music from the written key into Bb. It was used in early jazz music (and also in orchestral music), but is very uncommon now.