|
Posts: 7061
Location: so cal
Joined: September 24, 2003
|
Although my collection is not vast, the MJQ is featured in a small sub collection I enjoy, live recordings from The Lighthouse, in Hermosa Beach Ca.
I collect this vinyl because I used to hang around the outside as a teenager, teens have free time, and enjoy the sounds . On a jammin' night they would open the top of a dutch door, and you could see and hear the stage of the church of jazz, from the sidewalk.
Called the church of jazz, because the jammed seating area was upright bench seating, with low dividers on the long planks that held the two drink minimum in front of you, resembling church pews. There were also tables on the floor. It was just one of the jazz clubs that were popular on main street in every beach city along the coast in the fifties, a little before my time. I remember CAnnonball Adderaly would have lines down the block, in the daytime, in the mid fifties. After he got off work, the lead trumpet player from the tonight show, Maynard Ferguson, because he had a steady gig and a corvette , used to cruise with Chet baker, who would be broke, to these little clubs, sit in and pick up women. Now those clubs are gone, the lighthouse , long owned by a jazz drummer , was the exception. It's now a rock club, with dancing, and jazz on sunday until mid day, which few care about . The rest of this post is all self indulgence, with me talking about me, a style I try to avoid, for the good of mankind, and the more obvious reasons that soon surface should you read it. I wouldn't. As a jazz club, I saw some great stuff there, I guess the most impressive was when Gerald Wilson and his big band would cram in against the back wall, the stage was too small, as was the club really, and blow the place out , once a year on the fourth of July. He was a young man then, with world class talent in the band, playing among the alcohol crazed surfers and bikinied women running loose among the general mayhem that was the fourth of July on the other side of the open dutch door. . I love the power of a big band when they really get going, and nothing else in this world sounds like that. Funny, I always made time to stop and listen , but never went inside. Too many pretty girls outside,I guess, and general mayhem. The old man of today would have camped out in the rare sounds. My favorite performer there was Mose Allison, and I once went up to compliment the guy as he was drinking at the bar, I told him he was my favorite performer, and I really liked his work. He replied, " Is that all?" I told him , " Pretty much , yeah, ' I didn't want to bother the guy on his break.
Luckily , I have improved my social skills a bit since then . Back them I didn't even recognize the missed opportunity for a memorable conversation. I learned how to improvise music there, simply by watching Jon Klemmer play one night, up close. By the time I was old enough to get in legally , jazz was not that popular so I often got choice seating. I once stationed myself so I could watch the hands of Jimmy Smith as he played, He dug it, and did a lot of percussive style that night,moving 'so fast the hands became invisible. You could see the red fabric of his blazer arm as he played, you could see that moving, but past the cuff links,nothing but a see through blur. The guy brought Joy along with talent to the stage. PLus some rootabega Mojo with a tutti fruity on rutti , of course.
|
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3466159-1364312359-1829.jpeg.jpg)
