Who’s Alive?
Roy Haynes
Living in New York City and being a somewhat infamous collector of jazz records, people often ask me if I still see a lot of live jazz. My standard reply is “no because anybody I would really want to see is dead.” I realize this is a flippant response and not 100% true because I do occasionally see live jazz, but it still sometimes gets a chuckle and in my business you never cut funny. In any case, I was thinking about that this morning and my mind started racing and trying to remember who actually is alive from the era that we write about here at Jazz Collector.
When you think about it, as I did, this is 2019, which means any artist who came on the scene or any recording from 1949 is now at its 70thanniversary. I couldn’t come up with a single name from the pre-bop era who is still alive. Am I missing someone? If you look at 1949 as a benchmark, I can come up with four living artists whose recordings/careers go back that far: Sonny Rollins , first recordings in 1949; Roy Haynes, who actually began his recording career in 1945 and even recorded with Bird in the 1940s; Jimmy Heath, who supposedly recorded in the late 1940s, although I can’t find that first date; Lee Konitz, who made his rirst recording in 1949.
Moving into the 1950s era, who is still with us? Benny Golson, Quincy Jones, Lou Donaldson, Kenny Burrell, Eugene Wright, Terry Gibbs, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jimmy Cobb, Wayne Shorter, Slide Hampton, Ahmad Jamal, Toshiko Akiyoshi. Early 1960s? Louis Hayes, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, George Coleman, Charles McPherson, Barry Harris, Gary Bartz, McCoy Tyner, Charles Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Sheila Jordan.
I know I’m missing some names. So you can fill in some of the blanks.
Richard Davis and Reggie Workman is two that comes to my mind.
Caught Gary Bartz with Pharoah and Charles Tolliver at the Winter Jazz Fest, which I normally avoid like the plague but this was not to be passed up. And they were phenomenal. Pharoah seemed to be having a great time and took quite a number of extended tenor solos.
I see quite a bit of jazz; sure, many of the players active from the ’50s forward are no longer with us, but there are a ton of younger players (and some older ones) on the scene. I’ve been richly rewarded with many great concerts in the almost 7 years I’ve lived in NYC, and on the many visits here in previous years/decades.
Hopefully this year I will restart my free jazz/noise/experimental music series The Way Ahead, so for those inclined I’ll keep people apprised.
Oh, and check the concert listings in the New York City Jazz Record — they’re very thorough.
It’s a free paper and a great resource for those living here.
this is depressing. when horace silver, bill dixon, yusef lateef, marion brown, and ornette coleman died…. those hit me hard.
well, they lived full lives and gave us a lot of great music. When you think about it, Bill was a peer of people like Miles, Coltrane, and Dolphy (b. 1925), and he certainly outlasted them. Pretty cool that we got to walk the same earth as these folks.
I have a Jazz listening group that has been meeting once a month for over 30 years. To keep things interesting, we occasionally have themes. One of the themes has been only musicians who are alive. One time when we did that I played Bobby Hutcherson Dialogue with Freddie Hubbard, Sam Rivers, Andrew Hill, Richard Davis and Joe Chambers. They were all alive at the time, which, even then, was quite unusual. The last time we did this, there were still wonderful players but of a new generation. I guess it is true that no one gets out of here alive. BTW please add Lee Konitz.
sorry, I see you mentioned Lee.
last time I saw Konitz he was feeble but still had that sound. Long live LK.
I was recently reminded that George Braith and Jimmy Wormworth are still around.
Worst fucking thing you’ve posted Al.
I think Freddie Redd is still out there kickin’. I share his birthday! (Not birth DATE).
Ron Carter played a few sets at the Blue Note in March of 2018 and being in his shadow from the stage light as he played filled me with the joy that jazz is still alive. One of the few Masters I’ve been blessed to see and hear live. He is still incredible.
saw Jimmy Cobb at age 82 kill it a few months ago at South in Philly.
McCoy Tyner and Ron Carter immediately came to mind.
I’m glad I got to see Jimmy Smith before he died. (I have a few stories about that gig, it’s kind of fun. I’ll share if you like.)
I’m glad I saw Tony Bennett when he still truly had his fastball, this was in 2000. Diana Krall opened and joined him onstage. It was my 21st birthday and is still the greatest show I’ve ever been to. But Tony’s held up well even until today. The recent records he’s made with both Lady Gaga and Bill Charlap were great.
Dave Burrell and Archie Shepp both still play. I saw Burrell a year ago and he was absolutely fantastic!
Thanks, Jazzhead. I’m sure the competition was steep.
Curtis Fuller is still with us, and I believe he still teaches. And Wayne Shorter and Pharoah Sanders, of course.
But I’m with you, and I hate to say it, but I rarely go see live jazz because I feel the same way. I enjoy checking out the younger cats, many of them still in college, who can cook like some of the legends. But I feel that the cheese factor is big with many of the elders who are still alive and performing. So I prefer the youngsters because they are into the hard bop as it is meant to be played.
On a related note, I got to see Miles live in 1990, the year before he passed. I was 15 and not really into jazz (I was more of an Acid Jazz head then), but my older friends convinced me to go, telling me that he was a must-see. The show really sucked, and he did a lot of walking around the stage with a little toot here and there. But it was Miles, and I got to see him. That is all.
I’ll admit I don’t see enough live jazz. Last person I saw was Roy Hargrove and sadly he isn’t with us anymore. Any other Hargrove fans?
There are a couple of factors in play for me about going to see live jazz today. First and foremost I’m not an NYC resident and outside of there and a very few other large cities there are not many small clubs left. When I lived in SF the Keystone Korner was a fabulous venue and that is where i cut my teeth on watching live jazz. I honestly don’t really get the same intimacy at a large outdoor festival or a huge symphony hall like venue that I do in the quiet confines of an “inky dark” small club. Its just not the same. The other factor for me with a lot of newer artists is that the music itself swerves away from the “sound” that moves me so deeply. Jazz is now becoming indistinct from world music and some of the newer cats are actually hip hop and rap blend. I’m old school I guess and whenever I hear some “new thing” I can’t help but measure the sound created against the beauty and purity of Sonny,Monk,Trane and Lee Morgan and I usually walk away from a “new artist” performance feeling unrewarded. I do love Branford Marsalis and Orrin Evans is one hell of a piano player but I find that there are a lot more mediocre players than there are great ones today
GST – I agree, Hargrove was up there, and since I’m a fan of jazz-hip hop collaborations, I really enjoyed his work (his straight ahead hard bop sessions as well).
I don’t think the great ones today are in the hard bop mold. Certainly in more open forms of music there are a lot of young and amazing players.
I live in the UK – unfortunately not many jazz bars or clubs around here! I’ve only been to New York once, a few years ago, with my wife. Before we had kids. We had an absolutely amazing night at some place called… um, 55 Bar, I think? I really do miss that night, heading out and not knowing who or what we were going to get – the surprise element and discovering someone or something new was great and we had an amazing evening. Nothing beats hearing some live music, but especially so if you stumble across something great and really talented musicians like we did that night! I wish we lived there, I’m sure we’d head out all the time!
Love your site by the way 🙂
I just saw The Cookers last weekend in NYC and they were fantasic. Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, and George Cables.
Trying to define great ones in an era like this is kind of fruitless to me. This music doesn’t move the needle culturally or economically like it did 50-70 years ago, and there’s a lot less room left to innovate. It’s become a mature art form. That doesn’t mean the practitioners are any less skilled. We’re just looking at them through a much different lens.
I’ll give you an example. Terence Blanchard is nominated for an Academy Award next month for his BlackKKKlansman score. He gets more commercial respect and kudos from his peers as a minority in a white-dominated industry than he does in the music he came up in. Ask yourself why.
Most great jazzmen of the fifties/ sixties are (physically) no longer with us. At 9 years old i saw Stan Getz with Dizzy and Barney Wilen…more recently Herbie Hancock two times…But there are many jazzmen we can enjoy live. I saw Stefano Di Battista, Laurent de Wilde, Joshua Redman with Billy Hart, Bireli Lagrene, Stanley Clarke, Joachim Kuhn, Erik Truffaz, Eric Legnini…
Andrew Cyrille, Milford Graves, Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Alan Silva, Burton Greene, Reggie Workman.
John Handy is still kicking! He recorded some great stuff with Mingus in the late 50s, and with his own groups on Columbia.
As for live jazz, that was my way into the genre. I have friends who followed the university jazz music degree path, and to be supportive I started going to gigs. The genre has been institutionalized, but there’s still terrific stuff happening, both backward-looking and forward-looking.
If you refer to the Great Day in Harlem photograph, only Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins are still alive.
I feel very blessed to have seen the following major jazz artists play live: Rabih Abou-Khalil, Geri Allen ?, Ron Carter, André Ceccarelli, Jimmy Cobb, Ornette Coleman ?, Steve Coleman, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin ?, Steve Grossman, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Ahmad Jamal, Keith Jarrett, Lee Konitz, Didier Lockwood ?, Joe Lovano, Magma, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Michel Portal, Enrico Rava, Pharoah Sanders, Jack Sheldon, Archie Shepp, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Randy Weston ?, Phil Woods ?, and John Zorn.
I have chased some of them specifically because they were getting in their later years. Some of them were great (Johnny Griffin, Bobby McFerrin, McCoy Tyner), some of them less so.
I do feel that I was the very last generation (I am 37) to have had this opportunity.
If you refer to the Great Day in Harlem photograph, only Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins are still alive.
I feel very blessed to have seen the following major jazz artists play live: Rabih Abou-Khalil, Geri Allen ?, Ron Carter, André Ceccarelli, Jimmy Cobb, Ornette Coleman ?, Steve Coleman, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin ?, Steve Grossman, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Ahmad Jamal, Keith Jarrett, Lee Konitz, Didier Lockwood ?, Joe Lovano, Magma, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Michel Portal, Enrico Rava, Pharoah Sanders, Jack Sheldon, Archie Shepp, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Randy Weston ?, Phil Woods ?, and John Zorn.
I have chased some of them specifically because they were getting in their later years. Some of them were great (Johnny Griffin, Bobby McFerrin, McCoy Tyner), some of them less so.
I do feel that I was the very last generation (I am 37) to have had this opportunity.
Yeah, I’m a few years older than you and feel the same way. Never did see Woods or Griff play, though. What a treat!
Thanks for this post. I feel privileged to have seen Jimmy (Little Bird) and Al (Tootie) Heath play a superb set in a tiny club (capacity 75!) during the Montreal jazzfest about five years ago. I was accompanied by my wife, my usual concert buddy, and my dad, who has since left the planet, and who introduced me to jazz back in the 70s via the MJQ and Miles (although it took me decades to get into the genre seriously, via an interest in vinyl and a focus on the great hard bop and soul jazz artists). Dad and I chatted with Jimmy and Al afterward, and Dad mentioned having seen their brother Percy with the MJQ in the late 50s. The evening remains one of my fondest memories of my Dad in his later years.
Just to say that there are still intimate small clubs around with the kind of jazz we love now played by a young genration of wonderfull musicians taking their inspiration in the 50s and 60s but adding their own touch. Both Gothenburg and Copenhagen have such clubs, yesterday I attended a friday afternoon concert at Jazzcup in Copenhagen, max capacity 50-60 people, with Jan Harbech tenor, Magnus Hjort piano,Snorre Kirk drums. They are superb muscicians with a line of CDs that you will find on Stunt Record. Check out and you will be surpriced. I heard all the great Americans since the mid 60s but these guys equal them
Kristian
oh yeah, the Danish scene is really rich and has been for decades. Probably not too many Americans know about it, alas. Many of my favorite jazz players are from that part of Europe.
Hal Singer, who started with Ernie Fields’s territory band in Tulsa in the late 1930s, and first recorded with Roy Eldridge in 1944, is still alive – and taking bookings, according to his website! Also making the 1949 cutoff date, and not already mentioned, are Sammy Nestico (first recorded 1946), Candido (1948) and Marshall Allen (1949).
If we admit big band vocalists, there are some who really take the cake, such as Vera Lynn (first recorded 1935) and Doris Day (1940)…
Just remembering, like so many above (thanks!)..
Last year North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam.. listened to Pharaoh Sanders with my (then) 10 years old daughter (she fell asleep, but was amused as well).
Three (?) years earlier: Benny Golson telling stories and playing in-between (really good stil). Also saw Martial Solal then.. Dutch improvised jazz veteran Han Bennink as well.
2005: McCoy Tyner, NSJ still on the original location in The Hague..
Before that.. 1988!! Oscar Peterson.. Gerry Mulligan, Willem Breuker.. And: Art Blakey!! (still wondering who was playing with him back then).
Some good memories there!
I saw Johnny Griffin first in Alfortville, France in 2001. He was playing with Steve Grossman, Alain Jean-Marie and Pierre Michelot (who died in 2005). He played great especially on a Loverman solo feature that my dad and I still remember fondly.
I saw him a second time in Paris at L’Olympia in 2005. He was playing with Kenny Garrett. He could barely walk across the stage but still managed to play well on a few tunes.
I saw Phil Woods in Paris in 2008. He was playing with Pierrick Pedron and Alain Jean-Marie. He played great and signed some of my CDs including The Individualism of Gil Evans, Quincy Jones’ This Is How I Feel About Jazz, Quincy Jones’ The Quintessence, Quincy Jones’ Live at the Alhambra ’60, and Legrand Jazz. He complained that none of the CDs were his 🙂
How about my boss the great bassist Ron Carter?