Edito de Jazz Piano Masters Live At The New SchoolJAZZ PIANO MASTERS Live At The New School Eubie Blake, Claude Hopkins, Dill Jones and Teddy Wilson,piano; commentary by John Hammond The Teddy Wilson Set 1. Opening Remarks By Hammond & Wilson 2. Solitude/ Take The A Train 3. The Man I Love/ Someone To Watch Over Me/ Nice Work If I Can Get It 4. Body And Soul 5. Lil' Darlin' 6. One O'Clock Jump The Claude Hopkins Set 7. Hammond And Hopkins Comments 8. Indiana 9. Squeeze Me 10. I Would Do Most Anything For You 11. Three Little Words 12. Crying My Heart Out For You The Dill Jones Set 13. Hammond And Jones Comments 14. Just Squeeze Me 15. African Ripples 16. Sign Of The Lion 17. Little Rock Getaway The Eubie Blake Set 18. Hammond And Blake Comments 19. Charleston Rag 20. Melodic Rag 21. Tricky Fingers 22. You Do Something To Me 23. Memories Of You Closing Remarks Producer?s Notes (1977) - by Hank O'Neal The early days of CHIAROSCURO Records were devoted to making piano records. Ten of the first fifteen releases were devoted to solo pianists. I am not hung up on solo piano; I like it a great deal, but in those early days, I discovered the average solo piano record cost a good deal less than an average seventeen piece jazz band. So I made a lot of piano records and most of them turned out well. In 1972, while making solo albums with Teddy Wilson, Claude Hopkins and Dill Jones, I was asked to do a series of four jazz concerts at the New School for Social Research. To say the budgets for each concert was modest is something of an understatement; I had a bankroll of $400 a night to pay musicians. Not much I thought, but enough to get together four pianists to play a half hour apiece for one of the evenings. I called Teddy, Claude and Dill and asked if they had the night free. They did and all agreed to come down to the school. Teddy had a problem, it was easily solved if he could go on first, to enable him to make his 9:30 job uptown. I still had $100 in my pocket, so I continued scheming about a fourth pianists to fill up the bill and then it occurred to me I should call Carl Seltzer, who was working closely with Eubie Blake, making records and getting Eubie?s copyrights in order. A quick chat with Eubie was all that was needed and the concert was set. I then called John Hammond, told him what I had in mind, and he volunteered to be the ?moderator? for the evening. The New School has a pre-war vintage Steinway D, which was finely tuned on the day of the concert by Lucas Mason. A gaggle of young would-be recording engineers from my audio engineering class were recruited to work with some live musicians. They strung miles of cable and set up a two track Revox and a four track Scully with appropriate microphones and mixers. No real thought was given to making a record; the recording equipment was in place for the kids in the class to practice with live, acoustic music. The crew operating the two track failed miserably; their tapes were completely distorted, incomplete and generally confused. The four track crew, however, fared somewhat better and the music on this record was cautiously mixed from their efforts. Both crews completely lost the voice of John Hammond; he is barely audible and that?s a pity, because his comments introducing each pianist contained just the right mix of historical authority and sincerity. He is unsurpassed at this kind of presentation. Too bad the mikes missed it; maybe next time. Teddy led off and was flawless; his selections here are the highlights. I had never heard him play the Ellington material and it was a treat. Missing from the disc, but present at the concert were most of his famous things associated with Goodman, some Waller material and a few of Count Basie?s greatest hits. Claude Hopkins ran on stage and ripped apart Indiana, Three Little Words, Squeeze Me and a few others. I remember John standing with his mouth open as Claude rippled up and down the piano; he?d known him since the late twenties, but only as an extremely facile pianist, leading his own band. Few people knew what Claude could do as a soloist, and that night John, who has made more than his share of discoveries made a new one. Dill Jones came next, and, for my money is one of the most underrated guys in town. To my ears he plays piano the same as Dylan Thomas reads his poetry. And in Dill?s case, it is his own songs he plays best, much the same as Thomas? finest readings were of his own work. No Dill Jones originals here, but outstanding renditions of tunes by Joe Sullivan, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. And then, before John could even announce him, Eubie Blake, ?the wonder of the ages,? as John described him later that night, burst upon the stage. It was lucky Eubie went on last or no one else would have had a chance; you can?t follow him because anything following Eubie is anticlimactic and besides, he played twice as long as anyone else. He played joyously, with enthusiasm and vigor and the audience responded in kind. Perhaps it wasn?t always so much fun for him, but in 1972, the opportunity to play before a a few hundred students, whose grandparents weren?t even born when he wrote his first song, was worth far more than the money he got for his night?s enjoyment. I said earlier, this concert was not recorded with the aim in mind of ever issuing it and it sat on my shelf for five years, but the performances and quality of the recording holds up well over the years. It was a happy event, and what is even nicer is that all the participants are still around to get a recording fee for their work, five years previous. Everyone is glad the tape recorders were running; I hope you are well. Producer?s Notes (1999) It is now twenty-seven years since these four wonderful pianists and John Hammond assembled at the New School on April 10, 1972. The only people left from the production team are Fred Miller and myself, although Lucas Mason remains my piano technician of choice. Paul Weinstein still produces jazz concerts in the main auditorium of the recently renamed New School University, but mostly the concerts are more modest, in a fine, though smaller, facility, associated with the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program at the university. There are two hundred plus students at any given time and my guess is the vast majority know nothing of Dill Jones or Claude Hopkins; the piano majors may know about Eubie Blake and Teddy Wilson, but for the most part these four fine artists are largely forgotten. Teddy is discussed a little these days, but primarily because of his association with Billie Holiday. On the day this concert was presented there were a lot of nines going around. Dill was the youngest at 49, Teddy was only 59, Claude was 69 and Eubie was a very robust 89. Its hard to believe, but he still had nearly eleven years of playing and composing in front of him. The four guys covered a wide range of older jazz piano styles, a good overview for the youngish audience that normally attended the New School Jazz Rambles. Eubie was there at the beginnings of ragtime and jazz, while Claude emerged during the golden age of Harlem and though from Washington, was influenced by the great New York City-based stride masters. Teddy was Texas-born, a true original, Tatumesque and swing oriented, but uniquely himself. Dill Jones, the youngest and from Wales had absorbed much from the stride players who had preceded him, but was at his best in a much more modern, poetic style, that rarely surfaced because audiences wanted to hear him play Fats Waller favorites. It was a good mix of styles. Lire la suite