The New Jazz Musings

 It's so great I found these words from Stanley Crouch in a 1991 reissue of two recordings from 1969. There isn't much information available, and when Stanley really puts what was happening on the West Coast in perspective it's gold dust. "We are fortunate that Thiele saw his way to make these recordings". Amen "In 1969, when the John Carter-Bobby Bradford Quartet and the Horace Tapscott Quintet made these recordings, Los Angeles was no longer considered much of a jazz town. Even though musicians like Lawrence Brown, Lionel Hampton, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Mingus, Art and Addison Farmer, Teddy Edwards, Frank Morgan, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry, Gary Peacock, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins and others were either born and bred there or put together their music in that land of smog and movie stars, the scene these two bands found themselves in the middle of was essentially quite bleak. Long gone were the good times that rolled along the black community...

Bob Thiele was already an industry veteran when he joined Am-Par/Impulse in 1961. He was mainly an A&R man, but had also been a small record label owner and a jazz magazine publisher. Later on in his Impulse career, towards the end of the 1960s he saw major labels like his own ABC Paramount fundamentally change. Due to the growth of performers who wrote their own music and used independent producers, traditional A&R men like Bob Thiele were becoming obsolete.  Oliver Nelson, Bob Thiele, Ron Carter and Thad Jones at an FD Recording Session (Photo: Chuck Stewart) Whilst at Impulse Thiele had created his own production company called Flying Dutchman, producing Impulse records such as 'Karma' by Pharoah Sanders. When a dispute surfaced with label boss Larry Newton during a recording session with Louis Armstrong, Thiele realised he would have to resign before being pushed from Impulse. He subsequently resigned and created Flying Dutchman Records, developing distribution arra...

 Knowing that 1965 was such a transformational year for John Coltrane, the one when he evolved from his "Classic Quartet", experimenting with some of the younger, more avant-garde musicians in live settings, and in some studio sessions, I decided to post each of thirteen (became fourteen) albums on Instagram that emanated from the 1965 sessions (in recording date order). Not including some other live sessions (mainly on CD). Trane was feeling the need to change by adding other musicians. He was experimenting more than usual, and recording more. The output from 1965 was immense. The second seven records are below, with information on the recording sessions. #8 in 1965. The Friday following the Monday Ascension session at Van Gelder's, there was a slot for Coltrane and the Quartet at the Newport Jazz Festival. Impulse recorded One Down, One Up and My Favorite Things and also Archie Shepp's afternoon set. The album New Thing at Newport was released early '66 and feat...

Knowing that 1965 was such a transformational year for John Coltrane, the one when he evolved from his "Classic Quartet", experimenting with some of the younger, more avant-garde musicians in live settings, and in some studio sessions, I decided to post each of thirteen albums on Instagram that emanated from the 1965 sessions (in recording date order). Not including some other live sessions (mainly on CD). Trane was feeling the need to change by adding other musicians. He was experimenting more than usual, and recording more. The output from 1965 was immense. The first seven records are below, with information on the recording sessions. #1 of 13. The quartet entered Van Gelder's on Feb 17th for two days' recording with Art Davis on 2nd bass. On the 1st day Nature Boy, Feelin' Good and Chim Chim Cheree were laid down. All material from this session was unreleased until this double album in 1978, when one of the Nature Boy takes was included. From a recording later ...

Bob Thiele Loved Getting His Photo On Impulse Gatefolds For the May 1968 issue of Canada’s CODA Magazine, Frank Kofsky sat down with Bob Thiele of ABC/Impulse Records to talk about John Coltrane. This May ’68 issue became a Memorial for Coltrane featuring the Kofsky interview (eight pages), a Late Trane retrospective, a discography and an extensive Visual Essay from photographer Joe Alper. The editorial mentioned the desire to present a visual rather than a literary viewpoint of ‘the man and his music, for the camera caught much of the strength and passions of the man’. Frank Kofsky was a writer and an academic, penning several books, many articles and record liner notes. An avowed Marxist, he became a champion of Avant-Garde black music in the 1960s. In late 1966 Kofsky held, what is likely, the most insightful interview with Trane. Insights from the interview with Thiele have already been quoted elsewhere. What’s interesting is the new information it contains (for me), plus the corre...

I've mentioned in other blog posts about John Coltrane's troubles during the 1962 to early 1963 timeframe. He had been experiencing adverse criticism in the music press, he had mouthpiece troubles, embouchure trouble, perhaps due to dental issues, and marital problems. Frank Kofsky's extensive interview with Coltrane in 1965 has been making really interesting reading. Trane was known for not really opening up during interviews, but he did much more so for Kofsky. What's seems clear to me now is that Trane was suffering from a crisis of confidence during the 1962/1963 period, which was likely triggered by his family problems, then exacerbated by his horn problems, then the critics. Trane felt his mouthpiece was not allowing him to perform accurately at speed the way he wanted, but in retrospect it probably was. He didn't replace the mouthpiece, and after a year he just felt comfortable again. Impulse's desire to broaden Coltrane's catalogue worked at that p...

O n March 6 th 1963 the John Coltrane Quartet recorded a session at Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs NJ. In 1966, Impulse released their third volume of previously unreleased tracks from various artists (The Definitive Jazz Scene Vol. 3, Impulse AS-9101). It included a version of Vilia recorded at that March 6 th session. Both Directions at Once : The Lost Album Some time after this LP release, the original master tapes of the March 6 th session were lost or discarded. However, as was the usual practice for Coltrane, Van Gelder recorded a ¼ inch, 7.5ips mono tape for him to listen to at home. It was this tape that was the source for Both Directions at Once : The Lost Album, issued earlier this year. In 1962 and 1963 Bob Thiele of Impulse persuaded Coltrane to issue albums with more accessible music, complementing his more adventurous material. Thiele had been concerned about the negative press Trane had been receiving from some critics, and wanted to prov...

For weeks Archie Shepp had been trying to get in touch with Bob Thiele at Impulse Records. A family man living on meagre cash in hand, he had harassed Impulse's offices with phone calls: "I phoned from the pharmacy at the bottom of my building and, with ten cents a call, I spent a dollar a day trying to reach Bob. Each time, Lillian his secretary answered that he had gone to lunch, or gone home". One night, Shepp sat in with John Coltrane at the Half Note and got up enough courage to ask if he would intercede with Thiele. After some hesitation and suggesting that "a lot of people think I'm easy", he agreed. The next day Bob Thiele is out again, but his secretary tells Shepp that her boss is waiting for his phone call. When they finally talk to each other, the producer sets his conditions. It will be an album of John Coltrane's compositions in tribute form. "I had a reputation for being a strong leader, with already very decided ideas, and he pro...

1965 was a stellar year for John Coltrane, only two years away from his untimely death from liver cancer. His spirituality found its voice the year before, recording A Love Supreme on December 9 th and 10 th at Van Gelder’s studio. ALS was released in February 1965 and garnered attention through Impulse’s ‘teaser’ advertising and disc-jockey promotions. By 1965 Bob Thiele was increasingly signing contemporary younger artists based on the word of John Coltrane. Initial sales would not be stellar for those artists, but Impulse had been a catalogue label, frequently re-issuing records. ALS started slowly but picked up through 1965 causing a re-pressing earlier than normal at Impulse. By the end of the year it was winning popularity polls. Through 1965 John Coltrane logged no less than thirteen studio sessions, including New Jersey, New York, San Francisco, and Washington (State). He was recorded live in Seattle, Los Angeles, Newport RI, Paris and Antibes, France. He would vary ...