Some Jazz Records: Ed Blackwell Clippings
Comments on recordings from musicians and other actors of the jazz scene. Random and not-so-random listening cues from the archives.
Charlie Parker Quintet, Dewey Square/Earl Coleman, This Is Always, Dial 1019, 1948, 10" 78 rpm.
Ed Blackwell’s main influence as a drummer was Max Roach. During a 1986 WKCR interview, Ted Panken asked Blackwell if he studied Roach off records during his formative years in New Orleans. "Mostly, yeah. That was my schooling, listening to the early Charlie Parker records," Blackwell replied. "'Dewey Square,' all these records on Dial, I used to hear. I went to this music… A drum shop. The owner of this drum shop, he had a… He used to order these records directly from New York for me whenever they would come out. Even before they got to New Orleans on the radio, I would get them privately."
Eric Dolphy, At the Five Spot, Vol. 1, New Jazz NJLP 8260, 1961, LP; Eric Dolphy, At the Five Spot, Vol. 2, Prestige PRLP 7294, 1963, LP; and Eric Dolphy, Memorial Album, Prestige PR 7334, 1965, LP.
"After the gig Eric had a royalty check that he decided to cash and split it up among the group," Ed Blackwell told Robert Palmer of his brief 1961 work in Eric Dolphy and Booker Little’s band at the Five Spot club. "He was so happy. We really loved that. […] But I really enjoyed playing with Booker Little, he was such a beautiful guy, and Eric too. They were such beautiful musicians, they seemed to be so honest in what they were doing. I mean, they didn’t employ any gimmicks or anything, they just went straight ahead with whatever they had coming out of them. It was so humble. The music sounded so humble, so lovely. […] In fact, it seems that now everybody I meet who remembers anything from groups of that particular period, they always dwell on that particular group. They always say, 'Oh man, I got this record with you and Booker and Eric Dolphy and I just love it.' And it’s phenomenal. […] I never realized they had so many recordings. […] We played about three or four sets, you know, and they recorded every set, but I didn’t realize they had so much music." The bulk of the Five Spot recordings, done on July 16, 1961, were first released on three LPs. The first two served as memorials to Booker Little, who passed away later in 1961, and the the third volume doubled as a memorial to Dolphy, who died in 1964. The full performances can be heard in the Dolphy box set, The Complete Prestige Recordings.
Don Cherry, Complete Communion, Blue Note BLP 4226 (BST 84208), 1966, LP.
During a 1967 Jazz Magazine blindfold test conducted in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, then Upper Volta), Ed Blackwell was played one of his own recordings with Ornette Coleman. After joking about the drummer’s worthless performance and stating that he was proud of hearing his music many miles away from the US, in Africa, Blackwell told his interviewer that he hoped he also knew a record he had made with Don Cherry and Gato Barbieri. Blackwell commented on his closeness to Cherry, on Barbieri’s remarkable sound, and on his hopes that audiences could hear that he used particular gear on this session. Blackwell was certainly talking about Cherry’s now classic Complete Communion, which was released just a few months prior, in mid-1966.
Always leave the reader wanting more—nice work, Pierre, as ever!