A lifetime in music
Those of us who play, or listen to live music a lot, live for the magic moments. When Anoushka Shankar at the age of fifteen came out on stage with her father, how could I have guessed she would already be his equal as a performer. The critic Leonard Feather was asked what his most memorable night of music was. He said that after a Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie gig on 52nd Street, they hopped in cabs and jammed at some joint in Brooklyn until daylight.
Years ago I walked out of a smooth jazz show at The Great American Music Hall, desperate to hear something real. There was a club called Milestones (before the 89 quake) south of Market. It was John Handy’s gig, and sitting in with him, just out of prison, was Hank Morgan. I have never, before or since, heard bebop so alive. They were playing the music of their youth.
In Paris in July 1994 (the French were celebrating D Day – it was amazing to be treated with reverence just for being an American) I decided to catch the last night of Antonio Hart, who was playing a small, but air-conditioned club just next to my hotel. There were a few Japanese businessmen. And Betty carter sipping cognac at the bar. Around midnight Antonio asked Ravi Coltrane, who was just getting started in the music business, to sit in. Then they asked Betty up, and she in turn asked her young pianist, Jackie Terrason to the stand. They played for hours, for the shear love of the music.
Greg James
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