Posts tagged Les Tomkins

Five Paul Desmond interviews and some extras

Apr11
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

From the cool JazzProfessional website, here are five interviews with the iconic alto saxophonist Paul Desmond conducted by Les Tompkins. As always, Desmond is classy, funny, and articulate throughout. “The personality of Paul Desmond” and ”The jazz audience” are from 1963, with “Back in the crook”, “Giant jazzman, gentle wit…”, and “Sax viewpoint” from 1972. Additionally there is a special tribute story from the time of Desmond’s death in 1977, and a page of Desmond quotes. 

From the first interview, Desmond on practicing:

“I feel the necessity for practice, but the results don’t generally justify it. I have a tendency to get bugged by some small thing when I start practising and do one of those Stephen Laycock retroactive bits for five or six hours, ending up playing one interval and working on the intonation or something. After about four hours I come to the job and I can’t play a note! So I’m really better off without practising. I either have to just make it playing the job or forget it. There isn’t time then to get introspective or critical and tear anything apart. You just have to keep going.”

 Click here to read Five Paul Desmond interviews and some extras

—Peter Blasevick

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Four Chick Corea Interviews with Les Tomkins plus Gary Burton!

Jan25
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Chick Corea keeps putting out great music; his latest duo recording with Gary Burton is testament to that! Here are four interviews with the pianist, all between 1972 and 1982. The final one, from 1982, is actually a joint interview with longtime collaborator Burton, and in it he discusses preparing for a tour together:

How much actual preparation do you need before embarking on a concert tour together?

The groundwork has already been laid in the past year since we’ve developed our way of working together. The only additional preparation we ever do is finding music to play; I compose, we find other compositions to do, and we work them into the repertoire by going over them once or twice, then finding where to drop the new piece into the performance. Except the next album project we have in mind is going to take quite a bit of preparation, actually, because I’m going to write a piece for Gary and myself with a string quartet as well. So the composing will be a process, and then us looking at the music, getting accustomed to it, and seeing how to make it work with the strings will be a full process in itself. I’m looking forward to that. The music will be sort of like a double concerto idea, where there’s two soloists and an orchestra that’s made up of four strings.

Click here to read Four Chick Corea Interviews with Les Tomkins plus Gary Burton!

Posted in Burton Gary, Corea, Chick - Tagged , , , , , ,

Three 1970s George Benson Interviews

Jan24
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Today I’m posting three interviews from the 1970s with the legendary guitarist George Benson: “My Present Group” from 1974, and “This Way and That” and “A Personality Thing”, both from 1978. Here from the last of the three interviews is Mr. Benson discussing his awareness of other singers and guitarists:

How would you describe your vocal concept? Are there certain singers whose approach particularly appeals to you?

Once I hear a great singer, I’m very aware of him. I heard Nat “King” Cole when I was a baby, and I never forgot him. I followed him throughout, all the way up until the time of his death, and beyond—I’m still listening at his records, trying to find out what it is about Nat “King” Cole that is so great. It’s a personality thing, though, you know; you can’t be Nat—you can only enjoy him. I don’t think there’s so much of the technical thing that you could really put your finger on. He was a natural singer—though there were some techniques that he used in his lower tones that are very valuable.

There are many great singers—some today—who are using valuable techniques. And I’m aware of them—just like I was of the guitar players. I’m aware of Django Rheinhardt, Charlie Christian, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow—all those great players. I mean, because once you hear those guys . . . how could I call myself a player, and not know who the real players are when I hear them? They’re the guys who helped to shape my concept, and to give me the idea on which to base some of my ideas. I’m never afraid to mention another great artist; I’m not trying to show that I’m better than any other player—what I want to do is to be as dedicated to what I’m doing, or to be as real about it, as I think these artists are. Because it takes a certain amount of dedication, and knowledge, and gift to be what they are. And I’m the first guy to go to their concerts when I hear of them being any placeI run and hear them. It’s a great experience, plus I learn something.

Click here to read Three 1970s George Benson Interviews

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Lou Donaldson: My first affair

Oct04
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Here is a cool 1981 interview with alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson from the JazzProfessional website. In this excerpt he talks candidly about his style:

LD: Basically, my playing is a cross between Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges—you know, the people that I listened to when I was coming up. See, when I play my ballads, I play almost identically like Johnny Hodges. A lot of younger musicians don’t know this; they say: “How do you do this? What is that?” But I say: “Well, it’s hard for me to explain it to you, unless you heard Johnny Hodges and Lester Young, people like that.” That’s the way they played ballads, and it’s natural for me to pattern my style slightly after that.

Click here to read Lou Donaldson: My first affair

—Peter Blasevick

 

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Four Ray Brown Interviews

Sep29
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Here are four great interviews with all-time great bassist and bandleader Ray Brown from the JazzProfessional website. In this excerpt he talks about his bass sound and the difference between bass sounds in his early days and in 1980 (when this interview was conducted):

“There is a definite difference between bass players now and bass players in my early days. Growing up in the ‘thirties and ‘forties, you were more involved in sound, basically. You couldn’t afford to get too involved in technique, because you didn’t have any amplification. There was one microphone in front of the whole orchestra, and the bass player was always at the back. Unless you were with Ellington—then you were up front. But it was very difficult to project; the faster you played, the harder it was hear what you were playing. It was a physical problem in those days. That’s one of the reasons the instrument wasn’t played as well—certainly not as fast.

A guy who’s twenty–five years old, at fifteen he started out with amplifiers, so he didn’t have to bother specifically with getting a sound—he never had a problem of being heard. Not having to jump that hurdle—it’s good in one way, and probably bad in another. It prevents them from working out that part of playing which involves projection. The classical players are still involved in that, but the jazz players, by and large, are not.”

The four interviews are:

Bass Quiz—1963
A widening scope—1979
Fusions and phases in jazz—1980
Sound and the bass—1980

Click here to read Four Ray Brown Interviews

—Peter Blasevick

 

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Five Barney Kessel Interviews

Jul04
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Today for guitar week, I link to five interviews with the great Barney Kessel courtesy of JazzProfessional.com:

The formative years (1969)
At the Barney Kessel Guitar Clinic (1969)
The way Barney sees it (1972)
The jazz wit and wisdom (1988)
Putting jazz in perspective (1988)

Kessel covers many topics over these five pieces, from his early days to his technique and more.

Click here to read Five Barney Kessel Interviews

Posted in Kessel, Barney - Tagged , , , ,

Two Dexter Gordon Interviews

Jun21
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Dex sat down to talk to Les Tomkins in 1962 and these two great pieces came out of it. The legendary tenor talks about his time away from jazz, West Coast jazz, Blue Note, and a host of other topics.

Click here to read “They can’t take that away from me”

Click here to read “Lester and Wardell”

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Miles Davis 1969

May27
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

For Miles Davis’ birthday week: another great interview with Les Tomkins from the Jazz Professional website. Miles is of course his usual controversial self.

Click here to read Miles Davis 1969

Posted in Davis, Miles - Tagged , , ,

Two Cedar Walton interviews from 1976

May12
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

In these two 1976 interviews with journalist, historian and record producer Les Tomkins, Walton talks about the state of Jazz, his early years, his touring band, and playing the famous Ronnie Scott’s for the first time.

Click here to read Two Cedar Walton interviews from 1976

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Sonny Strikes Back

Apr28
2012 2 Comments Written by Peter Blasevick

In 1963 music critic Steve Race accused Sonny Stitt of copying Charlie Parker as hard as he could, and of having “given up all pretence of individuality”. Steve also offered Sonny a piece of advice: “I think it’s time he stopped playing Parker and went back to playing Stitt”. This 1965 interview with Les Tomkins includes his answer to this criticism.

 

Click here to read Sonny Strikes Back

Posted in Stitt, Sonny - Tagged , , ,
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