1/24/2024 0 Comments Tad jones 2![]() ![]() He put his fingers on his mouth, kissed his fingers and then put it on Louis Armstrong’s mouth in the picture.” “We were leaving, and I was talking to Thad about something and and he saw that that month’s picture was a big picture of Louis Armstrong. “I remember after rehearsal in a club in Copenhagen, they had a big jazz calendar on the wall as you walked into the club,” Hagans says. With this in mind, trumpeter, arranger and composer Tim Hagans, a former member of Stan Kenton’s band who went on to play with Jones in the late ‘70s, offers a touching anecdote: This child was born on in Pontiac, Michigan his older brother, Hank, was a formidable pianist, and younger brother, Elvin, changed jazz drumming forever, most famously through his volcanic playing as a member of John Coltrane’s quartet.Īs Mark Stryker notes in his indispensible 2019 book, Jazz From Detroit, Louis Armstrong galvanized Jones to play the trumpet. These days, too much jazz is locked in an ivory tower, but Jones himself didn’t have formal accreditation the artist born Thaddeus Joseph Jones was self-taught. You don’t need a college education or to break the bank: a $40 ticket is virtually all you need to be baptised in music history, and behold some of the most powerful musicians New York has to offer. And they still play plenty of Jones’ beloved tunes, from “A Child is Born” to “The Groove Merchant” to “Kids Are Pretty People” and beyond.Īs such, Jones’ gifts to the world are utterly accessible, in the purest form. Even more importantly, they had an emotional impact: on a spiritual level, they changed the game forever.Īlmost 60 years after their debut at the Village Vanguard, on – and decades after both leader’s deaths – the band continues to hold court within the New York institution’s hallowed walls, every Monday night. Just as Dizzy Gillespie codified bebop language with a big band in the 1940s and ‘50s, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra did likewise with post-bebop language, including the modal jazz of John Coltrane and the like. Those three components – playing, writing and arranging, and bandleading led to Jones modernising the concept of a large jazz ensemble, by way of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, his pioneering band with the warm, organic, deeply swinging drummer Mel Lewis. And the crackling electrical current that flowed from his body to the band and back again. His unmistakable tone on the trumpet, flugelhorn and cornet, and the intelligence and exuberance in his improvisation. But when considering Jones’ life, work and legacy, it feels fresh, urgent, incandescent.Ī century after his birth on 28 March 1923 – and almost four decades after his death on 20 August 1986 – Jones remains beloved in the global jazz community for many reasons. “What can I talk to you about?” It’s elliptical, a question answering a question. It was just so honest, and he wanted the best for me.” “I couldn’t have gotten that from anybody else. “So, when I figured that out, I said, ‘Wow, what a gift,’” he continues. ![]() “What he was saying, basically, to me, was: If you have a bad solo, or you have a bad night, or you don’t feel that good, don’t bring it on the bandstand,” Oatts says, calling himself “young, and inside my own world – of feeling inept in every category of playing and music.” It had to do with Oatts’ hard feelings – his imposter syndrome at the time. He haltingly expressed relief he wasn’t fired – that he wouldn’t need to find his away back to the airport.īut to Oatts, Jones meant something more profound. “I was so dumbfounded I didn’t know what to say,” Oatts recalls. ![]() And then, a third time – a lot more deliberately. Jones’ reply was startling: “Well, what can I talk to you about?”Īt that moment, Oatts couldn’t comprehend the question. “You said you wanted to talk to me?” Oatts asked. After “hours and hours and hours of drinking,” Jones exited Shearing’s room. Jones deflected, saying he wanted to go to pianist George Shearing’s room to celebrate his birthday. Oatts packed up his horns and approached Jones. Join the mailing list for a weekly roundup of Jazz News. Not yet a subscriber of our Wednesday Breakfast Headlines? At that moment, his stomach dropped: “I immediately thought he was just going to fire me and get rid of me,” Oatts admits. “He said, ‘Hey, I want to talk to you for a second,’” Oatts recalls. Co-leader Jones, one of the most enrapturing trumpeters, writers, arrangers, and bandleaders in jazz history – and an imposing, room-filling presence with a bon vivant personality – approached Oatts. The year was 1977, and the young saxophonist was in Nice, France it was his first time in Europe with the revered Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Tim Hagansĭick Oatts had just been hired by a jazz titan, and he was convinced he was about to be sent home. Thad Jones at the piano in a TV studio in Lugano, Switzerland, 1982. ![]()
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