Tuesday, 23 December 2014

MILES DAVIS, GEORGE DUKE, STANLEY CLARKE, DONALD BYRD & MY FUNKY JAZZ PERIOD

In the 1980's before I got consumed and seriously overwhelmed with our classical, ballet and opera period where I changed direction in terms of the artists I was producing and presenting I was deeply involved in bringing major jazz and jazz rock/funk artists to the UK and Europe. This was a deeply satisfying time for me and great fun - it was a big step to move from "Bitches Brew" to "Swan Lake" but that's the way it went.

Miles Davis was significantly involved with changing the face of jazz and his transition from the music of the famous Quintet (Miles, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and the brilliant Tony Williams) to his what I call "Funky period" and with the seminal album "Bitches Brew". Of course the transition didn't happen overnight  - Miles had been at his most creative in the early 70's - great albums like "In a Silent Way", "Quiet Nights", "Seven Steps to Heaven", "ESP", "Nefertiti" and so forth had been paving the way - but then his music stopped for awhile!



In my previous blog I wrote about the concerts I produced with MILES DAVIS at the Hammersmith Odeon but during the same period I got deeply involved in the music and brought to the UK and Europe a number of artists who were thrilling audiences everywhere with their own jazz/rock/fusion music.

The first artist in this genre I brought to London was DONALD BYRD who sold out three nights at the Hammersmith Odeon to standing ovations - the music was funky and raw but superb and Donald himself a joy to work with. I was truthfully stunned by the public interest in Donald - I had always loved his playing but the way the tickets flew out of the box office was quite amazing - London was buzzing and the interesting phenomenal.



I was so knocked out by the public's reaction that I almost immediately contracted and presented STANLEY CLARKE & GEORGE DUKE at the same venue - breathtaking techniques - stunning music that drove the sold out audiences crazy. This happened everywhere we presented them. 



Next in line was EARL KLUGH - a fine guitarist and he also performed brilliantly to a sold out audience - Earl was a different type of artists to Duke and Clarke - more gentle and sensitive but he communicated brilliantly with the people and I consider his concert to be one of the best.

During this period we were touring more traditional jazz artists like BUDDY RICH, Louie Bellson, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Barney Kessell etc - but it was fascinating for me to hear a supreme artist like Buddy Rich playing his version of funky big band jazz - and it was brilliant as anyone who heard the band during that period will attest to. Listen to the album of Buddy "Mercy,Mercy, Mercy" - the band rocks (and swings) to the roof - fantastic - this band had my favourite alto player of all time in it - the great ART PEPPER.




The music was undoubtedly changing and of course had been for the past couple of decades or so - jazz always reaches out and pushes the boundaries - I was (and remain) passionate about the music of artists like John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Albert Ayler and others - but the beat had changed and it was inevitable that the pop/rock world would have its influence.

Artists did not want to be constrained by the traditional 4/4 or 3/4 swing mode - for me that was a sadness simply because some of the greatest music in the world had been created in this genre - you only had to listen to Miles "Kind of Blue" or "Four and More" to hear the greatest jazz musicians at the top of their game. Would the jazz/rock fusion provide the bedrock (no pun intended) for a continuation of this improvisational wonder called jazz?

We were also presenting artists such as the great TOM WAITS (I loved his writing and singing) as well as pop icon MICHAEL JACKSON but it was the jazz rock scene that fascinated me - we quickly brought back STANLEY CLARKE & GEORGE DUKE but this time with singer JEFFREY OSBORNE - fantastic concert. Other promoters such as my friend Barrie Marshall were also presenting similar artists like AL JARREAU - the scene was buzzing.



Looking back at that period I have say it was an amazing time and experience working with these incredible artists. - Having said this - I still feel that the move away from the essence of SWING into the funky/rock rhythms was understandable as the musicians wanted to extend the boundaries, but did it bring the quality and depth to their music? 

I want to quantify my comments by saying that what I write are only my personal opinions - but I believe that the jazz/rock/fusion era, which has continued up to today has NOT generated the same canon of great work that emerged from the 1920's through to the 60's - I accept that this is a massive generalisation, but in my humble opinion Miles Davis never climbed the heights of his earlier work again - to watch JOHN McGLAUGHLIN (whom we also presented) and SHAKTI, PAT METHENY, AL DIMEOLA, LEE RITENOUR, JACO PASTORIUS and all those other technically gifted players who have thrilled audiences throughout the world - was (and is) a wonderful experience - the music is pulsating and exciting and at times brilliant - but has it produced the quality of work that we have been gifted from the jazz masters of an earlier generation - I do not think so!! I welcome your own thoughts and comments.

The technical ability of todays musical geniuses is undoubtedly astounding - but where is the individuality? Lets look at some examples - when you listen to Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz or Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone - you can immediately tell who is playing - take the drummers - when Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Ray Bauduc, Louie Bellson, Art Blakey, Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes as examples played, we knew exactly who they were - Pianists - you knew instantly when Art Tatum was playing or Oscar Peterson and you could never confuse them with Bill Evans or Errol Garner could you? Joe Pass played completely differently to Tal Farlow, Charlie Byrd or Wes Montgomery - but today - can you tell one musician from another?

I am not criticising today's players - I love artists such as Brad Mehldau, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny or Branford Marsalis and there will always be exceptions to the rule - but you have to admit that there is a need for more individuality today - technique can never be everything - as Miles said its what you don't play that counts (or words to that effect)

Will we ever hear again the likes of Stan Getz or Lester Young? Art Pepper or Sonny Stitt or Johnny Hodges - what about Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie? All of them instantly recognisable and sublime :)



OK enough rambling - but I loved the days when Miles, Stanley, George, Donald and Earl rocked the stages of London and Europe - I had a ball and was so thrilled to be a part of their on-stage success - my future for the next fifteen or so years was to the sound of a different beat - that of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky - later it was Beyonce and Shakira but its all music and as Duke Ellington said " there are only two types of music - Good and Bad"




Friday, 12 December 2014

MISS PEGGY LEE AND ME


In 1980 I had the honour to tour Miss Peggy Lee in the UK and also to book her onto the Royal Variety Command Show in front of her Majesty the Queen. This was an extraordinary time for me - a former professional drummer and passionate about jazz and all kinds of music - I had been presenting a wide range of artists - most of whom I revered and idolised - these tours were a labor of love for me and looking back at those years incredibly included Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, Tom Waits, Michael Jackson, Joe Pass, Woody Herman, Deniece Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, The Drifters, The Temptations, Billy Eckstine, Judy Collins, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Buddy Morrow, The Great Guitars (Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis), Miles Davis, Willie Nelson to name a few. This was heady stuff for a young producer  - I was 34 years old in 1980 and you can imagine how thrilling it was to be working with these artists - BUT nothing prepared me for MISS PEGGY LEE!

I have just finished reading a new biography on the life of Miss Peggy Lee - the book by James Gavin  titled "Is That All There Is" - "The Strange Life of Peggy Lee" - this book is excellent and digs deep into her extraordinary life and experiences. Peggy appears to have been deeply disturbed by her childhood and in particular the death of her mother when she was very young. Anyone interested in the life of this fascinating singer must read this book - it is a deeply interesting introspective of an era that has sadly passed. It also explores the massive insecurities and psychological issues that Peggy Lee faced and how she dealt with these over the decades. I wish I had read a book like this before I toured Peggy - but more about that later!

Miss Peggy Lee was a star - of that there is no doubt or question - she thrilled her legions of fans (me included) around the world from the 1940's until she passed away on January 21, 2002 aged 81. Peggy (real name Norma Deloris Egstrom) was born on May 28, 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota. Her family were Lutherans - her father was Swedish/American and her mother Norwegian/American.

Peggy Lee's career took her from singing for small sums on local radio stations until she moved eventually to Los Angeles. You need to read the book to understand the peregrinations and struggles during that period - but her big time chance came when the King of Swing Benny Goodman signed her up in 1941 and after initial ups and downs she scored her first big hit "Why Don't You Do Right", which sold over a million copies. You can see Peggy singing this great track on YouTube.

It is not my intention to write a mini biography of Peggy Lee you should read the James Gavin book for the full story - However, it would have helped me to deal with her and understand a bit more when I brought her to the UK nearly 35 years ago (where have the years gone to?)

I had been flying back and forth from London to New York and Los Angeles - I seemed forever to be sitting on an aeroplane going somewhere (the travel issue got much worse later when I was managing the US and other international tours of the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera and the other major Russian -Soviet companies and artists) however, during this time all my travels were to the USA and I have to say I loved every minute of it :)

I had been working with the Los Angeles based agent/manager Irvin Arthur who was representing Peggy Lee and I was very keen to bring her to the UK for a tour. Of course, Peggy had toured Britain and Europe before, but I felt the time was right for her to come back. On a personal note, I had always loved Peggy's singing and her album "Black Coffee" was one of my all time favourites - I had always believed that Peggy Lee loved Billie Holliday as much as I did and interestingly James Gavin fully confirmed this in his book.

I had been speaking to London Management's Managing Director, Billy Marsh about artists for the annual Royal Variety Command Show at the famous theatre the London Palladium, which takes place  in front of the Queen and the Royal Family. Irving Arthur thought that Peggy Lee would be thrilled to perform at this event and therefore we began working on building a tour around this date.

After some fairly difficult negotiations we agreed on the dates and number of concerts but I wanted to meet Peggy before bringing her to the UK and a meetings was arranged. I few into LAX - hired a car and after checking into the hotel I went later that afternoon to Miss Lee's palatial home in Bel Air.

I was met at the door by a charming lady (I wish I could remember her name) and led into a beautiful room where Miss Peggy Lee was draped along a chaise longue in what appeared to be a full evening gown with jewellery glittering in the afternoon sun. It was superbly surreal and momentarily quite daunting. Peggy with full majesty emanated a truly royal air and I felt I was in the presence of someone unique - which of course was true. I have been fortunate to meet and work with many artists but Peggy Lee was different in so many ways. There was immense warmth and kindness but also a steeliness which seem to suddenly pounce if you said something she didn't agree with. Having said that I was thrilled to be with her and we talked excitedly about the Royal Command Show at the London Palladium and also the tour dates - one of which was to be her own full concert at this revered venue. I left her home feeling that we had really achieved a great rapport and I felt good about the upcoming tour.

The great day arrived and I went to Heathrow Airport in London to meet Miss Lee. In those halcyon days we were allowed to meet a VIP off the plane, subject to security clearance and therefore I was at the arrival gate of the plane from Los Angeles and there in splendid apparel which included an enormous fur coat (at least it looked like fur to me) - and it was hugs and kisses - Miss Lee had arrived. We slowly walked to the passport control and went through a VIP entrance - very smooth so far - all was looking good until we got to the stairs to go to the baggage area and exit - "I don't walk down stairs - where's the elevator"? No elevator - all hell broke loose - 'my breathing, my health, my this and that' - we eventually got down the stairs but the mood now was dark.

At last we were out of the terminal building followed by a number of large trunks and suite cases, which were expertly packed into an estate car - and with impeccable precision the Rolls Royce we had hired driven by the hire car managing director who adored Peggy Lee's singing, drew up ready for Miss Lee to enter. "What is this" exclaimed Miss Lee - I was expecting the type of car that the Queen Uses" - I said the Queen regularly uses a Rolls Royce - anyhow we eventually got Miss Lee into the car - she immediately hated the driver because she said "his after shave smelled terrible" - and we hadn't left the airport yet! HELP!

We arrived at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane - one of London's premier hotels and was met by the Managing Director of the Hotel with keys waiting for her suite and so forth. We arrived at the door of the King George IV suite, which was the best in the hotel and suddenly Peggy said - I'm not staying here and sat on one of the Louis Vuitton trunks that had followed us to the room. Irvin Arthur tried to help by saying that "if its good enough for King George it must be good enough for the Queen of song" - that earned him a shouted retort! Anyhow, we eventually managed to get Miss Lee into the suite (which was lovely) and I sighed a sigh of relief - but was very worried about the forthcoming tour as this was only the first day!

During the night I got calls from the hotel management and from Miss Lee herself - she hated the room - the bath room was dangerous, she had slipped on the floor - she was going to sue the hotel, me and half the world - this was becoming a nightmare. The next day was a day of rest and was quieter but I was in a state of high nerves waiting for the next explosion.

The following day was her concert at the London Palladium.  I had employed a well known UK comedian to warm up the audience but Peggy didn't want that so he had to be paid off - we arrived at the theatre in the afternoon for the rehearsals with the orchestra I had booked to back Peggy - the cream of British session players and some the best jazz musicians in Europe plus a full string section from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Under the terms of the contract with both Peggy and the musicians we had a three hour rehearsal programme fixed and if it overran then I was going to have to pay serious overtime money. The rehearsals went nearly an hour over the allotted time - I was having to pay something like 60 musicians their overtime fees for this and the manager of the Palladium wanted us off the stage to let in the sell out audience into the theatre.

I managed to get Miss Lee back into her dressing room, when she started hyperventilating - a doctor was immediately on hand (the contract demanded one be at the theatre) and oxygen produced - whilst this was all taking place Peggy's hair stylist was doing her hair and said "don't worry she'll be fine - its always like this on first night"!!

Peggy went on stage to rapturous applause and gave a sensational performance - it was like watching a rejuvenated super star - her singing marvellous and her rapport with the musicians, which had been completely absent during rehearsals, was fantastic.  The audience wouldn't let her off the stage - it was a triumph for her (and as you can imagine, I was sighing huge sighs of relief).

After that very tough initial three days, Peggy Lee was a delight to be with and I never saw again the same person who had reeked havoc at the hotel when she arrived. It was as though there were two or more people living under the name of Miss Peggy Lee - you never knew which one you would be meeting. However, I have to say that she was wonderfully professional on stage and gave everything to her public, who loved her and worshipped her. I loved to hear her sing those hits - "The folks who live on the hill", "Is that all there is" and of course the sensational finger clicking "Fever".

One of the concerts on her tour was at Hatfield (about an hours drive outside of London) and we had Louie Bellson and his Big Band Explosion to open the show. We were touring Louie at the same time and I felt these two musical legends would be brilliant together - and of course, we sold out in minutes. On the day of the concert Peggy asked Louie, his bass player George DuVivier and pianist Frank Strazzeri to back her for her spot. This was difficult because we had employed a superb British rhythm section to play with Peggy and she was very happy with them - but you can hardly blame her for wanting Louie, George and Frank to work with her - they were some of the greatest jazz musicians alive! The performances were sensational - standing ovations and my biggest regret is that it wasn't filmed or recorded.

The tour was a big success, even if my nerves were shot to pieces at the start of the tour - Peggy finished back at the London Palladium where she performed royally for Her Majesty The Queen and met her afterwards on stage. It was a magical moment for Miss Lee and me.

I never worked with Peggy again - my path went in a different direction when we negotiated the rights to represent the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera and the Kirov (Mariinsky) Ballet and Opera and many other famous companies and artists - but I will never forget the majesty and glory of seeing and hearing Miss Peggy Lee singing live to packed audiences. She had an ability to communicate with her fans and they simply adored her. Peggy Lee was truly unique - I was thinking about the other singers I loved like Billie Holiday, Anita O'Day, Julie London, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme and those that I had worked with like Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstine and Nina Simone - all of whom were wonderful, but Peggy Lee had something different about her - she stands out as one of the greatest exponents of the American Song Book and of course as a superb songwriter and lyricist. Even when we have worked with today's pop icons like Beyonce or Shakira  (both very fine performers on stage) they don't exude that special quality that was Peggy Lee.

I last saw Peggy Lee at the Hilton Hotel in New York - she was a sad sight as she sang sitting on that stage - her health had deteriorated significantly but despite this she still reached out to her audience and communicated with them in a way that only she could achieve - they loved her and so did I.

I went backstage after the show and kissed her - she smiled and we spoke for a few minutes - I never saw Peggy again - but I am immensely grateful that I was able to work with this great artist - one of the all time greats MISS PEGGY LEE


Peggy Lee with Benny Goodman





Saturday, 6 December 2014

LOUIE BELLSON - HIS BIG BAND EXPLOSION - TOURING EUROPE AND ME

(One of our tour promotional photos)

I was recently asked to speak about the great drummer Louie Bellson - I was thrilled to be asked to do this because of many reasons - not least because Louie was a wonderful and dear friend, but because the world must never forget this extraordinary drummer, musician, composer and an incredibly kind and amazing human being. Here is a piece I wrote last year regarding three or four years of touring with Louie that I will never forget:

During the late 70's and early 80's I had the incredible honour to work with one of the greatest drummers and his all star big band - Mr Louie Bellson. We worked together on 4 albums - one of which was issued on the Ronnie Scott Label - two of them on Pablo (Norman Granz label) and the last on Concord records. We toured the Big Band Explosion throughout the UK and Ireland plus in many countries throughout Europe.

(Louie with a young fan at a Chinese restaurant during one of our tours)

Working with Louie and the boys (the boys being some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time!) was an enlightening experience - as a drummer myself you can image the thrill of working with Louie - his band was explosive - the charts exciting and very musical - the soloists from Don Menza, Bill Berry, Nat Pierce, Bobby Shew, Joe Romano, Ted Nash etc were electric - the first tour had the rhythm section of Louie, John Heard (bass) and Nat Pierce on piano - the second tour had Louie on drums, George Duvivier (Bass) and Frank Strazzeri on Piano. 

(Another promotional tour photo - Louie signed this to my mother)

Interestingly I was also working at that time with Buddy Rich and his Band - I loved Buddy too - but they were so different - Buddy was acerbic, at times difficult, but also incredibly kind and generous - Many people have asked me - who was better?  Buddy or Louie and I always respond that comparison are not necessary at all - its like comparing Stan Getz with Ben Webster - or Oscar Peterson with Bill Evans - or Miles Davis with Harry James - or Prokofiev with Stravinsky!! Why has there got to be a comparison? Both drummers were sensational - they were incredible technicians, wonderful drummers and great personalities - I suppose one can say that Buddy was considered the greatest drummer of all time - but Louie was up there with him and on top of that Louie was a fine composer and indeed session player. Lets enjoy both of them without the need to compare - we are blessed to have had these players in our lives and I am incredibly lucky to have worked extensively with both.


The night Louie and the rhythm section played for Peggy Lee was outstanding - the long lines of people trying to get into Ronnie Scott's Club - the excitement the tours generated will remain with me forever.



This is a long blog because I begin with the details of the four recordings we produced followed by a series of interviews that Louie held with writer Les Tompkins for Crescendo Magazine - these interviews are a fascinating insight into the life of Louie Bellson, his wife Pearl Bailey and his relationship with fellow drummers such as Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Papa Joe Jones, Mel Lewis and a host of others - His reminiscing about playing with Duke Ellington and Count Basie are also fascinating. 

(Louie in the recording studio)

On a personal level Louie was a dream to work with and we spent many happy hours talking the night away. Louie and his adorable wife the great Pearl Bailey made me hugely welcome at their home in Northridge, California - Pearly Mae was on hell of a chef - she made some amazing dinners for us - no wonder I put on so much weight!!

(Louie and wife Pearl Bailey - such a wonderful couple - loved them both)

At the end of one of the tours Louie gave me his Slingerland drum kit - it was such a honour. Louie has now passed on and he is deeply missed by me and all of us who knew him and loved him. He will be remembered by all drummers, musicians and fans as one of the greatest players ever and as a wonderful human being - RIP Louie


I hope you enjoy this blog about one of the greatest drummers the world has seen - a wonderful and gentle human being and one that I am privileged to say was my friend.
LIVE AT RONNIE SCOTT’S – LOUIE BELLSON AND HIS BIG BAND EXPLOSION
Tracklist

1
Spacin' Home
Composed By – Hayes*, Bellson*
8:20
2
Intrigue
Composed By – Menza*
5:18
3
Groove Blues
Composed By – Menza*
7:50
4
Spanish Gypsy
Composed By – Menza*
5:35
5
I Remember Duke
Arranged By – Tom Newson*
Composed By – Feather*
5:49
6
Time Check
Composed By – Menza*
10:35
Credits
                  Alto Saxophone – Joe Romano, Matt Catingub
                  BassJohn Heard
                  Drums, LeaderLouie Bellson*
                  Mixed ByJimmy Parson
                  PianoNat Pierce
                  ProducerPeter King*
                  Tenor SaxophoneDon Menza, Larry Covelli
                  TromboneBill Moffett
                  TrumpetBill Berry, Bobby Shew


THE LONDON SCENE (CONCORD RECORDS)
Tracklist

A1
A Little Syncopation, Please
3:07
A2
Don't You Know I Care (Or Don't You Care To Know)
7:45
A3
Brush Me Off
5:15
A4
Green Light Blues
6:02
B1
The Music Makes You Move
Guitar – Phil Lee
Percussion – Tristan Fry
6:01
B2
Blue
5:07
B3
Easy Time
4:17
B4
Night Flight
Guitar – Phil Lee
Percussion – Tristan Fry
4:51
Credits
                  Art DirectionDick Hendler
                  BassJohn Heard
                  DrumsLouis Bellson
                  Engineer [Assistant]Paul Libson
                  Engineer [Recording & Mixing]Ray Prickett
                  Executive Producer – Peter Brightman
                  Mastered ByGeorge Horn
                  PianoFrank Strazzeri
                  ProducerAlan A. Freeman
                  SaxophoneAndy Mackintosh*, Arnie Lawrence, Bill Jones (5), Joe Romano (2), Kenny Hitchcock
                  TromboneClint Sharman, Don Mikkelsen, Hale Rood, Rick Chamberlain
                  TrumpetAlan Downey (2), Bobby Shew, Brian O'Flaherty, Frank Szabo, Neil Balm
Notes
Recorded at P.R.T. Studios, London, October 1980.



COOL, COOL BLUE (Pablo Records)
Released 1983
Tracklist
A1
Tapooze Don
5:13
A2
If We Were In Love
5:29
A3
Wanderlust
5:14
A4
The Boss
5:05
B1
Smedley
5:32
B2
Cool, Cool Blue
7:09
B3
Long Ago
6:32
B4
The Third 'I'
5:29
Credits
                  BassGeorge Duvivier
                  DrumsLouie Bellson*
                  PianoFrank Strazzeri
                  SaxophoneMatt Catingub, Ted Nash
Notes
Recorded at PRT Studios, London on November 9, 1982.


THE LONDON GIG (PABLO RECORDS)
Tracklist

A1
Sing A Song Of Love
Arranged By – Tommy Newsom
4:33
A2
My Mother (The Jazz Singer)
Composed By – Matt Catingub
6:20
A3
Drum Squad
Composed By – Bob Florence
5:03
A4
Blues For Freddy
Arranged By – Tommy Newsom
7:22
B1
Jus Fer Us
Composed By – Hale Rood
2:48
B2
We've Come A Long Way Together
Arranged By – Rick Wilkins
6:54
B3
Put It Right Here
Arranged By – Sammy Nestico
4:50
B4
Santos
Arranged By – Matt Catingub
6:46
Credits
                  BassGeorge Duvivier
                  DrumsLouie Bellson*
                  EngineerDave Ford, Ray Prickett
                  Executive Producer – Peter Brightman
                  Liner NotesLouie Bellson*
                  Photography ByPhil Stern
                  PianoFrank Strazzeri
                  ProducerAlan Freeman
                  SaxophoneJoe Sudler, Ken Hitchcock, Matt Catingub, Ted Nash, William Santos-Murray
                  TromboneClinton Sharman, Dana Hughes, Don Mikkelsen, Hale Rood
                  TrumpetBrian O'Flaherty, Dave Katz (4), Greg Ruvolo, John Eckert, Walt Johnson
Notes
Manufactured By PABLO RECORDS, INC.
Recorded November 1, 1982 at PRT Studios, London.



INTERVIEWS WITH LES TOMPKINS

This was my first playing visit here and it's really a pleasure. Of course I was married to
Pearl Bailey here in 1952.

This tour is a very unusual one, in that we have all these stars on one show. But the beautiful part of this is that we all get along. There are no little outside frustrations with one another, which sometimes happens on these tours. Everybody is like one happy family, and we're really enjoying every minute of it, offstage as much as on. And the audiences, especially, here have been just tremendous-very receptive.

I've worked before with everyone. Except T-Bone Walker, although I'm familiar with his work. But he's on as an extra added attraction, actually. Yes, I like this kind of set-up. I'm one of those musicians who likes to get into a variety of things.

I like the big band, then I like to play with a small band that has special arrangements.
Then this-strictly impromptu jazz, which is what Norman Granz really strives for on his concerts. With that kind of personnel it always comes off, because they're such great musicians.

Drumming has always been a natural thing to me, my father being a musician who played every instrument and had a music store Even when I was two years old, I had a certain amount of rhythm. My mother told me that I was always tapping on something. By the time I was three and a half I was really able to communicate with my father as to what kind of instrument I wanted.



He wanted me to play a percussive instrument, but one with a melodic voice in it, so he thought
maybe the xylophone would be good for me. I had the xylophone for six months, but I was very unhappy with it.

When my father gave me the drum, we made a pact between us that I would not only study
drums, but I would learn composition theory, harmony and so forth. Even at that age, I sort of
rebelled against it-but it didn't take me long after that to realise the importance of learning music along with the drumming. It's helped considerably.

I know of a lot of great drummers today who don't have that, and they're no less great. But I don't like to stop at that. If I have my own band, I've always wanted to rehearse it myself. To be able to read a score and say: "Third trombone-you're wrong on the second bar after letter B." I feel that, when you become a leader, you must have all this in order to gain the respect of your men. To me, Duke Ellington represents a great leader, because he not only knows how to handle men, but he knows who's playing the bad notes when he rehearses an arrangement.

Those two years with the Ellington band were actually the highlight of my career, I think. Not only was it one of the greatest bands he has ever had-and he admitted to this-plus all the other musicians in that particular band, but the music that we played, the travelling we did, was all very memorable. Just being with the Duke alone was an experience-talking to him on and off the bandstand, watching the way he worked.

Did I change my playing for the band? Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't have to do anything, but just sit down and play.



It was just a question of adding my sound to the band-swinging you know. And then I heard a lot of people say afterwards: "Well you changed the entire tonality of the band." I think this is very true-a drummer can make the band sound a certain way. But with the Ellington band, it was so easy to play, because every person in it plays great and in tempo. They don't even need a rhythm section-it's just added for a different colour.

One thing I will say, though-I did bear down a little more than with any other band. Because you have to really get into it with that band. There were spots where you had to be ferocious to get that effect. This I enjoyed very much, because I think it's important for a drummer to be able to reach those spots where you really get dynamic, then come right down and play something very delicate. This is the great thing about that band-we were able to do all these things. So much music.


It was the need for more variety in sound that brought about my using the two bass drums. I used to have the conventional set-up, and do a lot of varied rhythms between the right foot on the bass drum and the left foot on the hi-hat. And I used to wonder, even when I was a youngster, how it would be to have another big sound with that left foot pedal But I didn't want to lose sight of the hi-hat completely, because this is a very essential part of the drum set. So then I thought of the idea of having the other bass drum, and just having the hi-hat pedal next to it. 

And, of course, I went through all kinds of phases of different set-ups, and now, after years of experience, I have the most compact set-up. It's proven itself very good. Duke especially liked the two bass drums. In fact, I think he's made it a requisite that every drummer that comes into his band has to play them!-My basic idea did work-to develop something rhythmically with the band. Also, when you play solos, you're less limited, because you have a lot more sound. Quite a few drummers, here and in the States, have adopted it.


No, I didn't have to work on the technique that much. I'd always wanted to do it, and I'm very ambidextrous - I can use the left foot equally as well as the right. And the same way with my hands. So it just meant getting the set made, because I already knew in my mind the way I would play it. In using it with bands, I've cut out certain little things to-make it more play able.

I do believe that everything in drumming stems from the snare. Buddy Rich and I have the reputation of being the two drummers with the technique, as far as solo work is concerned.


We're noted primarily as band drummers-which is great I like to think-and I'm sure Buddy feels the same way-of a lot of musicians saying:

"I enjoy working with Lou or Buddy, because they propel a lot of drive." I would like to have this comment first, then the solo comment next, and Buddy agrees. Although we're both technicians to a certain degree. We both play quite a bit of our work on the snare drums. I have various arrangements in my big band at home where I feature only the tom-toms. But, basically, most of the time we use the snare drum as the focal point of the drum solo-that's very true.

As I mentioned in the clinic that I did here I had a snare drum for seven years before I even had a chance to look at a bass drum. So I had to learn quite a bit on that snare drum-not only the 26 rudiments, but steps beyond that. Fine technical things. This pays off, too. Most of the drummers today are inclined to start playing, and after two days they get an entire set. Then they want to get at everything too fast, instead of learning one instrument at a time. Because each part of the set is an individual instrument.

(Louie with Bob Yaeger at the Pro Drum Shop in Los Angeles)

Dizzy Gillespie was telling me the other day that he heard one of the greatest bass drummers in his life. He was talking about a guy who is an artist, just using a mallet against the bass drum. He had any kind of sound that you wanted out of that bass drum-just his particular blend with the concert hand was fabulous He'd perfected that. 

When people like Duke, Dizzy and Teddy Wilson compliment me by saying that my drumming approach is one of the most musical, I feel like all the work that I've done so far hasn't been wasted. Primarily, I feel that, if I can play in back of artists of the calibre of the ones on this JATP tour, and make them sound good-then; even if I close the show with the most exciting drum solo, I would have to say that my sheer delight was to be able to play for all these great performers and to be able to supply them with the proper backing Normally, I don't use one of those big Chinese crash cymbals-but Dizzy likes this. And I have one, so I put it on the set because I know he wants that kind of sound in back of accentuate in and out of the beat with the left hand.


This is very important. Knowing all these little things, I adapt my playing for each individual artist-instead of me just sitting back there and playing for myself. Which I would do on a solo-that's the time for me to express my own ideas and convey my ù message to the audience.

It's funny, because I was talking to Eric Delaney and Kenny Clare about this the other day, and they agreed Kenny said: "That's great-to have enough facility to be able to do that, and yet turn around and play an inspired solo". And that is the way it should be. It's the same as a pitcher in baseball. He has to know certain pitches to give each ball player.

On the question of tuning-with drums, we all know that we can't get a definite tonality. Of the membrane group in the percussion field, the timpani is really the only instrument where you can get an exact note. If you want a low E natural or a low F or a G, then you can get this on the timpani. We can only as sume relative pitch with a set of drums. So I like to tune the set like a choir. I refer to the snare drum as the soprano, the small tom-tom as the alto, the large tom-tom as the tenor and, of course, the bass drum (or drums) as our bass. This way you have a complete choir-like sound within the drum set, if they're tuned properly.

Regarding the dual-purpose bass drum beater which I mentioned at the clinic: before we invented it, we had either a hard felt, a lambs-wool, or a wooden beater. The wooden beater is very popular today; because it seems to get the staccato sound that most drummers use. I think Joe Morello uses one. So do I; also Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa; maybe eighty per cent now are using it. This, new one we have is half wood and half felt, and it doesn't require taking the entire beater out of the initial pedal case.
All you have to do-there's a little spring effect below the beater, and you just press down on the beater itself and dial what you want wood or hard felt. Then, when you push this back up, it stays in place. So it's a very nifty little idea. It's great for studio drummers, because often an arranger won't want that staccato, wood sound-he'll want more of a muffled, felt sound. This way you have both sounds to call upon.


Among the recent albums I've made, one that I particuarly enjoyed was a Lalo Schifrin session for Roulette, called "Explorations". Lalo is just a tremendous writer. This was a very avant garde type of album-done with all strings, and me as the initial percussionist. I had to play a varied amount of things, like timpani, boo-bams, bass marimba. Actually, we went through most of the percussion instruments. It was an al bum that showed off talent, not as an extended drum soloist, which I've done before but another side of my ability. That is, to be able to read and play these other effects, along with the violins, 'cellos, violas and so forth.

One of the rhythms I played on there was 15/ 8. Which brings up an amusing story. Now, Dizzy Gillespie is really a frustrated drummer. And, I may add, a very good one He plays the tambourine very well and he gets a very rhythmical sound out of the drums. He learned this rhythm from Lalo, you see.

Then he decided to play tricks on all the famous drummers, like Max Roach and Art Blakey. In fact, he tried those two first-and they couldn't play it. Because when you see this at first, it takes a little while to analyse, study the sticking, and hear the rhythm before you can do it.

So, when I saw Lalo, prior to seeing Dizzy, he tipped me off and said: "Why don't you let me teach you this rhythm now? You have to learn it, anyway, for the album. And it'll be nice to turn the tables on Dizzy. Because, if you run into him, he's going to try to do this same trick on you". So he showed me the rhythm. And it happened in Chicago, when I was there with the Ellington band After the concert, Dizzy decided that we would retreat back to my drum set, because he wanted to hear me play something. But, of course, what he really wanted was to execute this rhythm for me, and then try to spring it on me and stop me.
When I sat down and played it perfectly right after him, he just completely fell out! 

Before concluding, I must speak of the recordings I made here with Eric Delaney, which worked out very good. One of them is going to be a little bit of a commercial album, in a way but it's been done very musically. It's based on themes like "St. Louis Blues March". They've also included "Skin Deep", which I did with the Ellington band. We've been able to play little touches of authentic marches, then going into swing. It features a lot of interplay between Eric Delaney mostly on timpani, and myself on drums. And we've managed to get some pretty good sounds on record over at EMI-it's a very nice studio there. It's been kinda rough fitting it in with my schedule, but the collaboration has been very enjoyable.

I've really been enjoying making an album here. London is one of my favourite places-I was married here, of course in 1952. The people here are marvellous; I just have such a great time when I come over.


It was very exciting, using all British musicians. I was so pleased with the performance of these wonderful players; I think we're going to have a great album, We had ace players-such as Stan Roderick; Greg Bowen, Don Lusher-in every department. They were just magnificent, and I feel very honoured to have been able to work with them.

We used five trumpets, four trombones, five reeds, four rhythm, plus extra percussion. And the interesting thing about this date: on two of the tracks we added a full choir of twelve voices. We laid down the instrumental part; then the voices came in, and dubbed over that. So it should be good to have the voices along with the band.

I had a hand in most of the writing. Recently I struck up a very good friendship with Jack Hayes, who is one of the great writers in the Hollywood area; he does a lot of composition and arranging for Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein; Henry Mancini.

We write compositions and arrange together. We've done the entire showcase for this album, save for a nine minute score: on "Limehouse Blues", which was written by Derek Cox. And another very good British arranger, Jack Seymour, made arrange ments of two of my themes. He arranged one of the vocal arts with the band part, and also a swing piece that we call "Big Ben Really Has Swinging Time". I felt that I wanted to represent the writing of one or two of the London musicians as well.

Certainly it's an album that I can look upon as a contribution that has musical merit; I would say it's every bit as good s anything I've done in the States. The studio and the engineer we had were fantastic also.

All the music was specially composed around the idea of "Louie In London". So we took "Carnaby Street" for one; that is sort of a drum solo vehicle for me, but there's a lot of band in it, too. It starts out in a slow four, doubles up the time, and then we go into 3/ 4; then a mixture of other time signatures. The "Lon don Suite" itself is in; three movements. That starts out in 7/ 4, the middle part is with brass choir and voices, and the third section is in a Rock vein. Other titles are "The Proud Thames", "Sketches From The National Art Gallery." It's everything pertaining to London; so there's really a significance for doing the album. I feel very happy about it, because everything was done and performed honestly-I like to do things that way.


In the States I'm a part-time studio musician, I have my own big band going, and I do a lot of recitals and what you call demonstrations. You know, they get all the drummers and other musicians together and we give lectures on music and percussion. So it keeps me pretty busy, doing all these things. I'm based in Hollywood, but I also do a lot of travelling around.

I have nineteen men in the band. We work quite often; we play in a little place called Donte's in North Hollywood at least once a week. Then we have various other jobs during the week.
Which means the big band plays two or three times a week, and as a result it sounds very good.

As a matter of fact, I think we're going to have the good fortune to come over here next year with Tony Bennett: This will give us the opportunity of playing one or two nights at Ronnie Scott's, and maybe we'll do an album here. It should be very interesting.

Among the key men in the band are Don Menza and an other tenorman, Peter Christlieb, who is phenomenal-he's only 24 years old, but he's already a giant. In the trombones are Jimmy Cleveland and Frank Rosolino. Harry "Sweets" Edison's been working with us on trumpet; Al Aarons, who just left the Basie band-he's on trumpet; also Chuck Findley, who was with Buddy Rich's band-22 years old, and plays great. Ray Brown works with us quite a lot in California; whether we can get him to leave the country or not, I don't know, as he's very busy but maybe he will. Then we have an excellent guitarist by the name of Joe Pass. Our lead alto is Joe Romano. In every department we have really fine musicians. And the band as an ensemble-is just beautiful.

I do some of the writing, but I really don't have enough time to do too much. We have three or four arrangers within the band, who write very well. Then I have some great people like Bill Holman, Marty Paich, Oliver Nelson, contributing scores for us. We're continually adding new material, thinking up new ideas and so forth.


The objective we have is to play not only Swing music, but to get into the contemporary thing, too, because we feel it's an important area there. We have one or two arrangers who rite the contemporary pieces excellently-hard rock or easy rock, you know. We're also still playing some very delicate ballad-type things. Then we go on to the hard swinging sounds.

Actually, we've tried to develop a good-sounding band that will be suitable for any kind of audience. And we've found that our audience ranges from tiny tots clear up to the old people-with all of them enjoying everything we play.
Having a lot of young musicians, we can keep in touch with everything that's happening on today's music scene. So naturally we're into a lot of the very modern styles in jazz. We like to stay abreast of the times, figure out the good things, and add those to our repertoire.

Using rock rhythms with jazz is entirely valid. The last two years, especially, have seen a lot of the rock drummers playing much better. They're not resorting to the basic things they were doing before. They're more sound-conscious, more equipment-conscious. Recording techniques are getting better and thus more critical; the competition is greater. With the re sult that the drummers are learning their craft on the instrument a little more, and getting into some wonderfully complex rhythm patterns. I think the intensity we're hearing from these young people is tremendous.

You can't help but have it infiltrate; it's already in a lot of bands right now. You can still keep the swing going, but you can integrate this other sound in with it. As we're now doing on some pieces. To refer back to the "London Suite": after the delicate middle part, the last part can be termed a continuance-showing the way it is. Which is a combination of semi-Latin rock and Swing-and it comes off great.

As for working with Basie and, of course, the great Tony Bennett-that's been very enjoyable, too. Tony wanted me to come over; I had to get out of a few engagements to make the trip, but I was happy that I was able to do so.
That Basie band is an institution; it's like Ellington's band. There's a certain feel with a personnel that's been together for years, that you don't get with any other band. The solidity is there, the feeling, and it's marvellous to play with bands like that. We used to call 'em the road bands. Well, they still are, of course.
And Tony-I'd put him in a class with Sinatra-who, as we all know, is such a marvellous entertainer and such a marvellous man. There are really no adjectives left to improve on what has already been said about him. And the same goes for Tony Bennett-he has that great magnetism; when he hits the stage, you know that there's a performer. The way he sings his ballads and his swing numbers-it's just class personified.

Besides being such a great singer, Tony is a really beautiful person, and he's much-loved by musicians: It's been a real treat working with him. My band has the opportunity of doing three or four important jobs a year with him, and we look forward to it. He loves the big band sound, and it's great for us-as it is for Basie, Ellington, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, whose bands he also works with a lot. It helps to keep us all going.

Anyway, for various reasons, this has turned out to be just about my most memorable playing visit so far. All the concerts went well and the press was very kind to us, the clinic I did for the IDA came off great, and then the record sessions were so wonderful.

I also had a chance to listen. to some other musicians. In particular, Roy Budd - who is a very talented young pianist. I got to know him quite well. In fact, we played together a couple of times. I'd like to hear some of the things he's writing; he's doing a picture now, I understand, for the first time.

Another pleasure was spending a day with Kenny Clare, who is a very close friend. He's one of your greatest drummers-certainly a giant. I went to a session he was doing, and also watched him work with Tony on the BBC show-the one that the Queen attended. He played just great, Then Kenny was up in the control booth on one of the evenings we were recording, and I got a little nervous watching him up there. I kept saying "How is it, Kenny?" and he kept giving me the okay sign.

Without a doubt, there are new ideas coming into drumming that we must accept, because they've been proven to be valid. A lot of our younger people now are realising that we can change certain things-or add on to what we already have.

What I think is so great about our youth today is that they want to have love and peace. Once you have that; everything else falls in line; then with music as well, what more can you have? It's marvellous to see them having that much care for one another-really more today than we had years ago-and it's something that the whole world will have to develop.

It's like a band-all of us must have a love affair, so to speak. Because we're all playing together; that intensity must go out from the bandstand to the audience. My wife, Pearl Bailey, used to say a wonderful thing at the end of her show: "I've been playing a game of tennis with you. Not the physical kind-that's a little too hard for me. But I bounce my ball of love out to you and you bounce it back." It's a game with no winner; you both win. It's just that once you get that tremendous applause, it means that you've scored your point in this game of love: That's very important.

So, as I say, music can be so beautiful. I work on movie soundtracks, TV jingles, and all that; it's very valuable to have my own band also. Like Buddy - he worked with the Harry James band for a long time. I was doing the same thing; I worked with Basie, Duke and other bands. When you get your own band, after so many years, you can manoeuvre it just any way you want.

Talking of Harry James: if somebody asks him: "Do you think that big bands are coming back?", he always says: "We never left". But there is a lot of intensity that way now. It started when Blood, Sweat And Tears made a breakthrough, adding more instruments; they got away from just the plain guitars and drums sound. Now a lot of the rock groups are adding more brass and woodwinds, getting into better tunes, becoming more musical. The groups are bigger-which is a good indication.
Everything travels in cycles, you know, and that's the way music is. We're getting into a new cycle for big sounds now.


RETURN TO LONDON (Second interview) - Regarding our tours and recordings:

Preparing for our return engagement at Ronnie Scott's in November, my thoughts go back to that wonderful initial week last year-and to Ronnie himself. I've known him for many years, and I know Ronnie as a dedicated player. With him, it's music all the way. Every night, at the end of the gig, he'd come to me and he'd say: "Thank you". It was beautiful; I knew, when he said those few words, he meant it-because I know Ronnie, and he's a very honest guy. That really made me feel good, because he knew the band was good, and performing at its peak. He never missed one night.

While we were there, we did an album for Ronnie's own label; I know that many performers do that, when they appear there. Even though we're with Pablo and Concord, Norman Granz and Carl Jefferson both agreed, because Ronnie is one of the few guys who has had a club operating for twenty years, and given all these guys an opportunity to play. The recording. doesn't hurt them, but it's a thing for Ronnie, to get exposure to the great public over here. So it's nice when you can do things like that, you know.

I know all the great big bands have been in there-Buddy, of course, and Woody, Basie, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. Ellington didn't make it, but I'm sure he would have had he lived a little longer-he'd have been very delighted to go. Sure, the acoustics are good. Any place that you play, Ronnie's included, it always takes a day for the instruments to sort of find the right spot, so to speak. They may press a little too hard the first day, but then after you get accustomed to the sound, you feel the room out and then it becomes great. A club like that is marvellous, because the audience is right there, and they feel the im pact and the excitement of the big band. It isn't like playing in a tremendous hall, where the people are maybe a hundred feet away from you. In a club, you always have that atmosphere-the kind you can't get anywhere else.

In LA, Donte's is smaller than Ronnie's, really. We have a new place called Carmello's now, where most of the guys are playing, that is more conducive than Donte's. Donte's is great for a small group; it's okay for a big band, but when we went in there, I used to have a couple sitting right next to my ride cym bal-and I felt guilty hitting it every time! But it was a great place for us; we gained a lot of recognition, and a lot of very happy moments there. Donte's is still a brilliant place for a lot of musicians. Carmello's though, is like the size of Ronnie's, and we're going to be playing there quite a bit now.

Another thing the band appreciates is the chance to settle in one location for a spell. Because any time you play one-nighters and things like that, you always have to go and get a sound check, because the place is different, the bandstand is different, and you don't know what mike set-up you're going to have. Playing in a club like Ronnie's, as you get into the week, you settle in, and by the second or third night you've really got it together.

Playing with my band, just as Oscar Peterson or anybody, total concentration is the thing with me. I'm forever listening, and making sure that performance is A number one at all times.
You know, that's a big factor at clinics, too. When Bobby Shew or Don Menza do a clinic, the first thing they'll say to the rhythm section: "Can you hear me?"-and invariably some of the college of high school kids will say: "No, we can't." Then Bobby or Don will say: "Well, if you can't hear me, you can't give me the proper backing." You must have a monitor, and the rhythm section should be able to hear the soloists at all times.

Then you've got a soloist plus the proper accompaniment; with out that-you have the airplane with no pilot. Or the pilot with no airplane-in either case, it doesn't make sense. One has to have the other.

Talking of clinics-I'll be doing some on this trip. I did one last year with my great friend Kenny Clare, who is one of the giant players. Buddy and I always talk about Kenny. Before I had a chance to meet him, he did a record with Ella Fitzgerald; the minute it came out in the States, everybody said: "Wow-who is that playing drums?" They could detect that it wasn't Buddy, and it wasn't me, but they knew it was a fabulous, great player. As a result of that, Kenny Clare immediately became a name in the States. Then, of course, later on they heard him not only with John Dankworth and Cleo Laine, but also with the Francy Boland band.

Kenny really did some things on that concert with Buddy and I for Frank King. Kenny kept saying: "Me-play with Buddy and Louie?", but we said: "Wait a minute-let's check him out." I don't know if a lot of people know, but when it came time for Kenny to play his solo, he broke his bass drum head almost immediately-and he finished the solo with that broken head. And he sounded great. Buddy and I felt that he did just a super job on that concert; we love him. It's always a joy for me to do a clinic with Kenny, because I learn something from it-just being with him. Like Buddy says; you always learn something from another player. Specially a great player like that you really learn.
So we'll just keep forging ahead-creating, travelling, re cording, and doing our thing; that's it.

IN LONDON AGAIN (third interview)

It's such a delight to see you guys again; I always look forward every month to getting that magazine and reading it, because I still feel that it's really one of the greatest music magazines in the whole world today.

And it's a pleasure to be back here in Britain; this one's only two weeks, but we've been having a ball. This was our third trip with the band, and I hope we wind up doing about a hundred trips. I do feel that this time we've got the soloists and the ensemble sound, and, judging from the audiences and their reaction, I would say that we've got probably the best band that I've ever had, right now. 

They are just super. Every night I get people coming over and saying that the fire, the enthusiasm and the individual playing that this band has are just uncanny. We're actually doing about a two-and-a-half hour to three-hour con cert every night, and the guys look forward to it-they're on the bandstand way ahead of time. They're just excited about being able to play for the people: It's been a magic tour.

Plus the fact that we had a chance to record again-at the same studio. That's the old Pye Records studio; they call it PRT Studios now-right, where we did the original "Louie In London" LP. Alan Freeman and Ray Prickett again recorded us, and I feel this time we got even a better album than we did last time.

There's a lot of exciting things on there. Matt Catingub played a beautiful alto solo, on an original thing that he wrote. A young man by the name of Gregg Ruvolo, who was working with Gerry Mulligan for a long time, did a nice flugelhorn solo-very much like Bobby Shew, you know. And Ted Nash and Kenny Hitchcock were also featured.

The great George Duvivier has added so much to this tour. Being a rhythm section player, I can only tell you that having him in the band is like having God on your side! And that's really something. First of all, George is basically one of the greatest timekeepers-and I've worked with 'em all. Just to have him there playing time is great enough on its own-but his solo capabilities are just staggering. On the second half of every show, we devote a time to let the audience have their ears come down from the volume, and have just the trio-Frank Strazzieri, George and I. George plays this marvellous bass solo-the message really gets across to the people. We were talking about it the other day: it was over thirty years ago that George and I first started working together. We played a lot of dates with Pearl; in fact, he was over here with Pearl when we played the Talk Of The Town that month, a few years ago.
In Frank Strazzieri we've got a great pianist. Then Walt Johnson came over with me; he's our regular high-note player, and one of our lead players in California. He's been doing a thing on "MacArthur Park" that just floors everybody-because it takes a player like a Maynard Ferguson to play that, and he's got those kind of chops. He gets up there, but they're true notes; he's a marvellous musician. Yes, he's one of the newer genera tion of great players. And Brian O'Flaherty's back with us, after playing lead trumpet with Woody's band; Dave Katz is another fine player. John Eckert, from New York, is a great jazz player, who really hasn't made his mark yet name-wise-but he will.
Clint Sharman is back on trombone. I'm very happy about the whole texture of the band-all the ingredients are there.

Yes, the personnel has changed around somewhat in the last few years. Like, in California now, Menza's no longer in the band, because he's got his own group-he's trying to get his big band together, but he's travelling quite a bit in Europe now; I think he just left Sweden and Finland. Of course, Don has got a big name, and he's in demand; so there's no reason why he shouldn't have a band of his own. The same thing with Bobby Shew, who is one of the most tremendous lead players I ever had. But I've got to say "I told you so". I used to say to Bobby: "I'll bet you play good jazz". He'd always been considered a lead player, and when I had Blue Mitchell in the band, Bobby wouldn't dare to play solos-he loved Blue so much, that he wanted him to play them all. When, sadly, Blue passed away, I told Bobby: "Look, you've got John Thomas, Frank Szabo, Walt Johnson who are all great lead players; why don't you pass the parts out to them, and you play some of the jazz things that Blue did." Finally, he did-and Bobby has emerged as a great jazz artist. Which he's always been. He's got his own quintet now, and he's playing terrific things. Joe Romano is no longer in California-he went back to Rochester. So those three are on their own now; when that happens, you have to do what Buddy does, what Woody does -you have to find replacements.

The talented youngsters are around-that's for sure. My great-nephew is playing second alto; and he's a monster player, a graduate of Howard University in Washington, DC. His name is Billy Murray-he likes to be known as William Santos Murray. We've got brilliant players like that-they play good flute, they play clarinet, they play with good intonation, good musicality; they read, they compose, they arrange. It's such a joy to see that kind of thing happening, you know. It makes you feel like you want to work and not get paid; you don't care, be cause you're contributing something that's going to be valid.

To show you the interest they have. . . we're doing this small band album, with Frank, George, myself and Ted Nash, who's going to be playing tenor or alto; that really comprises our quartet. . . well, Matt Catingub came up to me on the plane, on the way over here, and said: "Forgive me for saying this, but I want to play so much-can I just do one or two things with that quartet when you do it? You don't have to pay me-all I want to do is just play with you guys." Well, that's the kind of enthusiasm; they're interested in music, and they want to play.

He's only twenty-one years old, don't forget-he's really con cerned with doing something that's got value to it. Boy, you can't beat that.

In the future, I hope that we will be able to give our youngsters a little more education, listening-wise. Let them be aware of some good jazz records, some symphony records and know what the opera is all about. In this way, they won't be honed in to just one particular thing. When my son was thirteen and fourteen, like most kids, he was locked into one thing-go ing to the heavy rock concerts, and yelling and screaming.

Okay, if that's what they want to do, fine-but that's all they know, and it's a shame if they're not musically educated. Once my son grew up to the age of eighteen and nineteen. . . he came to see me at the house, and I said: "Hey, as long as you're here, here's some clothes and some records that you left." He looked at the records, and he said: "Those are mine? But, Dad, those are junk!" I said: "Well-you're growing up now. I think you're realising the difference between bad music and good music. If you call that junk, okay-I never like to put anything down, but musically it is not good. Truthfully. You're more educated now; you've had a chance to listen to some good contemporary groups. You've had a chance to know who Basie is, who Oscar Petersen is, who Dizzy Gillespie is-what Weather Report is, if you want to go the other way. I even made you aware of what the Budapest String Quartet was.

" He said: "Boy, you're right, Dad." I said: "Well, that's what it's all about." So I think that's a very important thing that should happen. Youngsters should not be deprived of being educated in that way.

You know, I've been thinking about you for a couple of months. In the States I said: "I know I'm going to be talking to Les Tomkins when I get over there", and I had one big thing that I wanted to talk to you about. Pearl mentioned this: when a great artist grows older here in England, they really respect that artist. They don't say: "Well, you're old and you're over the hill. Forget it-just get out of the way"-which we tend to do.
You still respect them for what their contribution has been; the heavies are even knighted.

We really need to have this attitude much more in the States, I feel. One example: there's one gentleman who's still living, although he's not very well, and he is responsible for a lot of the things that I did.

He's one of my mentors, and, I'm sure, of Buddy Rich, because Buddy and I talked about him. I never had one idol, but if I had to pick one guy, it would have to be him. He's still with us, and yet a lot of the youngsters don't know about him. Which is a shame, because they should go back and know where the roots are.
This guy I'm speaking of is Jo Jones-" Papa Jo" who created so much for all of us; I just can't say enough about that dear man. He came several times to the club where I was work ing, Sweet Basil's . George Duvivier, John Bunch, Ted Nash and I worked there-and he sat at a booth right next to where my drums were set up; he folded out a newspaper, and he asked for a pair of brushes. Right in the middle of the set, I said: "Ladies and gentlemen, there he is-that's the boss." And there he was, on the table with a newspaper, and Jo and I played fours.

Here's a guy that I think all the young drummers should know about. Max Roach made a beautiful statement; he said: "What can I say about Jo Jones? I'll tell you what I can say about him-out of any three licks that any drummer can play, two of 'em belong to Jo Jones." That's great-and it's right, you know. He really laid it all down.

Well, Louie-you've been coming over here now for at least twelve years; I've talked to you many times, of course, but this is the first time that I haven't had to say to you: "When are we going to hear that big band of yours?" That's right. I really feel good about this; with the great help of Crescendo, of the promoter of this tour, Peter Brightman, and of people that have believed in my big band, we've made it an actual truth-we're over here, and we're really enjoying it. The engagement at Wembley was nice; the only problem there was it was a Saturday afternoon, and a lot of people didn't get a chance to hear the band. But all this week at Ronnie's, it's just been terrific; Ronnie has been great, the club's been packed every night, the band is playing well-it's just sensational, man.

No doubt you've brought some new charts with you? Oh, yes-we're always creating new things, with people like Don Menza in the band; he's a great contributor, as far as arrangements are concerned, besides his playing ability. Don is always bringing a new chart in-like, once every week. Then Bill Holman writes for us; I'm doing quite a bit of writing.

Within the band, we have quite a few guys who write; there's Nat Pierce, and now Bobby Shew has turned out to be an ex cellent composer and arranger-he just wrote a beautiful thing for his late colleague Blue Mitchell, which he titles just plain "Blue". It's a gorgeous piece of music.

Also little Matt Catingub, who's only eighteen years old-his mother is the marvellous singer Mavis Rivers-he's contributed a couple of charts already that are just dynamite. He plays alto saxophone; he wrote a composition called "Explosion", which features him on alto, but it's mainly a drum vehicle for me. We play it in the second set, and it's demanding; you have to have a good band to play it, but it comes off great-everybody asks me who wrote it.

And Gordon Goodwin-he's playing baritone now, but can play lead alto or any of the chairs-there's another youngster, who's about twenty-one. years old, who can compose very well. So the band's loaded with talent. We claim to be a good ensemble band, but yet we have all these individuals, that I think are very important in making up a really great band. We just did a new album for the Concord label; it'll be released in January, and it's got all brand new material. Most of the things are by Don Menza, and this "Explosion" piece by Matt is on there. We're very happy with it; I've already done the mixing on it. The band sounds wonderful-it's on-the-spot, live recording, which I like the best; you don't have to worry about that closed-in feeling you get in a studio, when you know you're going to try to fight to hear one another. When you're playing to the people, you don't have that stigma; it's a more natural sound-you feel better that way.

You've started to record at Ronnie's, haven't you? Right. It always takes a day, even for the engineers to get their mikes set up; so the first day is sort of a throw-away. I think when we go in tonight we should be able to get something out of the two sets; we play a good hour-and-a-half set-so that's at least three hours every night. Out of that, we'll pick enough for an album. Last night, the other mikes were in the way of the house mikes; you try to make that adjustment, and give them a chance to do the sound. We'll be in good form tonight, I think.

I'm sure audience reactions have been consistently favour able. Well, it's because we appreciate the audiences here that we wanted to come over with an excellent band; all my guys have looked forward to this for many years. We appreciate audiences all over, but we know that here. . . you know, we don't want to try to fool anybody; we want to come with some thing that's valid, because you've already had a chance to hear great bands like Duke and Basie and Buddy and Woody-so it's got to be right.
I must, say, all the write-ups so far have been just beautiful; they've respected the soloists that I've brought over, like Nat Pierce, Joe Romano, Don Menza, Bobby Shew. Bill Berry, by the way, is with us also, and so is John Heard on bass. They made it a point to say nice things about these players, as well as the full band ensemble.

Well, it's a bit of an all-star band, after all.
Yeah, it really is. And I was very lucky too; all those players can stay in California, where they've got big fat salaries, but money is not the biggest problem for these kind of guys-they still like to play. In order to do that, you have to go out and travel all over the world, like the bands do-in order to get that inner feeling. These guys have a deep respect for music; staying in one spot and doing studio work is not enough for them. And I'm glad, because I can get 'em out, and let people hear 'em play-which is vitally important.

They need that musical release.
They do-and it's better for everybody concerned. In life, like we used to say, how many steaks can you eat a day, or how many Rolls-Royces can you have? They're not even interested in that; all they want to do is be able to get on the bandstand, and know that they've come up with something really constructive and beautiful, that the people like. That's worth more than anything you can imagine.

I know you do a lot of dates around the L. A. area, but is this the first time you've actually travelled around with the band? We've also travelled to New York and back many times with this band. Now, we haven't done that for about three years, and the people there-all the colleges and night-clubs are saying: "Come on back to New York. We haven't heard you for a long time." So we're going to co-ordinate a couple of tours back to New York with the band. But, of course, this is the first time here for me with any kind of a group of my own. I was always with small bands, such as Oscar, Dizzy, Jazz At The Philharmonic-which is not a bad deal.

Previously, the only big bands we'd heard you with were British ones. For instance, I was in the studio when you made the "Louie In London" LP.

Then there was the Concert Tribute we did for the late Frank King-Buddy Rich, Kenny Clare and myself-when we used the Bobby Lamb/ Ray Premru Band. By the way, I saw Bobby-he came in the club the other day. But I agree with Buddy when he says that he had been over here a few times before, but it isn't until you can really do your own thing, with your own band, that you can properly showcase yourself to the public.

You've worked yourself up to that position, and when it comes off, you say: "Well, great-there it is." Like, Oscar came in, and he's really very fond of our band; he said : "Boy, you guys are really hot!" When you get such comments, it makes you feel good inside, like your mission is successful. Because I really plan on coming over once a year at least; I'd love to do it. And I don't mean to come over the first time with a great band like this, and next time to come over with a mediocre band. I don't believe in that; I believe that wherever you play and whatever you do, you should always lay a hundred per cent, and come up with the finest that you can.
Buddy always feels that each band is better than the one he brought before.

That's right. And even though some of them aren't name quality; in the States, you've got young players who don't have the name yet, but boy, they just play. They're from eighteen, nineteen on, and they're great; I know that, because I deal with them all year round.

With varying personnel, you've operated a big band for a good many years now, haven't you? Yes, actually we started with the band itself in the early 'fifties.

Somebody said to me in the club last night: "The band has such precision-how do you get 'em so together?" They felt that I probably just got these guys together and rehearsed for a couple of weeks. I said: "Well, you must remember this band has been together for twelve years." Don Menza's been with me for at least twelve years; Bobby Shew, Larry Covelli, Nat Pierce have been quite a few years with the band-so have some of my other trumpet players and a couple of the trombone players.

When you've got a band like this, it just doesn't happen in three or four weeks. You vary a little bit in your personnel, but I can honestly say that most of the guys in our band have been with us from seven to twelve years. That's why it's a good band-we feel one another; it's an organisation. That's why it has that precision.

The last time we met, you were enthusing about the prospect of bringing the band over, and one of the musicians you said you expected to have with you was the late Frank Rosolino.
Frank was all set; in fact, when I was here last year with Oscar and John Heard, I spoke with Frank over the telephone, and he gave me a "Yes". He said: "Absolutely-we got it." And this band, as good as it is-with Frank added, it would just be unbelievable. We all know what a dear friend and a great player Frank Rosolino was; he had to be classed as one of the two or three top trombone players of all time-there's no question about it. I certainly felt a tremendous sense of loss-and the way it happened was such a shame. Don Menza was a very close friend of Frank, and it just staggered him-as it did all of us. With the loss of Frank, and then Blue Mitchell. And then I just lost my band manager, Nick DiMaio, who had been with me for thirty-five years; he was looking forward to this trip, and we lost him October 10th.
But, you know, you just can't get a big band like this, and fly 'em in from L. A., which is probably the farthest point in the States. Usually, bands work from L. A. to New York, and then fly over from New York, which is less costly. But Slingerland Drum Company, Zildjian Cymbal Company, and Remo Inc. all contributed to help pay some of the fares for these guys, and Peter Brightman and myself were able to get all their individual salaries. Because some of these guys don't come cheap, and they shouldn't-but they all agreed that they wanted to come over and play. I wanted to mention that, because without the help of all these people, we wouldn't have been able to do it.
And I thought that was very nice of them, just voluntarily to say: "Well, we've never done it before, but here it is." A little appreciation like that really helps.

That concert we did at the Barbican with Peggy Lee came off just great. First of all, Peggy is a marvellous artist. I go way back with her, you know-1943 with Benny Goodman's band; this was in the days when she was going with Dave Barbour.
We've always been very close, Peggy and I, but I hadn't seen her for a long time-it's been about five years-so when we met up again that day we just hugged and kissed. She calls me "Apples", because I'd always be back there munching on fruit-I still do. .

Now, I must explain-when you do those kind of shows, you're booked as a separate act. It was our band, then Peggy Lee, and then Carmen McRae, and then Joe Williams-these were the artists on the bill. Carmen had her own group there; so she was okay-but I know that Joe wanted so much to use our band, because he's got some great Thad Jones and Ernie Wilkins arrangements. And what a joy it is to work with that guy-he's a great singer. Yet you can't do that-because they feel that I'm an act, and so forth. That didn't bother me, but there just wasn't enough rehearsal time, because Peggy deserved three hours, just like Joe would. So Joe had to use a small group, which was fine, and we rehearsed throe hours with Peggy.

They had Art Morgan, who's a very fine British drummer-he came specifically to play for Peggy; which he's done before. They rehearsed about four or five tunes; I sat out in the audience area-and he sounded great, with George Duvivier's bass and with Peggy. I could tell she was very satisfied with the band. When the break came, I just happened to walk right by Peggy; we kissed again, and she said: "You know, this man is a great player-but I haven't seen you for so long. Why aren't you playing for me" I said: "Well-I don't know." She said: "He's a beautiful drummer, but it would be so nice to have you play a few things." That's how that happened. I finally wound up playing the whole thing. I know Art understood-it was purely a thing where we hadn't seen one another, and wanted to do it.

She had Pete Moore there, a great writer and conductor, and she used our whole band. Of course, she flipped over George Duvivier; and our pianist, Frank Strazzieri, too. She's so great-and it was good to see her again. She's getting ready to do a Broadway play on her life, you know; I hope it's a big success-she's certainly paid her dues: Well, Peggy; Ells, Sarah, Carmen-and Pearl-just keep going. Like Bing Crosby used to say: these people have longevity that's unbelievable. Where others have short professional lives-maybe two or three years; and that's it-they go on, and they get better and better. On this concert, they wouldn't let Peggy off the stage-she came back for two or three encores. After the performance, she said to m: "Please-let's do some things together." I said: "You know where to get hold of me-it'd be my pleasure." So I'm looking forward to that.
At the end of the tour I told Peter Brightman: "Listen, I don't care what it is-just bring me back here. If it can't be once a year, don't make it any more than two years in the interim." I think we'll be doing one with Tony Bennett; of course, Tony is a dear friend-another great artist. With him, the magic is there; we've done it a couple of times in the States before-and we just reach a height.

In fact, we just finished an hour-and-a-half PBS show (that means Public Broadcasting Service). It's Pearl's show, and she had Sarah Vaughan and Tony Bennett on it. We did it in Danville, Kentucky; now; this is horse country, s beautiful location, and right in the middle of this small city you've got one of the most fabulous theatres in the whole world: It was, built by Frank Lloyd Wright's son-in-law, who used to live in Danville, but lives in New York now; he became very wealthy and he wanted to do something for Danville-so he built this tremendous theatre. If you can visualise: it has close to three thousand seats; the downstairs only seats four to five hundred, the balcony comes almost directly on stage, and the sound is magnificent. Pearl told Ella about it; she worked there-but Tony and Sarah had not worked there, and they flipped out.
And I think that PBS show is going to be a real good one.

Public Broadcasting is real big in the States now, Because there you can see some great programmes. I hope you have a chance to see this show over here some time, because I know you'll enjoy it. Sarah and Tony each had a chance to do four or five tunes, without any interruption; Pearl had a chance to do her thing; Honi Coles, the great tap dancer, did a spot with Pearl. It was all music; our band played for the whole show, plus Milt Hinton on bass, Remo Palmier on guitar, Rozelle Claxton on piano-Pearl's regular quartet, you know. It really came off great; we walked away from that knowing that we did something-that good feeling, when you know the creative genes were going! On the subject of big band drumming: yes, I always refer to Mel Lewis as the ideal player in this field-he's marvellous.
In fact, on my clinics I'll always start off by playing a long drum solo; of course, the kids say: "Oh, yeah, man-that's great!" I say: "Now, wait a minute-I did that purposely. When I play that long drum solo that's fine-but that's secondary." They say: "What do you mean by that?" I say: "Well, first of all, it s very important for us to learn how to play this instrument. We are timekeepers; we are part of a rhythm section. I don't care if you're playing outside music, straight mainstream or whatever-you belong to that section.

If we're talking about big band drumming, one of the greatest examples is Mel Lewis." I always mention him; he's a small band drummer too, but people know him as a big band drummer. And what he does in that big band: without having to play any big solos or anything, he takes care of business with that rhythm section and with that band-he did it with Thad Jones and he does it in his band right now.
Mel always listens to the soloists, to become an accompa niment to them, and he's always sound-conscious. A great big band drummer. I just put the headset on and listen to the things he did with Thad and Mel, and what he's doing with the tre mendous band he's got in New York now-and it's there, that feel. So I tell the kids to go out and get those records, and listen to what he does. He's a big band barometer in himself-with that beautiful sound.

How many solos can you play? On top of that, suppose you just play the one solo-what happens the rest of the night? But I can see the anxiety of the young people in the audience; I can almost feel it. They'll listen to me play a ballad; they'll sit there and say: "Yeah-okay." Then they'll listen to a little up-tempo thing-but they're waiting for that last tune, with the solo climax. Fine-but it's so beautiful to watch the players like Mel or Buddy or Peter Erskine or Jo Jones or Philly Joe Jones or Max Roach, and see what they do during that set. How they accompany a singer, how they play in back of a beautiful ballad, what they do on a bossa nova, things like this-that's the magic.

When the guys in my band come to me and say: "Boy, Lou, you really swung the. band tonight!", that's what I want to hear. If they just say: "Boy, that solo was out of sight!"-that's maybe just once a night; what happened to that other two hours? That's where the magic is supposed to happen. So we're getting the young people to realise: look what he did right there; listen to that overall sound. Understand what Mel did when Thad was out front doing something-whether it be a delicate waltz or a real bombastic type of chart. The listening is always the key thing. Mel and all those great players are not back there playing by themselves-they're aware of who's playing a solo, and they hear him, so that they can give him the proper backing. These things are very important.

Years ago, before they really considered us as an integral part of the band, they used to say: "We've got sixteen guys and a drummer." And Buddy and I used to say: "What do you mean? We're just as important as anybody." Then, of course, came that marvellous time, when he was with Tommy and I was with Bonny-that was the instrumental age. The singers weren't the big thing then-it was the instrumentalists. You could name all the heavies-like, in Tommy's band there was Buddy, Ziggy Elman, Don Lodice, Johnny Mincc. Of course, it was the marvellous Gene Krupa who was the first guy to bring the drums to the foreground. Buddy and I have always passed the same in formation to youngsters; when they'd say: "How do you do that thing with the left hand?", we'd say: "Never mind that-let me see what you can do swing-wise." We still make that an empha sis, because that's where the musicality is.

Like, a cymbal itself is a beautiful instrument. I've been to the Zildjian factory in Boston, talking to Armand or maybe Lennie Di Musio, and they'd turn around and say: "Excuse me, Lou. . . Hey!" There'd be somebody over in a corner hitting a cymbal, and they'd tell him: "Don't ever hit the cymbal that way-let me show you how to hit it." There's a certain way you hit that cymbal to get what you want; you can hit it loud or you can hit it soft, but there's a way to get the ultimate sound out of it-a beautiful, musical sound. Same thing with a drum. You know, it's a feather in my cap when I've had two eighty-year-old ladies sit right in front of my drum set, listen to a whale set, and not hold their hands over their ears. Yet you can sit twenty feet away from another guy, who doesn't know how to play, and you'll say: "My ,God, what is he doing? It sounds like World War Three!"' It's a matter of dynamics-the touch: You have to develop a touch on that instrument-just like you do on a piano, a violin or anything.
As for the misuse of volume in some groups-it just be comes total distortion. It's too bad that some of those youngsters have to resort to something like that, because when you think of a distorted level, it isn't music any more-it's a great shame they don't realise that. They're only hurting their own health too, because I know my ear physician in California told me: "Lou, you're losing a little bit of your hearing in your right ear; that's natural-you've been playing over fifty years, with big bands, and in a lot of conditions. But I have some youngsters, nineteen and twenty years old-they're in the heavy rock groups and they're deaf." I hate to see that kind of thing happen.

The interviews were with Les Tompkins