2009-08-23

Coleman Hawkins in Madrid (October 13, 1964)

In my post from February 25, I recalled the story of the two Coleman Hawkins concerts in Barcelona that took place on October 14, 1964 and November 11, 1967 at the Palacio de la Música, both of them musically unsuccessful.

In the former, Hawkins played as part of the Mainstream Jazz Group, one of the ensembles integrated in the European Tour of the Newport Jazz Festival, being the rest of the musicians Harry 'Sweets' Edison (trumpet), Sir Charles Thompson (piano), Jimmy Woode (bass) and Jo Jones (drums).



This group had played the day before in Madrid, at the Carlos III theatre, with similar almost chaotic results. It was Juan Pedro Bourbon, owner of the mythical Whisky Jazz club, who did manage to bring this Mainstream Jazz Group to Madrid.

Juan José González, veteran jazz enthusiast and faithful reader of this blog who attended this concert 45 years ago, recalls how Jo Jones left the stage a few minutes after the concert started, reportedly saying "I don't want to play with that old man!". According to Juan José, Hawk got on the stage walking clumsily and started the concert playing in kind of a bebop style, very different from the way this group had been playing before, and this infuriated Jo Jones. Harry Edison, on his feet, took one of the sticks and started to keep the rhythm on the cymbals, while Coleman Hawkins and Sir Charles Thompson soloed, and then he played his solo choruses with a two-men rhythm section, no drums.





In the November issue of Aria Jazz magazine, an article called "Two Empty Seats" was published, in reference to Jo Jones' and Juan Pedro Bourbon's, who went to the police to report Jo Jones for breach of contract. Bourbon wrote "I regret to say that the great Coleman Hawkins turned up at the Carlos III completely drunk" in the Aria Jazz article.

According to the ABC (Spanish newspaper) TV listings, the following two programs of Discorama (Sunday, October 18 and Sunday, October 25) were dedicated to Coleman Hawkins. Discorama used to be recorded at the studio and, so far, I haven't been able to find any confirmation whether these programs were telecasts of the concert at the Carlos III or they were studio recordings. Any help would be much appreciated.

3 comentarios:

  1. Gracias por recordar esa anécdota que te conté. Ese año de 1964 cumplí 20 años de edad y también asistí al otro concierto que Juan Pedro Bourbon había organizado en abril con el MODERN JAZZ QUARTET con la participación de LAURINDO ALMEIDA.
    Juan Pedro Bourbon no organizó, que yo sepa, más conciertos en cines o teatros fuera de los muchos que organizó en sus dos clubes de Madrid.
    ¡Enhorabuena!, me parece increible que haya gente como tu dedicada al estudio y acontecimientos del jazz en aquellos años en España.
    Juan josé González

    ResponderEliminar
  2. Este comentario ha sido eliminado por un administrador del blog.

    ResponderEliminar
  3. Fascinating! Who knew? Thanks to you, Agustin -- but of course, if recordings of this concert are found, they will be sad or chaotic to hear. We are lucky that the British telecast and the French recordings (if I have that right) exist.

    Admiringly as always, Michael Steinman

    ResponderEliminar