[Dixielandjazz] Re: Roswell Rudd & OKOM Roots

[Stephen Barbone]

Jon Seiger wrote:

> hi all
>
> when i was a student at the new england conservatory of music, roswell was a
> guest clinician and came and gave about a week's worth of master classes.
> most of the students were into modern jazz, but me and my OKOM group
> persuaded him to play at a gig we had, and he played some of the finest OKOM
> around. He may play more modern these days, but he knows his roots :)

Amen Jon:

A half century ago, I gigged with Rudd a few times at the Cinderella Club in
NYC (among other places) in the company of trumpeters Jack Fine, & Johnny
Windhurst, Bassist Chuck Traeger, Pee Wee Russell, Kenny Davern and others. He
was blowing up an OKOM storm in those days. In 2001, a review in the NY Times
described him thusly:

"There's a bit of 1960's redux but a ton of heart on ''Live in New York''
(Verve), from Roswell Rudd and Archie Shepp, an album that reconvenes a group
that functioned briefly almost 40 years ago. It's tempting to say that Mr.
Rudd, the boisterous trombonist with Dixieland in his hands and abstraction in
his brain, is a good foil for Mr. Shepp's slouching, acerbic tenor saxophone
commentary. But the great trombone players are good foils, period: that's their
job. At these shows -- recorded last year -- Mr. Shepp, who has had his share
of winded, phlegmatic performances in recent years, came to play, and you can
feel Mr. Rudd's contributions hectoring him on."

And in this 1999 review snippet, again in the NY Times of a Steve Lacy /
Roswell Rudd 1975 release, now newly put onto a CD.

"The trombone has a rich bloodline of expansive impertinence, and Mr. Rudd can
play it like a junkyard dog, with ripe growls and Doppleresque shouting
effects. In Mr. Lacy's band, which essentially avoids group interplay, this
charming, exaggerated contrast is the next best thing; it is a gift."

"In Mr. Lacy's ''Blinks,'' which has a theme punched out in a lot of
unsyncopated single notes, Mr. Rudd did a wonderful thing: he constructed a
solo out of jabbing tones, echoing the composition, and then he suddenly broke
into a sound and rhythm that recalled Vic Dickenson -- a concise line of swing
with a raspy edge."

Yeah, Roswell Rudd. One of the many great unknowns of OKOM. The personification
of a Jazz Musician who plays it all with creativity and energy, never
forgetting the roots, yet not stuck in some time warp either.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone