[Dixielandjazz] Roswell Rudd - The New Orleans Connection. OKOM to Avant Garde

[Stephen Barbone]

Listmates:

Here is a rough Biography of trombonist Roswell Rudd, and some little
known and mostly ignored facts about "The New Orleans Connection" to
Avant Garde Jazz.

Born 17 November 1935, Sharon, Connecticut, USA. Rudd started on French
Horn at age 11, then studied singing and French horn at college and
theory at Harvard (1954-58). Like several other members of the 60s
avant garde he began his jazz career playing Dixieland, a fact that
points up the line of evolution between the New Orleans roots and the
New Thing, and his big, fulsome trombone sound strongly recalls the
early "tailgate" players, even when he is working in the most abstract
surroundings. Rudd moved to New York in the 1954 and played in various
traditional bands until about 1960.

NOTE: He played Dixieland with the "Hotchkiss Syncopaters" while
attending that prep school (early 1950s) in Lakeville Connecticut, The
band was led by Peter Duchin (Yep, Eddie's son). He then went on to play
in "Eli's Chosen Six" circa 1955 to 1957. and cut a couple of albums
with them. He also played a whole lot of Dixieland tailgate in New York
City at various joints with various players during those years.

He began to work in a modern context with Herbie Nichols (1960-62) and
in 1961 he joined Steve Lacy (who also started out playing traditional
jazz). His conversion to free-form jazz began as a result of meeting
Bill Dixon. In 1964, he formed the New York Art Quartet with John
Tchicai, to whom he had been introduced by Dixon. When the Quartet
disbanded in 1965 he became a member of Archie Shepp's highly
influential group until 1967, playing on Four For Tranc and Mama Too
Tight. In 1968, he formed the Primordial Quintet (which ended up as a
nine-piece band) with Lee Konitz. During the late 70s and 80s he toured
extensively with his own groups, and in 1982 was reunited with Lacy in
the Monk Project with Misha Mengelberg. He has also worked with Cecil
Taylor, Jazz Composers Orchestra (who, in 1973, commissioned the Numatik
Swing Band from him), Albert Ayler, Karl Berger, Enrico Rava, Perry
Robinson, Gato Barbieri, Robin Kenyatta and Charlie Haden's Liberation
Music Orchestra, and in 1961 he appeared in the movie The Hustler. He
has also worked with Alan Lomax, and became professor of Music Ethnology
at the University of Maine.

NOTE: Like many jazz musicians in the 70s, 80s, and 90s he had to take a
day gig to survive. He also worked a steady gig at a Resort Hotel in the
Catskill Mountains during that period.

He has tried to show the connections between jazz, so-called ethnic
music and the European classical tradition in his compositions. In the
early 90s after taking a degree in nursing, he began playing Dixieland
again in upstate New York. He returned to recording in the late 90s,
working with Lacy, Elton Dean, and the New York Art Quartet.

NOTE He was also Jazz Artist In Residence at Harvard University in
2002-2003.

Interesting how jazz develops, no? From OKOM to Cecil Taylor to OKOM and
back again. Now who would have thought that?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone