[Dixielandjazz] Pee Wee and Monk

[Stephen G Barbone]

On Oct 22, 2011, at 7:43 PM, Bill Haesler wrote:

> Marek Boym wrote in part:
>> I don't thnk I've ever heard Pee Wee with Monk, but I can see how  
>> it could work - two great eccentrics playing together!
>
> Dear Marek,
> Here is "Nutty" from the Newport Jazz Festival Concert on 4th July  
> 1963.
>   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PTuG-SANPE
> with Charlie Rouse (ts) Butch Warren (sb) and Frankie Dunlop (d).
> About a 3 1/2 minutes solo starting at approx. 4:30.
> The other tune together in the concert was "Blue Monk".
> Robert Hilbert, in his biography "Pee Wee Russell, The Life Of A  
> Jazzman", quotes Pee Wee as not being happy with the Newport  
> performance.
> "No rehearsal, just pushed onto the stage. and I didn't fit into  
> that group."
> I couldn't find any earlier reference in the Hilbert book to Monk  
> and the Loft.
> No Index!
> I wonder if Steve B has an approximate date.

Dear Bill & Marek:

It is purely my guess when they played together in the Loft but I know  
they were together and talking to each other in the Loft at least once  
in 1959, and often thereafter. I would guess they would have first  
played together there in 1959 or 1960.

Regarding Pee Wee, he was very insecure and always downing himself and  
I suspect with his "not liking" his Newport performance, he was just  
being Pee Wee. If you asked Pee Wee about any performance of his, he  
would almost always down it. It is true that they did not rehearse  
either Nutty or Blue Monk but I read somewhere that Pee Wee chose the  
tunes beforehand. Besides, both of those tunes are very simple blues  
that any hack can follow easily. Pee Wee being a consummate blues  
player had no trouble with either of them.

Note on the You Tube of Nutty that Monk stops comping during Pee Wee's  
solo. He only did that when he liked the solo and so I think he liked  
what Pee Wee was doing.

BTW Marek, here is "Dinah" by a humorous Stride Playing Monk (James P  
Johnson, was one of Monk's neighbors and early mentors)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKAMNaGO5Y4&feature=related

And to hear a piano solo Blues in Stride style, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBO5FZ368jg

As for harmonics go below for Tea For Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY29KA1BpWg

or Honeysuckle Rose at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xted0J5upw&feature=related

Yeah, Monk, you are still the man

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband