[Dixielandjazz] Basie white men

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Basie I gather wanted to engage the English saxophonist Tony Coe 


on tenor 


Tony I remember from a tour with Al Grey 


his less conservative tendencies lifted Al out of his more conservative ones.
A Willie Smith enthusiast on alto (played clarinet and tenor with Al)

Tony also does go in for some avant-garde non (in terms of this list) OKOM

but he still congratulated the late and much missed Danny Moss 

in his campaign to support musical tenor saxophone playing 

as contrasted with imitations of John Coltrane 

-- who as Danny put it were taking up the specialised means Coltrane devised
for his own purposes 

and misapplying them to fashionable non-musical ends. 

Great ballad players, Danny and Tony both,


Nat Pierce was also a very decent pianist, 

and if he very occasionally lacked spontaneity,
that was in marked comparison with all his many good days. 

Some of which were as substitute for Basie. 

And even with Joe Temperley in an octet playing Basie music 

with a very full sound like the postwar Basie big band
and filling a huge hall (swinging with a pen) 

Anybody who needs to see the colour of a guy's hands 

 don't know what swinging means 


Robert R. Calder