Quote:
Originally Posted by wiseone2  Someone made tons of money on the Village People, I don't think the performers got rich.
I am not embarrassed to say I was on those dates. The level of playing, if you listen to the band, is outstanding. The music is for partying. It was never the intention to create great art.
All the years I played with the Brooklyn Philharmonic never once was I asked to play "YMCA," if I were playing at the Vanguard the same would hold true.
We can not, and should not compare the Village People with Woody Shaw.
Wilmer |
Oh...I think I am misreprenting myself here. I am talking here of Soloff and Faddis. Unfortunately I'm a bit too young to have made the boom that was to be made in the jazz trpt world in the very late 70s and a bit too old to survive the post Wynton side show.
There was such a paucity of new jazz trumpet players in the 70s that Art Blakey had to hire Woody Shaw and Bill Hardman on a regular basis as there was, in effect, no one else. I was lucky to see Bill Hardman with Boo in the mid 70s.
But Soloff came to be known to jazz and studio through a commerical group. Lew is one of the great lead players--not one of the great jazz players. But again, in the late 70s, when Tom Harrell could not perform with Horace Silver, it was Soloff who took his place. In today's world, Soloff or a player of Soloff's abilites in jazz would not be asked to play with Horace Silver.
As for Faddis, like Marsalis, they recieved high profile gigs before they were ready, but the playing field was extreemly limited. Faddis joined Mingus when he was 18, in the early 70s, and his claim to fame was playing some of Dizzy's more rudimentary "licks" an octave above. People went nuts. Again, in today's world, Faddis would never have been chosen to play with Mingus, but again the playing field was highly limited. Faddis, to be sure would have become a lead player, but not with the instant adolecent success that he enjoyed. As an after thought, Jack Walrath was not at the calibre to play with Mingus during the 70s either, but it menat hiring someone like Ted Curson again.
As for Marsalis, he has had the good grace in RECENT years to admit that he was only playing scales and thus implying that he was not ready to be considered for exposure with Art Blakey.
In the end, it was really Tom Harrell, a very ill, but highly talented young man in the mid 70s, who ended the trumpet enui that has always been atributed to Wynton Marsalis more than 4 years later when recording of him and Herbie Hancock begain to surface and the rest is, as they say, history.
I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.
Wilmer, you know where I am coming from when I make these statements