Letters from Savannah
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra plays a Milwaukee hall tonight in what the theater's own page calls Wynton Marsalis' final season as artistic director, and a high school band from Beloit opens for him. Then a John Coltrane "Giant Steps" off tapes a saxophonist made in clubs to study him, five rooms from New York to Austin, and Savannah, where the man who sent for Louis Armstrong opens pool rooms at nine in the morning and writes his sister about it.
LioraWynton Marsalis plays Milwaukee tonight, and a high school band opens for him. The theater's own page calls it his last season as artistic director. Today's record is a Coltrane tape made in a club. Later, Savannah, and pool rooms at nine in the morning. It's Wednesday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Wednesday, October 14th. This is The Daily Quintet. I'm Liora. Five stories from the world of jazz, in about ten minutes. Here we go.
One. The Lead: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra plays the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall in Milwaukee
LioraTonight in Milwaukee, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra plays the Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall. Half past seven. Again tomorrow night.
The Marcus Performing Arts Center calls it an intimate evening. Then its own page says this. The performance is part of Wynton Marsalis' final season as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center and music director of the orchestra.
The dates come from WRTI, reported in January by Nate Chinen. Marsalis stays artistic director until July 2027, then moves to an advisory role on staff. His contract ends in June 2028, and after that he sits on the board as Founder. A committee is searching for the next artistic director, and its target was this fall.
From the board's statement, as WRTI prints it, Marsalis says it is time for new leadership to take the institution to even higher ground.
LioraNow the part that makes it a Wednesday in Wisconsin. Opening tonight, the Beloit Memorial High School Jazz Orchestra. Tomorrow, Sun Prairie. The theater says both are longtime competitors in Essentially Ellington, Jazz at Lincoln Center's own high school competition in New York.
Two. Listen to This: John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" is out now as a single off The Tiberi Tapes
LioraToday's record is a John Coltrane "Giant Steps," out now as a single, off a set called The Tiberi Tapes. The estate says the CD and LP sets follow on November sixth.
Frank Tiberi, a saxophonist, followed Coltrane through Philadelphia and New York clubs in the early 1960s and taped him on modest reel to reel equipment. Previously unheard, the estate calls the recordings. For Tiberi they were study materials.
Eleven titles. Verve's own store lists the rooms and the running times. Two takes of "Giant Steps," both by Coltrane with McCoy Tyner, Steve Davis and Pete La Roca, from the summer of 1960.
Here is the tip. Play the single cold, then remember the man who made the tape was studying.
LioraOne more. Mosaic's eight CD set of the Oscar Peterson Trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen gathers every studio session but the 1959 songbooks, and the label lists it out of stock.
Now Savannah, Georgia. Tonight on The Bridge: the man who sent for Louis Armstrong ends up opening pool rooms at nine in the morning. His letters to his sister tell the rest. Silas has the story.
Three. The Bridge: Savannah: the man who sent for Louis Armstrong ends up opening pool rooms at nine in the
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Silas tells it, I ask the questions. Silas, where are we?
SilasSavannah, Georgia, the late 1930s. A man opens the pool rooms at nine in the morning and closes at midnight. By his own account, the pay is nowhere near the hours. Back in 1918 he went to Chicago and led the Creole Jazz Band. He sent for a young Louis Armstrong to come up and play second cornet. Joe "King" Oliver.
LioraKing Oliver, in a pool room? How?
SilasIn the mid to late 1920s he leads a bigger band, the Dixie Syncopators, and it has considerably less success than his earlier group. Then his teeth go. One musician said "he got to the place where he couldn't get over G." By 1935, one reference says, he had lost all his teeth.
In a statement printed under his name, he says one booker collected deposits and "skipped out." Another bought a bus and had him sign papers that put the band's instruments under mortgage. In Florida, "my band broke up by degrees." So he "went to Georgia and organized another band." By 1936 he's based in Savannah.
LioraDo we have his own words from those years?
SilasWe do. In 1955 a book called "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya" printed his letters to his sister, Victoria, who raised him. The printed letters carry no dates. One says, "I'm still out of work. Since the road house close I haven't hit a note. But I've got a lot to thank God for."
On the job: "I open the pool rooms at 9 a.m. and close at 12 midnite." In another letter, "If hours was money I'd be drawing more money than Babe Ruth at his best." He adds, "The Lord is sure good to me here without an overcoat. I have to see by lamp here. Smile."
LioraHe writes "Smile." By lamplight.
SilasOne reference hears "stubborn pride" in these letters. Then a harder one. "Now Vick before I go further with my letter I'm going to tell you something but don't be alarmed. I've got high blood pressure." He stopped his treatments "because it cost $3.00 per treatment and I don't make enough money to continue my treatments. Now it begins to work on my heart."
Then he asks her, "Should anything happen to me will you want my body?"
He starts a little dime bank. He writes, "I am going to try and save myself a ticket to New York."
LioraDid he make it to New York?
SilasNot alive. He died in Savannah in April 1938. Sources split on the exact day, and on the cause. His body went to New York. Two reference books say his sister spent her rent money. An account printed under Armstrong's name says "the Guild buried him." The sources don't agree. He's buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, by one account without a headstone.
Armstrong had seen him in Savannah. "I saw him at that time; it was in Savannah, when I was on some one-nighters." His verdict: "a broken heart. That's what killed Joe Oliver."
Armstrong would rather remember 1928, at the Savoy, sitting in with Luis Russell's band. Oliver stands out front "with a new set of clothes, and that Panama hat." In Armstrong's words, "he stood there listening, with the tears coming right out of his eyes."
LioraThe man who sent for Louis, in a Panama hat, crying out front while Louis plays. I'll keep that one. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: The Blue Note bills tonight as its forty fifth anniversary celebration hosted by Robert
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket is in New York.
The Blue Note bills tonight as its forty fifth anniversary celebration, hosted by Robert Glasper. Eight o'clock, doors at six. One set, and that is the tell: the club's own October grid gives almost every other night two houses. Tonight it lists one. The club names Glasper and nobody else, and prints no price, only a twenty dollar minimum per person.
Now the sweep.
In Chicago, the Green Mill has Alfonso Ponticelli, eight to midnight, ten dollars at the door, cash only. Ponticelli on guitar, Steve Gibons on violin.
In Baltimore, Keystone Korner has the Aidan Francia Cotter Quartet, one set at seven, twenty to twenty five dollars plus a fee, ten for students at the door.
LioraIn Denver, Dazzle has Art Lande's Future History Band. Doors at six, show at seven. Lande on piano, Tim Wendel on guitar, and Lande's son Aaron on violin and doumbek.
In Austin, the Elephant Room runs two bands. The Summer Trio at six, free before eight, then Freddie Mendoza's thirteen piece Baker's Dozen at nine, seven dollars.
Five. One More Note: Bing Crosby cut three Brunswick masters on this date in 1932
LioraOn this date in 1932, Bing Crosby was in a Brunswick studio. The UC Santa Barbara archive logs three ten inch masters from that day. "How deep is the ocean." "Here lies love." "A ghost of a chance."
Forty five years later, to the day, he died in Spain. The Library of Congress holds four source notes for it and they name four different places. Madrid. La Moraleja. Alcobendas. Near Madrid. On the date they agree. October fourteenth, 1977.
Not a ghost of a chance.
Outro
LioraThat's the Quintet. If today's show earned it, follow The Daily Quintet wherever you listen.
The Daily Quintet is an AI-crafted production, researched and checked by humans. Every listing you heard came from the venue or the festival's own organizer.
That's your Wednesday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.