I'm the Greatest Bass Player
Dolores Huerta dies at ninety six, and NPR's Felix Contreras tells the story she told him in 2017, about meeting Charlie Parker and being unable to say a word. Silas has the night a twenty three year old walked up to Joe Zawinul in Miami and said he was the greatest bass player in the world.
LioraDolores Huerta has died at ninety six. She met presidents. The one time she was lost for words was in front of Charlie Parker. Later, a twenty three year old tells Joe Zawinul he is the greatest bass player in the world. It's Thursday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Thursday, October 29th. 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: Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the farm workers union with Cesar Chavez in 1962
LioraDolores Huerta died yesterday at ninety six, and the jazz part of her life ran on the radio the same day.
Her foundation says she died on Wednesday at home in Bakersfield, California. TIME says the statement gave no cause, and credits the New York Times for cancer.
She was born Dolores Clara Fernandez in Dawson, New Mexico, in 1930, and raised in Stockton. In 1962 she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez, and she was vice president of the union it became for nearly four decades.
Here is the other thing. She was a jazz fan. NPR's Felix Contreras said so on All Things Considered yesterday, because he had her on the Alt.Latino podcast as a guest DJ in September of 2017.
Then, Contreras says, she pulled off the ultimate jazz fan name drop.
LioraHuerta: "And I guess my claim to fame is I met Charlie Parker."
And then: "Well, I was dumbstruck. I couldn't talk." And: "I was just frozen, just frozen."
"I have met, you know, President Obama," she said, "and we worked with Hillary, Bill Clinton, many, many famous people. But when I met Charlie Parker, I was at a loss for words."
Two. Listen to This: Josh Johnson's Animative is out on International Anthem and Nonesuch with streaming held
LioraToday's record came out last Friday.
Josh Johnson, "Animative," on International Anthem and Nonesuch. The label calls it his third under his own name and his first for those two, and says it erases any distinction between a saxophone led jazz album and an experimental electronics album.
Johnson plays most of it himself. Saxophone, synthesizer, sampler, piano, Rhodes, bass clarinet, guitar. The guests are credited track by track. Marquis Hill's trumpet on "Upstairs 2021." Meshell Ndegeocello's bass on "High Step."
Here is the tip. International Anthem has it as out now. Nonesuch dates the discs and downloads to October twenty third and puts streaming on November tenth. If you stream, you wait until November tenth.
LioraTwo more tomorrow. Pi Recordings puts out "Hurry Red Telephone," which it calls Marc Ribot's first all instrumental record since 2014, with Chad Taylor back on drums. Intakt in Zurich has a nine player Anna Webber record the same day, thirty Swiss francs on disc.
Now the hard one. Miami, 1974. A twenty three year old walks up to Joe Zawinul and says he is the greatest bass player in the world. Zawinul tells him to get lost. Silas has it.
Three. The Bridge: Silas tells how a twenty three year old walked up to Joe Zawinul in Miami in 1974 and
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Silas tells it, I ask the questions. Silas, where are we?
SilasMiami, Florida, 1974. You'll often hear 1975, but 1974 is Joe Zawinul's own date. Zawinul and Wayne Shorter founded Weather Report, and both came out of the Miles Davis circle. The band is touring behind "Mysterious Traveller," and it's in town to play the Gusman Theater.
Near that theater, a young man walks up to Zawinul. Bill Milkowski's biography puts it outside, after the soundcheck. Zawinul himself said it was after the show. Milkowski's later edition even puts the young man on the bill that night, opening with the university big band.
His name is Jaco Pastorius. He's twenty-three, christened John Francis Pastorius the Third. His family came south from Norristown, Pennsylvania. By that later edition, he's teaching bass at the University of Miami.
LioraWhat does he say?
SilasThat depends on who tells it. In Zawinul's version, Jaco says he was at the concert, and it "was OK." In Milkowski's book, Jaco says he's followed Zawinul's music since Cannonball Adderley, and loves it. Then comes the line Zawinul repeated for years. Jaco gives his full name, and says he is "the greatest bass player in the world."
LioraTo Joe Zawinul. To his face.
SilasTo his face. Zawinul said he "really didn't feel good about that whole thing." He tells the kid to get lost, in words we won't repeat here. In Milkowski's telling, Jaco keeps at it, and Zawinul comes to admire his nerve. Zawinul said, "He kind of reminded me of myself when I was a brash young man."
LioraDoes he get the gig?
SilasNo. Not for a long time. In the 1995 biography, Jaco gets a tape to Zawinul and meets him at a hotel. He's told Weather Report "already had a great bassist in Alphonso Johnson," and he leaves "somewhat dejected."
So he keeps in touch. Over the next several months, he sends letters and more gig tapes. Zawinul remembered being impressed by the handwriting.
Meanwhile Jaco is "discovered," as Milkowski puts it, by Bobby Colomby, the Blood, Sweat & Tears drummer, and he records his first album, for Epic. A rough mix reaches Zawinul. He said he was "really floored by it," most of all by a tune called "Continuum."
LioraSo what does Zawinul do?
SilasHe picks up the phone. His first question: "Hey kid, do you play electric bass too?" Zawinul said, "I thought he was playing an upright bass."
The bass chair comes open around the turn of 1976. Alphonso Johnson leaves to start a new band, with Weather Report only halfway through recording "Black Market." Johnson plays five tracks. Jaco finishes the other two: his own "Barbary Coast," and "Cannonball," a tribute to Cannonball Adderley, who had died in August 1975. In April 1976, Jaco plays his first live show with the band. Miami is well over a year behind him.
Zawinul later put it this way: "He wasn't kidding, he was the greatest bass player in the world."
LioraHe said it to Zawinul's face, then spent more than a year proving it, one letter and one tape at a time. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: Robert Glasper plays two sets at the Blue Note with Meshell Ndegeocello
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket is in New York, the first of two nights inside a longer run.
The Blue Note bills it Robert Glasper, featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, Isaiah Sharkey and Chris Dave. Those four names, nobody else. Two sets, eight and half past ten, doors at six and ten. The club prints no ticket price, only a twenty dollar minimum per person.
Now the sweep.
In Chicago, the Green Mill has two standing Thursday bills. Andy Brown from five to seven, then Alan Gresik's Swing Orchestra from eight to midnight. No cover printed.
In Detroit, Cliff Bell's opens two nights of the Vincent Chandler Experience. Half past seven and half past nine, twenty five dollars.
LioraIn Austin, the Elephant Room has the Sarah Sharp Quintet at six and the Jacob Wise Quartet at nine. Seven dollar cover, and none before eight.
In Philadelphia, Chris' Jazz Cafe has Katie Neary and her band at half past seven and nine, from twenty dollars. Then Nate Hook and his quartet at half past ten, for fifteen.
Five. One More Note: Anthony Braxton was recorded in Germany fifty years ago today and premieres a new septet
LioraOne more date. Fifty years ago today, the French national library puts Anthony Braxton in Germany with George Lewis, Dave Holland and Barry Altschul. Tonight the Anthony Braxton Septet plays a world premiere in Berlin, four saxophones and three tubas, on Jazzfest Berlin's opening night.
One more birthday, and one more death. Neal Hefti was born in Hastings, Nebraska, on this date in 1922. Woody Herman died on this date in 1987, in Los Angeles. The earliest thing the Library of Congress cites in Hefti's record is a Woody Herman one, from 1945.
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 Thursday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.