mardi 10 Jui 2008, 6h58m

I'm getting so fucking old I ought to make a list of musicians I've seen play live.

If there's any advice I can glean from this attempt, upon reflection, it would be: go see the name acts that everybody goes to see. Our crowd usually tried to avoid the lowest common denominator acts, and now, years later I wish I'd gone to see, in my generation for example, say, The Stones (with Brian Jones); acts that were always around, yet I never saw because everyone else was going to see them.

I'll try a chronologic approach (and I'm not saying I'm proud of every act I saw):

Jr. High:

The Rascals
Mitch Ryder
The Critters

High School:

Iron Butterfly
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention (the Absolutely Free band)
Jethro Tull
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
James Cotton
Cream
Terry Reid
Edgar WInter
Buddy Miles Express
Pink Floyd (the Atom Heart Mother band)
Herbie Hancock (the Maiden Voyage group)
Freddie Hubbard (the Red Clay band)
Weather Report (1st incarnation)
John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra (Inner Mounting Flame was due out soon)
Sonny Rollins
Pharoah Sanders
Norman Connors
McCoy Tyner
Sonny Fortune
Sam Rivers

I just missed seeing Duke Ellington's small band @ The Rainbow Room, and Jimi Hendrix, New Year's Eve @ the Fillmore East (all to my eternal loss and damnation).

College ('70's): God let's see, it's so hard to remember:
Teddy Wilson
Howard McGhee
Bill Evans
Ahmad Jamal
Cecil Taylor
Archie Shepp
Max Roach
Frank Lowe
Lowell Davidson
Charles Mingus
Ricky Ford
Freddie Hubbard
Gary Burton
Pat Metheny
Larry Coryell
Dexter Gordon
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
Scott Hamilton
Claudio Roditi
Dave Samuels
Barney Kessel
Herb Ellis
Dizzy Gillespie
Herb Pomeroy
The Widespread Depression Orchestra
Art Blakey
Jaki Byard
Mary Lou Williams
Seiji Ozawa with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing Charles Ives Fourth Symphony.

I'll keep adding as I keep remembering. God, I'll never remember in chrono order, I'll just start trying to remember the acts I saw in New York in the '80's & 90's:

Doc Cheatham
Benny Carter
Sonny Stitt
Dexter Gordon
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis
Hank Jones
Tommy Flanagan
Jimmy Rowles
Barry Harris
Miles Davis
Joanne Brackeen
Ruby Braff
Count Basie
Dizzy Gillespie, I once got to see him front a big band with Benny Carter in Washington Square, NYC, as well as many other dates.
Freddie Hubbard
Jon Faddis
George Kelly
Panama Francis
The Brecker Brothers
Tom Scott
Al Haig
Joe Albany
Lee Konitz
Heywood Henry
Clark Terry
Illinois Jacquet
Major Holley
George Mraz
Jimmy Woode (played on several Lady Day dates)
Earl May
Tal Farlow
Joe Puma
Chuck Wayne
Zoot Sims & Al Cohn, w/ Jimmy Rowles (Tony Bennett was in the audience)
The Mel Lewis Orchestra (standing in front of me on the Village Vanguard steps waiting to get in, Mr. Pepper Adams himself, one of my heroes )
Phil Woods
Stan Getz
Jo Jones (of classic Basie fame)
Eddie Locke
Brooks Kerr
Ted Sturgis (Mohawk!)
The Modern Jazz Quartet
Cedar Walton
Harold Ashby
Junior Cook
Percy France
Scott Hamilton
Warren Vaché
Kenny Davern
Bob Wilber
Sammy Price
Panama Francis
Milt Jackson and Ray Brown
Mike LeDonne
Tardo Hammer
Michael Weiss
Howard Alden
Dan Barrett
Tad Shull
Ryan Kisor
Mike Hashim
Steely Dan
Brian Wilson backed by Wondermints
Devo
Bill Frisell