TT 476: On Slugs' Saloon and a Lost Era of Jazz
Cover Story in THE NATION
For years I have wondered about a certain strain of music made in New York City between the death of John Coltrane in 1967 and the death of Lee Morgan in 1972. Despite the lack of proper documentation, some say this was the greatest jazz of all time.
The February 2025 issue of The Nation features my cover story, “Jazz Off the Record,” which is pegged to the recent archival Blue Note release Forces of Nature with McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Henry Grimes, and Jack DeJohnette. This wonderful quartet was caught in action at Slugs’, a humble joint that hosted some of the most exciting music of the era.
Slugs’ was also where Lee Morgan was killed, and that’s where my story starts:
Sometime in the late 1960s or early ’70s, Lee Morgan bought his girlfriend Helen Moore a gun. “It’s for your protection,” he told her.
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Sharing the link on your socials is a small vote towards continued arts coverage in mainstream spaces. Frankly I am astounded that The Nation let me have 5000 words to try to explain esoteric rhythm, harmony, and style in such a reasonably detailed manner.
My editor was Shuja Haider — you’ll be hearing more from Shuja in one of the follow-up posts here on TT — my fact checker was Xenia Gonikberg, and, at the top, D. D. Guttenplan gave his blessing. I also consulted with Mark Stryker, Hyland Harris, and Vinnie Sperrazza. Sincere thanks to all…
…and very special thanks to Steve Lampert, who was there, and supplied not just eyewitness testimony but also the original Slugs’ handbills. (I’ll post the full set of Lampert-owned handbills tomorrow.)
In addition to the story, Shuja pushed for and got us a sidebar, “In Full Swing,” which further clarifies the particular idiom covered in the main article.
We (Shuja, Mark Stryker, and myself) almost called this specific idiom a brand new name, but in the end I folded, I didn’t want to risk proclaiming a newly-invented title that might be rejected by the community.
I’ll write about that more this week. I still like this new name, and may use it in the future. (What would you call the idiom explicated by this sidebar?)
In retrospect I regret not mentioning Art Blakey’s Free For All in the sidebar. In another follow-up post I’ll write about Free For All and another relevant Blakey recording.
Slugg's was my school for learning how to play. I'm glad you mentioned the Chic Corea recording, "The song of Singing", more about that later. I started as a visual artist, drawing musicians mostly at Sluggs, as most other places were not as tolerate to have a young white kid take up a table or two with art supplies, inks and papers, and I'd say from about 1969 to 1972 Sluggs was the place to be for new music, and I was there constantly, I saw almost everyone there, Mingus, always Mingus...Tony Williams trio "Lifetime", Elvin, Rhasaan, Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi group, Charles Tolliver Quartet, Alice, Pharaoh, Cecil, Keith Jarrett, (American group w Dewey, Sun Ra, he would often play until 4 in the AM, on and on, dam it was wonderful! Musicians would come to the table to talk and look at the drawings, many drawings I gave to the musicians. We's have discussions on the similarity of visual art and the sonic arts. When I started to play, driven by that late Coltrane sound on soprano, I had the background of what it meant to go inside and outside and what the history of the music was and what I needed to know. I learned music at Slugg's first hand from the musicians that played there, every nite was a lesson.. And the "Song of Singing"? That is my uncredited painting, taken from a sketch I did at the Vanguard, of that Trio's first gig.
As always, your writing is on point. But this piece exceeds your normally very high standards. It’s really excellent for multiple reasons.
Point taken on Live at the Lighthouse and the radio, but I’m here to tell you that _it will_ be played on the radio! I know because I’m the one who’s going to do it.
I have a new, 2-hour jazz radio show called “Jazz Kissa PDX” starting this Friday on a community radio station in Portland, OR called Free Form Portland. I already have tracks from albums from the sidebar in the playlist for my first show (Total Eclipse and Now He Sings, Now He Sobs). My opening track is Nathan Davis - 6th Sense in the 11th House.
But everything in that sidebar will be spun eventually, as will Morgan/Lighthouse, Music, Inc./Slugs, Waldron from that era onward, and many more artists contemplated by your cover story, including the not-radio-friendly tracks. There’s a reason it’s called “free form.”
Likewise people like you, Kris Davis, other contemporary artists, and many from the decades in between.
Tune in this Friday and every other (alternating) Friday after that! and, if you’re feeling really generous, follow me on IG at @jazzkissapdx
First show is Jan 17 @ 12-2pm (Pacific) — streaming online @ Freeformportland.org