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.
Thanks, I did a few covers during that time. "Black is the color" for Joe Henderson, Music from Two Basses, Dave Holland and Barre Phillips, I got to play with Barre a lot during one period of time so it was like a full circle. He was a magnificent bassist!
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
Congratulations on bringing your pen to the storied pages of The Nation, and to them for giving it a home. I have a little to add to your sidebar, thinking about Grant Green: his marvelous trios with Larry Young and Elvin Jones, and as sideman on Ike Quebec's beautiful "Blue and Sentimental." And any label that had Sonny Clark as a house pianist, what else can one say?
About Slug's: my friend Eric Rosen, great reclusive Catskills altoist, took me there to see Charles Lloyd, his former teacher, performing with Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette. Of the music, I remember only Jarret playing harmonics on the upright, a Yamaha if memory serves, his finger light on a string as he tapped the corresponding key; smiling as he did so.
Great overview and list! I was fortunate to study with two heavy hitters of the Slugs generation in college—Charles Tolliver and Billy Harper—and your description of the bandstand energy of that period reminds me of something Harper said to us when I was in his ensemble class (where we played almost entirely his compositions, which was such an amazing privilege): on a long version of one of his modal/spiritual signature pieces, we had, after many failed attempts, finally succeeded in building some group energy, and just at the peak, when we reached what was probably the highest energy level most of us youngsters had ever experienced, he suddenly stopped the band, leaving us all stunned. "That," he said calmly, "is where I want you to start."
A couple of years before his death I saw Harold Mabern with a band at Smalls. After the set I bought him a drink and said he sounded like the young man who was on a certain from 1965. Without hesitation he said, Night of the Cookers and went down the list of that band to see who was still alive. I knew that Mabern was on the bandstand the night Lee Morgan was shot and broached the subject. A look came over his face that told me to change the topic ... fast.
In an interview, Barry Altschul said he played the first jazz performance at Slugs, led by David Izenzon, with Paul Bley. He did not mention an exact date, only 1964, on a Sunday afternoon. It was probably some time after August 1964. Izenzon was a friend of Slugs' owner Jerry Schultz and may have persuaded Schultz to have jazz.
Wish I could have heard that trio! My favorite period of Bley. I am aware of the Altschul interview but the reported Gavin article seems to be taken from interviews with the club owners, and they cite Jackie McLean. Of course at this late date it is all lost a bit in the mists of legend. https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/inside-slugs-saloon-jazzs-most-notorious-nightclub/
Slugs' was a jazz club months before the "Christmastime 1964" story in Jazz Times.
Unfortunately the author ignored all of the ads in the Village Voice, including September 3 1964 for Paul Bley Deux; November 5 1964 page 12 advertising Live Jazz Sat. & Sun. 3 to 9 p.m.; November 12 1964 page 16 for Charles Moffett Trio with Skip Potter and Chris Hills, Sat. & Sun. 4 to 9 p.m.; and the following weeks advertising David izenzon and/or Charles Moffett.
The ad in the VV December 17 1964 page 22 for Slugs' Saloon Artists and Models New Year's Eve Costume Party And Ball included: Jackie McLean for Jazz; Whole Roast Pig for Believers; Baked Ham for Infidels; Black Eyes Peas for Luck; Collard Greens for Money; And Booze for the Blues. 9:30 P.M. to 8:00 A.M., $7 per head, 100 tickets available. Every Sat. & Sun. 4-9 Live Jazz.
https://news.google.com/newspapers has a zillion newspapers, including Village Voice 1955-2004. When you click on a newspaper you'll see all of its issues and can specify a date, but it's a bit tricky to do a word or phrase search because this Google offering is unlike digital databases offered by Proquest and others. 1964 was simple because the Voice did not have many pages in each issue and only 1 or 2 of these pages had club ads. Next time at Bar Bayeux I'll give you some suggestions!
A college freshman, I first walked into Slugs in the Fall of 1969, having walked east from the Fillmore East through a couple circles of East Village hell, into this unlikely sanctuary. We were seeking immersion in all the arts at that time, what Susan Sontag called “the erotics of art.” We didn’t really care about categories, just the quality of the expression and the experience. All the other stuff — “tradition” “critical distance” “analysis” — came before and after. We were stoned. At Slugs, we were home. More than a half-century later, it’s strange that I only have a hazy recollection of how the place looked, but I still remember how it smelled every night at 5 pm when I pour myself two ounces of whiskey. And how it sounded. That’s a memory. Because like all sanctuaries, no other place sounded like it. Great article. Thanks.
Thanks for the great article and the listening assignment! Most of the albums on that list are old friends, but I need to seek out the more obscure stuff (especially Charles Tolliver/Gary Bartz).
I love this piece plus sidebar, Ethan. Important work by you. This provokes me to subscribe to the Nation again. I will do that today. Your piece made me think of Paul Jeffrey's tapes of Monk quartet in Raleigh, N.C. in 1970. So much "harder" and wilder than expected. In terms of a name for the idiom, I don't know. Roy Haynes used the term "hard swing" but I think he was referring to a wider time frame than 1967-1972.
Hi from France. Thanks so much for your article. I must admit I am fascinated by this place and this period in jazz history. May I suggest an addition to your (otherwise gorgeous) sidebar : Stanley Cowell's "Brilliant Circles", featuring the notoriously mysterious Tyrone Washington.
I am planning to mention BRILLIANT CIRCLES this week. I have never really dug the tunes at tempo on that record, but the Tyrone Washington ballad "Earthly Heavens" is one of my favorite things, absolutely one of kind
Haven't read your Slugs piece yet (struggling with the small type) but I was there twice as an under-age kid circa 1970? Not quite sure. But I saw three interesting things there:
1) Ornette with Higgins, Redman, and Hayden. This was astounding, and even more surprising was that Haden sat with us - 4 high school kids - and explained the music, the techniques he used to accompany Ornette. In light of what I found out later was Haden's general diffidence, this remains even more surprising. But he was just incredibly solicitous.
2) Another time I saw Mingus who was having a bad night, playing with a group that was apparently not his main group, mostly Duke tunes, very hum drum. Though he did fire one musician who walked in late. HOWEVER - they did a version of Blue Bird that was the slowest blues I ever heard, maintained at that tempo, no doubling up. Amazing and memorable.
3) And last but far from least, there was a short stocky Frenchman in the place on the night I saw Mingus. People were approaching him as though it was an audience with someone special. I found out years later - from Sue Mingus' book - that this was none other than Jean Genet. The realization that I had been in close proximity to this incredible literary figure - novelist, memoirist, playwright - shook me up a bit.
brilliant stuff, Allen. Thanks for comment. On my laptop, the Nation type is actually quite a bit bigger than the Substack type, so I am not sure what to say about that.
There actually is an audience recording from Mingus' opening night on May 31st 1970 (no Bluebird on that one) - with him are Dannie and McPherson, plus Bill Hardman and Jimmy Vass.
Thank You for your writings, always great - and I just happened upon this fantastic 20-page behind-the-scenes from a cat who worked there in 1972 http://tomcolello.com/wordpress/?cat=12
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.
This is a great comment. Wow! In a follow-up post, I will highlight your cover for SONG OF SINGING
Thanks, I did a few covers during that time. "Black is the color" for Joe Henderson, Music from Two Basses, Dave Holland and Barre Phillips, I got to play with Barre a lot during one period of time so it was like a full circle. He was a magnificent bassist!
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
we love to hear about long serious jazz being played on the radio!
Congratulations on bringing your pen to the storied pages of The Nation, and to them for giving it a home. I have a little to add to your sidebar, thinking about Grant Green: his marvelous trios with Larry Young and Elvin Jones, and as sideman on Ike Quebec's beautiful "Blue and Sentimental." And any label that had Sonny Clark as a house pianist, what else can one say?
About Slug's: my friend Eric Rosen, great reclusive Catskills altoist, took me there to see Charles Lloyd, his former teacher, performing with Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette. Of the music, I remember only Jarret playing harmonics on the upright, a Yamaha if memory serves, his finger light on a string as he tapped the corresponding key; smiling as he did so.
thanks for comment!
Great overview and list! I was fortunate to study with two heavy hitters of the Slugs generation in college—Charles Tolliver and Billy Harper—and your description of the bandstand energy of that period reminds me of something Harper said to us when I was in his ensemble class (where we played almost entirely his compositions, which was such an amazing privilege): on a long version of one of his modal/spiritual signature pieces, we had, after many failed attempts, finally succeeded in building some group energy, and just at the peak, when we reached what was probably the highest energy level most of us youngsters had ever experienced, he suddenly stopped the band, leaving us all stunned. "That," he said calmly, "is where I want you to start."
love it!
Great, great piece, and love that Roy Brooks' archival 'Understanding' is included in the sidebar. That recording is intensity on a whole other level.
yeah I agree!
A couple of years before his death I saw Harold Mabern with a band at Smalls. After the set I bought him a drink and said he sounded like the young man who was on a certain from 1965. Without hesitation he said, Night of the Cookers and went down the list of that band to see who was still alive. I knew that Mabern was on the bandstand the night Lee Morgan was shot and broached the subject. A look came over his face that told me to change the topic ... fast.
In an interview, Barry Altschul said he played the first jazz performance at Slugs, led by David Izenzon, with Paul Bley. He did not mention an exact date, only 1964, on a Sunday afternoon. It was probably some time after August 1964. Izenzon was a friend of Slugs' owner Jerry Schultz and may have persuaded Schultz to have jazz.
Wish I could have heard that trio! My favorite period of Bley. I am aware of the Altschul interview but the reported Gavin article seems to be taken from interviews with the club owners, and they cite Jackie McLean. Of course at this late date it is all lost a bit in the mists of legend. https://jazztimes.com/features/profiles/inside-slugs-saloon-jazzs-most-notorious-nightclub/
Slugs' was a jazz club months before the "Christmastime 1964" story in Jazz Times.
Unfortunately the author ignored all of the ads in the Village Voice, including September 3 1964 for Paul Bley Deux; November 5 1964 page 12 advertising Live Jazz Sat. & Sun. 3 to 9 p.m.; November 12 1964 page 16 for Charles Moffett Trio with Skip Potter and Chris Hills, Sat. & Sun. 4 to 9 p.m.; and the following weeks advertising David izenzon and/or Charles Moffett.
The ad in the VV December 17 1964 page 22 for Slugs' Saloon Artists and Models New Year's Eve Costume Party And Ball included: Jackie McLean for Jazz; Whole Roast Pig for Believers; Baked Ham for Infidels; Black Eyes Peas for Luck; Collard Greens for Money; And Booze for the Blues. 9:30 P.M. to 8:00 A.M., $7 per head, 100 tickets available. Every Sat. & Sun. 4-9 Live Jazz.
amazing! Where are you seeing this info? A newspaper archive site?
https://news.google.com/newspapers has a zillion newspapers, including Village Voice 1955-2004. When you click on a newspaper you'll see all of its issues and can specify a date, but it's a bit tricky to do a word or phrase search because this Google offering is unlike digital databases offered by Proquest and others. 1964 was simple because the Voice did not have many pages in each issue and only 1 or 2 of these pages had club ads. Next time at Bar Bayeux I'll give you some suggestions!
A college freshman, I first walked into Slugs in the Fall of 1969, having walked east from the Fillmore East through a couple circles of East Village hell, into this unlikely sanctuary. We were seeking immersion in all the arts at that time, what Susan Sontag called “the erotics of art.” We didn’t really care about categories, just the quality of the expression and the experience. All the other stuff — “tradition” “critical distance” “analysis” — came before and after. We were stoned. At Slugs, we were home. More than a half-century later, it’s strange that I only have a hazy recollection of how the place looked, but I still remember how it smelled every night at 5 pm when I pour myself two ounces of whiskey. And how it sounded. That’s a memory. Because like all sanctuaries, no other place sounded like it. Great article. Thanks.
great comment, Chuck!
Loved this....informative and entertaining, could really feel the atmosphere. A very cool front cover too.
Thanks Adam!
fantastic piece, very enlightening.
Thanks for the great article and the listening assignment! Most of the albums on that list are old friends, but I need to seek out the more obscure stuff (especially Charles Tolliver/Gary Bartz).
100%
I love this piece plus sidebar, Ethan. Important work by you. This provokes me to subscribe to the Nation again. I will do that today. Your piece made me think of Paul Jeffrey's tapes of Monk quartet in Raleigh, N.C. in 1970. So much "harder" and wilder than expected. In terms of a name for the idiom, I don't know. Roy Haynes used the term "hard swing" but I think he was referring to a wider time frame than 1967-1972.
I like HARD SWING yeah bring it on!
OMG Ethan, this is so great!
Hi from France. Thanks so much for your article. I must admit I am fascinated by this place and this period in jazz history. May I suggest an addition to your (otherwise gorgeous) sidebar : Stanley Cowell's "Brilliant Circles", featuring the notoriously mysterious Tyrone Washington.
Keep on the good work!
I am planning to mention BRILLIANT CIRCLES this week. I have never really dug the tunes at tempo on that record, but the Tyrone Washington ballad "Earthly Heavens" is one of my favorite things, absolutely one of kind
Haven't read your Slugs piece yet (struggling with the small type) but I was there twice as an under-age kid circa 1970? Not quite sure. But I saw three interesting things there:
1) Ornette with Higgins, Redman, and Hayden. This was astounding, and even more surprising was that Haden sat with us - 4 high school kids - and explained the music, the techniques he used to accompany Ornette. In light of what I found out later was Haden's general diffidence, this remains even more surprising. But he was just incredibly solicitous.
2) Another time I saw Mingus who was having a bad night, playing with a group that was apparently not his main group, mostly Duke tunes, very hum drum. Though he did fire one musician who walked in late. HOWEVER - they did a version of Blue Bird that was the slowest blues I ever heard, maintained at that tempo, no doubling up. Amazing and memorable.
3) And last but far from least, there was a short stocky Frenchman in the place on the night I saw Mingus. People were approaching him as though it was an audience with someone special. I found out years later - from Sue Mingus' book - that this was none other than Jean Genet. The realization that I had been in close proximity to this incredible literary figure - novelist, memoirist, playwright - shook me up a bit.
brilliant stuff, Allen. Thanks for comment. On my laptop, the Nation type is actually quite a bit bigger than the Substack type, so I am not sure what to say about that.
I think I have found a way to do it, thanks -
There actually is an audience recording from Mingus' opening night on May 31st 1970 (no Bluebird on that one) - with him are Dannie and McPherson, plus Bill Hardman and Jimmy Vass.
Thank You for your writings, always great - and I just happened upon this fantastic 20-page behind-the-scenes from a cat who worked there in 1972 http://tomcolello.com/wordpress/?cat=12