TT 498: A Moment in Linz

Robert Urmann has seen a few things

Robert Urmann at dinner in Linz last night. He turns 90 next month.

Last night in Linz the promoter was Robert Urmann. (Wikipedia.) Robert was born in 1935 and saw Sidney Bechet (1897—1959) in concert in the mid-1950s, then Miles Davis and John Coltrane many times in the 1960s. He is particularly concerned with jazz in Linz (he founded the Linz Jazz Club in 1956), and feels fairly certain the first American musician presented in Linz was New Orleans clarinetist Albert Nicholas, who had moved to Europe in 1953. The first free jazz heard in town was Jimmy Giuffre with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow.

Elvin Jones made an impression; Robert was watching closely when Coltrane brought his new group to Europe. Robert was at enough of the gigs for Elvin and Robert became friendly. When Robert took a trip to New York in 1968, he went to Slugs’ to hear Elvin, and after saying hi, Elvin introduced Robert to first Art Blakey and then Tony Williams, both of whom were in the club that night. (Robert calls Tony “Anthony Williams.”)

Of all the times he saw Miles (including Miles with Coltrane/Kelly/Chambers/Cobb and with Shorter/Hancock/Carter/Williams), the only occasion when Davis did not leave the stage for long periods of time was during a performance of the “lost quintet” with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. Robert is under the impression that Miles was particularly happy with his band that night.

He remembers Manfred Eicher as a bassist first and as record producer second. When Manfred called Robert about his new label ECM, Robert was surprised, but then was impressed with the strength of Manfred’s roster: Paul Bley, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton…

Robert talked quite a bit about the economics of 1970s jazz. He was a promoter by that time, and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers or The Heath Brothers would regularly sell out 1500-seat concert halls in Austria and other countries in Europe. Conventional wisdom has that decade as moribund for straight-ahead music, but the audiences in Europe and Japan were still there, especially for the true masters.

Robert hired Chet Baker four times, but Baker made it to the stage only once. Baker was frequently sick or otherwise “indisposed” when it was time to play. A different era!

---

Thanks so all who came out to see my first ever run of solo piano concerts! There have been two lovely reviews. Coverage like this rarely happens in America.

Philip Watson in The Irish Times:

Peter Jones in Jazzwise:

There’s also a 15-minute podcast from Luke Clancy for Culture File. It is well-edited and quite fun to listen to! The emphasis is on The Bad Plus’s version of The Rite of Spring.