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Yea, he was a survivor to be sure. Saw him a whole lot of years ago. May have seen him a few times, but I remember a show at a club that was amazing. He was a happy guy and made great music.  There are very few of his generation left. 

 

LouieB

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And although he recorded widely he did not have the hip cachet of other musicians and so is barely known now, which is why we are the only two talking about him. He did not have a tortured private life, nor was he well known as a composer; he was merely a solid musician who was sought after as a sideman, but also had a decent career as a bandleader. 

 

LouieB

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Oddly enough, I don't even have much of his material, even though I am something of a jazz fanatic. I first got turned on to him via Abbey Lincoln's The World Is Falling Down album, and I am sure I have him as a sideman on a bunch of stuff...but I believe the only record I have of him as a leader is the amusingly titled Serenade To A Bus Seat. I'll have to dig into my iTunes and see what else I have him on....

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Yea I have one of his albums on Impulse "Happy" I do believe. I know he is on some Ellington and Basie and certainly a ton of other LPs as a sideman.  I knew he was in the Tonight Show band, but did not realize he actually integrated it  Strange thought isn't it? 

 

LouieB

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Was sad to hear this, though 94 is a pretty great run. A few years back I found a signed record of his at a garage sale that I bought for a dollar. Once in a while I luck out.

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Absolutely.  Those intrepid producers, engineers, promoters, etc who brought modern jazz to us are true heros.  I know there is always a down side to some of these folks, but Keepnews was there with all the greats.

 

LouieB

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Absolutely.  Those intrepid producers, engineers, promoters, etc who brought modern jazz to us are true heros.  I know there is always a down side to some of these folks, but Keepnews was there with all the greats.

 

LouieB

The ones who mean the most to me are Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, who founded Blue Note, but Keepnews would be right up there behind them. I did not know that Margulis was a communist writer who supplied the start-up capital to found Blue Note in 1939 (that's right off Wikipedia). God, no wonder I'm such a leftist: dude's responsible for 1/3 of my music collection...and you could probably argue that Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger are responsible for another third! :lol

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