May 05 2009
Which concerts would you like to see?
I’ll bet you’ve heard or participated in the question “If you could travel back to any point in time, what would you like to see?”. I’ve added one word to this to make my own question:
“If you could travel back to any point in time, what concert would you like to see?”
I couldn’t stop at one, I ended up with a few. Here’s the top five, in no particular order:
1. The ’Donny Hathaway Live’ gigs
If you’ve ever heard the record you KNOW what I’m talking about! One of the greatest, funkiest, feel good-en-est albums ever. I’d love to be in that audience and I’d take either the L.A. or New York sets, I don’t mind which! If you haven’t heard the record, you’ve been missing out all these years. Every home should have a copy.
2. The Beatles in Hamburg or the Cavern Club
Supposedly this is when The Beatles were at their best as a playing band, as they were gigging non-stop, and playing long gigs at that. Certainly, if you hear the earlier period recordings, say 1963 stuff at the BBC, where they play covers like ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’, or the early Cavern footage of ‘Some Other Guy’ you can hear that they rocked. And I mean ROCKED! It’s still there a little bit on the first two albums, but I imagine that in a seedy Hamburg club, or in the sweaty Cavern Club, they must’ve been incredibly powerful and exciting.
3. Miles Davis at Philharmonic Hall 1964
The legendary ‘Four & More’/'My Funny Valentine’ concert, where, according to Miles, everybody in the band ’was madder than a motherf*****!’ One of the great live jazz albums, with a still teenage Tony Williams burning on the drums. If I couldn’t see this I’d settle for Miles’ Plugged Nickel gigs in ‘65!
4. Jimi Hendrix Live at Monterey 1967
This is a biggie. Jimi goes for it on this gig in such a powerful way, he hadn’t become famous yet, had nothing to lose, pulled out every trick in the bag (including some lighter fluid), AND played the absolute hell out of the guitar. Plus, if you got to this one early you could see The Who play their set too!
5. Charlie Parker in New York, mid 1940’s
I’d like to see it, just to believe it really happened. The recordings of Charlie Parker aren’t lying, I’m sure, but what comes through is so intense, I can’t imagine what the experience of Bird in full flight must’ve been like in person. The dream gig would have Bud Powell playing piano, Max Roach playing the drums, Dizzy Gillespie playing trumpet and Ray Brown or Oscar Pettiford playing the bass.
Just outside my top five were: Bill Withers at Carnegie Hall 1972, John Coltrane in the early/mid 60’s, The Who Live at Leeds 1970, Glenn Gould when he still gave concerts, James Brown in 1968 and the Charles Mingus 1964 European tour with Eric Dolphy.
What are yours?
Nick
Start your BLOG today at Today.com!
Great list.It covers a lot of what I’d want to see.I think those Stuff gigs live with Steve Gadd would have been something. Going way back….. The nights when Pops was hitting a hundred high Cs in a row or any of those incredible hot 5s & hot 7s gigs. Cecil Taylor with Max Roach at Carnegie Hall in the 70s. That’s just off the top of my head.I may be back with others.I love the eclectic nature of all this stuff. Vive Le Difference!!
Definitely agree with the Miles concert. As soon as I saw the title of this post, the Philharmonic Hall gig jumped immediately to mind. The concert was in support of the civil rights movement and you can hear the absolute fury in their playing. I actually prefer George Coleman to Wayne Shorter in the live recordings. Poor old George is massively is underrated.
I would have loved to see the Bill Evans trio at the Village Vanguard in ‘61, especially considering it was the last chance to hear Scott LaFaro before he died in a car accident a few days later.
Also that same year at the Vanguard again, the Coltrane concerts recorded between the 1st and the 5th of November would have been brilliant, I especially love the sound of Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet.
Matthew, I agree, Coleman is underrated and sounds great on the live recordings. I wouldn’t say I prefer him to Shorter, I like both of those lineups for different reasons. As far as the fury in their playing, I thought Miles explained in his book that just before the concert he’d told them they weren’t getting paid (or something), and they all got really pissed off! There’s also some comment about Coleman playing really great and out one night and messing up Tony’s head - classic Miles… I could be wrong though, I’ll have to look it up.
I nearly put the Bill Evans trio with LaFaro on my list too, that would’ve been unbelievable, as would the Coltrane Vanguard gigs with Dolphy - that one just didn’t occur to me till you mentioned it!
Louis Armstrong in the early days - absolutely. And while we’re at it, why don’t we travel back and see Buddy Bolden? That way we’ll finally KNOW for certain and won’t just have to take Wynton’s word for it (as if he knows).
While I think of it - Miles in the early 70’s, when they played that really dark, intense, funky stuff. Like Live/Evil, or Dark Magus…