Richard M. Sudhalter died two years ago today. A superb writer and musician, he was the author of the definitive biography of Bix Beiderbecke and played cornet—beautifully—in the Bix tradition. Here he is with the New York Jazz Repertory Company at a Town Hall concert in the early 1970s, playing Beiderbecke’s “Davenport Blues.” With him are Kenny Davern, bass saxophone; Bob Wilber, clarinet; Ephie Resnick, trombone; Marty Grosz, banjo; Chauncy Morehouse, drums; and Dill Jones, piano. The cornetist to Dick’s left, paying close attention, is young Warren Vaché, Jr.
For an archive piece posted here when Dick Sudhalter died, and comments about him from Rifftides readers, go here.
Chauncey Morehouse is a left-handed drummer! I didn’t know that. (Not that it really matters, but it’s almost as rare as a southpaw third baseman…)
(Another one of prominence was Charlie Smith, best known as the drummer in the famous Charlie Parker-Dizzy Gillespie-Earl Wilson Down Beat award film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkvCDCOGzGc —DR)
I think the most prominent left-handed drummer was Stan Levey, and the odd thing about that was, he was actually right-handed! I think it was on his DVD, “The Original Original” that he mentions that, and I can’t remember the reason he gave for starting to play as a lefty.
It’s a good way to keep people from sitting in.
I knew about Smith and Levey, and I recall seeing Sammy Davis Jr. 35+ years ago, and he had a fine southpaw, named Michael ???.
A terrific drummer here in Toronto is Barry Elmes, who plays right-handed on a left-handed setup. Confusing, yes?
How about lefty bassists? (And I do not mean Paul McCartney). The late Earl May, Jennifer Leitham, and…???
My very good friend Axel Dörner is a lefty who nevertheless plays trumpet as a righty. — That’s probably the reason for his extraordinary, and quite unique way of improvising. — He really is one of a kind.
He “thinks” in a different way than we “normal” righties. The right hand is connected to the left side of the brain, and vice versa. The left brain is the analytical, the logical one, whereas the right side is reserved for emotions, and imagination.
—> The human brain
I’ve heard Mr. Sudhalter in Cologne, gigging together with the WDR big band, under the direction of Loren Schoenberg. They’d played some of the old Whiteman & Goldkette charts, and the Rhapsody In Blue.
Having been a grumpy young man then, I’ve found their efforts so so, and my trumpet professor from college (member of the WDR big band) was quite disappointed that Mr. Sudhalter played all the (Bix) solos, and not he. I personally don’t dig those “note-for-note” interpretations of classic jazz. It’s a bit lifeless, don’t you think so too?
The piano player of the WDR band kinda improvised on the Gershwin piece which I’ve found less than appropriate. This is a composition, but not exactly meant as a vehicle for (jazz) improvisation, except perhaps for the cadenza(s). It was a bit painful to hear him fail, especially when I heard the original Gershwin (played by the master himself) always hammering inside my left (or was it the right?) brain, struggling against that gruesome deconstruction of this wonderful virtuoso piece of Americana.
This sounds a bit harsh, huh? — Well, I don’t like the jazz clerks (be it the WDR big band or anyone else), who don’t really live this music. Okay, it was fun to hear the charts being performed in living stereo, but I felt the music somehow disconnected from its history, when played this way (Most of it was dance music then. So, why did no one dance?).
I could say the very same about Billy May’s “Time Life” series, or Glen Gray’s “Sounds Of The Great Bands” … Okay, their dates of productions were much closer to the time when the originals were created, and many of the old band members had been dug up, and participated (certainly much better paid than in the good old days); anyway, the feeling was different, just because the merciless master time had changed.
Or let’s take the Wynton Marsalis encore of a concert: He played the “King Porter” duet with Joe “King” Oliver & Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton from 1924 note for note, and so he had taken away part of its soul.
Whereas “Rhapsody In Blue” is a composition for the most part, “King Porter” should be improvised, disregarding the style. Jazz is still jazz, and you are permitted to make up your own part. That’s at least what I would do.