{"id":8752,"date":"2017-10-23T00:07:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T07:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8752"},"modified":"2017-10-23T20:38:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T03:38:15","slug":"remembering-john-neves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2017\/10\/remembering-john-neves\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering John Neves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8751\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Unknown-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"252\" \/>A name pops up and triggers memories. Among the October 22 birthdays listed in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <em>JazzWestCoast<\/em> listserve was that of John Neves. Not widely known elsewhere, Neves was treasured in Boston as a standout bassist with a big sound and an untutored harmonic gift. He played for 13 years in Herb Pomeroy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big band and taught at the Berklee College of Music. After Neves died in 1988 at the age of 57, Pomeroy said of him, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153John was an exceptional musician, an instinctual player.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pianist Hal Galper expanded on that, telling the Boston jazz historian Richard Vacca,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He played completely by ear. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know any theory. Sometimes if you asked him to play a chorus of blues in F, you had to give him the F first. And once you gave him the F, he could play anything under the sun. He was amazing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Rarely recorded, Neves made a Savoy album with the vibraphonist John Rae and worked on occasion with Gerry Mulligan, Jaki Byard, Marian McPartland, Maynard Ferguson and George Shearing. He was in the rhythm section of the album that Stan Getz and Bob Brookmeyer recorded in 1961 as a reprise of their early 1950s collaboration. From that album, here is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Minuet Circa \u00e2\u20ac\u212261.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brookmeyer, valve trombone and composer; Getz, tenor saxophone; Steve Kuhn, piano; John Neves, bass; Roy Haynes, drums.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bihg9vaQCHY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">John Neves, on bass with Stan Getz and Bob Brookmeyer. Even less well known than John<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8753\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Paul-Neves-e1508741110525.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"96\" \/> outside of Boston and&#8221;\u00a0a brief period in Puerto Rico was his older brother Paul (pictured right), a pianist who was important to the success of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2014\/07\/monday-recommendation-ahmed-abdul-malik.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this album<\/a> by Ahmed Abdul-Malik. He also recorded with tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>(Photo of Paul Neves by Katherine Hanna courtesy of Irene Kubota Neves)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A name pops up and triggers memories. Among the October 22 birthdays listed in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s JazzWestCoast listserve was that of John Neves. Not widely known elsewhere, Neves was treasured in Boston as a standout bassist with a big sound and an untutored harmonic gift. He played for 13 years in Herb Pomeroy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big band and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}