Late 1961: Mostly in Europe

Here is David Wild's listing:

The Track Listing

18:30-- 
Impressions 
I Want To Talk About You (without Eric) 
Blue Train
My Favorite Things (without Eric)



23:30-- 
Blue Train 
I Want To Talk About You (without Eric) 
My Favorite Things

Fujioka is presumably definitive, and lists the first concert as including Blue Train, Naima, Impressions, and My Favorite Things, and the second concert as Naima, Impressions, and My Favorite Things. HPLP1 was the second concert, HPLP5 the first concert. Other releases include Bep(E)BEP504 (this is the same as HPLP1), Aff AFF14, Aff(I)PROM20, Aff(Sp)32-2051, Aff(J)RJL3001, BYG(J)YX4006, BYG(J)YX2063/5, BYG(J)YX2039, Seven Seas(J)K18P6233/4, Classic Jazz(C)CDCD1009, as "European Impressions" on BS(J)32JDB-199 and BS(J)TKCB-30467 (all the same as HPLP5), and pieces of it on Opx 10, JBir JAZ2006, BS(I)BDLP/CD1514, BYG(J)XY0002, Black Bird(I)no number, Frequenz(I)044-009, Drive(Swt)3513, Jazz Collection(F)ORO 129, GL(I)CD3GLP456, Aff(E)AFF764, All That's Jazz(H)ATJCD 8003.

John Coltrane Quintet


Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany, 27 November 1961 [The Coltrane reference corrected the dates for this and Frankfurt.]

John Coltrane (ss); Eric Dolphy (fl); McCoy Tyner (pno); Reggie Workman (bass); Elvin Jones (dr).

My Favorite Things [15:25], Impressions [8:55]

This is according to Simosko and Fujioka.

John Coltrane Quintet


Kongressshalle, Frankfurt, Germany, 29 November 1961 [The Coltrane reference has corrected the dates for this and Stuttgart.]

John Coltrane (ss); Eric Dolphy (fl); McCoy Tyner (pno); Reggie Workman (bass); Elvin Jones (dr).

My Favorite Things [19:08], Impressions [16:27]

This is according to S&T and insert to BYG YX-8006, and from Simosko. Also confirmed by Fujioka, who give the timings. LaMont Johnson told a story about playing with Eric after this concert that I'll include here.

LaMont wrote:
I was stationed at Rhein Main AFB, Germany from 1960-December 7, 1962. I was working as a flight crew member, doing highly interesting work. Due to the long missions, I would get breaks of three or four days at a time, giving me time to work with the David Feathers Rhein Main AFB Jazz All Stars (Feathers on trumpet, now deceased several years, a booper to his heart and a close buddy of Cedar Walton, Joseph D. Jackson, another Texas Tenor, bopping to his heart (Schillinger student out of Berkle, before Air Force), Sam Scott on bass, and Phillip D. "Philly Joe" Welch on the drums). This was not a flakey band.

David also knew Leo Wright, another truly great altoist with whom I have also had the rare chance to play. Leo told David that Diz was coming to Frankfurt. So our number one agenda was to hook up with Leo. Diz had Leo on alto, Lalo on piano, Bob Cunningham on bass (who later became one of my calls when he was in town), and I'm pretty sure it was Micky Roker (one of my early and dear Jazz friends, when I got back to the states). Another group was also featured on this concert: The John Coltrane Quintette, with McCoy, Elvin and Eric Dolphy - I think Steve Davis was the bassist with this group - check me on that (1961, Frankfurt Messe Halle).

After the concert, several of the musicians retired to the Jazz Kellar, a place where I just about lived, when I wasn't rehearsing with the group, or flying. Diz locked up with my bride, Annelore, and sat at a table with her the entire evening - quite a trip because Anne's english was minimal - I spoke fluent German. But I was on the bandstand with David, Leo, Elvin, Bob Cunningham and Eric Dolphy. There was no battle between Leo and Eric, because the dialects being spoken were totally different - Leo was a blazing bopper, fluid and lean, spiralling the bop up and out of that alto. Eric ran sequences, and core dumps, and pastiches and collages, permutations of inverted permutations, paradigms and paradoxes. I just kept playing the changes. At one point every body laid out at his request, except me.

And there I am, 19 on the verge of 20, pounding away with brutish, youthful enthusiasm, scarcely aware of Lalo Schifrin, (who is another story), waiting in the wings, while the genius of Dolphy filled the smokey bomb shelter, every crack in my cranium, and every crevice of my soul.

Another moment when it was really great to be LaMont Johnson.

... Thanks for jogging the memory. Fujioka is right. It was November, and it was the Kongress Halle. And you are right about the other drummer, Mel Lewis. He came up on the bandstand for one tune, and then Elvin just went up and took over the drums. The stand remained constant after that. I believe the reason Eric had everybody lay out (perhaps it's my own youthful conceit) was that the tune was Monk's "Well You Needn't", and I was running some inversions that I had been practising that were basically bitonal in nature, and I think he just wanted to hear how they went. Or, perhaps I was playing wrong changes, and he was trying to psych them out...

As a followup regarding that evening in Frankfurt, Lalo Schifrin, came up to the bandstand, and picked up "Donna Lee" after my solo. I went down and rescued my wife from the ever effervescent Diz, chatted with him for a while, and went home, dreaming of Eric Dolphy music.

Nights like that are so few in one's existence. The memorable moments remain fresh and vivid, even when some of the facts try to drift. The more I talk about that night, the fresher that whole scene becomes.

Date created: 1994
Last modified: 13 April 2020
Maintained by: Alan Saul
alan@adale.org