North east bands such as the Savannah Syncopators, the River City Jazzmen and the Saratoga Jazzmen, were frequent visitors often returning with deservedly won silverware.
The atmosphere was good, jazz seemed to reverberate throughout the city, the natives were multi-lingual and, apart from the competing bands, there were quite a few name players such as Waso, Joe Turner, Warren Vaché, Bob Wilber and French tenor saxist Guy Lafitte.
Lafitte had played a sextet set with Wilber and Vaché earlier, which was excellent, but it was this late night set with, I think, a Dutch trio where he really came into his own.
From my scribbled programme notes I recall that his set list included: If I Had You; I Want to be Happy; Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans? and The Way You Look Tonight.
It was the latter tune that stayed with me. Hawkins in the phrasing, Don Byas in the sound - quite a combination! I subsequently sought out as many of his albums as I could find and I was rarely, if ever, disappointed.
Happy days...Lance
2 comments :
Liked your piece about Guy Lafitte. On March 28th 1980 I was in Amsterdam and hoping to hear some jazz but there was none to be found. I did however see a sign on top of a parked car that said The Arnett Cobb Kwintet tonight in Utrecht so I got a train to Utrecht and found the venue was a small theatre which was part the station. Arnett had a great line-up Roland Hanna piano, Jimmy Woode bass and Eddie Locke drums. After a couple of tunes Arnett introduced Guy Lafitte and things really took off. Used to have a great LP of Lafitte called Corps et Arms which had Hank Jones piano, plus bass and drums.
Yes, Guy was a great player. I still have the LP you mention corps et âme it includes the number that kayoed me in Breda The Way You Look Tonight.
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