Ted , I think I found something closer to the Atlantis you heard. It has a piano solo, and Lateef gives the title and composer at the end. I recorded it off Spotify and burned it to CD, and posted a link to it on my Substack. The album is called Golden Flower, live in Sweden.
This is such a great story for me. I was raised in Santa Monica and discovered jazz at 13 years old by shoplifting random LPs from record stores. One of them happened to be by the Modern Jazz Quartet and through that record I discovered what swing was and was hooked. Nobody else I knew was.
By 15 years old I was going to LA jazz clubs. I saw MJQ at the Lighhouse sometime around 1974. Pharaoh Sanders at Concerts By the Sea (yes they let me in at about age 16. Dante’s in the Valley and Supersax. I saw Mingus at Shelley’s Manhole as a teen and rang up a big bar bill which I did not have the money to pay and had to dash out of there. The Baked Potato had a fabulous house band. Later a strung out Art Pepper at Pasquale’s. There were others.
The early to mid 70s were a paradise for jazz lovers in LA. Now I live in Redondo and I don’t know where to find that level of jazz music. I’m 67 now.
This was beautiful. I can’t think of a better way to describe jazz than the words you used. Your pieces are for me the equivalent of the books you read to give an insight and love into and for the music. Thank you for this piece - it was gorgeous.
Hello from Kyoto! Powerful and inspiring post. Like you said: ‘It happens in the moment. You don’t choose these things. They choose you.’ It’s similar for me when it comes to a transformative tea experience I encountered two years ago.
Thanks for this! I got to study with Kenny for 6 years and it was a truly wonderful experience (and he held Yusef in such high esteem). He actually still plays that tune on his own gigs, but with the name he recorded it under, “Lemuria.” (his version of that with Ben Riley and the recently departed Ray Drummond is lovely).
Ted, your reminiscence took me back to 1971 when a couple friends and I made our pilgrimage to our first "live jazz" show at the VV in Greenwich Village...Imagine our delight after seeing Rahsaan Roland Kirk ands "exotic" performance! I was hooked, too!
Great writing reflecting on “the moment” your world had an authentic trajectory. I just got back from the Jazz Cruise - amazing experience. I always loved standards but after I married my late husband - clarinetist Gary Gray - it seemed meant to be that music would be a continuing part of my life. Gary made a very good living playing classical music but when he got his alto or tenor out there was a something so different to the structure or sometimes less structure that is so appealing. We used to go to Concerts by the Sea and the Lighthouse quite often - saw Joe Pass there once. Sad that LA had so few places any more. At least we have the memory. BTW Emmet Cohen was the leader of the jazz cruise. Didn’t know he was so high up the list - bun well deserved.
Wonderful article! I’ve had many such transformative experiences with live music. Last year on a Beethoven kick (I had read Swafford’s biography), I had read and listened to recordings of Fidelio. But seeing Lise Davidsen perform Leonora at the Metropolitan Opera was transformative. I’m nearly 50 and now have a new art form to explore and obsess over. This is why all the Psalms reference making music. It’s as close to the divine as we get on earth.
Great read Ted. Back in day (mid 50's) at 17 I would escape the suburbs and head into Washington, DC for a bit os drinking. Musically I was listening to pretty much every other teenager listened to. I found a small bar/club on Dupont Circle and wondered and got my drink. On stage was Mose Allison. Didn't have a clue but what was going on of course and had never heard this sort of music. i returned several weeks later probably knowing they would serve but maybe something more. This night it was Charlie Bird with Keter Betts on bass. Some 68 years later I picked up the acoustic bass and undertook the study of jazz. Got almost ten years under my belt and still working on it and playing out as much as I can. Never know I guess when the seed sprouts.
What an article! What a moment! Congratulations for taking that ball and running with it and for following through on that moment... My similar experience was going to see Leon Russell as a 15 year old at the Fillmore West and Miles opened (!)... And it was the Bitches Brew tour... Honestly, I've never been the same musically, socially or spiritually. I never had your discipline but still employ the vibe from that night with the jamming I do.
Keystone Korner was just across the alley from the San Francisco Police Department's Central Station, which tried to keep a lid on North Beach and Chinatown.
Teenagers were welcome, so long as we bought just the right amount of beer. I was there for a George Benson live recording. Mose Alison. Jon Hendricks, with his daughter.
I suppose the Police Benevolent Association did fine from Keystone Korner. I know I did.
Lovely article!
Ted , I think I found something closer to the Atlantis you heard. It has a piano solo, and Lateef gives the title and composer at the end. I recorded it off Spotify and burned it to CD, and posted a link to it on my Substack. The album is called Golden Flower, live in Sweden.
Thank you!
Ted, if Jazz was meant to be your vocation, then that was the Substack you were meant to write.
We've been waiting for it, and here it is!
Not everybody gets such a day in their life. You are a fortunate one.
I went to clubs in NY, SF and NY till I started my own record label and managed Jazz, Hip Hop and Rock Artists. Great article
This is such a great story for me. I was raised in Santa Monica and discovered jazz at 13 years old by shoplifting random LPs from record stores. One of them happened to be by the Modern Jazz Quartet and through that record I discovered what swing was and was hooked. Nobody else I knew was.
By 15 years old I was going to LA jazz clubs. I saw MJQ at the Lighhouse sometime around 1974. Pharaoh Sanders at Concerts By the Sea (yes they let me in at about age 16. Dante’s in the Valley and Supersax. I saw Mingus at Shelley’s Manhole as a teen and rang up a big bar bill which I did not have the money to pay and had to dash out of there. The Baked Potato had a fabulous house band. Later a strung out Art Pepper at Pasquale’s. There were others.
The early to mid 70s were a paradise for jazz lovers in LA. Now I live in Redondo and I don’t know where to find that level of jazz music. I’m 67 now.
Thanks for dredging up the memories.
This was beautiful. I can’t think of a better way to describe jazz than the words you used. Your pieces are for me the equivalent of the books you read to give an insight and love into and for the music. Thank you for this piece - it was gorgeous.
Hello from Kyoto! Powerful and inspiring post. Like you said: ‘It happens in the moment. You don’t choose these things. They choose you.’ It’s similar for me when it comes to a transformative tea experience I encountered two years ago.
Thanks for this! I got to study with Kenny for 6 years and it was a truly wonderful experience (and he held Yusef in such high esteem). He actually still plays that tune on his own gigs, but with the name he recorded it under, “Lemuria.” (his version of that with Ben Riley and the recently departed Ray Drummond is lovely).
Ted, your reminiscence took me back to 1971 when a couple friends and I made our pilgrimage to our first "live jazz" show at the VV in Greenwich Village...Imagine our delight after seeing Rahsaan Roland Kirk ands "exotic" performance! I was hooked, too!
Beautiful. I wrote about a similar moment that I had in high school when Victor Wooten played Amazing Grace on solo bass next to me:
https://yearofbach.substack.com/p/an-interlude-aging-alongside-the?r=s8ze
Great writing reflecting on “the moment” your world had an authentic trajectory. I just got back from the Jazz Cruise - amazing experience. I always loved standards but after I married my late husband - clarinetist Gary Gray - it seemed meant to be that music would be a continuing part of my life. Gary made a very good living playing classical music but when he got his alto or tenor out there was a something so different to the structure or sometimes less structure that is so appealing. We used to go to Concerts by the Sea and the Lighthouse quite often - saw Joe Pass there once. Sad that LA had so few places any more. At least we have the memory. BTW Emmet Cohen was the leader of the jazz cruise. Didn’t know he was so high up the list - bun well deserved.
Wonderful article! I’ve had many such transformative experiences with live music. Last year on a Beethoven kick (I had read Swafford’s biography), I had read and listened to recordings of Fidelio. But seeing Lise Davidsen perform Leonora at the Metropolitan Opera was transformative. I’m nearly 50 and now have a new art form to explore and obsess over. This is why all the Psalms reference making music. It’s as close to the divine as we get on earth.
Great read Ted. Back in day (mid 50's) at 17 I would escape the suburbs and head into Washington, DC for a bit os drinking. Musically I was listening to pretty much every other teenager listened to. I found a small bar/club on Dupont Circle and wondered and got my drink. On stage was Mose Allison. Didn't have a clue but what was going on of course and had never heard this sort of music. i returned several weeks later probably knowing they would serve but maybe something more. This night it was Charlie Bird with Keter Betts on bass. Some 68 years later I picked up the acoustic bass and undertook the study of jazz. Got almost ten years under my belt and still working on it and playing out as much as I can. Never know I guess when the seed sprouts.
What an article! What a moment! Congratulations for taking that ball and running with it and for following through on that moment... My similar experience was going to see Leon Russell as a 15 year old at the Fillmore West and Miles opened (!)... And it was the Bitches Brew tour... Honestly, I've never been the same musically, socially or spiritually. I never had your discipline but still employ the vibe from that night with the jamming I do.
Yusuf Lateef. At the Lighthouse. Wow.
Jazz Crusaders, Live at the Lighthouse!
Keystone Korner was just across the alley from the San Francisco Police Department's Central Station, which tried to keep a lid on North Beach and Chinatown.
Teenagers were welcome, so long as we bought just the right amount of beer. I was there for a George Benson live recording. Mose Alison. Jon Hendricks, with his daughter.
I suppose the Police Benevolent Association did fine from Keystone Korner. I know I did.
This article deserves many more likes!