Point me towards Wilbur Ware...

[godoze]

I have to admit I do not think I've ever heard him.


Seminal recordings ? or, non-seminal recordings...


Thanks,
Don

[isolated]

Sonny Rollins' A Night at the Village Vanguard. This is an essential record, period, but also a great introduction to Mr. Ware. Features Elvin Jones as well. Stellar playing by all three on this one.

[Alexi David]

Also, he had just one album under his own name, called "the chicago sound". Good record.

He appears on many Monk albums, too, such as "Monk's Music".

[abaguer]

He also played on some Sonny Clark Albums. He's on the Monk albums with Gerry Mulligan and John Coltrane.

One of the best recordings of him is on Kenny Drews Trio album Pal Joey.

[Dig_Wilbur_Ware]

That's a decent, but incomplete disco ... It's even missing the Riverside recording by Dick Johnson. Also, the Music Minus One date where he plays an amazing unaccompanied 12 bar blues.
Would love to hear those recordings on Frontier!

The Giant lives!

[Dig_Wilbur_Ware]

Great to see the early Argo date by Johnny Griffin picked up by Verve and now out on CD.

[Phil Rowan]

I had to revive this old, old thread because I just found some amazing Wilbur Ware/Art Blakey duet playing where they get into some scary funk (not to mention Wilbur's walking the whole time). My socks have officially been knocked off.. Enjoy: Blues For Tomorrow - Gigi Gryce with Coltrane, Hawkins, Copeland, Blakey - YouTube

[scott reed]

Saw Phil had dusted off this old thread. Well worth a listen. Guess we should be glad Monk didn't make the session!

Dig WW - some of those Frontier recordings were reissued on Clifford Jordan's "In The World" from StrataEast and Cecil Payne's "Zodiac" from StrataEast. Expensive but worth it for a Ware fan in case you don't have them by now.

Examples of Wilbur Ware's free jazz contributions can be found on Archie Shepp's "For Losers" from Impulse (1969) and on vibist Walt Dickerson's "Tell Us Only The Beautiful Things" reissued on the Why Not label (1975) with Andrew Cyrille on percussion.

[John Wiitala]

Has the Frontier recording with Ware, Don Cherry, Clifford Jordan and Ed Blackwell ever been released?

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by isolated

Sonny Rollins' A Night at the Village Vanguard. This is an essential record, period, but also a great introduction to Mr. Ware. Features Elvin Jones as well. Stellar playing by all three on this one.

The problem with making a recording that good is that it is just sets the bar too high! Neither Rollins or Ware seem to have made an album that good again - I'd say Jones did not only with Coltrane but with Lee Konitz on "Motion".
Wilbur Ware ALWAYS sounds great, but the Vanguard album seems to be the pinnacle - of course very few ever make anything that great!

[oliebrice]

There's loads of totally incredible post-Live at the Vanguard Rollins. Agreed that's an amazing record, if I had to pick just one favourite Rollins album it'd probably be the Vanguard, but 'East Broadway Rundown', 'The Bridge', 'Our Man in jazz', 'Freedom Suite' were all still to come, and are all truly great albums...

plus, one year after the Vanguard album, the live bootleg from Newport with Henry Grimes and Roy Haynes, unbelievable stuff, 'Mack the Knife' from that gig is probably my all-time favourite Rollins solo...

[isolated]

Originally Posted by damonsmith

The problem with making a recording that good is that it is just sets the bar too high! Neither Rollins or Ware seem to have made an album that good again - I'd say Jones did not only with Coltrane but with Lee Konitz on "Motion".
Wilbur Ware ALWAYS sounds great, but the Vanguard album seems to be the pinnacle - of course very few ever make anything that great!

True dat. Recently been enjoying Walt Dickerson's Tell Us Only the Beautiful Things with Wilbur & (I think) Sonny Murray. It's the clearest I've ever heard Wilbur on a record. Whatta sound he had....