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just taking up vibes.
There were other places near the
university, but I don't remember their
names, they closed too quickly.
Further away was "The Jade Room"
on San Jacinto. They had a black band
called The RhythmKings with a singer,
and depending on the night, the crowd
and their mood they'd do some jazz.
Mainly, the place was known for
dancing--one of those revolving glass
balls lit with the colored-lights
Christmas display. What I remember is
the singer and the song: "You, and-uh
the night-uh, and-uh the moooooo-sic-
uh." They tore it down a few years ago.
Downtown were the "New Orleans"
club and "The Iron Gate." One of them
burned down. I remember seeing Elvin
Jones one morning sitting in with some
UT people after one of Kennedy's
festivals; and the time Kinny Dorham
sat in with Polk and some others and did
"I Can't Get Started." I think Dizzy was
in the audience for that one, but he
didn't play. Billie Joe has the tape. This
was near l lth and Trinity.
Another place, called "The Cellar"
and then "The Eleventh Doer," was in
the ymphony building on Red River. I
pla there a couple of times. So did
Bill Metcalf, a Canadian pianist good
witha ballad. The building was a pnkey
gre then. It also got folked-up later;
it's squared up completely now.
There were lots of places, but really
nothing was happening. That's not a
contradiction, even after this long
preamble. The same people played all
the places to all the same faces, though
there were more black faces on the East
side, partly due to Jim Crow but mainly
because the music on this side wasn't
much.
The places on the East side had the
pungent smell of fried food mixed with
the aroma of a controlled substance;
the UT joints smelled of incense. That
probably tells us something.
On the East side you'd hear "Song for
My Father" or Polk doing a Lou Rawls
imitation. The white men over here
were trying with little success to cut
the "Kind of Blue" charts. There was
talent, but in no great quantity on
either side.
Gerry Mulligan, Billy Taylor, Gary
Burton, Jimmy Smith, Cannonball,
Richard Davis, Roy Haynes, Teddy
Wilson, Laurindo Almeida, Eddie
Harris and many others who passed
through here on his one-nighters. He
even brought to town one of my
personal heroes; does anyone remem-
ber Leonard Feather?
It all happened over a seven-or-so-
year period that ended two years ago. I
don't know what Kennedy's intentions
were at first. I know only what I saw,
and in the beginning he was obviously
dedicated to bringing national talent to
Austin. Over the years the festival
became an opportunity to hear not only
some of the heroes of the art, but also
many younger and gifted musicians
from all over Texas. The festivals
created an atmosphere of exchange
between young and old, black and
white, local and national talents.
To'B2a8
And we heard some mother bands,
ir .ludingthe monster NTSU band with
Butch Nordal of "Blues and the
Abstract Truth" and "Liferaft Earth"
fame; Lanny Steele's one-of-a-kind
TSU group, large and small with five or
more outstanding soloists; and at the
last festival in '73, the most satisfyingof
all, Dick Goodwin's fully-matured UT
Jazz Ensemble with that fabulous sax
section --Pete Brewer, Ron Brown,
Paul Ostermayer, John Mills -- and
NolandX. Their performance of "Night
in Tunisia" with Noland's break will
The places on the East Side had the pungent
smell of fried food mixed with the aroma of a
controlled substance.
That was 1965. Two things happened stay with me forever.
that year that now seem seminally This changeindirectionandintent--
significant to the development of a from entertainment to education --
"jazz scene" in Austin: the first and was occasioned, at least in part, by the
best of the Longhorn Jazz Festivals and fact that in the beginning Kennedy lost
the founding of the UT Experimental his ass trying to civilize the sticks, but
Jazz Ensemble. more strongly I think by the presence
RodKennedy'sfestivalwasasincere of Goody,in and the ensemble, for
attempt to improve the cultural fabric whom Kennedy became an honest-to-
of Austin by bringing in from the Godfather.
outside real live name talent. That's It was a group of maybe ten men and
where I first saw and heard Kinny women, certainly not much larger. At
Dorham, andIthinkMonkwasononeof that first concert ten years ago the
those first shows• Dizzy, Coleman small, curious audience was presented
Hawkins, StanGetz, twoorthreeJones with the strange figure of Dick
drummers, Miles and Idon't know who Goodwin (a shock of yellow hair,'
else put us on the map. rumpled trousers swaying lasciviously
For several years Kennedy fought a against the beat) in front of a so-called
losing battle to keep us on the map. His jazz band with no saxophones. I think
loss was our gain. Without him we the reed parts were played by French
wouldn't have had them or the others: horns.Wasthereeven apiano player?I
don't think so, but then I don'tSeven TimesIt's Own Weight," whic
remember much about the program,wasliftedbodily:!romtheUTband; an,
WhatIrecalliswhatIfelt, sittingin the most recently Jazzmanian Devil,
first row of the Recital Hall (the one on which_ sports Tomas Ramirez, Dude
21st), terribly excited and wishing I Skiles and John Treanor.
were part of it. Now that I'd like to Briefly, that's the story of jazz in
remember it more clearly, all that Austin in the last ten years, and these
The Rhythm Kings were a singer and a
song: "You, and-uh the night-uh, and-uh the
moooo-sic-uh."
really remains is the sensation.
That little band grew, and through it
passed a succession of competent, often
inspired soloists: Emory Wipple, Don
Young, Jim Mings, Nick Fryman, Pete
Brewer, Tomas Ramirez, Noland X,
ROn Brown, Brian Taylor and, more
recently, Mike Mordecai, Bill Ginn,
Paul Ostermayer, Mel Winters,
Ramer/z
Spencer Starnes and John Treanor.
There were, and are, many others,
but these are the ones I noticed. That
band began as inauspiciously and
unpromisingly as any disorganization I
can think of. It fought overwhelming
indifference from the local audience
and its departmental sponsors has
somehow survived. Goodwin has been
ably succeeded by Glen Daum, who
brings to the job extra-musical talents
that promise to keep the program
ongoing and thriving.
For the past ten years -- with the
single exception of James Polk who just
keeps on cookin' --every working local
James Polk
jazz unit in Austin has come from the
UT Jazz Ensemble. This includes
groups led by Don Young, Pete
Brewer, Jim Mings, Nick Fryman,
Noland X and Dick Goodwin himself.
Right now there are working in town
several bands which have come from
the ensemble, including Mike Morde-
cai's "Starcrost;" Miguel Jimenez'
group, last known as "Still Walkin ' ";
"Nova" with Nick Phelps and Buzz
Hudiburg; Bill Ginn's trio; "Forty-
bands are the fruit of the last decade of
development. Austin jazz has in that
relatively short time come from the
cocktail trio with saxophonist stage to
the point where we now boast six or
seven working professional groups
with original books and compositional
identities, and there s a variety
lrums at that is as diverse as jazz itsel.
these people are good, really good•
So, is there an Austin jazz scene?
Well, in a way there always was one
with Polk cookin' on the East side, but
the activity over here is certainly of
recent vintage.
It's safe to say that for seven or eight
years jazz in Austin was Red Kennedy
and Dick Goodwin -- and Polk cookin
on the East side.
There/s an Austin jazz scene, and it's
due to Dick Goodwin, who planted the
seed, Rod Kennedy who watered it
thanklessly, and to all the guys playing,
who have put together their individual
sets without any prospect of making it.
• " '~ " n"
But they are making at. Jazzmama
has drawn good crowds -- mostly
musicos -- at Castle Creek; "47 X" has
filled Armadillo; New Year's Eve books
jazz; and all the other bands are
working with a frequency unheard of
five years ago. Plus, of course, there are
the related groups, "The Electro"
magnets" and "Steam Heat." The
magnets have a thing of their own and
are able to draw on a larger reservoir to
build an audience. Their appeal isn't
strictly jazz-based./ nd "Steam Heat";
are they a jazz group? Not without
Tomas. Enough said.
Why is there an interest in jazz in
Austin, when there was none before?
Partly it's due to our being a piece of a
larger organic whole. Jazz is on the rise
everywhere, and Austin should be no
exception. It's just taken a little longer
here. Jazz in America began losing
ground as a somatic substance for the
liberal intelligentsia around '64 when it
was replaced, first by Bob Dylan and
later by the Beatles.
When Janis Joplin, the Dead and the
Airplane came along a bit later jazz was
dead, in the figure of John Coltrane,
who died in 1967. Just as Charlie
Parker had left a void in the jazz scene
in 1955, John Coltrane's death a decade
later left the jazz community in a
malaise from which it has only =ecently
emerged. This is not the place to dwell
on this; the story's too complicated.
It wasn t rock that dealt jazz the
heavy blow. It died on its own. But it
was rock, or a form of it in the music of
John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul, Chick
_i Corea, Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock
and the godfather of jazz-rock, Miles
Davis, that revitalized jazz and
rekindled interest in improvised music
8 m general, and jazz in particular•
Where else is a creative musician to
turn today if he wants to play
improvised music? To rock? country?
Musicians who five years ago would
have drifted into rock bands are today
drifting into jazz• The music they play is
a synthesis of both; the style has
changed.
Pat Martino is the youngest guy !
know of who plays the guitar in a Wes
Montgomery-preHendrix style; he's in
his thirties. There are four major jazz
co t, on page "23
