Joe puma?

[jtaylor2714]

Just finished listening to herbie manns album flamingo from 1955. Joe puma is the lone comper on this date-no piano. What a great player! His single lines/solos are no slouch either. Never heard of him before this. Anything else great he's done?

[mr. beaumont]

Quite a few good records with Mann...I dig Flute Souflee with Bobby Jaspar.

As a leader "East Coast Jazz" is a great listen. Guitar and vibes. Yum.

[jazzimprov]

Chuck Wayne _Joe Puma Duo

I used to catch them in New Haven.

Back in early 70's (72 or 73)

They did an hour (12-1) at the Holiday in and Chapel street (long gone now)

[neatomic]

this is the recording you need...has all his mid 50's stuff inc a quartet with bill evans!...(and incl east coast jazz that mr b mentioned ^)




info-

The Jazz Guitar Of Joe Puma

cheers

[wintermoon]

back in my record collecting days I'd hear someone I liked on a record, usually a sideman, and then scour the used records stores for other records they appeared on.

some of the Puma lps I bought were;

Wild Kitten--Dawn Records [that was a hard one to find]
Joe Puma Jazz--Jubilee
Interactions [duo lp w/Chuck Wayne]

he also was a member of the NY Jazz Quartet w/Herbie Mann, Matt Matthews and Whitey Mitchell.
they put out a few records like Gone Native, Manhatten, Music For Suburban Living.

all of these guys put out records under their own name as well and used some of the others on them.

[wintermoon]

[spacehoof]

Chuck Wayne and Joe Puma put an album out called Interactions. Terrific record..just the 2 of them. got it when it came out many many yrs ago. CD of Interactions is on amazon used for cheap. Get it!
(edit: wintermoon referenced this record above..good stuff!)

[sgcim]

I caught the Puma-Wayne Duo live many times when they were playing all over the place in NY.
I even sat in with them when I was kiddie at one live concert they were doing on the radio. Puma was known for his witty comments.
He said to me, "Man, what club are you playing at?" The audience cracked up.
I have a bootleg recording of them playing at Ray Charles Club on Lon Guyland back in the 70s.
I also have a tape of him playing in a trio with the great sax/clarinet player Aaron Sachs, that Aaron gave me when I was playing with him.
The recordings my homeboys, Wintermoon and neatomic, mentioned are primo Puma, but there's also a great CD he made called "Shining Hour", which was recorded live at Gregory's with Red Mitchell and Hod O'Brien.

Puma and Hod made another recording with the vocalist Alicia Sherman and Frank Luther on bass. I saw that trio many times at Gregory's, where they had a steady gig for many years.
The last recording he made as a leader was, "It's a Blue World".

[pubylakeg]

For the curious, JP also had an association with pianist Ralph Sharon. He's on "Easy Jazz" (1954) which is a Shearing style date, only takes short solos on a couple of cuts, but it's worth a listen for the line up, T Charles, J. Montrose, Mingus and K. Clarke.
He makes a more significant contribution to RS's "Around The World In Jazz" (1957), solos on most of the cuts, and again a great line up, lots of good Eddie Costa on vibes, Lucky Thompson, O. Pettiford & Osie Johnson.

He's also on "Vinnie Burke's All Stars" (1956) with guitar duties split with J. Raney.

For completists, he's also splitting the guitar chair with Raney on Mabel Mercer's "Merely Marvellous" (1960). The guitar takes a background role, but it's interesting because the main accompanist is Jimmy Lyons on piano. The recording offers a rare insight into what might have been played at Lyon's and Raney's residency at The Blue Angel in the early 60's.

All of these records, apart from the Vinnie Burke, are on spotify if ya wanna check em out.

[jtaylor2714]

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestions guys. Just added all these albums to my Spotify playlist. Its going to be a busy weekend of listening.

[wintermoon]

also appears on the 'Fourmost Guitars' lp on ABC Paramount w/Dick Garcia, Jimmy Raney and Chuck Wayne

[wintermoon]

"the great sax/clarinet player Aaron Sachs"

indeed sgcim, he's featured on Dick Garcia's "Message From Garcia" , a great lp imo. [but most of us know that lp well]

[sgcim]

"the great sax/clarinet player Aaron Sachs"

indeed sgcim, he's featured on Dick Garcia's "Message From Garcia" , a great lp imo. [but most of us know that lp well]

You're thinking of A.J. Sciacca on that Garcia LP, who was really Tony Scott under his real name, Anthony J. Sciacca.
Sciacca, Italy BTW was where my father's side of the family was from.

Aaron Sachs put out a number of jazz LPs in the 50s as a leader featuring Jimmy Raney on one, and Barry Galbraith on another.

[sgcim]

also appears on the 'Fourmost Guitars' lp on ABC Paramount w/Dick Garcia, Jimmy Raney and Chuck Wayne

Puma plays in a guitar duo plus rhythm section on that one with Dick Garcia.
I asked Puma when Dick Garcia died, mistakenly assuming DG had passed, and Puma mysteriously replied, "Yeah, he might as well be dead. I saw his ghost in the club last night, leaning against the juke box."

In actuality, Garcia is still alive, living in the house he inherited from his parents in Astoria, Queens.
He practices Zen Buddhism and lives pretty much in seclusion.

[neatomic]

tony scotts music for zen meditation really got to him! haha

cheers

[Endorphins]

I heard Joe Puma do an instore at Sam Ash in Edison, NJ a year or two before he died. Funny, haha guy, for sure.





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[sgcim]

[QUOTE=Endorphins;660289]I heard Joe Puma do an instore at Sam Ash in Edison, NJ a year or two before he died. Funny, haha guy, for sure.


A typical example of Puma's sense of humor was the story about him doing a duo with Richard Davis at some club, and Davis said he was sick of doing songs by white, Broadway composers, and wanted to play the music of his people.
Puma said, "Okay you wait here, and I'll go outside and get some logs, and you can sit there and bang on them all night."
Bill Crow's books have a bunch of Puma stories in them.

[neatomic]

wayne & puma

cheers

[Cunamara]

Wazzup with the odd, homemade looking guitar on the cover of "It's A Blue World?"

[neatomic]

mel bay presents joe puma



check out the frequensator tailpiece on "that" joe p guitar...fine tuned!

cheers

ps- that guitar had two humbuckers and a space for a single coil in between..looks like he was using bill lawrence pickups

[pubylakeg]

Wazzup with the odd, homemade looking guitar on the cover of "It's A Blue World?"

IIRC, Puma was interviewed in Just Jazz Guitar magazine, and the guitar was indeed made by J.P.

[Endorphins]

I heard Joe Puma do an instore at Sam Ash in Edison, NJ a year or two before he died. Funny, haha guy, for sure.

A typical example of Puma's sense of humor was the story about him doing a duo with Richard Davis at some club, and Davis said he was sick of doing songs by white, Broadway composers, and wanted to play the music of his people. Puma said, "Okay you wait here, and I'll go outside and get some logs, and you can sit there and bang on them all night."
Bill Crow's books have a bunch of Puma stories in them.

Class act. Sounds like a local guy.

[sgcim]

IIRC, Puma was interviewed in Just Jazz Guitar magazine, and the guitar was indeed made by J.P.

Joe made that guitar at Jimmy D'Aquisto's shop, with Jimmy's help when he needed it.
Roger Borys was around there also, and he told me that Jimmy and Joe used to play a gag on people by making believe Joe was Jimmy's demented, hunchbacked assistant named Igor.
Joe would walk around dragging one leg, and grunting and groaning and scare the hell out of the people who came to the shop!
If Jimmy asked Joe to get something, Joe would answer in a creepy voice, "Yes, Master....

[pubylakeg]

Joe made that guitar at Jimmy D'Aquisto's shop, with Jimmy's help when he needed it.
Roger Borys was around there also, and he told me that Jimmy and Joe used to play a gag on people by making believe Joe was Jimmy's demented, hunchbacked assistant named Igor.
Joe would walk around dragging one leg, and grunting and groaning and scare the hell out of the people who came to the shop!
If Jimmy asked Joe to get something, Joe would answer in a creepy voice, "Yes, Master....

Fantastic story, and thanks for the post. Yeah, back in the old days, we used to have time for FUN. On the same riff, maybe when they finished a nice spruce top, they could shout "IT'S ALIVE !...."

BTW, I believe D'jango used to love the horror movies. Frankenstein (circa 1931) is one of the best.

[ronjazz]

One of his best lines: when asked "where do you live", he usually replied "in the past..."