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  1. #1

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    Just heard of this today for the first time. This is a wild record. It combines jazz with world music. Billy Bean is one of the soloists on these ambitious arrangements by Fred Katz (the cello player with Jim Hall in "Jazz on a Summer's Day"?). The audio quality is particularly fine on these cuts.


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  3. #2

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    Now that's dry martini and Mad Men music!

  4. #3

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    That's a great album! Fred Katz was the cellist with the Chico Hamilton Quintet. I've got the whole album, and Billy bean does a great job. There are a few cuts that don't feature Bean, but most do.
    There were a few albums like this around that time, which featured some great playing and imaginative arrangements.
    The best one is with Jim Hall in the Bill Smith Quartet, called "Folk Jazz". Smith was a great composer/arr./clarinetist, and there's more improvisation on that record than on the Katz record. Hall and Smith are superlative.
    Another one was also called "Folk Jazz, USA" by John Benson Brooks, which featured Zoot and Al on saxes, Nick travis on trumpet, and Barry Galbraith mainly in a supporting role with the rhythm section. It's a fairly straight ahead thing, but on the CD I bought, they included the "Alabama Concerto" by Brooks, which is with a jazz chamber group with only Galbraith, Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderly(!) and Milt Hinton- no drums. Suffice it to say that Galbraith can base his rep on that one.

  5. #4

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    Check out Billy Bean's playing on this one:


  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by jbernstein91
    Check out Billy Bean's playing on this one:

    Man, no matter what tempo he never seems to stumble, even a little bit.
    I know I've seen it before but need to check if I have this record in my collection.

  7. #6

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    longtime fred katz fan...he provided the music for some classic roger corman b films- bucket of blood & little shop of horrors...was chico hamilton quintet original...he played with jim hall and john pisano...pisano was great friends with billy bean...so he probably connected them


    great fred katz record is zen: the music of fred katz

    he and paul horn- classical katz

    a favored clip..katz get his bach on pre-show at newport

    cheers

  8. #7

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    Here's another off-the -wall album with Fred Katz and Billy Bean. It is said this album influenced Captain Beefheart when he made the album, "Trout Mask Replica".


  9. #8

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    yeah thats a jazz and poetry album...chico and fred were into the arts..chico & katz also recorded with the great wordsmith ken nordine..and chico was involved with the classic cartoon gerald mcboing boing

    capt beefheart/ don van vliet was also a musician,sax man, poet and fine artist...so it makes sense he'd be drawn to that kind of album


    cheers

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Easy2grasp
    Here's another off-the -wall album with Fred Katz and Billy Bean. It is said this album influenced Captain Beefheart when he made the album, "Trout Mask Replica".

    The late great Bob Dorough!

  11. #10
    Not a fan but have to say Dorough certainly sounded like nobody else but himself and what could be a better legacy in jazz?

  12. #11

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    Love Billy Bean (and really just discovered him 4 years ago when I got some CDs he did with Pisano). Great tone, feel and he rips.

    As for these out-there albums; Yea, I can dig this type of music but on repeat listening I find myself just waiting for the Bean solo.

    But yea, something different and out-there that I had never heard.

    I do wonder what type of audience this type of album would appeal to. E.g. as we see here us jazz guitarist tend to focus on the guitar (as well as the other fine solos). I assume there were people that focused much more on the song structure and overall feel and maybe even a some that felt the solos were a distraction from that.

  13. #12

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    Blurb from the YouTube vid:

    'Legendary jazz guitarist, Billy Bean, appears in two brief scenes at the beginning and end of this episode of 1958 TV show "Peter Gunn" a crime drama. Music track is clearly pre-recorded with musicians "acting" their parts... at 2:18 a guitar chord is heard but Billy's fingers are not playing a chord.'

    Although actually the audio isn't quite synchronised...


  14. #13

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    some great billy bean...in quartet setting with bud shank...soundtrack for primordial surf movie by bruce brown...brown had low funds..so quartet set up in small room and brown showed film thru a hole in the wall & recorded as they played along...thats the legend anyway

    billy b's incredible throughout..has lotsa room..and bud shank was always smart player

    bud shank-slippery when wet...title track




    cheers

    ps- peter gunn tv show ..had lots of great players, as jazz was a regular part of show...peters gal sang in a jazz joint...mothers!!!...tedesco can be seen, shorty rogers etc etc

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    longtime fred katz fan...he provided the music for some classic roger corman b films- bucket of blood & little shop of horrors...was chico hamilton quintet original...he played with jim hall and john pisano...pisano was great friends with billy bean...so he probably connected them.
    Bucket of Blood - my favorite horror movie of all time since I was a kid, with it's beatnik poetry and free jazz. I was lucky to find it on VHS when a local video store was closing down 20 years ago.

    I just found A Bucket of Blood - Full Length on YouTube. I heard a few strums of guitar in the intro during Paul Horn's free jazz solo. Now I will need to watch the whole movie again to listen for stray guitar riffs. Might be Billy or a Wrecking Crew member...
    Last edited by Easy2grasp; 11-04-2018 at 11:00 AM.

  16. #15

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    I still don't know why Bean made such a complete break from playing in the 70s up till his death. I know he had a severe alcohol problem, but a lot of guys went back to playing after drying up for a period of time.

    The only one that completely withdrew from playing like that was Dick Garcia, who's still locked up in his house in Astoria, practicing Zen meditation. Did anyone read that book on Bean that was written as part of a PHD thesis? Did the author explain why Bean never played again? I heard something about a traumatic gig with Stan Getz that might have had something to do with it, but don't know any specifics.

  17. #16

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    if you look at billy beans discography, it's all recorded in a very small window of time..and much of that is during his couple of years in los angeles in late 50's...

    he moved from philly to nyc earlier in the 50's and i'd bet he was hugely influenced by jimmy raney!..he's got that same kind of bop single line intensity

    seth greenberg wrote the billy bean book (i havent read)...but seth g was the one who just did the great vid interviews with jimmy bruno...hes from philly too and was a student of jimmys....see- jimmy bruno interview

    as per filmwork, that's probably john pisano on fred katz soundtrack stuff...the story is that fred just sold some music to roger corman, and corman being the famous low budget genius he was, used the tapes in a few different movies!!! haha...you can hear the chico hamilton quintet in there

    lastly in that peter gunn clip ^...the female singer is linda lawson..she cut a few sides, but was also an actress..her big role was in curtis harringtons -night tide- with a young dennis hopper as lead...lawsons career was short as she married a hollywood bigwig and said goodbbye to performing

    cheers

    ps- right on dick garcia! i like that story!!..and his a mesage from garcia lp was strong...has tony scott and bill evans!! early!

  18. #17

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    "ps- right on dick garcia! i like that story!!..and his a mesage from garcia lp was strong...has tony scott and bill evans!! early!"

    Indeed, after buying that way back in the day I bought everything I could find w him
    Great cheesecake cover too, one of my favorites!

  19. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    if you look at billy beans discography, it's all recorded in a very small window of time..and much of that is during his couple of years in los angeles in late 50's...

    he moved from philly to nyc earlier in the 50's and i'd bet he was hugely influenced by jimmy raney!..he's got that same kind of bop single line intensity

    seth greenberg wrote the billy bean book (i havent read)...but seth g was the one who just did the great vid interviews with jimmy bruno...hes from philly too and was a student of jimmys....see- jimmy bruno interview

    as per filmwork, that's probably john pisano on fred katz soundtrack stuff...the story is that fred just sold some music to roger corman, and corman being the famous low budget genius he was, used the tapes in a few different movies!!! haha...you can hear the chico hamilton quintet in there

    lastly in that peter gunn clip ^...the female singer is linda lawson..she cut a few sides, but was also an actress..her big role was in curtis harringtons -night tide- with a young dennis hopper as lead...lawsons career was short as she married a hollywood bigwig and said goodbbye to performing

    cheers

    ps- right on dick garcia! i like that story!!..and his a mesage from garcia lp was strong...has tony scott and bill evans!! early!
    Did Lawson play the beautiful mermaid in that film? Harrington was a very cool director; he chose David Raksin to write the score for that movie, although there weren't any great tunes like some of his other films; just a lot of flute with bongos.
    I did a lot of work with Aaron Sachs, the great bop clarinetist/sax player, and the first thing he said to me was, "Whatever happened to Dick Garcia", and I burst out laughing!
    He said that Garcia was a very hung up guy; always complaining about his problems.
    I think I've told the story about what Joe Puma said about Garcia; let's just say he ended it calling him dead, but not aware of it...
    I happened to come across his nephew online, and he hipped me to Garcia's choice of living the rest of his life in seclusion.

  20. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgcim
    Did Lawson play the beautiful mermaid in that film? Harrington was a very cool director; he chose David Raksin to write the score for that movie, although there weren't any great tunes like some of his other films; just a lot of flute with bongos.

    yes she did... but i didnt wanna give the surprise ending away!!! spoiler alert!! haha...harrington was cool director..as much avant garde as he was hollywood...night tide was a channel 9 wor nyc late saturday nite staple!

    katz's music for the little shop of horrors was released on vinyl...great stuff...but the broadway play musical version soundtrack is only one available these days..afaik

    cheers

  21. #20

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    Here is the link you can use to order the Billy Bean book that Seth Greenberg wrote

    Billy Bean Biography — Midoriyama Publishing

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by neatomic
    yes she did... but i didnt wanna give the surprise ending away!!! spoiler alert!! haha...harrington was cool director..as much avant garde as he was hollywood...night tide was a channel 9 wor nyc late saturday nite staple!

    katz's music for the little shop of horrors was released on vinyl...great stuff...but the broadway play musical version soundtrack is only one available these days..afaik

    cheers
    According to my fave reference book, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, Harrington directed a few other films that were pretty interesting:
    "Games"(1967) Yet another Diabolique-type thriller (there can never be enough Diabolique clones; I can name five or six off the top of my head) with Simone Signoret(!), Katherine Ross, and James Caan.

    "Ruby", notable for a nice theme song by Don Ellis(!).

    "What's the Matter With Helen?", another twisted thriller with Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters running a dance school in the 30s that tried to train a bunch of Shirley Temple wanna-be's. Music by David Raksin.

    Katz wound up teaching a course in Religion at some college in CA.