Phil Woods - Greek Cooking

**AndyV** · 06-02-2023, 12:38 PM

One of my favorite 60s LPs that nobody ever talks about. Instead of the guitar, the main soloist besides Phil Woods on sax, is a Greek Bouzouki player named Iordanis Tsomidis. Woods dives into the difference in feels and plays with drive and jazz feeling. An early example of world music-jazz fusion.

Phil Woods - Greek Cooking (1967) - YouTube

**sgcim** · 06-02-2023, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by AndyV

One of my favorite 60s LPs that nobody ever talks about. Instead of the guitar, the main soloist besides Phil Woods on sax, is a Greek Bouzouki player named Iordanis Tsomidis. Woods dives into the difference in feels and plays with drive and jazz feeling. An early example of world music-jazz fusion.

Phil Woods - Greek Cooking (1967) - YouTube

Congrats on finding the one PW album everyone agrees is his worst.

**AndyV** · 06-02-2023, 10:23 PM

Not everyone.

**sgcim** · 06-02-2023, 10:37 PM

Well, almost.

**grahambop** · 06-03-2023, 04:48 AM

Here’s what Phil said about it in his autobiography (Life in E flat).

Phil Woods - Greek Cooking-b04e2e76-520c-44fe-9d13-e52d59c1ba9f-jpeg

**AndyV** · 06-03-2023, 07:09 AM

Art is subjective and I dig it! I think it holds up better than Gabor Szabo's Raga/jazz fusion records and Phil's sound and ideas are great. Buddy Emmons hated his jazz steel album though steel players for 50 years have called it a masterpiece. Is Greek Cooking as good as Phil's jazz records? No, but for what it is, it's unique. Apparently, Ouzo and hashish can ease time signature angst.

**grahambop** · 06-03-2023, 09:27 AM

I’ve listened to a few bits and Phil certainly sounds great on it, wonderful sound and flow of ideas.

Phil’s autobiography is like that throughout, he had quite a cynical view of everything!

**Alter** · 06-03-2023, 10:04 AM

Didn't even know of this album. Thankfully Greek music wasn't the next big fad!

I hear enough of it here in Greece

**sgcim** · 06-03-2023, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by grahambop

I’ve listened to a few bits and Phil certainly sounds great on it, wonderful sound and flow of ideas.

Phil’s autobiography is like that throughout, he had quite a cynical view of everything!

There are some great stories in there; working with the lunatic Al Haig, who tried to cure PW's arthritic dog by picking him up from the hind legs and shaking him violently!
After PW was nice enough to put Haig up for a few days, and drive him back to NYC, Haig made him pull over and buy a gallon of sherry which he downed on the drive back to the city. Haig was so polluted, PW had to physically eject him from the car, and Haig's last words were:
"Yeah,f--- you! You're a self-centered bastard, and your wife is a shrew, your kids are a drag, and your f--ing arthritic dog is a faggot!"

And on and on. He left out a lot of the race things he had to go through, when often he'd be the only white musician in an all Black band, and maybe it was just as well...The book was tame compared to some of the stories I'd heard that he decided to leave out.

**wintermoon** · 06-04-2023, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by sgcim

There are some great stories in there; working with the lunatic Al Haig, who tried to cure PW's arthritic dog by picking him up from the hind legs and shaking him violently!
After PW was nice enough to put Haig up for a few days, and drive him back to NYC, Haig made him pull over and buy a gallon of sherry which he downed on the drive back to the city. Haig was so polluted, PW had to physically eject him from the car, and Haig's last words were:
"Yeah,f--- you! You're a self-centered bastard, and your wife is a shrew, your kids are a drag, and your f--ing arthritic dog is a faggot!"

And on and on. He left out a lot of the race things he had to go through, when often he'd be the only white musician in an all Black band, and maybe it was just as well...The book was tame compared to some of the stories I'd heard that he decided to leave out.

Speaking of dogs I saw this the other day, went w/ my buddy that night to see Coleman and Haig at a tiny little joint JC Dobbs, they were superb. Billy Bean was there that year but I missed him unfortunately, not sure I even knew who he was until a couple years later.
I think I posted this before but Al came in w/ his little dog who sat on stage staring at him the whole night next to the piano bench and literally didn't move a muscle until Al got up for breaks. Haig died less than 2 months later. Joey D was 11 and playing across town, we had just caught him backing up Betty Carter that year. Dobbs still exists but no jazz, all the other joints in that flyer are long gone, hard to believe it's been more than 40 yrs!

#THT Philadelphia 1982 | #THT Philadelphia 1982 | By Joey DeFrancesco | Facebook

**djg** · 06-13-2023, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by sgcim

There are some great stories in there; working with the lunatic Al Haig, who tried to cure PW's arthritic dog by picking him up from the hind legs and shaking him violently!
After PW was nice enough to put Haig up for a few days, and drive him back to NYC, Haig made him pull over and buy a gallon of sherry which he downed on the drive back to the city. Haig was so polluted, PW had to physically eject him from the car, and Haig's last words were:
"Yeah,f--- you! You're a self-centered bastard, and your wife is a shrew, your kids are a drag, and your f--ing arthritic dog is a faggot!"

And on and on. He left out a lot of the race things he had to go through, when often he'd be the only white musician in an all Black band, and maybe it was just as well...The book was tame compared to some of the stories I'd heard that he decided to leave out.

at least haig didnt kill the dog....