Key to the Highway
2017-03-08
St. Patty’s show
Phil Seamen 1953-1959
Various Brit Blues
1968-1972
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So, last show we did our annual Mardi Gras show, and
already we’re ready to celebrate another hard partying day with our annual St.
Patrick’s Day edition. Now you might
think that the busiest night in the cab driver’s year would be New Year’s Eve,
but I found that it was often surpassed by St. Patty’s Day when it occurred on
a weekend as it does next Friday. With
New Year’s Eve, most folks got to where they wanted to be by at least 11pm and
nobody wanted to leave before midnight so you had a lull time of about an hour,
but on the day when everybody claims to be Irish they get ploughed beginning right
after work and fall by the wayside at varying times so the cabbie stays busy
all through the evening until the bars close.
Where New Year’s Eve holds an advantage is that there are a lot more
parties at people’s homes so the fares generally last later into the morning.
Anyway,
it seems like we just concluded our two and a half year study of the British
Blues so there isn’t much new stuff to present today, but a couple of times
early in the process I wasn’t ready with a blog so I took a look back at the
past few shows and played the best of the best for about a dozen of the most
recent shows. That is what we do here
for the shows between April 8th 2015 (show 26) and September 23rd
2015 (show 34). We did 52 shows in the
series, so that leaves us with plenty of material to use for the next few
years. enjoy
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But I did acquire a nice 4CD box set since closing the
study and we’ll use the choicest tracks from it for half of today’s show. When the 2015 Jazz marathon was approaching,
I tried to showcase some British Jazz and whom I was most interested in was
drummer Phil Seamen. Although he was considered the best European
drummer of the 50s and 60s, he seldom was the bandleader on records (I have
seen the number two and a half and wonder how the half got there) but his
presence as a sideman is where he built his reputation. The Proper box set Seamen’s Mission has
nothing but his work backing up some of the best Jazz ensembles in England and
it seems like for each recording there was made room for a drum solo, although
oftentimes brief. I don’t know exactly
when I became curious to hear his work, it might have even been as recent as during
the Development of the British Blues series, but I do know it was when I
discovered he was essentially the idol of Cream’s Ginger Baker.
Fair warning: this might get boring as we mention many
British Jazzmen’s names which are likely to be very meaningless to most of you
readers, but there is some interesting information contained within. Seamen came onto the scene as BeBop was influencing
British Jazz. This collection includes
some of the recordings Seamen made between 1952 and 1960 and, while it was not
100% in chronological order, that is how I present his music with two
exceptions, the first and the last tunes on this airing. Philip William Seamen was born in Burton on
Trent, Staffordshire, on August 28th 1926 and took up drums in his
early teens. He turned pro in 1944 with the
Len Reynolds ensemble and soon joined the popular Trad Jazz band of Nat
Gonella. Phil credited Nat for his early
development and learning to read music.
In 1947, Seamen moved on to the band of Kenny Turner but was back with
Gonella in 1948. It was then that Phil
claimed to be in one of the earliest British BeBop groups formed out of the
Gonella band with altoist Johnny Rogers, tenor man Kenny Graham, and bassist
Lennie Bush.
Late in 1948, Phil was with the Tommy Sampson
Orchestra and, in September 1949, the Orchestra was aired including a segment
of a BeBop quintet taken from its ranks.
Seamen joined the band of Paul Fenoulhet early in 1950, then spent April
1950 to April 1951 with Britain’s current most popular dance band, the Joe Loss
Orchestra. Phil went on to fellow
drummer Jack Parnell’s orchestra and recorded with them in an October 1952
session which is included in the 4CD set but not today’s show.
I mentioned that our first number is taken out of the
chronological sequence. It is Seaman’s
Mission, recorded in a November 2nd 1954 session (although the date is
listed elsewhere in the liner notes as from 1957) with the Ronnie Scott
Orchestra. The tune was written by the
pianist Victor Feldman, obviously leaving plenty of room for Phil to fill, and
is also the title of the 4disc set
Back to our timeline.
Seamen had spent the early portion of 1953 with Jimmy Walker’s five
piece band, then a brief time with Ambrose before returning to Parnell in June.
Our second tune is Kick Off from a
February 25th 1954 session including both Parnell and Seamen on
drums as part of the 17-piece ensemble. Phil
would leave Parnell in August 1954 to join the Ronnie Scott Orchestra. Also, beginning in 1953, Phil joined in
sessions with trumpeter Kenny Graham and his Afro Cubists. Kenny had connections with London’s West
Indian community and therefore featured a strongly rhythmic Jazz sound.
The next track we air is with the Joe Harriott Quartet,
Just Goofin’, from March 24th 1955.
Alto saxophonist Harriott headed up the first free-Jazz combo in Europe
and Seamen remained a close associate over the years. When Phil put together his own quintet in
January 1956, it was Harriott on alto along with pianist Johnny Weed, guitarist
Dave Goldberg and bassist Stan Wasser. Unfortunately,
the group never made it into the studio.
Another musician Seamen was often found in the studio
with was Victor Feldman. Feldman was a
child prodigy on the drums, making his pro debut when only seven years old but,
particularly when Phil was in the band, he was more likely heard playing
vibraphones or piano. As we’ve already
mentioned, Victor was with Ronnie Scott when he penned Seamen’s Mission and
Phil recorded with his bands of varying sizes on several dates. Our next tune,
Maenya, was done with Victor Feldman’s Big Band on September 21st
1955. Most notable among the fifteen
members of the band, along with Feldman and Seamen, are trumpeters Dizzy Reece
and Jimmy Deuchar and tenor men Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes. Feldman was a fixture on the British Jazz
scene until he defected to America in September 1955, I guess just after this session,
to join the Woody Herman band. He did
return to London for eight weeks in the winter of 1956 when he spent most of
his time either in the studio to finish contractual obligations to the Tempo
label or gigging in the clubs.
We follow that up with two tunes from an October 11th
1955 Ronnie Scott Orchestra session, Bang
and A Night in Tunisia (Joe Harriott is one of the two altoists in the 16 piece
ensemble) as we close out the first set.
These were part of a 4-tune EP and the only time Scott tried to put
together a big band, which he disassembled after Seamen and trumpeter Dave
Usden came to blows onstage at a Hogmanay
(I believe a Welsh word similar to a Christmas greeting) show in
Morecambe.
The relations between American and British music
unions had been contentious in the past but an agreement allowing one for one
exchanges of visiting bands finally was reached and, in January 1957, Scott put
together a six piece ensemble made up mostly of his former band mates,
including Seamen, but as they were boarding the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth at
Southampton, Phil was busted for heroin possession and not allowed to leave the
country; Allan Ganley was flown to New York as his replacement. Seamen’s defense council understated things
when he said the drummer “was slightly addicted to drug taking” and Phil was
fined eighty pounds.
Seamen backed trumpeter Dizzy Reece on almost all of
his recordings while he resided in London.
Reece was born in Jamaica in 1931 and got to Europe in 1948, but it wasn’t
until 1954 that he made it to London. We
feature Phil with his quintet on Butch, which was cut on May 16th 1955.
While the results of the session on July 6th
1955 came out on the market as by the Joe Harriott Quartet, the ensemble was
essentially gigging as Seamen’s quintet except that guitarist Goldberg was not
included; Weed was on piano and an American, Major Holley, provided the bass. We hear the two tracks that were released, Blues
Original and My Heart Belongs to Daddy. We come back to the Dizzy Reece Quintet from July 7th
1956 to close out the set with Scrapple from the Apple.
It was while with Parnell that Seamen met a dancer
named Leonie, whom he would marry in 1956. He was also becoming an asked for studio drummer
for hire. Jimmy Deuchar had been one of Parnell’s trumpeters on a 1952 session
and, when he got the opportunity to first record his own group in 1953, he
brought in Phil and two others from the Parnell Orchestra. Deuchar still wanted Seamen for his March 29th
1957 studio time and from that session we open our third Seamen set with Opus
de Funk. Just days after this recording
date, Deuchar and two others from the sextet joined the German Kurt Edelhagen
Orchestra, but during a break from the band Deuchar engaged Seamen in a session
that recorded music from the film Pal Joey which featured actors Frank Sinatra,
Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak. The notes
are a little unclear but since the movie didn’t come out until 1958 and the
Deuchar session was laid down on March 7th 1958 it is altogether
possible that this would be the music from the soundtrack.
For a January 3rd 1957 session, Deuchar
teamed up with Feldman in a quintet during the eight weeks Victor was on break
from the Herman band and from that session we present to you Wail. Phil spent most of 1957 heading his own group,
but also gigged and recorded with Dizzy Reece.
There was also a January session with Kenny Graham’s Afro Cubists and he
joined Don Rendell’s band in the summer, but by early 1958 he was back with
Dizzy. For a period of time in 1958,
Phil was in the pit orchestra for the West End production of West Side Story,
and it was a regular occurrence that when he was not performing he would nod
off, which was put up with by conductor Leonard Bernstein because, after being
awakened, his timing was spot on. Until
one time when a tapping by the bass man’s bow startled him so much that he
jumped off his stool, falling backwards into a large Chinese gong and creating
such an audible ruckus that it halted the show.
Phil had the wherewithal to clear his throat and humorously state, “Ladies
and gentlemen, dinner is served”, but
still he was terminated in short order.
On October 2nd 1958, the Dizzy Reece
Quartet (Phil, Dizzy, tenor saxist Tubby Hayes and bass player Lloyd Thompson) laid
down four songs for a soundtrack to the movie Nowhere to Go with the film
playing in the background, and from that we have chosen The Escape and Chase to
wind down our third set. The song
features Seamen playing cowbell with a pair of drumsticks as Reece smacks the
tom toms with his hands through the first half.
Phil and bassist Kenny Napper are the supporting cast
for the pianist\vibraphonist bandleader in the Stan Tracey Trio and we open our
fourth Seamen set with Free from a May 22nd 1959 session and Boo Bah
recorded four days later. With only
three numbers in our show-closing set, we go all the way back to December 17th
1954 to hear the Victor Feldman Modern Jazz Quartet’s Monsoon.
In mid-1959, Phil joined tenor saxists Ronnie Scott
and Tubby Hayes (Hayes also played flute and vibes) in the Jazz Couriers,
replacing Bill Eyden and playing beside pianist Terry Shannon and bassist Kenny
Napper. Despite the group’s tightness
and hard swinging, it was short-lived and disbanded on August 30th
1959. Seamen then signed on with Tubby
in his new quartet with Shannon and varying bass players. There are recordings of both of these
ensembles included in the collection but I did not consider them because I had
already presented them in our April 22nd 2015 pre-Jazz Marathon
show.
In 1960, Phil was back with the Joe Harriott Quintet. Harriott had been working on his freeform
Jazz since the late 50s and, as he explained it, “What we are doing has form …
the themes are structural, our approach to it is abstract. We make no use at all of bar lines, and there
is no set harmony or use of chords, but there is an interplay of musical form
and we do keep a steady form in the rhythm section.”
Phil was backing Georgie Fame in 1962 and played with
Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated between February and August 1963. From 1964 to 1968, Seamen often had the
opportunity to back visiting artists in his capacity of house drummer for
Ronnie Scott’s nightclub. He was also
regularly a part of Dick Morrissey’s Quartet, the Harry South Big Band, Burt
Rhodes’ Orchestra, and Tony Lee’s Trio as well as having a residency for his
own trio at the Royal Oak pub in 1969.
He also guested in Ginger Baker’s Air Force.
In the 70s, Phil mostly freelanced, including a tour
with American trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, while putting his trio into
residencies at various London pubs as the situations arose. Phil Seamen passed away on October 13th
1972
Seriously,
since you have read this all the way to the end you have my apologies. Almost everything I have typed out is
technical crap. The box set liner notes
say Seamen had “a great gift of humour and sharp wit . . . with a larger than
life personality” but provide little to back up the statements, and they also
say, “There are countless anecdotes still told about Phil Seamen, some comic,
some tragic and some apocryphal, most of them a mixture of all three” but fail
to repeat any of them. Anyway, it
shouldn’t be difficult to enjoy the music presented today.
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Since it is
still relatively new, I thought I’d mention that KKUP is now streaming on the
internet and, while it is still in a developing stage, we have been putting out
the word. I’m not all of that good with
high-tech stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access. If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will
see on the home page a strip of options immediately above the pictures of the
musicians the next to the last option being LISTEN ONLINE. By clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop
or mobile. I can only speak for the
desktop but after maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed. As already mentioned, this is still a work in
progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any
one time. I mention this so you will be
aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening. (I put the player in my favorites bar for the
easiest of access.) Now we can reach our
listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada. Let your friends elsewhere know they can now
listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they
can check out our schedule.
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Seamen’s Mission (Ronnie Scott
Orchestra)
Just Goofin’ (Joe Harriott
Quartet)
Kickoff (Jack Parnell and his
Orchestra)
Maenya (Victor Feldman Big Band)
Bang (Ronnie Scott Orchestra)
A Night in Tunisia (A Night in
Tunisia)
Phil
Seamen 19mins
Good Time Boogie
John Mayall (Jazz/Blues
Fusion)
Don’t Turn Me from Your Door
Savoy Brown (Blue Matter)
Take Your Hands Off Me
Brunning/Hall Sunflower
Blues Band
(Bullen Street Blues)
Love is Alive
Joe Cocker (Night Calls)
Natchez Burning
The Groundhogs (Blues
Obituary)
Those About To Die
Colosseum 34mins
(Those Who Are About to Die Salute You)
Butch
Blues Original
My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Scrapple from the Apple
Phil
Seamen 22mins
Waiting on You
Free (Tons of Sobs)
Little Boy Blue
Duffy Power & Dick
Heckstall-Smith
(Sky Blues: Rare Radio
Sessions)
Twenty Past One
The Climax Chicago Blues
Band
(The Climax Chicago
Blues Band)
When You Got a Good Friend
The John Dummer Blues Band
(Cabal)
L.A. Breakdown
Nicky Hopkins with the All
Stars
(British Blues Legends)
Andalucian Blues
Chicken Shack
(The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions)
The Stomp
Ten
Years After (Ssssh) 22mins
Opus de Funk
Wail
The Escape and Chase
Phil
Seamen 17mins
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin
I)
Got a Tongue in Your Head
Duster Bennett
(The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions)
I’m Movin’ On
Taste (The Best of Taste)
Think It Over / Too Much to Take
The Keef Hartley Band (Halfbreed)
Don’t Start Me Talkin’
The Climax Chicago Blues
Band
(The Climax Chicago
Blues Band)
We’re Going Wrong
Jack
Bruce (Spirit: Live at the BBC) 25mins
Free
Boo Bah
Monsoon
Phil
Seamen 18mins
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