Re: The Tony Williams Thread
Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 1:08 pm
I first heard Tony Williams on the Miles Davis "Four and More" album back in 1973. I was 18...the same age that TW was when the concert/album took place!! He just blew me away. I never heard anything like it before...and I was totally into straight-ahead jazz at the time...but I was more into bop and 1950's stuff then.
There is an interesting backstory about that concert. It spawned two albums. The first was "My Funny Valentine", which was the 1st half, and was nothing but ballads. The second was "Four and More", which was just absolutely on fire!!! Back in 1999 (I believe), Sony re-released a bunch of stuff on CD...a treasure trove of incredible stuff with bonus tracks and outtakes (the Miles Davis/Gil Evans "Porgy and Bess" is must-have. One of the outtakes is proof that Philly Joe Jones was human after all). Anyway, one of the re-releases was the complete concert which included a booklet that really detailed what took place at the concert. The concert was a benefit for the NAACP/CORE. It turns out that just before intermission Miles announced that he was donating his fee. He also took the liberty of donating the rest of the band's fee as well. To say Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, George Coleman and Tony were not happy would be an understatement. When they came back, this happened...Tony and the band are just on another planet.
Miles plays more notes in his solo here than probably in the previous five years combined
Here is Ed Soph relating a story about TW (even though I think it is as much about Alan Dawson as it is about Tony). The "moral" of the story at the end should be a lesson for all of us (at least it is for me)
There is an interesting backstory about that concert. It spawned two albums. The first was "My Funny Valentine", which was the 1st half, and was nothing but ballads. The second was "Four and More", which was just absolutely on fire!!! Back in 1999 (I believe), Sony re-released a bunch of stuff on CD...a treasure trove of incredible stuff with bonus tracks and outtakes (the Miles Davis/Gil Evans "Porgy and Bess" is must-have. One of the outtakes is proof that Philly Joe Jones was human after all). Anyway, one of the re-releases was the complete concert which included a booklet that really detailed what took place at the concert. The concert was a benefit for the NAACP/CORE. It turns out that just before intermission Miles announced that he was donating his fee. He also took the liberty of donating the rest of the band's fee as well. To say Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, George Coleman and Tony were not happy would be an understatement. When they came back, this happened...Tony and the band are just on another planet.
Miles plays more notes in his solo here than probably in the previous five years combined
Here is Ed Soph relating a story about TW (even though I think it is as much about Alan Dawson as it is about Tony). The "moral" of the story at the end should be a lesson for all of us (at least it is for me)
