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July 1, 2003 - Ruminations about Fallen Heroes
..Two musicians who died in recent weeks (June 3 and June 18, 2003) – Saxophonist Allen Eager and Trombonist Jimmy Knepper –
were contemporaries in the late '40s and early '50s. Eager chose to depart the music scene after Charlie Parker’s death (he says), while Knepper moved on to
play with one of the best reasons to listen to jazz in the 1950s, Charles Mingus...(read more below)
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I have many friends as crazy about their passions as I am about jazz and music. Those passions, when lined up against the wall of “public opinion”
(rather, public “benign neglect”), leave jazz well in the background versus another “new” book about the Kennedy family curse, the latest revelations
from Hillary Clinton or Martha Stewart, or the death just last week of Katharine Hepburn (who is, I’ll admit, one of my favorite actresses).
However, the western world (the USA is the worst) has an almost guilty pleasure in the ludicrous or nearly toxic lives of celebrities. I admit that I am
drawn into the bright-flame of new innuendo engulfing famous persons, but they hold less long term fascination for me than the
lives of Fats Waller and Earl Hines, Eric Dolphy and Woody Shaw, or Tom Harrell and Bill Charlap. The last two may be harder to recognize.
Perhaps that’s because they are still living – a bad rap for a struggling jazz musician (forgive my cynicism). If Woody Shaw had been “famous” in the sense
of a soccer star, basketball player or race car driver, the sad end of his life is all we would talk about. Thank God he made some
great music…
In the age of simplicity and overindulgence of the few, I have to say that another biography of Katharine Hepburn will only tell me one or two “new things”
but an in-depth biography of a famous musician (jazz, classical, folk or blues) will likely tell me much. Perhaps because their lives are so under-realized
and underappreciated, I gravitate toward them all the more.
Two musicians who died in recent weeks (June 3 and June 18, 2003) – Saxophonist Allen Eager and Trombonist Jimmy Knepper –
were contemporaries in the late '40s and early '50s. Eager chose to depart the music scene after Charlie Parker’s death (he says), while Knepper moved on to
play with one of the best reasons to listen to jazz in the 1950s, Charles Mingus. While they were peripherally related to each other through their styles and
music, they were both very attuned to Bird (Charlie Parker) and to following his muse. In fact, Knepper was one of the closet aficionados who recorded Bird live in
1950 with his new wire recorder, just for the thrill of capturing the Bird in flight (because of the cost of the tape, he only recorded Parker's solos - which were great - but the other musicians
didn't appreciate his leaving them out). A number of fans and musicians recorded Bird, and the most famous is Dean Benedetti, who recorded enough for 7 CDs!!
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In jazz, like the movies or novels, those who are famous normally cross paths more than once in life and in death. Long live Jimmy Knepper and Allen Eager.
If we consider Eager and Knepper in the context of a Matisse or Picasso painting from the 1930s, we would look at them today, but consider them as a function
of their time and contemporaries. Regardless, both Knepper (who recorded into the 1980s at least and perhaps longer) and Eager still survive as being as good
or better than many in the cast of their surroundings, and both left lasting impressions.
Some good listening might be:
Allen Eager with Fats Navarro, Trumpet and Tadd Dameron, Piano on the complete Blue Note and Capitol recordings of Fats and Tadd. Eager plays on four tracks
from 1948 with the also very good Wardell Gray on tenor.
Eager also plays on a Gerry Mulligan set from 1957, available as the Gerry Mulligan songbook and featuring Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Mulligan (now
that’s a saxophone section). The first seven songs on the CD are all Mulligan’s penmanship, and this group, including Eager, navigates for us.
Knepper’s stuff is a lot easier to find, as he was a favorite of Charles Mingus until Mingus got mad and dislocated some of Knepper’s teeth. However, with
his teeth still in place, Knepper was on a number of the great Mingus sessions in the late 1950s that were issued as "Blues 'n Roots," "Mingus Ah Um" and
"Mingus Dynasty."
All worth having. Here’s to two guys you didn’t hear about on Larry King live or read about in People, but who are significant members of our American musical
landscape nonetheless.
RIP Jimmy Knepper (1927-2003) and Allen Eager (1927-2003) two cats who knew how to swing and did it well.
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