Thursday 5 January 2023

Dizzy Reece born 5 January 1931

Alphonso Son "Dizzy" Reece (born 5 January 1931) is a Jamaican-born hard bop jazz trumpeter. 

Reece was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of a silent film pianist. Hearing parade brass bands at an early age, the sound of the trumpet captured his soul. Eventually records by Basie with Buck Clayton and Don Byas drew him to jazz. He attended the Alpha Boys School (known for its musical alumni), he studied baritone horn from the age of 11 and trumpet from the age of 14. Among his classmates were Joe Harroitt and Wilton “Bogey” Gaynair. After working in Jamaica with Jack Brown’s swing band in 1947. The desire to play jazz and the growth of the new music known as be-bop drew him to a larger playing field, Europe. In 1948, he moved to London, then to Paris, where he played with Jay Cameron and Don Byas. 

From 1950 he worked in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy with Wallace Bishop, the pianist Rob Pronk, and the double bass player Buddy Banks. By 1954, with a well-developed style of his own very much and a big, brilliant tone, he settled in London, where he worked with Kathy Stobart, Terry Shannon, and Kenny  Graham’s Afro-Cubists (1954) and made recordings as a leader (1955 -7).Including his first Blue Note album, Blues In Trinity. Donald Byrd and Art Taylor were his sidemen. He also belonged for a brief period to Tony Crombie’s big band (1955) and in 1956 performed in Paris with Martial Solal, again with Byas, and with members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. 

Reece wrote the music for the 1958 Ealing Studios film, Nowhere to Go.After recording  in London with groups led by Victor Feldman (1956-7), which included Tubby hayes, Ronnie Scott,and Jimmy Deuchar as sidemen, he moved in 1959 to New York. After gaining praise from Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, he led a group at the Village Vanguard. Later he worked as a freelance sideman and occasionally as leader, but found New York in the 1960s a struggle   


                              

Dizzy's association with Blue Note faded after 1960. In 1962, he made Asia Minor for Prestige, re-recording Achmet and The Story Of Love. Lack of steady work in New York made him a transoceanic commuter by necessity. In 1968, Reece was a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s Reunion Big Band, which toured Europe and made an album for MPS. 1969 was a particularly active year for recording, he was on Dexter Gordon's A Day In Copenhagen, also for MPS, in March, Hank Mobley's The Flip, done in Paris, in July and on the recently-released Andrew Hill nonet date Passing Ships at Van Gelder's studio in November. The Mobley and Hill dates were his last appearances on Blue Note. 

Reece with Dexter Gordon

Reece considers his performances whether in clubs, concerts or otherwise, to be a theatrical effort. For him, life is one big theatre, and therefore his music cannot be divorced from life. "Music is my life" he asserts. In addition to his brilliance as a trumpeter, Reece has functioned as a journalist, prose writer, poet, having written (published articles); abstractions, poems, short stories, screenplays (unpublished). Educational publications includes Contemporary Jazz Drum Suite (1966), Basic Jazz Bass Rhythm And Blues; Swinging the Scales and other method books. (1997); Encyclopedia of Black Brass/Black Reeds-- 1860-1999. His paintings have been exhibited with his music. 

Despite his considerable talents as a player and composer, Reece has only made four albums as a leader since the sixties: From In To Out with John Gilmore for Futura in Paris in 1970, Possession, Exorcism, Peace for Honey Dew in the early '70s, Manhattan Project for Bee Hive in 1978 and Blowin' Away with Ted Curson for Interplay in the same year. He was also featured on Clifford Jordan’s Inward Fire on Muse in 1978. In 1991, he toured and recorded with Jordan’s big band. But for much of the last 60 years, Mr. Reece has essentially led a non-public life. 

He did however make his re-emergence at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York on 5th January 2007 where he announced the release of “Nirvana,” an album recorded in 1968. It was also his 76th birthday, another cause for celebration. Given the rigors of his instrument and the challenges of the music, no one should of expected Mr. Reece to be battle-ready after so many years off the scene, but at the end of the concert the audience gave him a generous round of applause.

But for the most part, Reece’s career has been so far under the radar that many people, tuned-in critics and musicians alike, think he has died. Ironically, Reece looks extremely healthy and vital-and he’s ready to be heard again.  “A lot of people say, ‘Reece, if I were you I would have killed a lot of people already!'” he laughs. “But that’s fate, and I don’t blame anybody. I’ve put in a lot of years and thousands of hours playing, but things come in their own time. My stuff is at another level now; maybe I’ll get the chance to prove it. I just need an audience.” 

(Edited from the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Jazz Profiles, Henry Bebop, Jazz Times, New York Times & Wikipedia)

One great document of the period though is the film, For Klook: The Story of the Paris Reunion Band. It captures the mid-eighties exploits of a band recalling the great Paris jazz scene of the sixties, while continuing their own relationship as musicians and to the music that had taken hold at least thirty years earlier. Reece can seen here soloing on various tracks.

5 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “DIZZY REECE - A NEW STAR (2001 Jasmine)” go here:

https://www.imagenetz.de/atJhy

DIZZY REECE QUINTET
1. O MOON
2. BUTCH
3. BANG!
4. THIS IS ALWAYS
5. NOW'S THE TIME
6. PLEASE CALL
7. CHOROUS
8. BASIE LINE
DIZZY REECE QUARTET
9. YARDBIRD SUITE
10. HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN ?
11. OUT OF NOWHERE
12. SCRAPPLE FROM THE APPLE
13. BLUEBIRD - take 1
14. BLUEBIRD - take 2

This is what musicians call a "blowing session". No attempt to create any so-called "new sounds". Just honest-to-goodness, down-to-earth, relaxed swinging jazz. This date gives a real first recording break to one of the British jazz scene's "musicians' musicians", trumpeter Dizzy Reece.Dizzy's following is confined to just about every musician who has blown with him, a handful of knowledgeable fans (the kind who dig Miles Davis) and a couple of critics. (Jasmine notes)
============================================

For “DIZZY REECE - PROGRESS REPORT (2001 Jasmine)” go here:

https://www.imagenetz.de/mBsBB

DIZZY REECE QUARTET
1. STOMP
2. RIVIERA
3. NOW
4. GET UP
5. THE GYPSY [take 1]
6. THE GYPSY [take 2]
7. MOMENTUM
DIZZY REECE QUINTET
8. A VARIATION ON MONK
9. SWEET AND LOVELY
10. EBOO
11. ON THE SCENE
DIZZY REECE QUARTER
12. MAIN TITLE (Nowhere To Go)
13. THE ESCAPE AND CHASE
14. THE SEARCH (On The Scene)
15. THE SUNSET SCENE (Nowhere To Go)

=================================================

For “Dizzy Reece Mosaic Select (Mosaic2004)” go here:

https://workupload.com/file/qZUm92uEgNJ

1. Blues in Trinity 06:47
2. I Had the Craziest Dream 03:04
3. Close-Up 10:39
4. Shepherd's Serenade 06:37
5. Color Blind 06:02
6. Round About Midnight 04:46
7. Eboo 04:03
8. Just a Penny 05:31
9. The Rake 06:04
10. I'll Close My Eyes 05:57
11. Groovesville 08:06
12. The Rebound 06:48
13. I Wished on the Moon 06:50
14. A Variation on Monk 05:41
15. (I Don't Stand A) Ghost of a Chance 05:05
16. Once in a While 07:57
17. Eb Pob 07:30
18. Yesterdays 07:46
19. Our Love Is Here to Stay 07:09
20. Blue Streak 06:22
21. Ye Old Blues 06:42
22. The Case of the Frightened Lover 05:44
23. Tenderly 09:04
24. Achmet 08:31
25. The Story of Love 10:11
26. Sands 06:43
27. Comin' On 06:47
28. Goose Dance 06:48
29. The Things We Did Last Summer 06:19

All three albums have been lovingly reconstructed from digital sources.

boppinbob said...

Below is a selected discography from various music blogs. Please I do not own these albums but at the time of posting links were working. Thanks to the up-loaders credited below. There is a 30 second wait on fichier before download tab appears.

A – guairao @ Musica en Espiral
B – Jaro, michel sosnin @ Jazz Jazz
C – Guillia @ Silky Denims

Dizzy Reece Star Bright (1959) (A)

https://1fichier.com/?e5fo5kwb4g38342oqdoh

Dizzy Reece – Blues In Trinity (1959) (C)

https://1fichier.com/?dteeel1v28hjolybcxus

Dizzy Reece - Comin' On (1960) (A)

https://1fichier.com/?55xylm1hehqrozykqtwd

Dizzy Reece – Asia Minor (1962) (C)

https://1fichier.com/?uvlyurfxrmwu82fxy456

Dizzy Reece Quintet - From In To Out (1970) (B)

https://rapidgator.net/file/cb142ded732f65f065bc59eaeffa3c22/Dizzy_Reece_-_From_In_To_Out_(1970).rar.html

Dizzy Reece – Manhattan Project (1978) (A)

https://1fichier.com/?m1runc1jm287vqd4vdo0

Dizzy Reece & Ted Curson - Blowin' Away (1999) (C)

https://1fichier.com/?uvlyurfxrmwu82fxy456

Dizzy Reece - Nirvana: The Zen Of The Jazz Trumpet (1968) (B)

https://turbobit.net/ok7gjf9zpyhb.html

rev.b said...

Nothing I enjoy more than standing under a Dizzy blizzard. Much appreciated!

rev.b said...

Nice to learn he's still with us.

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

Many thanks for your 3 & other 2