Back in March, I posted on Walt Namuth, an extraordinary jazz guitarist who never recorded a straight-ahead jazz album as a leader. Instead, he preferred to record as a sideman with vocalist Ethel Ennis in the early 1960s and tour with the Buddy Rich big band in the late 1960s and early '70s. The rest of the time he gigged close to home around his native Baltimore. Namuth died in 2011 at age 68. [Photo above of a clean-shaven Walt Namuth, left, with big-band trombonist Jim Trimble, courtesy of Pat La Barbera and Joe La Barbera]
At the time of my post, a video clip had surfaced of Namuth playing There Will Never Be Another You. Namuth playing solo on the clip is exceptional and made me wish there were several dozen additional examples of Namuth playing this way. I also asked readers to fill me in if they had additional clips of him in action. [Photo above of guitarist Walt Namuth with the Buddy Rich big band, courtesy of Pat La Barbera and Joe La Barbera]
Last week, I heard from drummer Joe La Barbera, a member of the last Bill Evans Trio and author of the memoir Times Remembered who soon will be issuing a 180-gram vinyl release of Joe La Barbera: World Travelers, featuring Joe on drums, Bob Sheppard on saxophones, Clay Jenkins on trumpet, Bill Cunliffe on piano and Jonathan Richards on bass. To help Joe finish the project, donate here.
Here's what Joe wrote in his email:
Hi Marc. Sorry it took so long to reach back but I had to search for these tracks recorded in Boston in 1967. Back then, trumpeter Herb Pomeroy had a weekly jazz show on Boston's WGBH-TV, featuring ensembles passing through town on tour. They were gigging either at the Jazz Workshop or at Lennie's on the Turnpike. Occasionally, Herb would also have on local bands like Walt's. We were kids back then at the Berklee School of Music then but loved to play together.
My two older brothers, Pat (tenor saxophone) and John (trumpet), and I studied at Boston's Berklee. My brother, Pat, was first to leave town to join Buddy Rich's big band. He recommended Walt to Buddy when there was an opening. Buddy soon offered Walt the chair. Track No. 1 includes an interview with Walt by Bill Tannenberry, who was substituting for Herb that night. Walt names all the musicians in the group: Walt Namuth on guitar, Pat La Barbera on tenor saxophone, Michael Hughes on piano, Daniel Lessard on bass and me on drums. Pat sent me a few photos from the gig that I've attached. I hope JazzWax readers enjoy!
Here's Walt Namuth and the quintet on John Coltrane's Impressions and Miles Davis's So What, plus an interview by Tannenberry with Namuth. [Photo above of Pat La Barbera, standing, and Walt Namuth on guitar in the Buddy Rich big band, courtesy of Pat La Barbera and Joe La Barbera]
Impressions, So What and Interview
Here's I'll Close My Eyes...
Here's L & M...
And in case you missed the clip of Namuth playing There Will Never Be Another You, here it is again. Go here...
A big thanks and a hug to Joe La Barbera for the astonishing audio clips.
