Several farewells are in order for this week’s broadcast. Johnny Griffin passed away, so we’ll be paying tribute to his music. Plus, this program marks my last for WPIR: Pratt Institute Radio. Hopefully, by fall, I will have found Bop and Beyond a new home. Also, since this may be my last broadcast in awhile, I am setting aside a large portion of the time for the music of a tenor sax player I’ve come to admire greatly, someone whose music moves me in a way that few others can. His name is Ike Quebec. And he is amazing…
Ike Quebec’s story is one of great courage, a redemption: from success to obscurity and back again. He started as a swing tenor, either wailing away with Cab Calloway or recording his own jump tunes for the jukebox crew. His playing was robust and powerful, full of weary blues but with a bite that set out from his counterparts. An instantly recognizable sound that only got better with age. Ike had a huge jukebox hit in the mid-40’s with “Blue Harlem,” the tune I’ll be using to start off the show. It is a wonderful blues and it chased Quebec throughout his career until he finally topped it, years later, with his classic Blue Note comeback performances.
Ike disappeared off the scene for a variety of reasons (lack of big band work, drug addiction, poverty) and his reputation as a performer diminished throughout the ’50s. Mostly a case of “out-of-sight, out-of-mind,” though behind the scenes, Ike was still having a big impact. Though no longer playing regularly, Ike was engaged in A&R and arranging work for Blue Note. It was Ike who introduced Alfred Lion to the works of Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, forever changing the direction of both the label and jazz in general.
Then, in the early 60’s, Ike made a comeback. A huge one: critically, commercially, and artistically. The sad irony was that he was dying and wouldn’t live long enough to truly enjoy it. These recordings for Blue Note, particularly Blue and Sentimental and Soul Samba, are stirring. To paraphrase engineer Rudy Van Gelder, Ike played beautiful right on up until his death, despite intense pain and a realization that any note he blew could be his last.
Please join me for a broadcast that I think will be special…
Bop and Beyond, one last Wednesday on WPIR: Pratt Institute Radio, 6pm.
(Download link to follow)
