ネットで色々調べて、やっと Allen Eager 亡くなった日付を見つけ出
しました。４月１３日（日）で、何と Teddy Edwards の１週間前の事
でした。海外のボードで話題になり始めたのが、この１０日程ですし、
それに a couple of weeks と書かれていたので、５月初めと思い書い
たのですが、何と一月以上、自分も含めて世界中のジャズファンは知
らなかったとは、寂しい事です。
News Journal (April 17 2003)
OAK HILL -- Allen Eager 76 of Holbrook Road a musician from
the 1940s to the 1980s who played jazz swing and bebop died
Sunday at Daytona Beach Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Born in New York City Mr. Eager moved to this area in 1985
from Miami Beach.
Survivors include a son Jacob Miami; two daughters Omine
Eager Miami and Zoe Griffin Roswell Ga.; and two
granddaughters. Haigh-Black Daytona Beach is in charge.
延び延びになっていた Allen Eager のアルバムも来月いよいよ
UPTOWN から登場します。以下プロデューサーの一人 Chack Nessa の
引用です。
The Uptown cd will be available within the next couple of
weeks. It is a package similar to the Uptown Mingus project
with a big booklet outside the jewel box. It contains 2
interviews with Eager by Ira Gitler and Bob Sunenblick. The
music is astounding - Duels with Serge Chaloff a quartet date
with Dick Twardzik and an apartment jam with Bird.
最後にバードに関するビッグニュースがあります。再度 Chack Nessa
の引用です。
Don't ask when it will be available but Uptown will has
reached an agreement with Lorraine Gillespie to issue a May
1945 Town Hall concert with Diz Bird Al Haig Curly Russell
Max Roach with guest appearances by Don Byas and Sid Catlett.
The program is astounding and it is very well recorded. Both
Town Hall and Carnegie provided professional recording
services and this comes from the original acetates recorded
at the concert This comes from the time between the Diz/Bird
Guilds and the KoKo session. I think it is the earliest
recording of Max with Bird.
Allen Eager の場合は既に現役のプレーヤーではなかったので、海外
のメディアも取り上げていません。唯一 Bill Crow の書いた追悼文
を見つけたので以下引用します。
Allen was an interesting guy. A real chameleon. He could learn
thingsfaster than anyone I ever met. He went to Aspen once for
his firstadventure on skis and stayed on for a while as an
instructor. He entered abrand new Ferrari he had bought in New
York and driven to Florida atSebring. He won his heat having
never driven in a race before. ("I read abook about it once"
he said.)
When he was young Allen fell in love with Ben Webster's
playing andmemorized all his solos from Duke's records. He
went uptown and found thehotel where Ben was living knocked
on his door and asked if Ben would takehim as a pupil. He got
out his tenor and played Ben's solo on "Cottontail"sounding
just like him. Ben ran down the hall and knocked on a
friendsdoor: "Come in here and hear what this little white boy
is playing!" Hewouldn't teach Allen but he let him hang
around and Allen sort of becamehis proteg・ Then Allen went
to California where he heard and fell in lovewith Lester
Young. He changed his mouthpiece and reed and began
soundingjust like Lester. When he returned to NYC he got a
gig on the Street andBen heard about it and went down to see
his boy. He couldn't believe hisears.
Unfortunately Allen's ability to learn fast was coupled with
the ability tolose interest in things quickly and he also
spent a lot of his time gettinghigh in various ways.
He turned up in Provincetown while I was playing up there one
summer withZoot and sat in with us on alto. He sounded like
he was out of practiceand I think he was trying to avoid
imitating Bird. Anyway I didn't enjoyhis playing as much as I
had when he was playing tenor.
But whenever I ran into him it was always an enjoyable
encounter becauseAllen was a charming interesting man of
many talents. I hadn't heard ofhim for years other that that
he was living in Florida and then last yeara friend sent me a
picture of him that he had taken at a jazz festival in
California.
ｂ．ｍさん こんにちは
ヴォイデック氏のパーカー本を監修した小田です。はじめまして。
パーカーのチェロキーに関する、この件はビバップ誕生の有名なインターヴューなのはご存知のとおりです。これはたしか僕の記憶では、1949年にダウンビート誌のジョンＳウイルソンがしたもので、その後のパーカー本では例外なく引用されていますね。
まあ、みな大同小異ですが、もうひとつとして、アイラ・ギトラーの”Ｊａｚｚ Ｍａｓｔｅｒｓ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ４０’ｓ”が手元にありましたので、抜書きしてみます。
・・・・Ｉｎ Ｌｅｏｎａｒｄ Ｆｅａｔｈｅｒ’S New Encyclopedia ofJazz(1960)
Parker is said to have first come to New York in 1939 and"for almost a year worked
intermittently"at Monroe's.
.....Bird's appreciationof the way he played those particular chord changeshas a parallel story.In New YorkParker had jammed with a guitarist named Biddy Fleet ina varaiety of placesincluding the back of a chili house in Harlem."Biddy would run new chords"
said Parker."For instancewe'dfind you could play a relatuve majorusing right inversionsagainst a seventh chordand we pllayed around with flatted fifth."
In a 1949 Down Beat inteviewParker sopke of a particulaly stimulating session with Fleet.Bird had been getting tired of the stereotyped chenges in general use.
"I kept thinking there's bound to be something else"he said."I could hear sometimesbut I coudn't play it"While playing Cherokee with Fleethe found that by
utylizing the higher ientervals of a chord as a melody line and using suitably connected chnges with ithe could make the thing he had hearing an actuality.
AS Bird put it"I came alive."...........
０、
I remember one night before Monroe's I was jamming in a chili house on Seventh Avenue between 139th and 140th. It was December 1939. Now I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used at the time and I kept thinking there's bound to be something else. I could hear it sometimes but I couldn't play it. Well that night I was working over "Cherokee" and as I did I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing
them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.
３、
Un jour dit-t-il je me suis rendu compte qu’en utilisant les notes supérieures des accords comme ligne mélodique et en les accompagnant de la progression harmonique adéquate je pourrais jouer ce que j’entendais intérieurement. C’est ainsi que je sius venu au monde.
「ある日」と、パーカーが言った「コードの最も高い音（をつないだもの）をメロディ・ラインとして使い、このメロディ・ラインにそれ（このメロディ・ライン）に合ったハーモニー進行を添えることで（バッキングすることで）、頭の中で聞いたものが吹けるって分かったんだ。こんなふうにして、俺は生まれたんだ」。(Gérand Arnaud et Jacques Chasnel. Les grands créatures du jazz Paris Bordas 1993からの孫引き引用の試訳)
I remember one night before Monroe's I was jamming in a chili
house on Seventh Avenue between 139th and 140th. It was December
1939. Now I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that
were being used at the time and I kept thinking there's bound to be
something else. I could here it sometimes but I couldn't play it. Well
that night I was working over "Cherokee" and as I did I found that by
using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing
them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd
been hearing. I came alive.
