| "BOPHEAD"
Ubiquity
is proud to present BOPHEAD as its first ever straight-ahead jazz
release! Check out the rave review in CMJ!
"This vibe master has returned with an album that evokes the
great jazz albums of yore from labels like Prestige and Fantasy.
Pike's vibraphone style ranges from hepcat, bebop-oriented, wildly-swinging
mallet madness to eloquent, swaying, melodic lines that can transport
a dancing couple into wonderland. Pike's comeback is truly one of
the remarkable jazz stories of this year. Dig it!"
-CMJ
"Can we finally give this underground legend the recognition
he deserves?!"
-Gavin
"Pike is back and sounding better than ever."
-LA Jazz Scene
"One of the most powerful and swinging jazz vibraphone players."
-Bird Jazz Magazine
The top flight line-up includes legendary veterans Teddy Edwards
on tenor (who has several classic West Coast dates from the 50's
and 60's), Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums (who is one
of jazz music's great drummers; he's literally played with just
about everybody and presently resides in the Modern Jazz Quartet)
and Jane Getz on piano (who played with Herbie Mann in the 60's
and appears on Pharaoh Sanders' monstrous ESP album "Pharaohs
First." The rest of the line-up includes up-and-coming young
lions Anthony Wilson on guitar (who just released his own acclaimed
album), Lorca Hart on drums, Milcho Leviev on piano, and Richard
Simon on bass (who also just released his own album, comprised of
tunes by bass players). Bophead was recorded October 17 & 18,
1998.
And don't forget to check out Dave's great work on Johnny Blas'
first CuBop release, "Skin and Bones".
The Dave Pike Story
by Richard Simon
It was in LA, at the Hillcrest Club on Washington Boulevard, that
Dave Pike first made his presence felt, back in 1954. The Jazz Couriers
marked the first of the bands that he would lead. The line-up that
played with Pike for several years featured Hal Gaylor on bass and
Lenny McBrowne on drums. Joining the group on occassion were Dexter
Gordon, Charles Lloyd, Elmo Hope and Scott LaFaro.
With the opportunity to build repertoire, chops and reputation at
the Hillcrest, and with gigs covering the West Coast in organ trios,
Latin projects, R&B outfits, and big bands, Pike's range broadened
and his stock was on the rise. His first record, "Gene Norman
presents the Jazz Couriers," was released in 1956. Dave Pike
was only eighteen.
Pianist Paul Bley caught him at the Hillcrest and soon moved in
as leader of the group. Bley brought with him some of the young
lions of the West Coast jazz scene: bassist Charlie Haden and drummer
Billy Higgins. Before long they were joined by trumpeter Don Cherry
and an unorthodox Texas alto player called Ornette Coleman.
Pike soon headed to New York to continue his recording career. The
first of several albums from this period, "It's Time For Dave
Pike," with Billy Higgins and Reggie Workman, were completed
for the Prestige label in 1959.
Pike's presence in Greenwich Village placed him in the centre of
the Beat movement. His gig at the Cafe Wha? lured poets like Allen
Ginsberg, comedians/social commentators such as Lenny Bruce, and
scores of decidedly conforming non-conformists. Among the hipsters
was an emissary from Herbie Mann, who told Dave that Herbie wanted
him to join his band.
Thus began an association Pike would later describe as the "glory
years." Herbie Mann, a rhythmically (and commercially) astute
flutist, brought together the likes of Chick Corea, Ron Carter,
Larry Gales, Bruno Carr, Ray Mantilla, Ray Barretto, Patato Valdez,
Don Friedman, and pianist Jane Getz with whom Pike is reunited on
"Bophead". Pike's recordings during the Herbie Mann years
included "Family of Mann," "Live at the Village Gate"
and "Standing Ovation at Newport," all on Atlantic.
Even giving the extraordinary high-energy nature of Dave Pike, the
dizzying pace of his New York work schedule would eventually take
its toll. He left the Mann band in 1965 and headed for Europe, where
he led the house band at Berlin's Jazz Gallery for a while and later
joined drummer Kenny Clarke's band, with Kenny Drew, Jimmy Woode,
and Sahib Shihab and the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland big band.
Pike formed the Dave Pike Set which became one of the most popular
jazz groups in Europe from 1966 to 1973. They recorded eight albums
of original material, including the track "Mather", a
consistent club favorite over the past few years. (For the record,
those albums include the following: "Introducing the Dave Pike
Set" on Relax Records and "The Dave Pike Set - Gentle
Noise, Noisy Silence," "The Dave Pike Set - Four Reasons,"
"Infrared - The Dave Pike Set" and "Salamao - The
Dave Pike Set in Rio de Janeiro," all on MPS Records). But
unbeknownst to Dave, none of those albums were released in the US.
When he arrived back in America in '73, he found that most people
thought he was dead!
So Dave assembled a new working band in California, with Tom Ranier
on piano, Ron Eschete on guitar, Luther Hughes on bass, and Ted
Hawke on drums. He created a jazz club in Huntington Beach called
Hungry Joe's and bought a house five minutes away. Soon, and for
the next three years, the place was packed. Dave Pike's name was
painted on the club exterior.
A scout from Muse Records saw what was happening and signed Dave
up for six albums in three years. But Pikes health was failing.
He managed only four albums before he fell gravely ill.
When he recovered, he played at Dante's (once the premiere West
Coast jazz club in the San Fernando Valley) with Buddy de Franco.
Nelson Riddle was in the house and arranged for Pike to work with
the Paramount Studios orchestra. He also joined the Ray Anthony
big band, one of the hipper society orchestras.
Further set backs for Pike included a career-threatening accident
which shattered his left arm. To recover Dave Pike led a group at
the Bonaventure Hotel from four until eight o'clock on weekdays,
restoring not only the strength and flexibility of his atrophied
limb, but his confidence as well.
In 1998, 32 years since his first release, Bophead should serve
to re-establish Dave Pike as one of the world's outstanding vibraphone
players. Still youthful and exuberant, he relishes the harmonic
and rhythmic challenges provided by this diverse assembly of sidemen;
indeed, it's hard to tell which group brings out the better in him:
the ingenuity of the compositions of Anthony Wilson and the precocious
maturity of Lorca Hart, or the subtle excellence of Tootie Heath
and the sinewy soulfulness of Teddy Edwards, abetted by the urbanity
of Milcho Leviev and the modernity of Jane Getz, respectively.
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