TromboneChat

Looks like we've lost another great musician.

http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/jazzblog/rip-roswell-rudd

R.I.P. Roswell

Sad day. What an important player in the development of avante garde trombone playing.

I wrote about Roswell Rudd and his unique place in jazz history, with a special focus on the trombone scene in the early 60s.

https://ethaniverson.com/on-roswell-by-jacob-garchik/

Thanks for that article Jacob, I learned a great deal about him that I hadn’t known. Your writing has inspired me to listen to him again, with different ears.

Thanks, John

Great article.  I heard Roswell live only twice and both times I was blown away by really seeing and feeling where he was coming from, which I never got out of recordings.  Hearing him flawlessly cover the changes to Pannonica was simply amazing to me the first time I heard him.  I didn't know he was that kind of player.

Great article Jacob. I will have to search for School Days.

Excellent observations Jacob. Thanks for writing and sharing this.

When I first heard Roswell, I frankly thought he was a joke. I was only listening to bebop players. In art terms, I felt that the bobbers painted with a fine brush and Roswell simply threw paint all over the canvas ala Jackson Pollock.

Only much later did I begin to appreciate the unbridled honesty and raw emotion in his playing. When I was in grad school at UNT I researched Roswell's career, and wrote a paper on him based on several telephone interviews. Unfortunately that paper was lost somewhere over the years, and several moves."

I have many cards and letters from him that I treasure, as well as a lot of his LPs that I managed to locate. The earliest one is one of the Eli's Chosen Six recordings from his college days at Yale.

Thanks again Jacob 

Roswell Rudd was also a good neighbor.  He wrote music for, worked with, and played with the students at Rondout Valley High School, near his home in Kerhonksen.

Roswell Rudd came to Moscow in 2007. He played with Russian musicians at the House of Composers.

http://journal.jazz.ru/2016/11/17/roswell-rudd-interview/

He was a great musician. He opened new horizons in music.

R.I.P.

Something for the listeners--
Caught this on my commute tonight--
NPR (Fresh Air) just replayed Terry Gross's 2002 interview with Roswell Rudd.

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/05/575930368/remembering-roswell-rudd-a-jazz-musician-with-an-ebullient-sound

I just found out he passed. I'm pretty bummed. As I've gotten older and the "wow!" factor of hearing virtuosic guys like Watrous, etc., when I was younger has worn off, Roswell was one I kept coming back to consistently. As an amateur who will never have the chops of the virtuoso guys, listening to Roswell always gave me hope that if I focus on phrasing, tone color, humor, melody, and more humor, I'll still be able to contribute something musically interesting to others... a realization that I don't need a 5 octave range and chops to produce a stream of 16th notes at 160bpm in order to make good music. When you're 18 and think that learning to doodle tongue by itself is gonna make you a better improvisor, hearing Roswell is a good knock in the head that you've still got a lot to work on before fast tonguing even matters.

When Roswell played, he was really being playful, not just running through changes and ticking off check boxes on a bag of tricks he had. The phrasing, humor, playfulness, boisterousness he had... I haven't heard anyone up-and-coming who's continuing this lineage. Maybe I don't listen enough; recommendations would be appreciated.

An overlooked part of Roswell's interests was the ethnomusicologist side of him. His recordings with Malian, Mongolian and Korean musicians in the last 20 years were outstanding, especially "Malicool". There was a documentary about making "Malicool" on Youtube for a while, but I couldn't find it again. I lived in Hawaii for several years and had dreams of following in Roswell's ethnomusicologist footsteps and becoming the first trombone player to win a Hawaiian Na Hoku award (like the Grammy's for Hawaiian music). I started playing along with recordings of Hawaiian chant; it's very rhythmic and goes well with plunger! Sadly, I moved away from the Islands. One day though...

I was always interested in his setup since his tone is so open big. I found an interview where he mentioned playing a Bach 36 with a wide slide since narrow slides pushed the neckpipe against his neck too much, which pushed the mouthpiece across his face too much. He said this is why his horn in the 60s had an upturned bell; he had the neckpipe bent in for more comfort, which pushed the bell outwards! I never found out what kind of mouthpieces he uses, though. There's a video here where you can get a good look at what he was using in the last few years. Maybe someone knows what it is: https://youtu.be/oOY8ipOKpbg?t=76

Jacob, your article about Roswell being the anti-J.J. is spot on. For me, he was the anti-Watrous because I heard Roswell during my Watrous phase. But yes... I love J.J. and the lineage of players after him, but Roswell was something special for me.

Anyway, that's my take on Roswell.

Quote from: Steven on Dec 31, 2017, 08:01AMRoswell Rudd was also a good neighbor.  He wrote music for, worked with, and played with the students at Rondout Valley High School, near his home in Kerhonksen.

That's great!

Quote from: quiethorn on Jan 06, 2018, 11:04AM
I was always interested in his setup since his tone is so open big. I found an interview where he mentioned playing a Bach 36 with a wide slide since narrow slides pushed the neckpipe against his neck too much, which pushed the mouthpiece across his face too much. He said this is why his horn in the 60s had an upturned bell; he had the neckpipe bent in for more comfort, which pushed the bell outwards! I never found out what kind of mouthpieces he uses, though.


It's interesting,  I thought he played a Holton TR-602.

Roswell and Bill Watrous were roommates in NY in the late 50s or early 60s. They both were mentored by Herbie Nichols.

Roswell and Bill Watrous were roommates in NY in the late 50s or early 60s. They both were mentored by Herbie Nichols.