Blue Note. A Story of Modern Jazz (BBC) Page #4

---

You'd say, "Come on,

let's get these nine tunes...

Let's get these nine tunes

in and get out of here,

so I can go spend that cheque.

You know? Let me go cash the cheque.

I mean...

Everything'll be closed

if we don't hurry, you know?

And we would all go to a drugstore

on 50th and Broadway...

That's correct!

..that used to cash cheques,

cos he paid us in cheque.

And we used to go and cash

our cheques. Yes, yes. Yes.

And...for a long time...

See you, Bob!

That was really my survival.

Actually, I was about 20

when I met him.

And then we got together,

but Alfred,

he always came around

to the jam sessions, you know?

And then I was...at the time,

I was practising with Coltrane

and I was practising

with Wayne Shorter.

But what was so great about Alfred

was that Alfred...

He would talk to you

about what you wanted to do.

The concept of

what you were writing,

and he gave a lot of young people

an opportunity to...

to experiment and write

something different. You know?

It's not like it is today,

where the record companies

will more or less tell you what is

marketable and what's sellable,

so you end up writing something not

necessarily coming from your heart.

But during those years,

at Blue Note,

that period was a very

creative period for me.

And after listening to

all these albums,

people like Art Blakey

and Sonny Rollins,

and to get an opportunity

to meet these great people,

and not only perform with them,

but hang out and study...

I mean, that was

the thrill of my life.

And Alfred was very responsible

for all that, you know?

And he was funny. He said...

He would come to the sessions,

he'd say...

MIMICS HIM:

"Freddie is not groovy."

HE LAUGHS:

"What do you mean, he's not groovy?"

If you were swinging,

he wouldn't say a word. No. No.

But if you weren't...

But if that stuff

started bogging down...

MIMICS ALBERT:

"Wait! Wait! Wait!"

HE DANCES ABOUT AND WAILS

LAUGHTER:

Sit down! Yes, he would!

He really loved the music, man,

and I'll never forget him.

And when I got my first cheque...

I'll never forget,

I bought two nice new suits,

and I bought a car, and...

But that's just part of it,

you know?

They knew when it wasn't happening.

Yeah. Boom!

I mean, if it didn't feel good...

it HAD to feel good.

I mean, it had to have a direction.

That I understood about him.

I used to laugh, cos,

the beat was 2 and 4

and they would be popping on

1 and 3, but they knew...

But they knew we were going down!

..that it didn't feel good.

You could tell when it was

starting to gel and come together,

because pretty soon, little smiles

was creeping across their faces.

And when it got this wide, it means

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes