New Charlie Parker interview

Leigh Kamman

Wonders never cease. I've just discovered broadcaster Leigh Kamman's YouTube channel, as well as his website. Kamman passed away in 2014, aged 92.

Among the jewels in his vaults, there is the short interview below with Charlie Parker, posted only yesterday. It's a phone-in, and Kamman introduces himself as "The Little Bandmaster" from The 1280 Club on WOV, New York.

Footage of Hank Mobley and Bobby Timmons

The video below is an excerpt from the ground-breaking documentary Monk (1968) by brothers Christian and Michael Blackwood. You may be familiar with that film, and its companion Monk in Europe (also 1968), given how much of them have appeared in subsequent works by other authors like Straight, No Chaser (1988), again about Monk, and the more recent The Jazz Baroness (2012) about Nica de Koenigswarter.

Both films are unparalleled in terms of vintage footage of jazz greats in action. Just on Monk you can see Wes Montgomery backstage at a festival produced in Atlanta by George Wein, also on screen, or producer Teo Macero and engineer Frank Laico at work with Monk at a Columbia Records studio (December 14 and 21, 1967, possibly studio A, at 799 Seventh Ave in Manhattan). In a scene similar to the one below, Roland Kirk can be seen in the kitchen at the Village Vanguard (around the 51' mark).

Do visit Michael Blackwood's website for more information on Monk and Monk in Europe here and here, respectively. They can we watched on Vimeo, here and here, respectively.