This is my first Substack post! I’ve been thinking about joining the throng and seeing for myself what this is all about (I’m doing more and more of my topical reading on Substack these days) for a while now, and the relative lull in my schedule for the holidays is a good time as any to attempt to try a post for myself. I’d like to get in the habit of writing, with the hope of becoming more facile as I go along.
I’ve recently been seeing posts commemorating the great pianist John Hicks’s birthday (Dec. 21) with anecdotes and personal remembrances. I have a few of my own, centering on musical experiences ranging from formative record listening sessions, to indelible memories of live shows, along with a few cherished bandstand encounters. Briefly, here’s a couple of tidbits:
I think I first heard John on the Charles Tolliver Music Inc. album “Live At Loosdrecht” (Strata-East, 1972), courtesy of the great jazz radio program “The Best Of All Possible Worlds” hosted by the legendary Harry Abrahams on clear channel AM station WHAM, emanating from Rochester, NY, but hearable as far away as my hometown of Milwaukee. I do believe my friend Eric Stromberg had a copy (he had all the Strata-East sides, way more than I) that I borrowed for a while and listened to in the basement. An amazing performance by Charles, John, Reggie Workman and one of the unsung heroes, the great drummer Alvin Queen. This album had a major “Impact” (pun intended, see below) on me and every time I revisit the same thrill comes back to me from more than fifty years ago. Check out John’s driving, hypnotic work on Charles’s “Grand Max”:
A year or two later, I had my first of many experiences hearing the artistry and fire of Betty Carter live. It was at the Quiet Knight in Evanston, Ill, just north of Chicago. What a knockout it was! Ms. Carter could throw down as hard as any of the baddest horn players out there, and wrap the most smoking rhythm section around her little finger as she put them through the paces of her imaginative (and innovative) tempo changes, segues, cross fades, jump cuts, and so forth. Did I mention she, and the band, were viciously swinging? Yes! The great “Count”, Clifford Barbaro (who I had benn digging on Tolliver’s “Live In Tokyo” quartet and “Impact’ big band sides on Strata-East) on drums, Ratso Harris on bass, and John Hicks on piano. I remember the two trio tunes they did to open the set well: Stanley Clarke’s “Butterfly Dreams” and Tolliver’s 7/4 burner “Impact”. An indelible, even life-changing experience, which one can get a good taste of from this video, performed by the vary same band not too long after I heard them in Chicagoland. I suggest you take the time to see/listen to the whole video, It’s Betty in her prime!
After moving to New York and finding my footing on the scene, I found that John Hicks was everywhere the good music was – whether playing duo at Bradleys or Zinno, trio at Lush Life, or as a part of group formations ranging from hard bop to the threshold of the avant garde (Pharaoh Sanders, David Murray, Arthur Blythe). The rolling, surging energy of his solos, producing an irresistible momentum can evoke for me the trajectories of the great improvisers in that idiom such as Cecil Taylor, in a more traditional format. You can hear this quality in an early career clip with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, in the company of another avant-garde/straight-ahead code switcher, tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. This is a staggering performance, with hard bop busting at the seams with the influence of the “new music” and the turbulent 60s, with rebellion on the horizon:
John Hicks is also known for his beautiful original compositions, one of the most notable (and performed by others) being “After The Morning”. Here’s a version new to me that I’ve been digging lately, in a duo format between John and the inimitable Pharaoh Sanders:
I remember a notable week on the bandstand with John, Gary Bartz, Javon Jackson, Peter Washington, and Louis Hayes saluting Art Blakey at NYC’s Fat Tuesday, back in 1993 if I’m not mistaken. I remember some great music, and also Cecil Taylor being there multiple nights thoroughly enjoying himself (I have the impression that John was one one his favorite pianists). He was, and is, for all of us.
I’ll be playing the music of John Hicks this coming Sunday, January 4th at the Cutting Room from 3 to 5:45 PM, in the company of Elise Wood, Bill Saxton, Arturo O’Farrill, John Webber, and Victor Jones.
Other upcoming gigs in January:
Thursday, January 8: At Birds (64 Downing Street, NYC) with bassist Alexander Claffy, who I’ve been doing a good bit of playing with in Carl Allen’s Jazz Messengers alumni group.
Friday, January 9: “Eddie Palmieri Experience: A Musical Retrospective” at the Unity Jazz Festival, Appel Room, Jazz At Lincoln Center
Friday, January 16 is my mentor (and Mellon Jazz Legacies Fellow) Manty Ellis’s 93rd birthday. I’ll be celebrating with and for him on that day and into the weekend at Sam’s Place in Milwaukee.
Friday, January 24: Kicking back with the Bill Bonifas Band at a favorite Milwaukee old school spot, Caroline’s Jazz Club.
Saturday, January 25: The Milwaukee sojourn continues with a quartet playing my original tunes at the Blu lounge on the top floor of MKE’s historic Pfister Hotel (a very jazz-friendly facility), as part of a monthly residency there. 8 PM till midnight.
There’s some very strong music coming out on my Hollistic MusicWorks label, a new trumpet method almost ready to drop, and much more in store for 2026. I’ll be sharing more news soon!
Brian