Sandy's Jazz Revival
Date:
11/17/2011 Contributor:
(Big Joe Turner and Duke Robillard)
Here’s a nice complement to last week’s post of photos from Lennie’s-on-the-Turnpike in Peabody. Click here for footage from Sandy’s Jazz Revival, the Beverly, Mass. nightclub that brought a wide array of jazz and blues to Boston’s North Shore for 50 years. These two segments feature Tiny Grimes, Toots Thielemans, Larry Coryell, and Big Joe Turner with guitarist Duke Robillard. Highlights include Grimes talking about the blues while he plays “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” and Big Joe reminiscing about Art Tatum.
I caught a lot of music at Sandy's during the '70's, including one of Dexter Gordon's early appearances in the States after his return from nearly 15 years of living abroad; a night with three Texas-born legends: Buddy Tate, Arnett Cobb, and Eddle "Cleanhead" Vinson, accompanied by Ray Bryant, George Duvivier and Alan Dawson; and the Fabulous Thunderbirds playing Chicago and Gulf Coast blues before packed houses of Boston-area musicians. Seeing Tracy Nelson in this film reminded me of the night I saw her at Sandy's with Roomful of Blues belting out "Ballin' the Jack," and "Mother Earth."
Take a look. And feel free to add a comment or offer a reminicence of your own about Sandy's or other memorable venues.
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Comments
The Valley Big Band with Al Cohn !
My Northampton-based Valley Big Band player at Sandy's in 1981 right after we released our album, "Lightnin'". I had wanted to do a gig in the metro-Boston area and, as people in Boston really hadn't heard of us, the only way Sandy would let us play was if I hired a name soloist to be there with us. I called many, many people and was lucky that Al Cohn's son Joe had just had a baby...so Al came to do the gig for the short money I had to offer. He was a gentleman, sounded great, but really wasn't all that...animated, shall we say.
And as for Sandy...hmmm, he was a character. I'll leave it at that. We played for the door that night and it seemed like more money should have come through the door than we received at the end of the night!