Ziggy Vines
Doug Stewart
Has anyone got details of West Coast tenor Ziggy Vines.
Believe he was active late forties and early fifties.
Any info would be good.
Peace and Love
Doug
JackleeT
When I was in the navy in WWll I was stationed at the Phildelphia Naval
Hospital and used to hang out at Nat Segal's Downbeat Club in Philly.
Ziggy was one of the young boppers who used to sit in regularly there, along
with guys like Red Rodney, Jimmy Oliver and musicians who were playing at the
Earle Theater (practically next door) with bands of Basie, Ellington,
Lunceford, Barnet, etc., etc.
To my knowledge he never left that area and thus would not be considered a west
coaster. Don't hold me to this, but I believe I recall an item somewhere in the
last couple of years that he has died.
Jack Tracy
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Ulf Åbjörnsson
I searched on Google and found these two from several sources:
1/ He is on a record with Clifford Brown (Columbia Jazz Masterpieces 66491),
recorded in Philadelphia on June 25, 1956.
2/ He is on a record from August 18 and 22, 1955 by the Herb Geller
Sextette. A Japan LP on EmArcy from 1980. www.dustygroove.com/jazzlp2/htm
says Zoot Sims (playing here under the name Ziggy Vines)!!!
Ulf
Michael Fitzgerald
<aabj...@algonet.se> wrote:
>I searched on Google and found these two from several sources:
>1/ He is on a record with Clifford Brown (Columbia Jazz Masterpieces 66491),
>recorded in Philadelphia on June 25, 1956.
Which wasn't recorded on that date - see discussion elsewhere.....
>2/ He is on a record from August 18 and 22, 1955 by the Herb Geller
>Sextette. A Japan LP on EmArcy from 1980. www.dustygroove.com/jazzlp2/htm
>says Zoot Sims (playing here under the name Ziggy Vines)!!!
Since on August 17, 1955, Zoot Sims was in New York recording with
Quincy Jones/Billy Byers/Ernie Wilkins/Al Cohn - I am thinking that
it's really Mel "Ziggy" Vines on the Herb Geller date, done in Los
Angeles.
Anyway, why would Zoot take the name of an existing player as a
pseudonym? He was recording for EmArcy the following month with Gerry
Mulligan under his own name.
A good source of Ziggy Vines info is the Billy Root interview
published in Cadence magazine, November 1990. (Root mentions the
Geller recording as including Vines.)
At the time of the interview, Vines had been assumed dead, but Root
was not so sure. "He was in town about 6 or 7 years ago, he was a
dishwasher at a restaurant. Just tragic." Vines had undergone shock
treatment in the 1950s - just prior to the Geller date, in fact.
Bob Rusch figured Ziggy would be about 65 in 1990. The Social Security
death index shows a Melvin Vines born Nov. 11, 1927 and died Sep. 9,
1992. Card issued in NJ (could be close to Philly) and last residence
in New Mexico. No idea if it's the one.
All this just sounds more and more like the Henry Grimes stories.....
Mike
Peter J Scott
musician (tenor & alto)who gave even Sonny Stitt a hard time in Philly
sessions!His tenor with Clifford on Columbia is very fine.
pjs
Michael Fitzgerald <fitz...@eclipse.net> wrote in message news:<082dqtspblb6ivgu6...@4ax.com>...
SlapKappy
In the mid 70s, Columbia Records released an album called Clifford Brown "The
Beginning and the End"(I'm not sure if it's currently available on cd). It
included a jam session that was Clifford Brown's last appearance before he died
in a car accident(and imo, it includes some of Brownie's most spectacular
playing on record). Ziggy Vines has one solo on the record, on the cut
"Walkin'". According to the liner notes, Vines' only other recorded
documentation was on a Herb Geller album cut in 1955(no title or record label
given in the notes). Who knows, maybe since then some other stuff with Ziggy
on it has surfaced. The liner notes make it sound as if Ziggy was based out of
Philly, not the West Coast.
Mike Kaplan
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