Carter Jefferson
89sp...@cua.edu
I've just read an article on the death of Carter Jefferson in today's
Washington Post. According to the article the tenor saxist was on
tour in Europe and died last Friday in Krakow, Poland. He was a
DC native who played often at the One Step Down club. The article
also mentions that he had played with Art Blakey and Woody Shaw and
that his record label was Mapleshade.
I'm sorry also, particularly as a Washington area resident, that
I'm unfamiliar with his playing. Could someone out there who is
familiar with his music talk about it and recommend some sides?
Joe Hellerstein
Wow, that's sad news about Carter Jefferson. He couldn't have been
very old, probably in his 40's?
He plays very well on Woody Shaw's STEPPING STONES album. This is a
*terrific* LP, but Columbia hasn't seen fit to re-release it, nor did
it make it into the Mosaic box set, which apparently only has studio
recordings (STEPPING STONES is live at the Village Vanguard.) Look
around for it in some used record stores, it's worth the effort.
Joe Hellerstein
Todd Poynor
: He plays very well on Woody Shaw's STEPPING STONES album. This is a
: *terrific* LP [...]
Agreed. "Woody III" and "For Sure!" also contain some good stuff (I don't
remember him being terribly prominent on "Rosewood").
I also recently heard Jack Walrath's "Gut Feelings", the performance of which
is a little rough (which is OK, since it's also pretty ambitious), but it
contains some really good soloing by both Jefferson and Walrath. Both the
Penguin Guide and "the net" have very good things to say about Walrath's
"Neohippus", on which CJ appears.
The only Blakey album I've heard with CJ is "Buhaina", which is not
spectacular, but CJ does pretty well for himself.
Todd
89sp...@cua.edu
> In article <1993Dec15...@cua.edu> 89sp...@cua.edu writes:
>>
>>Washington Post. According to the article the tenor saxist was on
>>tour in Europe and died last Friday in Krakow, Poland. He was a
>>DC native who played often at the One Step Down club. The article
>>also mentions that he had played with Art Blakey and Woody Shaw and
>>that his record label was Mapleshade.
>
> Gonzalez' Fort Apache Band....very fine player. Funny, I'd read last
> year that he was severly beatan in Jersey City and had gone back to
> Atlanta.
>
> This is not rumourmongering, but I'd also heard that he had a drug
> jones....does anyone know what he died of?
>
> keith
>
From the Washington Post 12/15: "...Jefferson collapsed while playing at
a jazz festival in the far-flung town of Zamosc, 20 miles from the Ukrainian
border. After the local doctor said he didn't have the facilities to treat
him, Jefferson's fellow musicians put him in a taxi for a five-hour drive
to Krakow, where he was admitted, coughing blood, to the intensive-care unit
of Biernackiego Hospital."
"According to the State Department, a team of Polish doctors operated on
Jefferson to correct a hemorrhaging esophagus as well as a stomach ulcer,
and put him on a respirator. But Jefferson...drifted in and out of
consciousness over the next six days, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver
and kidney failure as well as fluid in his lungs."
"He was pronounced dead of acute circulatory failure at 1 a.m. last
Friday Krakow time...Jefferson's body has remained in a Krakow morgue,
while Polish authorities await a payment of $6,000 to embalm and ship
it home--a sum the State Department will not advance, but which
Jefferson's family has been fratically trying to raise."
"'One of our seers, man, is lying over there, and we've got to retrieve him,'
said Washington poet Gaston Neal, who had known Jefferson for 15 years.
At a fund-raiser Sunday at Howard University's Cramton Auditorium, Neal
was among an assembly of Washington area artists and musicians who raised
$600 toward his return. Several radio stations in Washington and New
York have been airing tributes to Jefferson and helping to raise money.
And yesterday, Scahill [Marcedes Scahill, said to be "Jefferson's girl-
friend of the past four years, who kept house with him in Arlington."]
received a $5,000 pledge from the New York-based Rhythm and Blues
Foundation."
"..' .Part of it was ageism," said Jefferson's fellow musician, veteran
trumpeter Jack Walrath, when asked why it was so difficult for him
to earn a living. 'Everybody is looking for the next young kid to come
along.'"
"According to friends and family, Jefferson lived the sort of insouciant
life associated with jazz musicians of legend--a life filled with women,
smoking and drinking, until he was compelled by his doctors to give up
alcohol entirely seven months ago because of chronic cirrhosis."
"Scahill speculates that Jefferson may have started drinking again in
Poland."
"...Aside from Scahill, Jefferson leaves thousands of fans, three ex-wives
and six children ranging in age from 10 to 28."
written by staff reporter, Lloyd Grove
========
--Scott Spencer
Keith Hedger
>Washington Post. According to the article the tenor saxist was on
>tour in Europe and died last Friday in Krakow, Poland. He was a
>DC native who played often at the One Step Down club. The article
>also mentions that he had played with Art Blakey and Woody Shaw and
>that his record label was Mapleshade.
Wow, I'm sorry to hear this.....Jefferson used to play with Jerry
Gonzalez' Fort Apache Band....very fine player. Funny, I'd read last
year that he was severly beatan in Jersey City and had gone back to
Atlanta.
This is not rumourmongering, but I'd also heard that he had a drug
jones....does anyone know what he died of?
keith
--
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= Keith Hedger| "AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH" =
= | =
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Vincent E. Kargatis
> I've just read an article on the death of Carter Jefferson in today's
> Washington Post.
> he had played with Art Blakey and Woody Shaw and
> that his record label was Mapleshade.
Damn. He was a member of Jerry Gonzalez's Fort Apache Band too.
That sucks.
--
| Vincent Kargatis | Dept. of Space Physics & Astronomy |
| v...@spacsun.rice.edu | Rice University, Houston, TX |
| [Christ's] birthday mighta been the time to be on the beach at Galilee, |
| watching him turn water into beer" - Brave Combo, "Christmas In July" |
Jeff Beer
Jeff