New York

Moondog in front of the Underwriters Trust Company,
1340 - Sixth Ave?

Jimmy Nottingham on trumpet in Harlem, late 1960's

Unidentified group in front of Chock Full o' Nuts - 125th St?

Unidentified guitarist

Unidentified guitarist in Central Park

Unidentified musician in (I believe) Washington Square Park

Many thanks to all who have helped with IDs.

Dan Morgenstern reported on the funeral for Down Beat's September 22, 1966 issue:

In the lead was Harlem's own Jazzmobile, appropriately draped for the occasion, and carrying a jazz band ... the members were Benny Green, trombone; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Barry Harris, piano; Don Moore, bass; Billy Higgins, drums, and at the last moment, Lee Morgan, trumpet. First came "Now's the Time" and then, perhaps more appropriately, "'Round Midnight", followed by two Powell tunes, "Bud's Bubble" and "Dance of the Infidels".

The music stopped when the cortege reached the church. The pallbearers, including musicians Max Roach, Tony Scott, Eddie Bonnemere, Kenny Dorham, Willie Jones, Hayes Alvis and Claude Hopkins, brought Powell's coffin into the church where, many years before, he had been an altar boy.

If anyone can help identify anyone in the photos below, I'd appreciate it.

Bud Powell's funeral procession, August 8, 1966,
Which avenue is this?

Sam Price in tie walking next to cop car
- which street are they walking down? What theater in the background?

Which intersection is this?

Pallbearers: on right, back to front, Kenny Dorham, Willie Jones, unknown; on left, unknown, Tony Scott, unknown.

On the Jazzmobile: Benny Green trombone, Barry Harris on piano and Don Moore on bass. John Gilmore (face not seen) is on tenor.

From left: John Gilmore (with back to camera), unknown, Don Moore on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, unknown on right.

Detail from the above photo.

Bud Powell's funeral procession, August 1966
- Church of St. Charles Borromeo on W. 141 St. in Harlem

Much thanks to all who have helped with IDs.

Besides the ones below there are many others, especially of street scenes, and more at the Apollo - Ben E. King, Miriam Makeba, Cal Tjader, Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack and others, and also of Machito at Town Hall.

I've had help in identifying most of the musicians in these photos, but there are still a couple I don't have IDs for and I'd appreciate any help you can give. Please do not reproduce any of these without permission.

B.B. King at the Apollo, March 1963

The Shirelles at the Apollo, March 1963

The Shirelles at the Apollo, March 1963

The Cookies, with Earl Jean, the Apollo, March 1963.

Unknown singer or emcee at the Apollo, March 1963

Bobby Byrd and Anna King with James Brown's group at the Apollo, early-mid 1960s.

Leo Wright and Dizzy Gillespie at the Apollo, during the week of April 27- May 3, 1962.

Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with Larry Ridley, bass (probably subbing for Jymie Merritt),
Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Blakey on drums, same show as above

The Jazz Messengers with Larry Ridley on bass and Curtis Fuller, trombone, same show as above.

MC or speaker at the show with Gillespie and the Messengers

I was able to date the photos of the show with Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey to 1961 or 1962 by the overlap between Freddie Hubbard joining the Jazz Messengers in 1961 and Leo Wright's tenure with Gillespie ending in 1962. There are also photos of Cal Tjader from this show.

According to the Chronology of Art Blakey, the Messengers with Hubbard played at the Apollo for some dates in beginning September 14, 1961, as well as a benefit show on September 13, 1962.

Chris Sheridan informs me that Leo Wright only played with Gillespie at the Apollo during the week of April 27 - May 3, 1962. An ad in the Amsterdam News includes both Gillespie and the Messengers on the bill for this week of shows.

Freda Payne at the Apollo, date unknown

Unidentified singer/guitarist at the Apollo, sometime in 1971

Unidentified duo at the Apollo, sometime in 1971

Many thanks to all who have helped with IDs.

The chanted vocals and echoing chords give "Time to Say Goodbye" a downcast mood, brightening momentarily during the chorus where the singer gives the boot to the girl holding out on him.

On the flip is the uptempo "I'm Tired", with more fine harmonies and a good guitar solo.

These songs were originally released on the Cousins label, produced by Mike Barbiero. It was picked up for a December '65 release on Mercury, but doesn't seem to have made much chart impact.

The Elegant Four - Time to Say Goodbye
The Elegant Four - I'm Tired

Sources: photo from Pete Santora's site. Thanks to Tom for clarifying the photo IDs.

A couple other photos are available on Tom Walsh's site Bronx Bands of the Past (warning: Angelfire sites like this one always have pop-up ads).

The Reptiles - The Glass Toy

Steve Worthy related the story of the Reptiles recording of Glass Toy to Bassman Bobb Brown:

Ron Macera was the drummer, Paul Slavin on bass, Mark Worthy on rhythm guitar and high harmony vocal on the chorus (a reversal of how we usually worked-me high harmony, him low). I played upper register rhythm guitar, because if I was doing the singing I couldn't do any leads on guitar.

I wrote the song (probably my 3rd or 4th song ever written), full of teenage angst, and having to rhyme the works criticize, minimize and brutalize in the one bridge, shows my poetic and English major leanings. Subconsciously, I imitated my heroes the Beatles by doing something I heard said later about their songs - sad lyrics with happy music!

The only other recording session for the Reptiles was with a friend of my father named Bert Haber, who worked with Famous Music Publishing, and they were looking to get some young bands on one of their record company rosters. Bert gave us this song called "Come Take A Taste" to learn, and we so despised it, but really wanted to get in on the ground floor so we did it. I was so depressed learning it, that I wrote a song called "The Moustache Song" as a joke ("Please little girl with the moustache, blah blahh, Please don't shave your little moustache, You're only girl I kissed with one before"), which went on the 45 b-side. No one else had a song, so I had to sing that one as well.

Needless to say, their Broadway-type song was like a Spanky and Our Gang type tune, and our hearts weren't in it, so it went nowhere further. The chorus sounded like "Sunday Will Never Be The Same".

The Reptiles prided itself on always being true to the song and getting all the chords right! One of our pet peeves would be songs by bands who couldn’t get the bridge right- on “For Your Love” for example- the last two chords –they would do “A followed by Am” at the end of it, instead of C#m to B. Most bands were a little lazy that way. We used sharps and flats and major seventh chords because of our Beatle training. Me and my brother would listen to records over and over until every chord was perfect, especially with the Beatles stuff, which was our supreme role model. We even did Sgt. Pepper Stuff live like “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, “It’s Getting Better”, “A Day In The Life”, “Lovely Rita”.

Steve also wrote about the Reptiles' rival bands, The End and The Aliens:

“The End” had Allen Spink and guitar and lead vocals, Jimmy Indusi on Guitar, Timmy Smith on console organ-sounded almost like a Hammond, Rick Selby on left-handed drums, and Pat Giordano on bass guitar. They were the second most ferocious competitors to the Reptiles after "The Aliens". We made a comeback and beat them in a Battle of the Bands at St. Augustine’s High School finally, after a humiliating defeat at St. Ann’s when Spink stacked the deck with all of his friends. One reason the rivalry was so raw, even though personally I was great friends with the leader Allen Spink, was young testosterone when the nine of us were in a room together. We were like the Jets and the Sharks circling each other, I swear!

The Aliens were composed of Ray Marion on lead guitar and lead vocals (playing a Gibson cherry red ES335), Curt Meinel, bass (Hagstrom?), Glen Kane on drums, and a guy named Howie on Farfisa organ [Howie Pobner]. They were very popular because they could be counted on to play all the standard rock 'n' roll songs like Louie, Louie, Wipe Out, Bang Bang (Joe Cuba, not Sonny and Cher), and were not adventurous at all, which is why the Reptiles and Aliens were sworn mortal enemies. Ray would do this swagger like he was so cool and shake his ass, which drove us crazy, because our impression of music at the time did not include ass shaking! Maybe he thought he was Elvis, who I both appreciate and love now, but at the time he was kind of old news to us in 1967.

The Aliens - Louie Louie
The Aliens - Gloria

Thanks to Bassman Bobb Brown for forwarding me the comments of Steve Worthy, along with the photo and the scans and transfers of the Aliens 45.

P.B. is Paul Beecher, credited along with the Staunchmen for writing both sides of the 45, but that's all I know about this group.

"Mean Willy" is a driving track with some wild guitar breaks and screams between repetitive lyrics and droning saxophone.

All the girls they can't sympathize,
They know that he goes around telling 'em lies,
When he looks into their big brown eyes.

Less engaging musically is the flip, "Lost Generation", which sounds like it has roots in "Eve of Destruction". The lyrics are defeatist and downright depressing, if I am reading them right:

This poor war is here to say,
There's nothing you can do to keep it away,
My brother's dead, there's no denying,
This lost generation has me cryin'.
'Cause it's lost, this generation, it's gone away,
It's lost no matter what you say.

The kids are turnin', their cards are burnin',
Trying to escape this war,
The game they've lost and now they've found,
It doesn't matter anymore.

P.B. & the Staunchmen - Mean Willy
P.B. & the Staunchmen - Lost Generation

Thanks to Don Cox for the lyric correction.