On January 27, 1979, publisher Dale Zdenek invited friends and musicians over to his Bonita Towers hotel suite for cocktails and music by his friend, jazz guitarist Ted Greene. Later in the night, guitarists Joe Diorio (pictured here) and Tommy Tedesco, unidentified bassist, and drummer Carl Burnett got together to jam, which someone in the room taped. After a bassless performance of Diorio's "Chevanananda," the group was joined by his former bandmate Jaco Pastorius, who—like others—was in town for the winter NAMM. The 54-minute recording, probably very incomplete, also captured an unknown composition, "It's About That Time," "Stella by Starlight," and several jams, including this twelve-bar blues.
This excerpt opens with Jaco introducing Diorio, followed by a blues riff, probably played by Tedesco. Everyone except Burnett plays a solo, although I'm not sure about the order. It's the last song on this recording, and the only one to feature jazz guitarist Ron Eschete, who presumably stayed for more tunes.
Few Jaco recordings have such an impressive lineup: everyone here recorded solo albums and worked as sidemen for people like Stan Getz and Horace Silver. Tommy Tedesco played in the session musician collective known as the Wrecking Crew and Clique, appearing on everything from the Batman television show soundtrack to the Elvis Presley Comeback Special. Although the tape sounds poor, we're lucky this was recorded in the first place, as it was a spontaneous jam at a small gathering.
These photos were taken by Dale Zdenek, who uploaded them to his website dedicated to the Ted Greene method books. The jam session was also photographed in great detail, but I'll see if I can get or find better scans of the photos before using them.
Photos by Dale Zdenek.
Recorded in a Bonita Towers hotel suite, Disneyland (Anaheim, California, U.S.A.), 1/27/1978.
https://linktr.ee/jacoarchive
Comments