Bob Neel

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Robert "Bob" Neel , also called Bob Neal (born before 1949) is an American jazz drummer who is best known as the sideman of Chet Baker in the 1950s.

Before playing in the Chet Baker Quartet in the mid-1950s, he recorded with Harry James' orchestra in the late 1940s and, after his time with Baker, with Les Brown . As early as the late 1940s, however, he was closely associated with Chet Baker as part of a group of mostly little experienced young musicians of West Coast jazz who admired Baker. He even shared an apartment with Baker in Redondo Beach in 1949, and they both started selling marijuana early on to keep themselves afloat in the early years.

Neel himself had doubts about his qualities as a drummer, when the Chet Baker Quartet once - May 1954 in Birdland in New York - performed with Miles Davis that same evening, he noted the distance to Miles Davis' drummer Kenny Clarke , and particularly strongly Even Chet Baker, who was otherwise very self-confident about his rank as a trumpeter, felt uncomfortable and, according to some observers, even terrified (Davis played first and the encounter was seen by many as a kind of battle of the bands in which Miles Davis - accompanied by Lucky Thompson , Percy Heath , Kenny Clarke and Horace Silver - won). In his own words, Neel was like a slave. Chettie wanted someone who kept the rhythm and stayed out of his game, and so I did.

He also recorded with other West Coast jazzers such as Gerry Mulligan , Russ Freeman , Buddy DeFranco and Bud Shank , and with pianist Pete Jolly (also known as Robert Neel) and Steve Allen , and in the early 1960s he starred on the Steve Allen Show .

He was one of the sources for the biography of Chet Baker by James Gavin ( Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker , Knopf 2002).

Tom Lord recorded 46 recording sessions from 1950 to 1963. With Baker he recorded in a quartet in 1954/55 (for example Chet Baker Sings (World Pacific), Chet Baker - Jazz at Ann Arbor (Pacific Jazz), 1955.)

He was married to Marion Raffaele, who was also part of Chet Baker's circle.

A Bob Neel is also the author of the country song Daddy Was a Preacher, but Mama Was a Go Go Girl (1971) with Joanna Neel , but it is probably another Bob Neel.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chet Baker Discography
  2. ^ Harry James And His Orchestra 1948-49 (Big Band Landmarks 1969), Discogs . Listed as uncredited for three sessions.
  3. ↑ James Gavin, Deep in a dream, 2002, p. 34
  4. ↑ Back then, Baker was not yet addicted to heroin, only from around 1954. When Neel and his wife Marion heard about this, they wanted to leave the band, as they had previously been hard drug users themselves. Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 105.
  5. ^ Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 32
  6. ^ Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 99. Miles Davis ignored Chet Baker during the engagement. Besides Neel Carson Smith and Russ Freeman (pianist) played with Baker .
  7. ^ Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 90, I was like the slave. Chettie wanted somebody that would just keep time and stay out of his way, and that's what I did .
  8. ↑ Final Note: John Setar , AFM Local 47 Blog
  9. ^ Gavin, Deep in a dream, p. 85
  10. ↑ Eugene Chadbourne, Allmusic, is unsure, but co-writer Bob Neel was Joanna Neel's husband and the jazz musician was married to someone else.
personal data
SURNAME Neel, Bob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neel, Robert; Neal, Bob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH before 1949