Ike Quebec

Ike Quebec Abrams [ kjuːbɛk ] (* 17th August 1918 in Newark , New Jersey ; † 16th January 1963 in New York City ) was an American jazz - tenor saxophonist and music producer .

Live and act

Quebec had taken piano lessons in his youth and began his professional career on this instrument; in addition, he had also been active as a professional dancer in the 1930s. He did not find his later main instrument, the tenor saxophone, until 1940. Like most of his colleagues, he shaped his instrumental style on the model of Coleman Hawkins , the "father of the tenor saxophone". From the very beginning, the melodic language of the blues played a more important role in Quebec's playing than in “Bean” : this expressive ideal of music found its way into his ballad interpretations, which was still quite unusual in the 1940s. Quebec's colleague and mentor Ben Webster , whose ballad style is similar, praised the youngster's “good feeling” and specified: “[...] a different feeling than most [...]. Of course everyone listened to Bean back then, but Quebec had its own thing going on. "

Although Quebec was not a downright virtuoso on his instrument, his high level of professionalism made him a sought-after studio musician and sideman on longer concert tours, many of which he did with the greats of the swing era - among his prominent employers were Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Carter, and Cab Calloway in particular . Under its own name, Quebec recorded several singles for Blue Note in 1944 with musicians such as Tyree Glenn , Tiny Grimes , Milt Hinton and Oscar Pettiford , including "Blue Harlem", which became a juke box hit.

The decline of the big bands in the late 1940s presented Quebec with professional and ultimately personal problems. Due to his drug addiction, he spent most of the 1950s in largely musical inactivity. Under these difficult circumstances, his friend Alfred Lion , co-founder of the record label Blue Note Records, was helpful to him . The saxophonist initially worked for the small company as a talent scout; On his recommendation, for example, the now famous recording sessions with the pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk took place, the results of which are considered milestones in the work of these two musicians.

As Quebec proved itself in the tasks assigned to him, Lion entrusted the musician (who gradually got his drug problems under control) with increasingly more responsible tasks: from being a mere intermediary, he soon advanced to the artists and repertoire manager of Blue Note, and finally he was able to Conducting your own recording sessions (including productions with Dexter Gordon ). In the social climate of the USA during the late 1950s, the trusting and friendly cooperation between Lion and Quebec was a clear signal to overcome the still widespread racial segregation in the music industry .

Soul jazz , which emerged around the same time as a sub-genre of hard bop , met the musical preferences of Quebec, which has now resumed his work as an instrumentalist. The comeback that had just begun with some relatively successful recordings - such as the album Blue and Sentimental with Grant Green - came to an abrupt end when Quebec was diagnosed with lung cancer at an advanced stage in 1962 . The illness forced him to give up his musical work again. Ike Quebec died in January 1963 at the age of 44 and did not live to see the release of most of his late recordings.

Trivia

Tenor saxophonist Eddie Lockjaw Davis reported that he received substantial assistance in his musical development from Ike Quebec in the early 1940s. The autodidact, who was often referred to as "Little Ben" by his colleagues, received significant impulses from Ike, both in his instrumental technique and in his blues feeling. When "Jaws" found out about the Mosaic albums in the 1980s, which gave Ike Quebec a posthumous recognition, he was almost moved to tears .....

Discography (selection)

78er : Ike Quebec's Swingtet 1944

• Ike Quebec 1944–1946 (Classics) with Buck Clayton , Milt Hinton , Oscar Pettiford , Grachan Moncur II
• It Might As Well Be Spring (Japanese Blue Note , 1961), with Freddie Roach , Milt Hinton, Al Harewood
• Blue And Sentimental (Blue Note, 1961), with Sonny Clark , Grant Green , Paul Chambers , Philly Joe Jones
• Heavy Soul (Blue Note, 1961), with Freddie Roach, Milt Hinton, Al Harewood
• Bossa Nova Soul Samba (Blue Note, 1962), with Kenny Burrell , Wendell Marshall , Willie Bobo , Garvin Masseaux
• Congo Lament (Blue Note, 1962)

Collections

• The Complete Blue Note Forties Recordings of Ike Quebec and John Hardee ( Mosaic 1984) - 4 LPs with Tiny Grimes , Ram Ramirez , Milt Hinton , JC Heard , Jonah Jones , Tyree Glenn , Oscar Pettiford , Buck Clayton , Keg Johnson , Grachan Moncur II , Shad Collins , John Collins - Rest of the collection at John Hardee
• The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions of Ike Quebec (1959-62) ( Mosaic 1989/90?) - 4 LPs with Edwin Swanston , Skeeter Best , Sir Charles Thompson , Milt Hinton , JC Heard , Sam Jones

literature

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1800 bands and artists from the beginning until today. 2nd, expanded and updated edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-01892-X .
• Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon . Directmedia, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89853-018-3 .

Web links

• Blue Note discography 1961/62 at jazzdisco.org
• Portrait of Michael Telega: Ike Quebec - A forgotten tenor saxophonist

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kunzler, p. 4475 (cf. Jazz-Lexikon Vol. 2, p. 1050).
2. ↑ Facin 'the Face, Mad About You , Tiny's Exercise and other titles were also recorded during the two sessions . The Complete Blue Note Forties Recordings Of Ike Quebec And John Hardee (Mosaic MR4-107, MD3-107); see. jazzdisco.org.