Eddie Khan
“What ever happened to...?”
To me, Eddie Khan is like an old friend who, like a shining star, shoots into your life and then, as quickly as they came in, fades away - never to be seen or heard from again. They remain in your memory, exactly as you knew them for that short time. As time goes passes think about them once in a great while and wonder for a second, “Whatever happened to Eddie Khan?”
Obviously, not all jazz musicians have books written about them, and hundreds or thousands of fans blogging back and forth about the pros and cons of each record. Most just fade away. But for a musician, like Eddie Khan, who made it to the pinnacle Blue Note label to just fade away is somewhat unusual. So little is known about him. According to Wikipedia, sadly not even the year that he passed away is known: “born 1935, died 1985 or 1986”. As a result, sometimes we need to just let the music speak for itself….
The first time I heard Eddie Khan was on Jackie McLean’s 1963 album One Step Beyond - one of my favorite Jazz albums of all time. It was Eddie’s Blue Note debut:
In the late 1990s, I picked up Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond at Logos Bookstore in Santa Cruz. One of the first things I noticed about this album was that it’s a pianoless quintet. I thought, “Interesting - no piano, but a vibe player instead. Ok.” At the time, I had only heard of Jackie McLean from this 1960 Blue Note record with the Freddie Redd Quartet on The Music From The Connection, a play by Jack Gelber.
Gelber originally planned for the play to feature improvised music performed by jazz musicians, who would also play small roles in the production. However, Freddie Redd persuaded Gelber to include his original score.
I can still remember the impact One Step Beyond had on me the first time I heard it. It sounded quirky, but I loved it. I think it did mark my first step beyond. On Ghost Town, it takes Jackie nearly 3 minutes until the first note of his solo - that note (and the solo) remains one of my favorites of all time:
And check this one out:
Even though I’ve listened to this song probably 500 times, it still makes my foot tap.
As far as I can tell, Eddie Khan made his recording debut with Billie Holiday and the Mal Waldron Quartet at the 1958 Monterey Jazz Festival. At Monterey 58, was released in 1986 by Black Hawk, a subsidiary of Aspen Records, Inc. It was recorded as a test by Ampex Corporation using their half-inch, 3-channel recorder. Evidently, the tapes were stored away and later discovered in 1980 in an Ampex warehouse in Redwood City, CA.
In 1963, he joined Max Roach’s band. Incredibly, I searched the internet for images of Eddie Khan and found none; however, I did find these awesome videos of Khan playing with Max Roach’s band for Belgian TV in January 1964. They are performing songs from the 1960 Candid Records We Insist! (subtitled Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite), a suite by composer and drummer Max Roach and lyricist Oscar Brown, who collaborated on it for the 1963 Emancipation Proclamation centennial. These videos are a great opportunity to see and hear this legendary group at work.
Here is Driva Man, the first of three videos with Eddie Khan on bass:
Khan has a nice, extended solo on this tune:
As I mentioned earlier, Eddie Khan made his Blue Note debut on One Step Beyond. He would record only three more times for Blue Note: Joe Henderson’s Our Thing (1963); Andrew Hill’s Smoke Stack (1963); and a single song on Freddie Hubbard’s Breaking Point! (1964).
Here’s another one I like, Back Road, from Joe Henderson’s Our Thing, with Andrew Hill on piano, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and Pete La Roca on drums:
In 1999, Blue Note released The Illinois Concert, a live recording of a concert Eddie Khan played with Eric Dolphy, with a killer band that included Herbie Hancock and drummer J.C. Moses. Here is Something Sweet, Something Tender recorded on March 10, 1963, at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois:
I can find no more records or recording information regarding Eddie Khan after 1965. It appears this great bass player just picked up his bass and, like that old friend, just headed off into the sunset….
Next week on that Big River Called Jazz, we’ll take an even further step beyond and focus a little on the great multi-instrumentalist, Eric Dolphy.
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Until then, keep on walking….