In the summer of 1959, The Connection premiered at the Living Theater on 6th Avenue at 14th Street in New York City. The groundbreaking production attracted national attention for its harsh portrayal of drug addiction. The play was directed by Judith Malina, who together with Julian Beck, founded the Living Theatre in 1947. The Living Theatre is the oldest experimental theater in the US and instrumental in the formation of the Off-Broadway movement. In the playbill from The Connection’s premier, the following is stated at the bottom of the title page:
“The Director wishes to dedicate this production to the memory of Thelma Gadsden, dead of an overdose of heroin, at the Salvation Army, November 1957, and to all the other junkies dead and alive in The Womens’ House of Detention.”
The play won several Obie Awards and ran for more than 700 performances. Interestingly, Martin Sheen, a Living Theatre supporter and board member at the time, launched his career with his work in the play.
In 1961, Shirley Clark, a dancer turned short experimental film director, who had seen and loved the play, directed the film version of The Connection. Here she is filming the movie:
The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to become an underground classic.
The music for stage and film versions of The Connection was composed by Freddie Redd. In 1960, Freddie Redd’s Quartet recorded The Music From “The Connection” for Blue Note Records. Four months later, Redd recorded Music From The Connection on the short-lived Felsted label, with Howard McGhee on trumpet, Milt Hinton on bass, Osie Johnson on drums, and an outstanding young tenor player, Tina Brooks.
As I wrote about last week, I bought this Kenny Burrell album with the Warhol cover at Logos Books in Santa Cruz, California. This was the first time I saw Tina Brooks’ name.
As I was listening to the album, I liked the songs Tina Brooks played tenor on the most. As time went on, his name remained obscure to me until Mosaic Records put out the box set The Complete Blue Note Recordings of The Tina Brooks Quintets.
I read about the release in The Wire magazine and mail-ordered it. All at once, the entire Blue Note catalog of his records was right there for me. It’s astonishing to me now how incredible this collection was. As I listened, I wondered how it was possible that the majority of this music was never released after they were recorded. This is a mystery that has never been solved….
Tina Brooks got his start in jazz playing with the popular American R&B bandleader and pianist Sonny Thompson in 1951. Tina Brooks’ first recorded solo is on this Thompson 78rpm on the King label.
In 1955, Brooks toured with Lionel Hampton; however, he got his big break in 1958 playing on the great organist Jimmy Smith’s Blue Note recordings The Sermon! and House Party. Based on his performance as a sideman on these recordings, Blue Note booked Tina Brooks to lead his first recording session. That album was Minor Move.
Minor Move was recorded in 1958, but it was not initially released and buried in the Blue Note vaults. I understand that, as I consider this his weakest release. On the other hand, True Blue, his second Blue Note recording as a leader, is a true classic - pure strong. This would be Tina Brooks’ only Blue Note recording released in his lifetime. Unfortunately, it did not do well commercially.
Perhaps the reason for True Blue’s mediocre interest was the fact that 1959 was a seminal year in jazz when three innovative Columbia records stole the show: Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue; Charles Mingus's Oh Um; and Dave Brubeck’s Take Five. Based on the general lack of enthusiasm for True Blue, Brooks’ next two excellent sessions Back To The Tracks and The Waiting Game, like Minor Move, were held back by the bosses at Blue Note.
I think it’s now time to just let the music do the talking.
Between True Blue and these two excellent Blue Note sessions, Brooks recorded with Jackie Mclean during his Street Singer session. Here’s Street Singer, which was held off the Mclean release and appeared on Brooks’ Back To The Tracks, which incredibly was not released in the US until 1998.
Another absolute stone, cold classic is the title track from his epic Back To The Tracks:
Finally, on March 3, 1961, just 5 days before his 29th birthday, Tina Brooks recorded The Waiting Game. This was his last Blue Note session, and I think it’s his best album. Here is David the King from that album. Wilbur Ware plays outstanding bass on this one, who I put in a league with Jimmy Blanton. Ware is an incredible and underrated bass player from Chicago, who got his start playing with Sun Ra in the 1950s. Crank up the bass:
You would think by listening to this album that Tina Brooks was well on his way to a successful career on perhaps the jazz world’s dominant record label. However, The Waiting Game would not be released in his lifetime. In fact, he would never record again. Tina Brooks would live and struggle for 13 more years before his death on August 13, 1974. He was 42 years old.
Here’s one more for the road with Brooks playing O.D. (Overdose) from Freddie Redd’s 1960 Felsted release Music From The Connection:
For Tina Brooks, as with many of us, life got in the way. Unfortunately, this is a story we hear all too often on that Big River Called Jazz.
Next week, we’ll paddle the backwaters of Columbia Record’s subsidiary Epic label, launched in 1953.
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Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.
Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that….
Until then, keep on walking….