in repsonse to taylor's query about gilmore's work as a sideman, there's a bunch of stuff actually, very little of which i've actually heard. but here's the list, culled from allmusic.com:- Blowing in From Chicago - Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore (1957 blue note date, w/ horace silver, curley russell and art blakey)
- The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard - Freddie Hubbard (1962 impulse date w/ curtis fuller, tommy flanagan, art davis and louis hayes)
- Sounds from Rikers Island - Elmo Hope (1963 audio fidelity date w/ ronnie boykins and philly joe jones et al.)
- Today and Tomorrow - McCoy Tyner (1963/4 impulse date, three tracks w/ gilmore, thad jones, butch warren and elvin jones)
- Andrew!!! - Andrew Hill (1964 blue note date w/ bobby hutcherson, richard davis and joe chambers) -- i have this, it's v. good!
- turns/ turning point - paul bley (1964 savoy dates w/ gary peacock and paul motion, "turns" is the savoy reissue but bley also reissued it on his own improvising artists label; some track diffs b/w the two reissues)
- 'S Make It - Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (1965 limelight date w/ lee morgan, curtis fuller, john hicks et al.)
- Compulsion - Andrew Hill (1965 blue note date w/ freddie hubbard, cecil mcbee, joe chambers et al.) -- this is also an excellent session
- *Bliss! - Pete La Roca & Chick Corea (1967 muse LP, no session info)
- Turkish Women at the Bath - Pete La Roca (douglas LP reissued on CD by 32 jazz, can't tell if is the same as the above or different)
- Feeling Blue - Phil Upchurch (1967 milestone LP reissued as an OJC CD, w/ jimmy cobb, richard davis, wynton kelly, pat patrick, warren smith)
- *From In to Out - Dizzy Reece (1970 futura LP, w/ art taylor the only other musician i've heard of)
*=LP only, no CD reissue to my knowledge
would make a fun project to pick this stuff up, work through it and compile a glimore best of. (i agree taylor, the bley session intrigues a great deal!)
sometimes it's not easy to identify sun ra's reed players, either on record by their sound or in the documentation since the liner notes are not always complete or accurate. some of the best statements by longtime unheralded tenor saxophone great john gilmore can be found on "sketch," track three from the other planes of there CD, where what starts of sounding like a routinely swinging medium-tempo number turns, by around 2:20, a glossolalic showcase for gilmore; and likewise track 2 on cymbals (disc 1 from the great lost sun ra albums), "thoughts under a dark blue light," shines its spotlight on gilmore from around 1:40 to 7:20.
