Les McCann died on December 29, 2023 at a hospital in Los Angeles, at the age of 88. He was an American jazz pianist and vocalist who helped shape the “soul jazz” style of the 1960s with his earthy piano playing and singing and whose live recording of the antiwar anthem “Compared to What” became a musical touchstone of the era. His music has been widely sampled in hip hop. McCann gained his greatest acclaim in 1969 with his performance of “Compared to What,” a politically charged protest song written by Gene McDaniels that became a rhythm-and-blues hit at the height of the Vietnam War.
Les McCann and Eddie Harris wrote my national anthem! Man 40 years later still looking for the bee and the honey.. beware young friends.. change is hard! Keep pushing ahead!
I saw Les McCann in the 80's at a Charlotte jazz festival. He was performing this song and I remember asking a rasta man next me. "Who is that?" He said "That's Les McCann" and I have been hooked ever since. Awesome day.
@@Stoney-Jacksman I was "speaking" in the most relative present moment, as yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet arrived. Turn up the music, sit back and clap to the beat!!! "Looks like we always end up in a rut tryin to make it real compared to what?!"
when you consider benny bailey had no idea what to play and was told to just blow his ass off on any key a masterpiece was born That is what music and jazz is all about not the tepid stuff today
It took a polished group of African American jazz musicians to teach the Swiss what timing is all about. I bought this album because it was the only LP in the jazz section of a small El Paso record shop in the early 70's.For days after I first heard it, CTW was all I could talk about. I felt like an evangelist. Everyone who would come over I made listen to it. I have never tired of it.
This compared to what is timeless.Everyone should listen to this! It doesn't matter what race,ecomomics,or any other reason that is used to keep people separated.
This was one of those magical moments in jazz. Not everyone knew the song or rehearsed... They just jumped in and jammed, and the chemestry built. The audience responds and feeds the band, who keep building the synergy throughout the song. I never knew this song was filmed, but have been listening to "Swiss Movement" most of my life, thanks to my Dad. I'm glad it is on youtube for all to see. Thanks!
THE song that made me a jazz lover! Hitchhiking thru Swiss Alps, no less, just before Christmas 1971, snow falling hard against windshield, nothing else visible outside warm car cocoon, turning round unseen roads, but always moving upwards to the summit of the Alps, the climax of this piece: the Belgian guys who've given us a lift put this on, & WOW! the world stand stills, shock of music, driving beat, shock of lyrics! Still have 'Swiss Movement' I promised to get as soon as we touched land.
Trying to make it real compared to what? Man when I was 5 we lived next door to a cafe with an out doors patio I'm 57 and I still remember folk swing dancing and clipsoing what an a time in music! Yes indeed I had a hard time finding this one.
MUS 300! 1) Les McCann (piano), Eddie Harris (sax), Benny Bailey (trumpet), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Donald Dean (drums) 2) Post Bop 3) ABAC form 4) I just adore Les McCann and Eddie Harris (I have several of their albums). I own this album on LP and it is utterly spectacular. I play the living shit out of it, honestly. It has a message that is just as relevant today as it was in '69, dealing with issues then and now. McCann has a cool voice and can really tickle those keys. Eddie Harris sure can play that sax and my god, what a sweet solo by Bailey! This is one of my all-time favourite songs ever.
I have listened to this song no less than a thousand times and it never fails to give me the chills, this and the whole album is just outstanding, doesn't get any better.
It just doesn't get any better than this. This was one of the first jazz songs i heard as a teen and it fueled my life long love of Jazz. The lyrics are as relevant today as they were nearly 50 years ago. "Benny Bailey!"
The values questioned are as relevant now as then. These guys were really onto something. Each point touched on but not dwelt upon, surrounded by music. I think the human race should reconsider the value of possessions, war and money. This song is gold to me. A pleasure to have it stuck in my head.
This IS one of the earliest songs that I remember as a child hearing my father play on his record player. My father had a Heath kit system and Karlson speaker he built himself that he played this song on. He passed away Monday.
This song goes back some 44 years during a war that I just happened to be in. Perhaps history does not repeat itself, it just rhymes and this song is as important today as it was back then!!
One of the GREATEST JAZZ CUTS EVER. THE WORDS ARE STILL ARE HARD AND FAST TODAY AS THEY WERE THEN. WAKE UP MY FRIENDS!!! THANK YOU LES and EDDIE. PREACH ON,BROTHER. PREACH ON!!!! LES SAID IT BEST "GOD DAMMIT!"
Just listened to tail end of this on the radio on my local jazz station. Pulled into my driveway and couldn't get out of the car. Riveted. Went inside and googled it and, lo and behold, it's a major classic. Amazing how a piece of music can be so fresh and compelling to an ignorant ear almost 50 years later.
"Don Dean,, Leroy Vinnegar... Benny Bailey... Eddie Harris!!" What an incredible performance. This has been a Top 10 track for me ever since I heard it DJing jazz in college. Positively stunning.
This is about as timeless as any classic can get. I found this album on a discount rack in '74 when I was 17 years old, a 'clip' for $1.99. What a treasure, what a pleasure; another step on the path that forms us.
Benny Bailey's trumpet solo at 3:17, after having his toes stepped on by Harris, is priceless! One of the best gut bucket solos I have ever heard. Note: 3:17 is where Les first calls Benny out, when Eddie solos again instead, the next verse where Les calls him up again is where Benny goes bananas. The heat of the moment and the build up is jazz history.
The movie "Casino" brought me here. I had to listen the lyrics a few times to pick up what was being said. A few google tries and ta-da, I am here listen to this amazing jazz ensemble... SOCK IT TO ME!
These men are geniuses-- they HUGELY added to my life, improved my consciousness right from the first time I heard this song when I was a teenager. Thank you all four of you.
As he plays the piano so cool the horns and the word's quickly creep in filling up my heart and heart. This jam is loaded with the truth. Much appreciation every time I hear it
This clip is fantastic. The sound mix is different from the CD (LP) and so, even despite a hickup at 5:23, it reveals more of this memorable performance. We can here Les grinding, for instance in the intro. Les clearly asks Benny Bailey to take the second solo (moves to the piano at 2:56, Les calls him up at 3:16) and even coaches him with a vocal tone. But somehow Benny is not completely ready and Eddie Harris decides to "steal" this turn. Before the third solo Les, now somewhat impatient and strict, calls Benny up and points his finger (4:07) "sock it to me!". And Benny, well built up, delivers extraordinarily.
Wow. Just Wow. After listening to this song for 44 years I learn today that this legendary performance was filmed. It allows me to experience in some small way what the Montreux audience must have felt at witnessing this historic event.
What a performance! Have heard it many times but this was the first time I saw it. Fantastic. To have been in the audience that day must've been a real treat.
I have the LP, but it's extra special seeing Les McCann, Eddie Harris and group captured the issues and times so vividly in this live recording. These musical messengers are truly missed.
This is one of my favorite all time jazz songs. I've know it for about 30 years. I always new it was recorded live but just found out it was videotaped as well! This song has everything. Great vocals, piano playing, sax solos, groove, intelligent lyrics and melody. Can't ask for more than that in jazz.
The song that picked my ears up to jazz at age 14 hearing it at a party of "older" kids. "Godammit!" got to me in particular. And here's an interesting quote from Mr. McCann... "Another thing I'll never forget about that session--just before we went onstage, and for the first time in my life, I smoked some hash. When I got on the bandstand, there I was, the new slimmed-down McCann, trying to look cool--and I didn't know where the hell I was. I was totally disoriented. The other guys said, 'OK, play, man!' Somehow I got myself together--and after that, everything just took off."
I still remember walking into a record store in Cleveland and hearing this play around 1970. I had never heard anything like it before. It totally blew me away and turned me onto jazz forever!
Me too! I was 16 years old in 1971 when I was in a record store in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) looking at records. The album "Swiss Movement" (on the the red & green Atlantic label) was on the store's turntable playing this song over their store p.a system. I bought the album that day, played it so many times over the years and always wished I could have seen the live performance. Never thought I would. So surprised when I discovered it here on TH-cam a few years back!
What a great song...but how very sad, how infuriating, that nearly 50 years later it still remains relevant, perhaps even truer than it was in 1969! Malcolm X in '65, MLK in '68, strong voices against war and oppression, whether international and domestic...and here, in 2015, a Black president "he's got his wars" in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and "folks don't know what it's for, nobody gives us rhyme or reason, half a doubt, they call it treason"...while "tired old ladies kissing dogs."
I am in awe... I have lived with this LP ("Swiss Movement") for over 40 years... My mind has provided its own video of this performance during that span... To actually SEE this performance, after all this time, is like having the opportunity to go back in a time machine... What an epochal moment in both Jazz and R'n'B.
I am in awe... I have lived with this LP for almost 40 years... my mind has provided its own vid of the performance in that span... to actually SEE the performance, after all that time, is like having the opportunity to go back in a time machine... An epochal moment in both Jazz and R'n'B.
Still kicking my country ass 44 years later after my mother turned me on to what was hip in jazz and funkiness, doing the boogaloo in the kitchen with the stereo cranked up in 1969! Still relevant today in politics, music and the upheaval in the social scenes. Nothing touches this kind of power in jazz today! brilliant! Ok, maybe Herbie Hancock, lol (see Mose Allison, Dave Bruebeck as well..)
ONE OF THE GREATEST JAZZ TRACKS OF ALL TIME. THE WORD STILL HOLD HARD AND FAST TO ALL THE SHIT GOING ON TODAY!!! THANK U LES & EDDIE. PREACH ON,BABY! PREACH ON!
After all these years, I have a picture to put with the music. I usually prefer to create my own mental picture, but this is better than my imagination. I loved this when I was a kid and I still dig it. Thanks for the post!
I have had this in my collection almost since 1969 and still play it constantly, drumming along with Donald Dean. I actually had a chance to meet Dean at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach two years ago and he autographed the CD. A few years earlier I saw "Mother Les" up at the Getty Center playing it. They had to roll Les onto the stage, but he blew us away.
After owning and playing this record a million times , it sure is great to finally see the performance . A timeless Jazz Classic . Thank you for posting.
First heard this in the early 70s. My husband had this album when we got married. I love it! Can't figure out how most of the people in the audience aren't even moving, tapping their feet, nothing.
They will be mostly Swiss or French (Montreux is close to the border ) and well into it in their own way - perhaps just a bit reserved. I saw Clark Terry and Etta James at Montreux twenty five years ago. Good times.
I've been fortunate enough to get 'more of Les' from the 1970's thru 2000s (last saw him at the Blue Note in DC). 'Compared to What' is a timeless classic - as hip today as when it was recorded back in the day. Many kudos to Gene McDaniels ('Hundred Pounds of Clay' , 'Tower of Strength') for giving us this classic tune. 'Try to make it real....everybody!'.
I agree with the other comments. This is true TH-cam gold! This song is amazing, and I have loved it since I was in high school in the mid 70's. To see the smiles and joy on their faces when they finish the crescendo going from F up to C at around 6:00 shows how they must of felt that they just nailed this. That run switches rhythm half way up and it's tricky. One of the best live sessions ever. Thanks for posting the wonderful images after all these years of this song for so many of us.
This was one of my first jazz records back in the day. The words are as timeless as they ever where, and I love the trumpet solo by Bennie Bailey. The rest is great also, love the whole driving beat.
I've gone through 2 or 3 copies of vinyl of this classic concert masterpiece, and of course now own it on CD and digital. I'm so happy to find this rare video of one of my favorite pieces of all time.
One of the greatest jazz pieces of all time--I have played this on vinyl and CD again and again. What a tremendous gift to see this video! My thanks to you for posting it!
I remember being about 9 or 10 years old when we heard this on the radio, not sure if it was live or what. I remember my dad coming home with the album...... To see this piece of video for the first time is suffice to say AMAZING and brings back many memories. ~ ~ This is a ONE of a kind piece of music video history. Watch: -03:55, 05:23, -~06:00-~, -06:11, -07:28, -end ~Musical Joy.~ The excelsior realization of what they were making maybe? This blows the mind THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Cool.. your story touched me. I groove on this every Friday night, after long tired hours at work STILL at work..... when it ALL doesn't make any sense. This song gives me support. I feel a world of people marching with me when I hear this... and it's beautiful, too!
I first listened to this album back in the mid-1970's. I never really like jazz much until I heard this album. It opened up a whole new world of music to me!
I first heard this on an album rock FM station in San Francisco (KMPX & later KSAN) that mostly played music like Janis & Big Brother, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Who, Joni Mitchell, etc, etc, but they were free to play anything they wanted. It was part of my very early jazz education, and I bought the album immediately. Still have it, of course! I love the back story that I heard on this: McCann was asked to put a group together at the last minute--at the festival, I think it was--and they had no rehearsal time. McCann was actually pointing to guys when it was time for their solo (you can see him do that at least once in the film as he gives the nod to Benny Bailey). And they sure all rose to the occasion! It's remained one of my very, very favorite jazz pieces all these years!
Talk about instant improvisation! We're gonna work with this. With all its flaws, the song comes across as perfect. To see the visuals of a song I've (we've) loved after all these years is sweet! Man, these dudes had soul.
This is ageless. Every note rings true and the lyrics are as relevant today as they were in 1969. And play this for your friends when they say that jazz is boring.
We just heard and saw Les in LA at the Living Legends Foundation Awards and he sang "Cold Duck Time"....he still has it!!! Thank you Peter for posting/sharing this!!
Now that is it....that just makes you feel good, the energy there is Strong Stuff...most definitely a very high mark for this live show "Thank the Good fortune" that this "set tune" was recorded....to nice to be forgotten. Makes my blood jump and sing ! yes. Real nice to see the hands of Les hitting the keys for a nice long shot...great stuff.
Les McCann died on December 29, 2023 at a hospital in Los Angeles, at the age of 88. He was an American jazz pianist and vocalist who helped shape the “soul jazz” style of the 1960s with his earthy piano playing and singing and whose live recording of the antiwar anthem “Compared to What” became a musical touchstone of the era. His music has been widely sampled in hip hop.
McCann gained his greatest acclaim in 1969 with his performance of “Compared to What,” a politically charged protest song written by Gene McDaniels that became a rhythm-and-blues hit at the height of the Vietnam War.
I didn't know he passed so recently. I probably play this video a few times a year for the past several years. Thank you, Les.
Les McCann and Eddie Harris wrote my national anthem! Man 40 years later still looking for the bee and the honey.. beware young friends.. change is hard! Keep pushing ahead!
I saw Les McCann in the 80's at a Charlotte jazz festival. He was performing this song and I remember asking a rasta man next me. "Who is that?" He said "That's Les McCann" and I have been hooked ever since. Awesome day.
To my shame and deep poverty, this is the first time I've heard Les McCann. Wow. As much as his playing, what a voice!
These lyrics are SO appropriate to the condition of our country and culture today.
and yesterday and tomorrow.
stop your bias
@@Stoney-Jacksman I was "speaking" in the most relative present moment, as yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet arrived.
Turn up the music, sit back and clap to the beat!!! "Looks like we always end up in a rut tryin to make it real compared to what?!"
That is so true! Now more than ever!
when you consider benny bailey had no idea what to play and was told to just blow his ass off on any key a masterpiece was born That is what music and jazz is all about not the tepid stuff today
It took a polished group of African American jazz musicians to teach the Swiss what timing is all about. I bought this album because it was the only LP in the jazz section of a small El Paso record shop in the early 70's.For days after I first heard it, CTW was all I could talk about. I felt like an evangelist. Everyone who would come over I made listen to it. I have never tired of it.
This compared to what is timeless.Everyone should listen to this! It doesn't matter what race,ecomomics,or any other reason that is used to keep people separated.
This was one of those magical moments in jazz. Not everyone knew the song or rehearsed... They just jumped in and jammed, and the chemestry built. The audience responds and feeds the band, who keep building the synergy throughout the song.
I never knew this song was filmed, but have been listening to "Swiss Movement" most of my life, thanks to my Dad. I'm glad it is on youtube for all to see.
Thanks!
THE song that made me a jazz lover! Hitchhiking thru Swiss Alps, no less, just before Christmas 1971, snow falling hard against windshield, nothing else visible outside warm car cocoon, turning round unseen roads, but always moving upwards to the summit of the Alps, the climax of this piece: the Belgian guys who've given us a lift put this on, & WOW! the world stand stills, shock of music, driving beat, shock of lyrics! Still have 'Swiss Movement' I promised to get as soon as we touched land.
Trying to make it real compared to what? Man when I was 5 we lived next door to a cafe with an out doors patio I'm 57 and I still remember folk swing dancing and clipsoing what an a time in music! Yes indeed I had a hard time finding this one.
MUS 300!
1) Les McCann (piano), Eddie Harris (sax), Benny Bailey (trumpet), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Donald Dean (drums)
2) Post Bop
3) ABAC form
4) I just adore Les McCann and Eddie Harris (I have several of their albums). I own this album on LP and it is utterly spectacular. I play the living shit out of it, honestly. It has a message that is just as relevant today as it was in '69, dealing with issues then and now. McCann has a cool voice and can really tickle those keys. Eddie Harris sure can play that sax and my god, what a sweet solo by Bailey! This is one of my all-time favourite songs ever.
This is a classic that will always sound good. Who is laying down grooves that funky anymore? Nobody...
this is the kind of music I listened to as a child growing up in the 60s and 70s. Thanks, Dad, I love you!
I have listened to this song no less than a thousand times and it never fails to give me the chills, this and the whole album is just outstanding, doesn't get any better.
It just doesn't get any better than this. This was one of the first jazz songs i heard as a teen and it fueled my life long love of Jazz. The lyrics are as relevant today as they were nearly 50 years ago.
"Benny Bailey!"
The values questioned are as relevant now as then. These guys were really onto something. Each point touched on but not dwelt upon, surrounded by music. I think the human race should reconsider the value of possessions, war and money. This song is gold to me. A pleasure to have it stuck in my head.
This IS one of the earliest songs that I remember as a child hearing my father play on his record player. My father had a Heath kit system and Karlson speaker he built himself that he played this song on. He passed away Monday.
This song goes back some 44 years during a war that I just happened to be in. Perhaps history does not repeat itself, it just rhymes and this song is as important today as it was back then!!
I heard this when I was 18 and it still makes me cry with joy. Just mindblowing.
One of the GREATEST JAZZ CUTS EVER. THE WORDS ARE STILL ARE HARD AND FAST TODAY AS THEY WERE THEN. WAKE UP MY FRIENDS!!! THANK YOU LES and EDDIE. PREACH ON,BROTHER. PREACH ON!!!! LES SAID IT BEST "GOD DAMMIT!"
arguably the coolest song ever...
Absolutely out of this world!
this should be the national anthem of the United States.
This is an incredible performance which should be considered music history.
totally agree with you - it is unbelievable music.
Just listened to tail end of this on the radio on my local jazz station. Pulled into my driveway and couldn't get out of the car. Riveted.
Went inside and googled it and, lo and behold, it's a major classic.
Amazing how a piece of music can be so fresh and compelling to an ignorant ear almost 50 years later.
Love coming back to music like this that was about something.
"Don Dean,,
Leroy Vinnegar...
Benny Bailey...
Eddie Harris!!"
What an incredible performance.
This has been a Top 10 track for me ever since I heard it DJing jazz in college. Positively stunning.
This is about as timeless as any classic can get. I found this album on a discount rack in '74 when I was 17 years old, a 'clip' for $1.99. What a treasure, what a pleasure; another step on the path that forms us.
where has this been all my life and why am I just now running across it. holy fuck.
oh definetly.
I just listened to it for the first time and that was exactly my reaction.
I felt that way in 1972!
sounds as good as it did 46 years ago ! When I first heard it
My oldest brother gave me Swiss Movement in 1971. He was in his late 20's, I was 12 or 13. So grateful for his musical influence in my life.
Straight,no chaser,first heard when i was 16
It's as if Les could see into the future! And I really mean that!
Always loved and got a kick out of this one.
After all these years....STILL amazing.
Benny Bailey's trumpet solo at 3:17, after having his toes stepped on by Harris, is priceless! One of the best gut bucket solos I have ever heard. Note: 3:17 is where Les first calls Benny out, when Eddie solos again instead, the next verse where Les calls him up again is where Benny goes bananas. The heat of the moment and the build up is jazz history.
Yep
man out of. sight
m in Aan out of. sight
m in Aan out of. sight
m in Aan out of. sight
The movie "Casino" brought me here. I had to listen the lyrics a few times to pick up what was being said. A few google tries and ta-da, I am here listen to this amazing jazz ensemble... SOCK IT TO ME!
I have this album "Swiss Movement" and it is magical. I love seeing the live footage.
These men are geniuses-- they HUGELY added to my life, improved my consciousness right from the first time I heard this song when I was a teenager. Thank you all four of you.
It is a privilege to be able to see this song live. Thanks to he uploader and of course to McCann and Harris for making this piece of art.
this was the song that turned me onto jazz. I've played it over and over and over and still don't get tired of it!!!
As he plays the piano so cool the horns and the word's quickly creep in filling up my heart and heart. This jam is loaded with the truth. Much appreciation every time I hear it
This clip is fantastic. The sound mix is different from the CD (LP) and so, even despite a hickup at 5:23, it reveals more of this memorable performance. We can here Les grinding, for instance in the intro. Les clearly asks Benny Bailey to take the second solo (moves to the piano at 2:56, Les calls him up at 3:16) and even coaches him with a vocal tone. But somehow Benny is not completely ready and Eddie Harris decides to "steal" this turn. Before the third solo Les, now somewhat impatient and strict, calls Benny up and points his finger (4:07) "sock it to me!". And Benny, well built up, delivers extraordinarily.
I listen to this tune each & every morning. It communicates all my emotions at once. If ever words screamed out the truth, this is it. Thank you !!
Wow. Just Wow. After listening to this song for 44 years I learn today that this legendary performance was filmed. It allows me to experience in some small way what the Montreux audience must have felt at witnessing this historic event.
This has always been one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. Been listening to it since the 60s, i think. And, it is still relevant!
What a performance! Have heard it many times but this was the first time I saw it. Fantastic. To have been in the audience that day must've been a real treat.
I have the LP, but it's extra special seeing Les McCann, Eddie Harris and group captured the issues and times so vividly in this live recording. These musical messengers are truly missed.
This is one of my favorite all time jazz songs. I've know it for about 30 years. I always new it was recorded live but just found out it was videotaped as well! This song has everything. Great vocals, piano playing, sax solos, groove, intelligent lyrics and melody. Can't ask for more than that in jazz.
The song that picked my ears up to jazz at age 14 hearing it at a party of "older" kids. "Godammit!" got to me in particular. And here's an interesting quote from Mr. McCann...
"Another thing I'll never forget about that session--just before we went onstage, and for the first time in my life, I smoked some hash. When I got on the bandstand, there I was, the new slimmed-down McCann, trying to look cool--and I didn't know where the hell I was. I was totally disoriented. The other guys said, 'OK, play, man!' Somehow I got myself together--and after that, everything just took off."
Our favorite local instrumental jazz groups plays this frequently and I love it. Amazingly I never heard the words before. Even more wonderful now!
One of the all time best...Superb musicians....My favorite. #1.
THAT'S WHAT A BANDLEADER LOOKS LIKE
tell me, please: TRYNA MAKE IT REAL, COMPARED TO WHAT??!!
Musical Genius and brilliance
I still remember walking into a record store in Cleveland and hearing this play around 1970. I had never heard anything like it before. It totally blew me away and turned me onto jazz forever!
Me too! I was 16 years old in 1971 when I was in a record store in Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) looking at records. The album "Swiss Movement" (on the the red & green Atlantic label) was on the store's turntable playing this song over their store p.a system. I bought the album that day, played it so many times over the years and always wished I could have seen the live performance. Never thought I would. So surprised when I discovered it here on TH-cam a few years back!
Casino had a great soundtrack and it brought me here!!!! 2024 baby
What a great song...but how very sad, how infuriating, that nearly 50 years later it still remains relevant, perhaps even truer than it was in 1969! Malcolm X in '65, MLK in '68, strong voices against war and oppression, whether international and domestic...and here, in 2015, a Black president "he's got his wars" in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and "folks don't know what it's for, nobody gives us rhyme or reason, half a doubt, they call it treason"...while "tired old ladies kissing dogs."
What a move...I fell in love with it right away.
One of the best live jazz performances of all time.
Swiss Movement is still my favorite live album. Absolute magic.
History was made! This set was way ahead of it's time! Thank You Mr. McCann & Mr. Harris!
I am in awe...
I have lived with this LP ("Swiss Movement") for over 40 years...
My mind has provided its own video of this performance during that span...
To actually SEE this performance, after all this time, is like having the opportunity to go back in a time machine...
What an epochal moment in both Jazz and R'n'B.
I am in awe... I have lived with this LP for almost 40 years... my mind has provided its own vid of the performance in that span... to actually SEE the performance, after all that time, is like having the opportunity to go back in a time machine...
An epochal moment in both Jazz and R'n'B.
@3:21 is thath great moment when Eddie Harris steals solo from Benny Bailey. Benny then comes back in the next chorus with the venegance.
Still kicking my country ass 44 years later after my mother turned me on to what was hip in jazz and funkiness, doing the boogaloo in the kitchen with the stereo cranked up in 1969! Still relevant today in politics, music and the upheaval in the social scenes. Nothing touches this kind of power in jazz today! brilliant! Ok, maybe Herbie Hancock, lol (see Mose Allison, Dave Bruebeck as well..)
ONE OF THE GREATEST JAZZ TRACKS OF ALL TIME. THE WORD STILL HOLD HARD AND FAST TO ALL THE SHIT GOING ON TODAY!!! THANK U LES & EDDIE. PREACH ON,BABY! PREACH ON!
After all these years, I have a picture to put with the music. I usually prefer to create my own mental picture, but this is better than my imagination. I loved this when I was a kid and I still dig it. Thanks for the post!
I have had this in my collection almost since 1969 and still play it constantly, drumming along with Donald Dean. I actually had a chance to meet Dean at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach two years ago and he autographed the CD. A few years earlier I saw "Mother Les" up at the Getty Center playing it. They had to roll Les onto the stage, but he blew us away.
After owning and playing this record a million times , it sure is great to finally see the performance .
A timeless Jazz Classic .
Thank you for posting.
Great tune...I was thinking about it today...decades later.....thank you Peter for uploading it.
This is the most amazing performance I have ever seen!
First heard this in the early 70s. My husband had this album when we got married. I love it! Can't figure out how most of the people in the audience aren't even moving, tapping their feet, nothing.
They will be mostly Swiss or French (Montreux is close to the border ) and well into it in their own way - perhaps just a bit reserved. I saw Clark Terry and Etta James at Montreux twenty five years ago. Good times.
Heard this song when I was 10 years old and loved it then. This classic jazzzzz!
I've been fortunate enough to get 'more of Les' from the 1970's thru 2000s (last saw him at the Blue Note in DC). 'Compared to What' is a timeless classic - as hip today as when it was recorded back in the day. Many kudos to Gene McDaniels ('Hundred Pounds of Clay' , 'Tower of Strength') for giving us this classic tune. 'Try to make it real....everybody!'.
best frkn song ever!
I could play this all day.
15 thumbs down? Really?! WTF?! This is great music!
I agree with the other comments. This is true TH-cam gold! This song is amazing, and I have loved it since I was in high school in the mid 70's. To see the smiles and joy on their faces when they finish the crescendo going from F up to C at around 6:00 shows how they must of felt that they just nailed this. That run switches rhythm half way up and it's tricky. One of the best live sessions ever. Thanks for posting the wonderful images after all these years of this song for so many of us.
This was one of my first jazz records back in the day. The words are as timeless as they ever where, and I love the trumpet solo by Bennie Bailey. The rest is great also, love the whole driving beat.
I've gone through 2 or 3 copies of vinyl of this classic concert masterpiece, and of course now own it on CD and digital. I'm so happy to find this rare video of one of my favorite pieces of all time.
One of the greatest jazz pieces of all time--I have played this on vinyl and CD again and again. What a tremendous gift to see this video! My thanks to you for posting it!
I remember being about 9 or 10 years old when we heard this on the radio, not sure if it was live or what. I remember my dad coming home with the album...... To see this piece of video for the first time is suffice to say AMAZING and brings back many memories. ~ ~ This is a ONE of a kind piece of music video history.
Watch: -03:55, 05:23, -~06:00-~, -06:11, -07:28, -end ~Musical Joy.~ The excelsior realization of what they were making maybe? This blows the mind
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
brings me back.. great one at the right time and it's still the right time! no one can do this one any better. classic.
Been listening to this since I was a kid finally found some footage Thanks!
Cool.. your story touched me.
I groove on this every Friday night, after long tired hours at work STILL at work..... when it ALL doesn't make any sense. This song gives me support. I feel a world of people marching with me when I hear this... and it's beautiful, too!
nothing less than a divinely inspired musical sermon!
After hearing this classic for so many years,it's really nice to see it,too.....Thanx!!!
If you aint got this album, you aint got no album!
this song is just outstanding!
I first listened to this album back in the mid-1970's. I never really like jazz much until I heard this album. It opened up a whole new world of music to me!
I can't believe this was captured on video! Eddie! God damn Eddie, that signature shout through the horn! Holy crap that rocks!
I first heard this on an album rock FM station in San Francisco (KMPX & later KSAN) that mostly played music like Janis & Big Brother, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Who, Joni Mitchell, etc, etc, but they were free to play anything they wanted. It was part of my very early jazz education, and I bought the album immediately. Still have it, of course!
I love the back story that I heard on this: McCann was asked to put a group together at the last minute--at the festival, I think it was--and they had no rehearsal time. McCann was actually pointing to guys when it was time for their solo (you can see him do that at least once in the film as he gives the nod to Benny Bailey). And they sure all rose to the occasion! It's remained one of my very, very favorite jazz pieces all these years!
Talk about instant improvisation! We're gonna work with this. With all its flaws, the song comes across as perfect. To see the visuals of a song I've (we've) loved after all these years is sweet! Man, these dudes had soul.
I had this record album growing up - really helped shaped my appreciation of music! Hit it Les McCann and Eddie Harris!!!
This is ageless. Every note rings true and the lyrics are as relevant today as they were in 1969. And play this for your friends when they say that jazz is boring.
Geniuses. This will be viewed for centuries in the future. This, you gave me great gifts. Thank you.
We just heard and saw Les in LA at the Living Legends Foundation Awards and he sang "Cold Duck Time"....he still has it!!! Thank you Peter for posting/sharing this!!
Now that is it....that just makes you feel good, the energy there is Strong Stuff...most
definitely a very high mark for this live show "Thank the Good fortune" that this "set tune" was recorded....to nice to be forgotten. Makes my blood jump and sing ! yes.
Real nice to see the hands of Les hitting the keys for a nice long shot...great stuff.
My all time favorite song...Pure Perfection!
The raw truth, delivered as nobody else could.