WALT DICKERSON - SOLO LIVE , NEW ENGLAND THEATRE, WORCHESTER. MASS., DEC. 10, 1979

heres a great sounding audience recording, by master vibist walt dickerson

dickerson deserves to be much better known than he is, having recorded the acknowledged masterpiece "to my queen" in 1963

with andrew hill and andrew cyrille ,he went on to make lots of great records.

the first dickerson album i ever heard was the wonderful trio "life rays" on soul note, again with longstanding collaborators lisle atkinson on bass and master percussionist andrew cyrille on drums.

i thought i did'nt like jazz vibraphone at all until i heard walt's message, and a little later bobby naughton's essential contributions to leo smith's 'go in numbers, he budding of a rose and spirit catcher'.

i had heard gary burton, and later bobby hutcherson and didn't really appreciate them at the time.

here's a bare bones bio from wikipedia

Walter Roland Dickerson(born April 16, 1928 or 1931 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a jazz vibraphone player most associated with post-bop.
He graduated from Morgan State University in 1953 and after two years in the Army he settled in California. There he started to gain attention leading a band with Andrew Hill and Andrew Cyrille, but it was his later time in New York City that earned him full notice. In 1962 Downbeat named him the best new artist. In NYC he also worked with John Coltrane and Sun Ra acted as his sideman. From 1965 to 1975 he took a break from jazz, but later he worked again with Andrew Hill and Sun Ra.

there is no dickerson website, fan site and otherwise precious little about him at all.

the wikipedia bio falls short, and even the post bop tag seems an easy catch all.

dickerson is unique and has a very original style, its percussive , luminous and conceptually very abstract.

this is a wonderful concert, the sound quality is superb for the day, (almost soundboard quality).

buy walt dickerson discs, there are now quite a few available on soulnote/blacksaint, prestige/ojc, and steeplechase.

i'd especially recommend, gemini, peace, and life rays.

see comments for both mp3 and flac links.

cheers