LOST IN THE CRACKS – BIG NICK NICHOLAS
Ever wondered who’s Big Nick? Most fans know about John Coltrane’s tune Big Nick. Trane’s playful homage to Nicholas was featured on Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. (There’s also a bonus track on the CD issue of Coltrane with his iconic quartet)
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCu7Dd8CqoE&list=RDGCu7Dd8CqoE&start_radio=1
Big Nick, born George Walker Nicholas in Lansing, Michigan and raised in Detroit in 1922, played tenor saxophone in the style of Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry, Hershel Evans. Big-toned, old-school tenor. He played in the bands of Earl Hines, Tiny Bradshaw in the 1940’s, moved to New York City, played with J.C. Heard, toured with Dizzy Gillespie in Europe.
The tenor sax solo on Dizzy’s Afro-Bop classic Manteca from 1947 is Big Nick’s.
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXv6ky1QHA8&list=RDrXv6ky1QHA8&start_radio=1
Everybody, at one time, knew Big Nick. Because Nicholas was the leader of the house band of the Paradiso club in New York, just inside the borders of Harlem at the end of Central Park West. One of those essential jazz characters that is adored by everybody, he welcomed an army of luminaries on stage: Hot Lips Page, Charlie Parker, Red Allen, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, Ike Quebec, Joe Newman, Clark Terry, Gene Ammons, Joe Wilder, among others.
His jazz slang, reminding somewhat of Babs Gonzales, was legendary. Vocalese group Lambert, Hendricks & Bevan covered his tune Deedle Deedleum at Newport in 1963.
Big Nick failed to record prolifically. He was featured on records by trombonists Benny Green and J.J. Johnson in the 1950’s. Two solo albums appeared on India Navigation in 1984/85: Bigger Than Ever and Big Nick.
Big Nick Nicholas passed away in New York in 1997.
Listen to Big And Warm here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ70QQRqjs0&list=RDcZ70QQRqjs0&start_radio=1
