Mel Martin has proven to be one of the most versatile and creative musicians to emerge from the San Francisco Bay Area. His virtuosic abilities on woodwinds combined with his vast range of experience has brought him to a position of pre-eminence as one of the most inventive and innovative of performers. His unique abilities as an improvisor, arranger and composer have made him a favorite of such greats as Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, and many others.
His work as a leader has been documented on several brilliant recordings with the groups Listen, featuring Mel Martin and his current band Bebop and Beyond as well as his solo recording Other Side Up where he displayed his fascinating abilities as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger/producer, composer and jazz soloist and his popular recording Mel Martin Plays Benny Carter featuring Benny Carter as special guest on the Enja label.
Born in Sacramento, California on June 7,1942, Mel moved to San Francisco in the mid- ’60’s and became immersed in the fl ourishing music scene of that time. Having developed strong “jazz chops” in Sacramento by sitting in with guitar great Wes Montgomery, he went on to develop further while attending San Francisco State and meeting and playing with many great jazz musicians such as John Handy, Tom Harrell and Eddie Henderson at such legendary places as Bop City, Soulville, The Jazz Workshop and The Both And.
It was these seminal experiences which prepared him for the future. During the mid-’70’s, Mel formed the award winning, innovative jazz group Listen, Featuring Mel Martin. In 1977 he received the Musician Of The Year award from the San Francisco chapter of NARAS (GRAMMY) as well as a BAMMY for Best Jazz Album of 1977 . The group recorded two well received albums on the Inner City label, Listen, featuring Mel
Martin and Growing. He was also honored in 1987 by the San Francisco Jewish Museum as part of their Jewish Presence in Jazz Series.
Since 1983 Mel has been performing and recording with the well known group Bebop and Beyond of which he is founder and artistic director. They have recorded four albums Bebop and Beyond, Bebop and Beyond Plays Thelonious Monk, and Bebop and Beyond Plays Dizzy Gillespie with Dizzy Gillespie as special guest which scored very high on the national jazz airplay charts. Recently, they have released Friends and Mentors - Bebop and Beyond Plays the Music of Mel Martin on the Quixotic label.
They have received a number of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The California Arts Council and The Zellerbach, Fleishhaker and Columbia Foundations for presentations and recordings of the highest artistic caliber. Mel has also received four NEA grants, one in 1976 for composition , one in 1986 for
performance and two in 1994, one to record the music of Benny Carter with Benny Carter as special guest and another for a series of performances with jazz piano great Kenny Barron.
His most recent project is The Tenor conclave in which he has gathered some of the foremost tenor saxophonists of the day to focus on the repertoire of the great saxophonists of the past. His other activities include performing with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain at Yale and Stanford Universities, 1991 & ‘92 tours of Japan with the Benny Carter Orchestra, assembling the or- chestra to perform the Bay Area premiere of Charles Mingus’ Epitaph at Davies Symphony Hall, assembling big bands for Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner,
and Benny Carter, perform- ing with the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, Louie Bellson,acting as musical director of The Keystone All-Stars as well as his own trios and quartets and Bebop & Beyond as well as writing articles and interviews for JazzImprov, Jazz Player and Saxophone Journal magazines.
Mel has also performed with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and been featured as both performer and composer-arranger and multi-instrumentalist for the CBS Television Series “The Twighlight Zone” and such feature length fi lms as “Rumblefi sh”, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, “The Warriors” and “Street Music”.
Mel Martin’s extensive educational experience includes professor of jazz saxophone at San Jose and Sonoma State Universities, twelve consecutive years on the staff of The Stanford Jazz Workshop and conducting many workshops and clinics at schools throughout the U.S in conjunction with Yanagisawa Saxophones and Leblanc clarinets (Conn-Selmer, Inc.) and Rico Reeds (D’Addario). In addition, he maintains a large roster of private students.
He also conducts an ongoing Advanced Jazz Workshop at his studio in Novato, CA. His visits to schools include improvisation workshops, rehearsal, private instruction, adjudication, combo and big band performances and concerts. Original arrangements for both big band and small groups may be requested in advance. Mel Martin is available for Concerts, Artist in Residencies, Jazz Workshops , Seminars and Clinics and is a Yanagisawa Clinician sponsored by the G. Leblanc Corporation and selected dealers and Vandoren Reeds. Mel Martin plays Yanagisawa Saxophones, Leblanc Clarinets, Sanko Prima Flutes, Vandoren Reeds and clarinet mouthpieces and Ponzol Saxophone Mouthpieces exclusively.
http://www.melmartin.com/gifs_jpegs/Mel%20Bro%20In.pdf
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