RuthBrown w/ Thad Jones/Mel Lewis

RuthBrown w/
Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band
Outskirts of Townhttps://t.co/dIdJrM9BXq
I Can Dream Can't Ihttps://t.co/YiHqzIE9FM pic.twitter.com/PL9J5o4W1N

— Ken Carr (@chowdah7) October 22, 2016

“50 Years At The Village Vanguard: ....

NEW BOOK: “50 Years At The Village Vanguard: Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra” - https://t.co/uXAmXkdaAi

— Jim Eigo (@jazzpromo) October 11, 2016

Bill Holman - Mel Lewis Quintet: OUT OF THIS

Published on Aug 25, 2016

Lee Katzman, trumpet,
Bill Holman, tenor saxophone,
Jimmy Rowles, piano,
Wilford Middlebrook, bass,
Mel Lewis, drums,
performing Bill's arrangement of "Out Of This World."

Jazz Caricatures - Don Fagerquist Nonet

Published on May 22, 2015
Trumpeter Don Fagerquist performing "Time After Time" with Vince De Rosa, French Horn, Bob Enevoldsen, valve trombone, Joe Maini, alto sax, Ronnie Lang, baritone sax, Marty Paich, piano, Buddy Clark, bass and Mel Lewis drums.

Thad Jones/Mel Lewis: 1966

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra is considered by many to be the last great virtuoso big band. Launched in 1965, the orchestra made its first appearance at New York's Village Vanguard in 1966. The orchestra was loaded with superstars and stylists and featured many arrangements by trumpeter Thad Jones. The early lineup included Jones and drummer Mel Lewis along with pianist Hank Jones, saxophonists Jerome Richardson, Jerry Dodgion and Joe Farrell; trumpeters Jimmy Nottingham, Danny Stiles and Snooky Young; valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer and others. In effect, it became an oasis for serious players in an acrid era for jazz, when steady gigs were dwindling for all but household names. 

I've always been on the fence about the band. While I fully appreciate the exceptional talent assembled and that the music was orchestral jazz, not pop contrivance, much of the music for me lacked a compelling narrative and seemed more of a musician's idea of a great idea than a listener's dream. Too much of the music seemed circuitous in its brassiness and never seemed to go anyplace special. Or, put differently, I never felt moved enough to join the journey. [Photo above: Thad Jones]

Then again I've long found the Gerry Mulligan Concert Band to be similarly flat and wind-baggy in the story department. Loads of talent but more about musicians impressing musicians than performing for people in the seats or buying records. No one is demanding that the recordings be pulled from the shelves. I just never found myself deeply touched by either band. [Photo above: Mel Lewis]

So I approached All My Yesterdays, the new double-CD set from Resonance Records featuring the TJ/ML Orchestra's debut recordings in 1966 at the Village Vanguard, with some trepidation. Was I being too hard on the band after all these years? The answer is mixed. While I still find much of the music a case of cold fish, there are tracks of beauty here. Lover Man, for example, with Farrell soloing on tenor, is out of the park. The richness of his tone and how he takes apart the song and re-assembles it is remarkable. Don't Ever Leave Me, a beautiful Thad Jones original and arrangement, is richly elegant, with Stiles on trumpet and Farrell on flute. And there are a handful of other gems, like All My Yesterdays, which is delightfully orchestrated. 

But far too many of the songs open with a piano intro that lasts way too long, and the band fails to make a cogent point once the horns chime in. But if you're a fan of the TJ/ML Orchestra, you'll flip over the new set. The sound restoration by George Klabin and Fran Gala is exceptional and makes the recording sound as if these guys are in the room with you. About 70 minutes from these recordings were issued on a limited release in 2000 on the BMG label as Opening Night. Now all of the live material is together in one set.

Jazz in 1966 was struggling to find something new to say as it tried to free itself from the quicksand of pop-rock and soul. This band illustrates that struggle well. I'm not sure the band's original orchestral purpose or its instrumental wheel-spinning is meaningful after all these years. I know how beloved this band is, so it's probably just me.

JazzWax tracks: You'll find the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra's All My Yesterdays here. The set comes with an 89-page book filled with detail, notes and interviews.

JazzWax clip: Here's the TJ/ML Orchestra on Jazz Casual, hosted by Ralph J. Gleason, in 1968...

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Thad Jones & Mel Lewis

Thad Jones & Mel Lewis - The Groove Merchant (1968)

Mel Lewis Big Band

Published on Feb 2, 2015
Mel Lewis Band Big Holland 1987 Groove Merchant
Avro's Swing Festival 1987, Hosted By Willem Duys

Mel Lewis - A "Signature Drummer"

Steven A. Cerra
Over the years, I’ve seen and heard Mel Lewis play in a variety of settings.

Night after night, I’d run around town to listen to him play drums in an assortment of big bands: Stan Kenton’s Orchestra, the Terry Gibbs Big Band, the Bill Holman Big Band, the Marty Paich Tentette [recording sessions], the Gerald Wilson Orchestra.

And when he wasn’t playing in big bands, I’d go hear him in small groups like the one he co-lead for a while with baritone saxophonist for Pepper Adams, or the quintet he co-led with Bill Holman or as a member of pianist Claude Williamson’s trio.

In 1963, when he permanently moved to New York to continue as a member Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band, I caught him in concert in The Big Apple with Gerry’s marvelous band. Thereafter, I heard him play with the orchestra he co-led with Thad Jones. And when Thad left to go to Europe and Mel headed up his own orchestra until his death in 1990, I also checked out that band on a number of occasions. 

During each of his performances, I’d stare a lot trying to figure out how he did it what he did.

But he “did” so little that while watching him all I actually saw was the minimalist action of his hands barely moving above the drums while he popped the accents, dropped bombs and drove the band mercilessly in what drummer Kenny Washington once described as Mel’s “rub-a-dub style.”

There was no flurry of technique on display in his drumming, no aggravated animation in the motion he used in getting round the drums, no complicated fills, kicks and solos.

Watching Mel as closely as I did for as long as I did, I came away with the same impression as the one that Burt Korall formed in the following description after seeing Davey Tough with the Woody Herman band perform its famous arrangement of Apple Honey at New York City’s Paramount Theater, in 1945:

“He went about his business with little of the grace of a Krupa and Jones, and none of the fireworks of Rich. But the excitement built as Tough, without physically giving the impression of strength, manipulated the band much as an animal trainer would a beautiful hard-to-control beast, making it respond to him. He cracked the whip under the ensemble and brass solo passages adding juice and muscle to the pulse and accents. Each soloist got individual treatment – a stroke here, an accent there, a fill further on, all perfectly placed.

He moved the band from one plateau to another, higher and higher. By the time the band was about to go into the final segment, the audience was totally captured. There was a point during this last section when it felt as though the band would take us through the roof.

When the piece came to an end with four rapid bass drum strokes, I couldn’t figure out what he had done. He had been in the foreground only once during a four bar break, …, otherwise his was the least self-serving performance I had ever witnessed. I turned to my friend. ‘He has no chops. How’d he do it? What happened?’

He smiled, not quite as puzzled as I. ‘It might not have seemed like much,’ he said. ‘But whatever he did, he sure lit a fire under that band.’”

That’s it, Mel lit a fire under the band! But how? - the editorial staff at JazzProfiles

read more: http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com.br/2015/11/mel-lewis-signature-drummer.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+JazzProfiles+(Jazz+Profiles)

Mel Lewis "The Cute" Neal Hefti

Swiss TV-Produktion 1984 "Jazz-in"
Mel Lewis drums,
Horst Jankowski piano,
Jean Toots Thielemans harmonica,
Mads Vinding bass,
Pierre Cavalli guitar

Bill Holman - Mel Lewis Quintet 1958 ~ Jive For Five

Recorded: Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California June 6, 1958

Personnel: 
Bill Holman - Tenor Sax
Lee Katzman - Trumpet 
Jimmy Rowles - Piano
Wilford Middlebrook - Bass
Mel Lewis - Drums

Mel Lewis "The Cute" Neal Hefti

Swiss TV-Produktion 1984 "Jazz-in" Mel Lewis drums, Horst Jankowski piano, Jean Toots Thielemans harmonica, Mads Vinding bass, Pierre Cavalli guitar

Mel Lewis "The Cute" Neal Hefti

Swiss TV-Produktion 1984 "Jazz-in" Mel Lewis drums, Horst Jankowski piano, Jean Toots Thielemans harmonica, Mads Vinding bass, Pierre Cavalli guitar