BLP 5033

Gil Melle - Volume 2

Released - 1953

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, October 25, 1953
Urbie Green, trombone; Gil Melle, tenor, baritone sax; Tal Farlow, guitar; Clyde Lombardi, bass; Joe Morello, drums.

BN526-2 tk.3 Lover Man
BN528-2 tk.11 Spellbound
BN529-1 tk.14 Transition
BN530-1 tk.16 A Lion Lives Here
BN531-2 tk.19 Timepiece
BN527-5 tk.23 Gingersnap

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Timepiece	Gil Melle	October 25 1953
Lover Man	Ramirez	October 25 1953
Gingersnap	Gil Melle	October 25 1953
Side Two
A Lion Lives Here	Gil Melle	October 25 1953
Spellbound	M. Rosza	October 25 1953
Transition	Gil Melle	October 25 1953

Liner Notes

THE REFUSAL to do the expected has made Gil Mellé, just barely in his twenties, a session leader of distinction. This second album of Gil's shows once more how artfully he can vary accepted patterns and turn them into fresh jazz statements, how effectively he can employ a more or less conventional jazz instrumentation, how charming he can make three- to five-minute jazz performances.

Once again it is taste that makes these sides turn round so compellingly, not only Gil's, but Urbie Green's and Tal Farlow's and Clyde Lombardi's and Joe Morello's as well. It is important here to stress the contribution of all five musicians, for this is a freer ensemble than the first Gil commanded on record, the solos more frequent and the soloists consequently more important. And with the soloists, always, there is a steady rhythm section, an imaginative one, composed of soloists who know when and how to take their bows and just as well when and where to recede into the background.

The mixture is pretty much as before, say in the late bop years, in the opening Timepiece, by which the musicians in effect set their beats and keep them. It's up tempo jazz, with Gil's move to baritone saxophone worth celebrating, Urbie Green's facility on the trombone and Tal Farlow's single-string dexterity as expected. Comparatively new, to my ears at any rate, is the delicate balance of baritone, trombone and guitar sonorities. It suggests that an organized little band consisting of these instruments and rhythm could make a substantial contribution to jazz. That impression is deepened by the languorous Lover Man that follows, the most extended of the performances in this collection and the most moving. It is a beautiful exercise in counter-melody, Urbie's, Gil's on tenor and Tal's, stretching Ram Ramirez's classic tune loosely over long lines and sweet sounds.

Gingersnap and A Lion Lives Here make a suitable sequence, from up to middle tempo, from one unison figure to another, from one simple jazz catch to another. Like Timepiece, the tunes are Gil's, the distinct sounds his on tenor and baritone, and Urbie's and Tal's again, with Joe Morello contributing a delightful brush period to Lion, bringing the piece named for Blue Note's presiding director to a witty conclusion.

Urbie, Gil and Tal rescue Spellbound from the lugubrious ululations of the theremin and remove it forever from its original attachment to a psychological murder mystery with a light swinging treatment that emphasizes the Rosza melody's tenderness. Tied to the solos (Gil's on tenor mindful of Stan Getz in Summer Sequence) is a sprightly little figure of classical elegance that opens and closes the performances and gives it a deserving symmetry.

Last of the lot is Transition, the title of which is justified by passages that move engagingly from Latin to jazz beats and others that carry the sound from an ensemble canonic imitation to a bass solo and back again, and from horn solos to string solos to a drum solo. In this rich mélange, Clyde and Tal, separately and together, distinguish them- selves, and Joe shows himself an unusually sensitive drummer, fully capable of sustaining musical interest in a solo and of making that solo very much a part of the rest of the proceedings. It's fitting that the drummer should draw such distinction upon himself in this piece of Gil's, for while this is a Mellé album by direction and leadership and inspiration, it is also a first-rate collective effort in which every man counts.

Cover Design by JEROME KUHL

BARRY ULANOV
(Editor, Metronome)

Complete Fifties Sessions CD Notes

A PAPER TIME CAPSULE WHEN MICHAEL COSCUNA advised me that a compendium of these early recordings was due for reissue, I must confess that a crescendo of uneasiness filled my soul as I sat down and prepared to listen, after so many years, to each track. I am a musician who has never been content with any of yesterday's efforts, and these half-century old preludes to a lifetime spent in the creation of cutting edge music could only serve to illustrate how much I needed to know and was able to accomplish in those early years.

I sit and listen. The recollections begin.

I wrote my first ever composition, "The Gears," during the time that I worked as a messenger on the Lehigh Valley Railroad (hence the title) at the age of 14 while also struggling with a tenor sax, the boxcars at Washington Street serving as my sole practice "studios." It was virtually unheard of in those days to use the voice as an instrument (excepting "scat") as I did in this piece. Notable. "Mars," "Four Moons" and "Venus" were composed soon afterwards and interspersed with many drawings and paintings, one of which won first prize in a Red Cross competition. Working in my favor was an insatiable passion for jazz spawned by a reasonably complete collection of Ellington which I had amassed from used record shops with my school lunch money. I was eight when I started collecting them. Duke's inventiveness on the Brunswick label. .. "Tishomingo Blues," "Black and Tan Fantasy" and especially "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" became heady stuff for me. I also saw the band at the Paramount and Adams theatres and can still name all of the players. At 13, Monk's music became the main occupant of my skull. The notion that I could ever be a jazzman, however, was, in Oscar Wilde's, words "a dream that far exceeds reality," a calling as privileged as priesthood and so I entertained no delusions of grandeur except, perhaps, to think of how Thelonious might approach playing the saxophone as a basis for my style.

I soon discovered that the things I needed to know could not be learned through instruction...only experience! To this day, I have never had a single lesson but my associations, through the years, with the world's most gifted musicians and artists who have illuminated my thoughts and given substance to my efforts. The list would be endless. For me, intense personal observation surpassed academia. I played gigs with Freddie Roach and the supremely gifted Joe Manning (vibes/piano and a close friend and protégé of Bud Powell and Milt Jackson.) Freddie, years later, became a Blue Note recording artist and Joe, heard here, died at 22. A great loss. At 16, during the Korean emergency, I lied about my age and enlisted in the Marine Corps. Discharged at 18, I spent many nights playing jazz in countless gin joints. Two years later, I met Alfred Lion and was given the opportunity of my life. He signed me to a one year contract (the first of five) to record for the greatest jazz label that ever was...Blue Note. Just look at the names on my records... Max Roach who was a legend to me even as a small boy. Oscar Pettiford who played on so many of cherished Ellington records. 1 sure was scared, which is saying a lot after having been in the corps. The faces of Red Mitchell, George Wallington and Eddie, Bert (a lifetime close friend) flash through mind as I continue listening to these old sides. Like Alfred, the man who most influenced my life, I too gave opportunities to young musicians that I knew and held in high regard. The debuts of Urbie Green, Joe Morello, Tal Farlow, Ed Thigpen, Lou Mecca, Bill Phillips, Joe Cinderella and others took place within these records. The tuba (Don Butterfield) and French horn (Julius Watkins) saw the first light of day as solo improvisatory instruments with me but, historically, the most important innovation in these works is that it is the first time ever (1951) that a guitar was used to replace the piano in small group instrumentation (the very basis of rock music). I thought that it was a sound idea since both instruments were fully capable of comping but the guitar's potential as a front line instrument (as with horns) was unlimited. Tal and others understood and much of the results are here. He has recently died (1998) and I feel as though I have lost a brother as I hear his flawless, timeless guitar and picture, in my mind, those enormous hands working their magic. The compositions on my first album were meant to be performed as "The Interplanetary Suite" and half of my fourth album features another suite, "Five Impressions Of Color." These compositional forms for a group were totally unique at the time.

My heated discussions with Max concerning the "unheard-of-at-the-time" false ending on the binary composition "Mars," blood dripping from my fingers (an accident) and down my horn while playing chorus after chorus and on the Patterns in Jazz date and arguments with Oscar concerning the use of a flatted ninth in the bass against a major chord at the very end of "Long Ago And Far Away" stand out in my recollection of myriads of anecdotes and incidents connected with these records. The picture of Pettiford and I that graces that album was taken at the height of our. ..shall I say... disagreement.

From the aforementioned, you might say that I'm a sort of "Jazz Chemist," an incurable experimentalist. I've spent my life living in and for the future. What did it all lead to? Virtually every innovation in electronic music was made by me...an awesome statement yet true. I challenge anyone to disprove it. Beginning in late 1958, I have systematically altered the course of music at its very foundations with a soldering iron and my passions. The following "firsts" are mine...live performance of electronic music ('68 Monterey Jazz electronic film score (Michael Crichton's The Festival and earlier) Andromeda Strain), electronic television score (Rod Serling's Night Gallery and earlier) plus the earliest electronic jazz recordings (TOME VI on Verve). I led the first "synth" group (the Electronauts) for years and created many instruments including the worlds first electronic wind instrument and the drum machine (see photos and back cover). All of this because Alfred, the futurist, believed in me from the very beginning. It began with these sides and today, to the chagrin or joy of millions, synthesis is a part of nearly all music.

I stop the turntable and think a bit more about "The Gears."

I had the privelege of being Alfred's closest friend during that decade and his retirement to a distant land for many years did not diminish our comraderie. One memorable night he called me and asked, as a personal favor to him, to record a modern version of "The Gears. I was truly amazed and flattered, but declined. After my experiences in music it would seem to be a mega step backwards. He was, however, very enthusiastic about my Mindscape album (Blue Note 92168) prior to its release so his concept of an updated version of my first composition was not idle speculation. "Let me think about it" I said. Two days later CNN announced his passing and the new "Gears" was no longer conjecture. The great man's last request was fulfilled and he was, as always, right..." The Gears" is important.

I created many record jackets for Blue Note and clearly I remember the cover on this album set. It was based on a fine photograph taken by Bill Huges during a Christmas concert with my group at Town Hall in New York City (1954). This same unit performed at the worlds first jazz festival at Newport and was billed as the most promising new group of the year. Shortly thereafter, our little band was honored to be one of the very first to be featured at Carnegie Hall in a concert for the people of Israel.

The album Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet 5020 marked the beginning of Dr. Rudy Van Gelder's career as a recording engineer with Blue Note. I brought Alfred and Rudy together, the beginning of a most celebrated association.

A little faith goes a long way!
—GIL MELLE
1998