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JOE MAINI -Small Group Sessions


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This just out from our Spanish friends.Does anyone know this music or Joe's playing? I've heard of him but not his music.What do you think of this set? Thanks

LABEL: LONE HILL JAZZ

ORDER CODE: DIS-117983

BAR CODE: 8436019583227

LABEL CODE: LHJ 10322

RECORDED: 0

FORMAT: CD

NUMBER OF DISCS: 4

DESCRIPTION: RECORDED IN LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK 1956-1962

COLABORATIONS: BILL HOLMAN, ZOOTS SIMS, TEDDY EDWARDS, JIMMY GIUFFRE, CONTE CANDOLI, JACK SHELDON, SHORTY ROGERS

FEATURING: Bill Holman, Zoot Sims, Teddy Edwards (ts), Conte Candoli, Jack Sheldon, Shorty Rogers (tp), Bob Enevoldsen, Jimmy Knepper (tb), Jimmy Giuffre (bar), Victor Feldman, Red Norvo (vib), Kenny Drew, Russ Freeman, Lou Levy (p), Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers, Red Mitchell, Leroy Vinnegar (b), Shelly Manne, Mel Lewis (d), among others.

THIS COLLECTION COMPILES ALL OF MAINI’S SMALL GROUP RECORDINGS (WITH THE SOLE EXCEPTION OF THE ALREADY WELL KNOWN 100-MINUTE CLIFFORD BROWN-MAX ROACH 1954 JAM SESSION). THE JANE FIELDING ALBUM AND THE JOE MAINI SEXTET SESSION, AS WELL AS THE SHORTY ROGERS TV BROADCAST, APPEAR HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON CD!

INCLUDES A 20-PAGE BOOKLET WITH RARE PHOTOS AND INSIGHFUL INFORMATION!!

"Joe Maini was probably one of the most talented musicians –raw talent– that ever lived. He could play anything in any way. He was one of the greatest bebop alto and tenor players.

He didn't own a clarinet, but he could play the hell out of a clarinet. He could sight read anything.” Terry Gibbs

“We played mostly casual gigs and it was a marvelous experience for me. We had a great band with Al Porcino, Mel Lewis and the late Joe Maini. Joe was a phenomenal lead alto player. He was the greatest I've ever played with and unless you sat next to him you couldn't understand how great he was.”

Bill Perkins

CD1: 77:58

01 Grasshopper 2:52

02 Summer Night 3:20

03 Spring Is Here 2:44

04 You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me 3:15

05 Jam for Your Bread 4:38

06 Where or When 5:09

07 Section Blues 3:23

08 Duff 5:05

09 Ornithology 4:51

10 Will You Still Be Mine 4:14

11 I'll Never Be the Same 4:24

12 East Coast Outpost 3:59

13 You Go to My Head 4:46

14 Minor Incident 3:27

15 Dollar Day 3:38

16 Easy Terms 4:13

17 It's Only a Paper Moon 7:21

18 Leroy's Blues 5:58

CD2: 76:07

01 Contour 6:56

02 Talkin’-Walkin’ 6:22

03 In the Prescribed Manner 5:09

04 Prelude to a Kiss 5:33

05 Wee Dot 5:47

06 Hidden Channel 4:52

07 Deadline 3:23

08 I'm Old Fashioned 5:00

09 Minor Blues (Blues In A Cardboard Box) 5:45

10 Walkin' - Talkin' 5:44

11 Embers Glow 3:53

12 Our Waltz 2:27

13 Key Largo 3:10

14 Along with Me 3:06

15 In Love in Vain 2:44

16 ‘Round Midnight 3:39

17 Too Marvelous for Words 2:30

CD 3: 72:04

01 Make the Men Love Me 2:50

02 Right Boy for Me 3:18

03 All Dressed Up Tonight and No Place to Go 1:56

04 Latter Day Saint 4:04

05 Cunningbird 4:50

06 The Jumpin' Blues (Jump the Blues Away) 4:57

07 The Masher 3:37

08 Latter Day Saint (alternate take 1) 5:26

09 Latter Day Saint (alternate take 2) 3:47

10 Latter Day Saint (alternate take3) 3:55

11 The Masher (alternate take) 4:19

12 I’ll Remember April 12:11

13 Indian Summer 5:34

14 The Theme 2:49

15 Long Ago and Far Away 1:59

16 A Night in Tunisia 3:50

17 Broadway 2:39

CD 4: 72:17

01 Concertino da Camera (Blues and Vanilla) 18:30

02 Shish-Ka-Bob 2:30

03 Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen 2:35

04 Martian Bossa Nova 6:26

05 I'm Gonna Go Fishin’ 5:04

06 Time Was 5:35

07 Allen's Alley (Wee) 5:53

08 Blooz (take 1) 4:18

09 Blooz (take 2) 4:48

10 Sweet Georgia Brown (take 1) 7:31

11 Sweet Georgia Brown (take 2) 4:47

12 Auld Lang Syne 4:20

JOE MAINI, alto sax, playing in small group settings (mainly ranging from quartets to sextets), including:

Shelly Manne & His Men, Jack Sheldon Quintet, Red Mitchell Quintet, Kenny Drew Quartet, Jimmy Knepper Quintet, Jane Fielding with the Kenny Drew Quartet, Shorty Rogers & His Giants and the Joe Maini Sextet.

RECORDED IN LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK, 1956-1962

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"Contour", "Paper Moon" and "Leroy's Blues" are fine tracks and were re-issued about ten years ago under Jack Sheldon's leadership in the Pacific Jazz West Coast Classics series. Joe is also an exciting featured soloist on several tracks from the Terry Gibbs Dream Band's albums on OJC/Contemporary. Joe was a helluva character as you can see from his website: www.hollywoodmuse.com/joe_maini_website/

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"Contour", "Paper Moon" and "Leroy's Blues" are fine tracks and were re-issued about ten years ago under Jack Sheldon's leadership in the Pacific Jazz West Coast Classics series. Joe is also an exciting featured soloist on several tracks from the Terry Gibbs Dream Band's albums on OJC/Contemporary. Joe was a helluva character as you can see from his website: www.hollywoodmuse.com/joe_maini_website/

Great site!

Q

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I know that Lonehill is a bad word around these parts, and for some good reasons. But it is great that this music is being made available again.

I agree. Plus I refuse to feel guilty over loopholes in copyright laws that allow us to hear music that we would not be able to hear otherwise.

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I agree. Plus I refuse to feel guilty over loopholes in copyright laws that allow us to hear music that we would not be able to hear otherwise.

Loophole is the wrong word for it. The EU just made the honorable decision not to buckle under to the pressure of special interests. I wish our own government had been so honorable.

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yeah well, he hung it out now and then, didn't he? that was him, right?

the Debut session is in the big Mingus 12 CD debut box, i assume?

and the Mitchell Bethlehem session will be a partial one only (some of that album was in trio)

the Sheldon date is fine

what about the Kenny Drew, that one was on a BN CD, right? never heard it...

are those Gibbs Contemporary albums worth looking for? all of them (assuming the one[s?] with Maini being one of those Dream Band volumes)?

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are those Gibbs Contemporary albums worth looking for? all of them (assuming the one[s?] with Maini being one of those Dream Band volumes)?

The Gibbs Contemporary albums are superb big band jazz. I have six, three on vinyl and three on CD. The last, One More Time was issued after the others and consists of tapes discovered in 1994 by Gibbs and is possibly less indispensable than the others. Joe Maini has some solo space on every one of these albums.

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are those Gibbs Contemporary albums worth looking for? all of them (assuming the one[s?] with Maini being one of those Dream Band volumes)?

The Gibbs Contemporary albums are superb big band jazz. I have six, three on vinyl and three on CD. The last, One More Time was issued after the others and consists of tapes discovered in 1994 by Gibbs and is possibly less indispensable than the others. Joe Maini has some solo space on every one of these albums.

I very much agree, this indeed is superb big band jazz. The Dream Band was an exciting, hard swinging aggregation with great soloists: among others Conte Candoli, Stu Williamson, Frank Rosolino, Med Flory, Bill Perkins, Bill Holman and of course Terry Gibbs himself. The rhythm section was driven by the one and only Mel 'The Tailor' Lewis. And with arrangements by Bill Holman, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, Marty Paich and Manny Albam you can't go wrong either. IMHO all five volumes are indispensable.

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are those Gibbs Contemporary albums worth looking for? all of them (assuming the one[s?] with Maini being one of those Dream Band volumes)?

The Gibbs Contemporary albums are superb big band jazz. I have six, three on vinyl and three on CD. The last, One More Time was issued after the others and consists of tapes discovered in 1994 by Gibbs and is possibly less indispensable than the others. Joe Maini has some solo space on every one of these albums.

I very much agree, this indeed is superb big band jazz. The Dream Band was an exciting, hard swinging aggregation with great soloists: among others Conte Candoli, Stu Williamson, Frank Rosolino, Med Flory, Bill Perkins, Bill Holman and of course Terry Gibbs himself. The rhythm section was driven by the one and only Mel 'The Tailor' Lewis. And with arrangements by Bill Holman, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn, Marty Paich and Manny Albam you can't go wrong either. IMHO all five volumes are indispensable.

Thanks for your backing!

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there was apparently a Selmer saxophone ad, I think, in which Maini secretly exposed himself -

the nice think about the Gibbs-band Maini solos is that it is the fully mature Maini - on some of the early stuff (there's also a session with Kenny Drew) his playing is good but fairly straight-on; on the Gibbs he has a wonderful, slithering quality to his time that actually sounds a bit like Dave Schildkruat, to whom he may very well have been listening - from what I've heard he shot himself during a game of Russian Roulette - was quite a character, hung out with Lenny Bruce. Joe Albany, fellow junkie, remembered him fondly -

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  • 2 months later...

I got hold of this Maini set - have played about three discs by now - great! Sounds ok to my ears but I don't bother much about that. The Jane Fielding album (some nice Teddy Edwards there, too) and the Kenny Drew "Talkin' & Walkin'" are the highlights for me, so far. But then I knew the other Drew quintet date from the Sheldon West Coast Classics, the Knepper/Maini from the Mingus Debut box, and the two first dates from the respective OJCs. Still, it's good to have all of this collected and the focus on Maini! The design, just in case, has leaped forard a bit again since they did the Tony Fruscella 4CD set.

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did joe maini really shoot himself during a game of Russian Roulette?!??!?!?!?

maybe not literally but...

from this great website (many fascinating photos, maini looked quite special on photos... just speculating, but this site may be the reason that the recent boxed set has a richer booklet than the fruscella box):

http://www.hollywoodmuse.com/joe_maini_website/

Jump to 1963-64. At that time I owned my third niteclub called the Mardi Gras in the Park Wilshire Hotel at 2424 Wilshire Boulevard in LA. On the night of May 6, 1964, we celebrated my 34th birthday in the club. Joe was playing with me at the time as was Carmen Russo on drums, (it could have been Will Bradley Jr) and Ernie Williams on bass. Joe and I got pretty drunk. After the gig, Joe wound up at Ray Graziano's place. (Ray played sax and was a good friend of Joe's. Ray had just bought a 22. pistol because his girlfriend Daphnie had seen a prowler looking in the window).

By this time, Joe had to be quite loaded and was still drinking and picked up the gun. Joe was a very daring person and would do anything for a laugh or do something to add to his legendary ccomplishments - I can just hear the cats talking if the gun wasn't loaded: "Did you hear? Joe played Russian Roulette the other night. Man, he's really wild." Anyhow, Ray told Joe the gun was loaded and to stop messing around. However, Joe put the gun to his head and said something to the effect, "This gun ain't loaded," and pulled the trigger. I received a call from a girl who frequented the club late that night. She told me she heard on the radio that Joe had been shot. Joe died the next evening, May 7, 1964.

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just speculating, but this site may be the reason that the recent boxed set has a richer booklet than the fruscella box):

http://www.hollywoodmuse.com/joe_maini_website/

quite definitely, yes - they quote stuff from there and use photos etc. but the whole design is much better, too, with just one booklet the size of a jewel case (as compared to two normal inlay covers in the Fruscella set), and slowly but surely they get their act together as far as layout is concerned (just as Freshsound did, their 1990/91 discs look horrible, while the latest issues look fine.

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Great as Maini's playing is throughout this set, fans of Zoot Sims will also like it lots I think. CD3 has some fantastic live Sims recorded in Hollywood in 1956 along with Maini and Jack Sheldon. Some of the best Zoot I've ever heard ! :tup

Nice booklet too. Seems to clear up the story re: Maini's 'suicide'. Would seem to be a tragic accident caused as a result of fooling around with firearms when 'under the influence'.

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Great as Maini's playing is throughout this set, fans of Zoot Sims will also like it lots I think. CD3 has some fantastic live Sims recorded in Hollywood in 1956 along with Maini and Jack Sheldon. Some of the best Zoot I've ever heard ! :tup

That's where I'm stuck right now... been playing lots of other things in the meantime, but this wants me to go back to the Maini set NOW!

Nice booklet too. Seems to clear up the story re: Maini's 'suicide'. Would seem to be a tragic accident caused as a result of fooling around with firearms when 'under the influence'.

They took all that from the site Niko linked above, I guess... go have a look there, fascinating!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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