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Charlie Mariano


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There's a reason they're called "Moe & The Poets":

Charlie's tone is impeccable -- somewhere between Lee Konitz and Charlie Parker, but with that back bay Boston blend of soul and modernism, making the city one of the best scenes for alto players in the 50s.

That back bay Boston blend was therapeutic for Charlie Marijuana, but not as much for tenor players ...

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FREE -

please share some detail on that bennett date...

is fontana fitting in as cleanly as mariano does?

:excited: ,

-e-

As you wish, -e-:

The CD is a combination of two 1955 sessions:

Max Bennett plays bass on all.

Carl Fontana, trombone

Nick Travis, trumpet

Charlie Mariano, alto

Jack Nimitz, bari

Dave McKenna, piano

Mel Lewis, drums

Johnny Jaguar

My Heart Belongs to Daddy*

Something to Remember You By

I Hadn't Anyone 'Til You*

IRA of the I.R.A.

Max is the Factor

Strike Up the Band*

13 Toes

Polkadots and Moonbeams*

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Taking A Chance on Love*

Sweet Sue*

Blues*

S'posin'*

*Fontana w/rhythm section

....and the other session:

Frank Rosolino, trombone

Charlie Mariano, alto

Claude Williamson, piano

Stan Levey, drums

Helen Carr, vocals (+)

Rubberneck

Just Max

They Say+

Jeepers Creepers

T.K.

I'll Never Smile Again

Do You Know Why+

Sweet Georgia Brown

Fontana is in great form. He doesn't sound much different in 1955 than he did later.

I would recommend this CD without reservation if you are a Fontana or Rosolino fan. Both are well represented. And of course Charlie Mariano!

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Guest akanalog

Does anybody remember an album of his titled-I believe-"Helen Twelve Trees". A friend of mine had it but unfortunately I never had a chance to check it out.

i have this album on vinyl. another album MPS should reissue instead of all these oscar petersons and hans kollers. it is pretty ok. not amazing or anything. this one has jack bruce on bass, if i remember right, and nippy noya on percussion. why didn't i like it. maybe it also has that zybgnew sieferet (sp?) on violin? i don't like violin. i think besides some hard fusion tracks (including a tune played much better on elvin jones "on the mountain" album-wait, is jan hammer on "helen twelvetrees" too?) there are some duets without drums. sorry i am housesitting and don't have the album in front of me-but i believe there were too many quiet duet type numbers on this album for my tastes.

i have another record-called "october" or something-with mariano and trilok gurtu and bruninghaus and someone else from 1977 or so. it is ok. nothing amazing. always nice to hear 70s rainer bruninghaus though.

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Guest akanalog

there's also the krautrock/fusion band embryo, with which mariano cut a few albums. too bad he and mal waldron were not there at the same time-but the mariano stuff i heard is pretty cool. i bet a lot of you would be surprised to hear mariano in this kind of context. waldron too, for that matter.

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Guest akanalog

I loved Mariano in Eberhard Weber's 'Colours' group of the late 70s.

A group that explored one of the other directions that 'In a Silent Way' could lead!

i have to disagree. i don't really feel that the weber groups really have any relation to "in a silent way". or maybe i don't understand what you mean-i see an album like "yellow fields" as being more a representation of fusion from a classical european background rather than an american blues rock kind of background. i think miles davis and the colors band are perhaps two cultural tangents of what happens when jazz musicians plug in.

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Does anybody remember an album of his titled-I believe-"Helen Twelve Trees". A friend of mine had it but unfortunately I never had a chance to check it out.

i have this album on vinyl. another album MPS should reissue instead of all these oscar petersons and hans kollers. it is pretty ok. not amazing or anything. this one has jack bruce on bass, if i remember right, and nippy noya on percussion. why didn't i like it. maybe it also has that zybgnew sieferet (sp?) on violin? i don't like violin. i think besides some hard fusion tracks (including a tune played much better on elvin jones "on the mountain" album-wait, is jan hammer on "helen twelvetrees" too?) there are some duets without drums. sorry i am housesitting and don't have the album in front of me-but i believe there were too many quiet duet type numbers on this album for my tastes.

i have another record-called "october" or something-with mariano and trilok gurtu and bruninghaus and someone else from 1977 or so. it is ok. nothing amazing. always nice to hear 70s rainer bruninghaus though.

Thanks for the info. :)

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  • 18 years later...
On 2/18/2005 at 8:26 PM, Guest akanalog said:

there's also the krautrock/fusion band embryo, with which mariano cut a few albums. too bad he and mal waldron were not there at the same time-but the mariano stuff i heard is pretty cool. i bet a lot of you would be surprised to hear mariano in this kind of context. waldron too, for that matter.

Ok so I know this is an old thread. But, they did play together at least for this one show.
Titles of the last two tracks are reversed, Place to Go is really track 3, Waldron's The Call is track 4.
https://embryoband.bandcamp.com/album/embryo-feat-mal-waldron-charlie-mariano-29061973-live-in-hamburg
This show was previously released as a limited LP release, and then as a CD-R by Ultima Thule Records.

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I think I remember he was very much active over here in Europe during my youth, but it seemed to be another kind of music than what I was listening to. It seemed to be more "world music" than what I understood as being "jazz". It could have been in that ECM groove. Eberhard Weber ? I think he was scheduled once on a festival summit, but I couldn´t understand much of it, it seemed to be very quiet music, it is possible that the leader was Jan Garbarek. I remember in my youth a lot of folks maybe a bit older than me, were into Jan Garbarek and ECM......

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3 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I think I remember he was very much active over here in Europe during my youth, but it seemed to be another kind of music than what I was listening to. It seemed to be more "world music" than what I understood as being "jazz". It could have been in that ECM groove. Eberhard Weber ? I think he was scheduled once on a festival summit, but I couldn´t understand much of it, it seemed to be very quiet music, it is possible that the leader was Jan Garbarek. I remember in my youth a lot of folks maybe a bit older than me, were into Jan Garbarek and ECM......

True - Mariano was very active here in Germany up to his death. The way he evolved over time, this was not my kind of jazz anymore either, yet I do regret I did not take the plunge and go to see him at one of his live appearances that did take place locally. I had repeatedly thought of attending one of these shows - including with the intention of having these 50s albums autographed by him - but somehow it never materialized, and then it was too late ... 
Same with Herb Geller ...

 

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12 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I think I remember he was very much active over here in Europe during my youth, but it seemed to be another kind of music than what I was listening to. It seemed to be more "world music" than what I understood as being "jazz". It could have been in that ECM groove. Eberhard Weber ? I think he was scheduled once on a festival summit, but I couldn´t understand much of it, it seemed to be very quiet music, it is possible that the leader was Jan Garbarek. I remember in my youth a lot of folks maybe a bit older than me, were into Jan Garbarek and ECM......

Charlie Mariano played at a concert I attended about 20 years ago. I was very disappointed in his playing as it was very much as Gheorghe described it. 

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Haven't seen it mentioned, but the eponymous "Toshiko Mariano Quartet" on Candid contains fantastic Mariano playing. This version of "Deep River" is tremendously moving. I've also come to really appreciate the symbolism of a Japanese woman, two white Americans of Italian descent (Mariano, Gene Cherico), and a black American (Eddie Marshall) playing the hell out of a Negro spiritual -- that's America.  

 

 

Edited by Mark Stryker
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For anybody who wants to hear the elder Mariano play standards again, here it is.

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It's superb. 

Oh, not that it matters, but the grumpy old fact-checker in me feels a compulsion to point out that although Toshiko was born to Japanese parentage, she herself was actually born in China. 

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My three favorite Mariano recordings come from the same early to mid '60s period, all as a sideman -- the aforementioned "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" and "Toshiko Mariano Quartet" -- and Elvin Jones' "Dear John C." I mean, good Lord. The pure sound and rhapsodic glory of this ballad is from another planet. 

 

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2 hours ago, Mark Stryker said:

My three favorite Mariano recordings come from the same early to mid '60s period, all as a sideman -- the aforementioned "Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" and "Toshiko Mariano Quartet" -- and Elvin Jones' "Dear John C." I mean, good Lord. The pure sound and rhapsodic glory of this ballad is from another planet. 

"Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" is a desert island disc for me, may be my favorite jazz album period, and I agree it is Mariano's (as well as Mingus's, and one of Jazz's) most memorable work.

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19 hours ago, JSngry said:

 

Oh, not that it matters, but the grumpy old fact-checker in me feels a compulsion to point out that although Toshiko was born to Japanese parentage, she herself was actually born in China. 

Noted and corrected. Thanks

Edited by Mark Stryker
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3 hours ago, JSngry said:

Toshiko experienced a forced exile from her birth country into a land held my an occupational force, with a family stripped of all of their material possessions.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/toshiko-akiyoshi 

Hey, that's pretty darn American too! 

Yup.

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