Mel Martin Biography
|
Click here for bio.pdf file
Click here for quotes
Click here for Clinician Flier
Mel Martin Newsletters Dec.,06, Jan.,07, Feb.,07, March-April '07, May '07, June/July '07
Click below for Hi-Res PDF Photos
 2 |
 4 |
 5 |
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 improviser, arranger and composer
have made him a favorite of such greats as Benny
Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy
Tyner, Joe Henderson, 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
& Beyond as well as his fine recordings of the music of Benny Carter, Mel Martin Plays Benny Carter and the recent Just Friends - Downbeat (****) by The Mel Martin/Benny Carter Quintet. He has applied these talents to a wide variety of
performing and recording situations including Santana,
Azteca, Mongo Santamaria, Boz Scaggs, Cal Tjader, Vince Guaraldi, Denny Zeitlin, Hubert Laws, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, B.B. King, Billy Cobham,
Freddy Cole, and the Afro Blue Band as well as a multitude of independent studio projects. In performance Mel displays
a rare combination of fiery soloing abilities and telepathic communication and
projects a joyously spirited vibrancy to his audiences.
Born in Sacramento, California on June 7, 1942, Mel moved to San Francisco in
the mid-'60's and became immersed in the flourishing music scene of that time.
Having developed strong "jazz chops" in Sacramento by sitting in with
guitar great Wes Montgomery and others. He worked as a professional musician
from the age of fourteen and joined the Musician's Union at the age of sixteen.
He attended Sacramento High School where, under the tutelage of band master
Aubrey Penman, he studied music alongside classmates Rufus Reid and Vince Lateano.
He went on to develop further while attending San Francisco State and meeting
and playing with many great jazz musicians 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.
Mel has been married to the same wonderful woman, Catey, for over forty-two and credits her with strongly supporting his career. They have one daughter,
Sara who is now happily married and is agreat Mom to our grandson, Zachary Cosmo Breindel.
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.
Since 1983 Mel has been performing and recording with the well known group
Bebop
& Beyond of which he is founder and
artistic director. They have recorded four albums; Bebop and Beyond, Bebop
and Beyond Plays Thelonious Monk,, Bebop and Beyond Plays Dizzy Gillespie with Dizzy Gillespie as special guest which scored very high on the national
jazz airplay charts and achieved a great critical success. In 2002, they
released Friends and Mentors - Bebop and
Beyond Plays the Music of Mel Martin which is also achieving high
critical praise. 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 five National Endowment
for the Arts 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 as well as a Jazz Performance Fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Arts with which he performed a number
of concerts with pianist Kenny
Barron. He was honored in 1987 by the San Francisco Jewish Museum as part
of their Jewish Presence in Jazz Series. His latest projects include The Benny Carter Tribute Band which continues to celebrate the spirit and music of Benny Carter, The Mel Martin Quartet and The Mel Martin All-star Big Band.
Mel Martin's most recent recording project is Just Friends - Bebop and Beyond Presents The Mel Martin/Benny Carter Quintet, to be distributed by the Grammy-nominated label Jazzed Media and released to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of Benny Carter’s birthday on August 8, 2007 will serve as both a tribute to the musician’s life and work and as a celebratory commemoration of a decades-long friendship and working relationship between Mr. Carter and Bebop and Beyond Artistic Director Mel Martin. It consists of unrealeased performance recorded live at the original Yoshi's in 1994 and was funded in part by the National Endowment
for the Arts and the Marin Arts Council.
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, helping to assemble the orchestra and perform the Bay Area premiere
of Charles Mingus '
"Epitaph" at Davies Symphony Hall, assembling big bands for Dizzy
Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, and Benny Carter, performing with the Freddie Hubbard
Quintet, acting as musical director of The Keystone All-Stars as well as his
own trios and quartets and Bebop & Beyond, writing articles and interviews
for Saxophone Journal and Jazz Player. Mel has also performed
with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra and been featured as both performer
and composer-arranger and multi-instrumentalist (Soprano, Alto, Tenor &
Baritone Saxophones, Flute, Piccolo & Alto Flute, Clarinet & Bass Clarinet)
for the CBS Television Series "The Twilight Zone" and such feature
length films as "Rumblefish", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers",
"The Warriors" and "Street Music". Some of his commercial
music activities have recently included work for Acer Computers, Kia Automobiles,
Mainstay Investments, Cellular One, Zima Beverages, American Raisins, Shell
Oil, Coca-Cola and Fantasy Records.
Click here for a complete Mel Martin discography.
Mel Martin Photo by Timm Bundie
|
|
|
 Baby Z |
|
|
|
|
|
 Granny, Z & Sara |
 Z and Sara |
 Baby M |
 Baby C |
 Baby S |
 Baby Z |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Look out world! Here comes the baddest new drummer...Zachy!
Click here to here Zachy play the guitar(?) and sing.
Bebop and Beyond is an acclaimed classical repertory jazz ensemble
committed to working with some of the foremost performers and composers in jazz.
Formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1983 by reed player, composer/arranger
Mel Martin, the group has garnered international attention
for their dynamic and innovative presentations and finely produced recordings
of new arrangements of classic bop compositions by Thelonious
Monk, Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie
Parker,
Tadd Dameron, Charles Mingus
and others as well as forward looking originals by members of the group.
Bebop and Beyond strives to bring an authentic interpretation to the classic
repertoire and to invigorate the music with a broad and entertaining approach,
drawing the audience into a musical environment that brings together the musical
lineage of modern jazz including many of the later innovations of the music.The
collective musical experiences of members of the band reads like a Who's Who
of jazz. Ranging from Bud
Powell and John Coltrane
to McCoy Tyner and
Freddie Hubbard, the list also includes
Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe
Henderson, Bobby
Hutcherson, Jimmy Smith, Milt Jackson and many more.
In 2002, Bebop and Beyond released Friends
and Mentors - Bebop and Beyond Plays the Music of Mel Martin on the
Quixotic label. It features Mel Martin -saxophones, Bobby Watson - alto
saxophone, Jack Walrath - trumpet, MIke Longo or George Cables - piano,
Ray Drummond - bass and Billy Hart or Winard Harper - drums. Bebop and
Beyond's previous recording was a collaboration with bop innovator Dizzy
Gillespie which was his final studio date. The results of this can be heard
on their recording BEBOP
AND BEYOND PLAYS DIZZY GILLESPIE (Bluemoon R2 79170). They were also presented
in performance with him in Jazz In The City's Jazz Master's Series as well
as the Monterey Jazz Festival. Their previous recording BEBOP AND BEYOND
PLAYS THELONIOUS MONK (Bluemoon R2 79154) was produced by Monk's original
producer Orrin Keepnews and featured special guests Joe Henderson on tenor
saxophone and Howard Johnson on tuba and baritone sax as well as faithful
arrangements of many of Monk's more obscure works. Both of these recordings
as well as the concert were funded in part for being of the highest artistic
caliber by the
National Endowment for the Arts and have
been highly acclaimed. They recorded their first album BEBOP AND BEYOND
(Concord CJ244) in 1984. Bebop and Beyond is currently working on developing
their own original compositions for their next recording project.
Bebop and Beyond is a 501(c)3 Not-for Profit Corporation
The Bay Area has always been a hotbed of jazz talent. Many of it’s brightest stars have moved on to the greener pastures of New York and beyond. Saxophonist/composer/arranger Mel Martin has chosen to maintain his permanent residence in the green pastures of Marin County. Mel still travels quite a bit doing performances and educational clinics world-wide but has made a commitment to forming a swinging, “in-your-face”, volatile big band. The roots of the band began in the early ‘nineties when Mel Martin was contacted by such jazz greats as Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Charles Mingus’ Epitaph and Joe Henderson to help them put together high-level big bands for Bay Area performances at venues such as Davies Symphony Hall, Kimball’s, Yoshi’s and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. These experiences were the seeds of what has become a truly all-star ensemble. The new band features Bay Area jazz stars Tim Armacost, and Charlie McCarthy on tenors, Andrew Speight and Jim Rothermel on altos and Howard Cespedes on baritone saxophones, Mike Olmos, John Worley, Bill Theur and Warren Gale on trumpets, Chip Tingle, Al Bent, Dave Eschelman and Chuck Bennett on trombones and pianist Mark Levine, bassist Robb Fisher, and drummer Akira Tana. The band has performed recent sold-out engagements at The Filoli Summer Series, Jazz at Pearl’s and Yoshi’s.
Mel Martin is widely known as the artistic director and driving force of the group Bebop and Beyond, The Tenor Conclave and his various quartets. He has lent his extraordinary woodwind talents to many recordings and performances by artists such as Benny Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, The Count Basie orchestra, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Mingus Epitaph, Kenny Barron, Mongo Santamaria, Santana, Freddie Cole, Cal Tjader, Vince Guaraldi, Louie Bellson, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams and many, many more. Mel Martin is a recipient of several National Endowment for the Arts Awards including jazz composition, jazz fellowship, recording and jazz ensemble categories.
The repertoire of The Mel Martin All-Star Big Band consists of new arrangements of many Standards inaddition to Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Jimmy Heath and Oliver Nelson favorites and Mel Martin’s original compositions. The emphasis is on Swing as in “it don’t mean a thing” (if it ain’t got it!) Their debut performance was at the 24th annual Russian River Jazz Festival in Guerneville, California on Saturday, September 9, 2000 with special guest vocalist Jamie Davis of the legendary Count Basie Band.
Broadcast - Sunday Night, August 14th! THE MEL MARTIN ALL-STAR BIG BAND 2nd Set with vocalist Jamie Davis at the Filoli Center on See's Sunday Night Suites. Produced by Bud Spangler and See's Candy. 8-9PM - 91.1FM or KCSM.org
|
|
Contact
for concert performances:
|
|
Mel Martin and Bebop and Beyond Recordings available online.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Home |
© COPYRIGHT 1996 - 2007 and Beyond - Mel Martin
Questions/comments about these web pages
Z and Popop 
Z - Percussion