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Mel Martin

Mel Martin is a composer, arranger, bandleader, saxophone and flute player - one of the most versatile and creative musicians to ever emerge from the San Francisco Bay Area. In his long career, he’s played a part in many of the innovative movements that have come out of that creative community. He sat in with Wes Montgomery and his brothers while he was still a teenager, played in John Handy’s Freedom Band in 1962, worked and recorded with many of the progressive rock and Latin rock bands of the late 60s and early 70s including The Loading Zone, Cold Blood, Azteca and Boz Scaggs. He founded the award winning Listen, one of the early West Coast jazz-fusion bands in 1976. He’s currently artistic director of Bebop and Beyond, a group he founded in 1983, as well as leading the Mel Martin Quartet, The Tenor Conclave, the Mel Martin Big Band and the Benny Carter All Star Tribute Band.

Mel has recently completed the new Mel Martin Band recording Where The Warm Winds Blow to be released on Jazzed Media and distributed by Allegro- Music. “It is quite different from anything I've recorded since the early '90s and is reminiscent in ways to my early Listen recordings but with much more of a jazz slant.” It was recorded in July, 2008 when the great jazz pianist Don Friedman came out from New York to do a California tour with the group including guitarist Brad Buethe, bassist Robb Fisher and drummer extrordinaire Jeff Marrs. Besides Don, special guests include John Santos on percussion and Barry Finnerty on guitar. The repertoire is broad and varied from the fiery Latin-tinged Rhythm Man (Do Not Disturb) to the contemporary classical piece with a jazz breakout In The Stars by Stephen Mellilo, I Have A Dream by the great Grammy Award winning Herbie Hancock including Mel’s adaptation for woodwinds of his original horn arrangement, the funky, Bitches Brew style of Silly Hawk Walk, a beautiful live version of Blue In Green, George Russell's inventive take on Love For Sale: Ezz-Thetic, The great Benny Carter composition Where The Warm Winds Blow, my personal tribute in 6/8 to my lovely wife Catey: To Catey With Love, and the chestnut Victor Young composition Weaver of Dreams. On many of the pieces, Mel overdubbed special woodwind arrangements appropriate to the particular composition or just featured the sextet and quartet. “I'm very excited about getting it out there and hope that peolpe will enjoy it.”

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3
Live Review

Mel Martin and His Tenor Conclave: Piermont, NY, September 14, 2012

Read "Mel Martin and His Tenor Conclave: Piermont, NY, September 14, 2012" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Mel Martin and his Tenor ConclaveThe Turning Point CafePiermont, NYSeptember 14, 2012 Before the first note sounded in a seventy-five minute set by Mel Martin and his Tenor Conclave, there was a false start of sorts. Most of the band was assembled and ready to hit when they were asked to leave the stage pending the anticipated arrival of a substantial number of audience latecomers. It a was reminder of the all-too- familiar struggle ...

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Live Review

Mel Martin Sextet at the Douglas Beach House, Half Moon Bay, CA

Read "Mel Martin Sextet at the Douglas Beach House, Half Moon Bay, CA" reviewed by Bill Leikam


Mel Martin Sextet Douglas Beach House Half Moon Bay, CaliforniaAugust 16, 2009

Mel Martin and his sextet stepped into a “new" Douglas Beach House Sunday afternoon, August 16 and presented the first acoustic jazz concert to be held there in decades. During the previous week, owner and impresario Pete Douglas decided to go back to the roots of jazz by stripping out the mixing board and the sound system, leaving only a hot ...

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Album Review

Mel Martin / Benny Carter Quintet: Just Friends

Read "Just Friends" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Saxophonist Mel Martin, the lesser known half of this clever musical equation, first met the legendary Benny Carter in 1987 and played alongside him for the first time three years later. This quintet date, recorded live at Yoshi's nightclub in Oakland in April 1994, as Carter was nearing his eighty-seventh birthday, shows why he was able to span so easily the eras from swing to bop and beyond and assimilate their changes. His perspective was firmly rooted in the tradition ...

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Interview

What Makes Saxophone Stalwart Mel Martin Tick?

What Makes Saxophone Stalwart Mel Martin Tick?

Source: Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever.

Playing alongside giants such as Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Boz Scaggs, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, and B.B. King, Mel Martin has cut his teeth in the company of some of the jazz history's finest. With his outings as both a leader and solo artist, Martin has collected honors such as being named Musician of the Year by the San Francisco chapter of NARAS as well as a BAMMY for Best Jazz Album of 1977. ...

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Recording

Saxophonist Mel Martin's New CD, with Benny Carter, out July 10

Saxophonist Mel Martin's New CD, with Benny Carter, out July 10

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

New CD from the Mel Martin / Benny Carter Quintet, Just Friends, Celebrates Carter's Centennial

Recorded at Yoshi's in Oakland in 1994, CD Due July 10 on Jazzed Media Label

June 25, 2007 - Bay Area saxophonist Mel Martin honors his longtime musical partnership with the late alto saxophonist and composer Benny Carter - and Carter's birth centennial in August 2007 - with the release of Just Friends, a new CD by the band he co-led with Carter in the ...

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Event

Upcoming Mel Martin Shows

Upcoming Mel Martin Shows

Source: All About Jazz


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Performance / Tour

Mel Martin Summer 2006 Tour

Mel Martin Summer 2006 Tour

Source: All About Jazz

San Francisco Bay Area saxophonist Mel Martin will be in Los Angeles, Denver and New York in July. Playing with all-star groups in each city, Mel Martin will be performing music from his recordings Mel Martin Plays Benny Carter, Friends and Mentors- Bebop and Beyond Plays the Music of Mel Martin as well as other originals and jazz standards. CDs are available at the performances and MEL MARTIN'S JAZZ and SAXOPHONE WEB SITE. July 19, 2006 - The MEL MARTIN ...

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Performance / Tour

Mel Martin and Bebop And Beyond Sweep The Bay Area And Beyond

Mel Martin and Bebop And Beyond Sweep The Bay Area And Beyond

Source: All About Jazz

October 4, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Mel Martin and Bebop And Beyond Sweep The Bay Area And Beyond FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (October 1, 2005 Novato, CA) Mel Martin and Bebop and Beyond will be performing a number of important dates in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento in October. Mel Martin and Bebop and Beyond return with a vengeance performing music from their latest CD, “Friends and Mentors, Bebop and Beyond Plays the Music of Mel ...

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Education

Mel Martin and the Bebop and Beyond Advanced Jazz Workshop announce The Chamber Music America Residency

Mel Martin and the Bebop and Beyond Advanced Jazz Workshop announce The Chamber Music America Residency

Source: All About Jazz

September 29, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES MEL MARTIN AND BEBOP AND BEYOND P.O. Box 2758 Novato, CA 94948-2758 USA Contact: Mel Martin - Artistic Director (415)892-5911 [email protected] http://www.melmartin.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mel Martin and the Bebop and Beyond Advanced Jazz Workshop announce The Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Program for 2005-2006 (September 25, 2005, Novato, CA) - Mel Martin and Bebop and Beyond are pleased to announce their fourth year of Jazz Workshops in Novato schools has ...

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Performance / Tour

Mel Martin and the Tenor Conclave To Play Yoshi's, Wednesday, October 13

Mel Martin and the Tenor Conclave To Play Yoshi's, Wednesday, October 13

Source: All About Jazz

The Tenor Conclave is a project that Bay Area reedman Mel Martin has dreamed of for a long time. He has become an acknowledged icon of saxophone through his fine work with great saxophonists such as Benny Carter and Joe Henderson and others as well as his many writings for Saxophone Journal and JazzImprov magazines and his fine web site Mel Martin's Jazz And Saxophone Web Site. He is also a national clinician for Yanagisawa Saxophones and has performed clinics ...

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Performance / Tour

Mel Martin and the Tenor Conclave Set for SF Bay Area Dates

Mel Martin and the Tenor Conclave Set for SF Bay Area Dates

Source: All About Jazz


"This is gritty, driving music from a high-octane performer who has been delivering the goods for many years." Ted Goia - Jazz.com "Never content to rest on his laurels, Mel brings a wide variety of jazz stylings to this release." Jeff Krow - Audiophile Audition "While this CD resists easy classification, it is among the most compelling recordings that Mel Martin has made during his entire career." - Ken Dryden, Billboard "Martin’s a master of phrasing and a meticulous melody maker." George Fendel - Jazz Society of Oregon "I am most impressed with Mel Martin's musicianship." Benny Carter "Mr

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