Don Menza Sextet - Live at Carmelo's

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“These live performances at Carmelo’s [were a great experience for me. It was a chance to play with some of my favorite players and, as time has proven, they have become jazz legends. Because of the time limitations of LPs, we had to choose from 2 nites of recording and only six tunes were picked for the original LP release. Here are some of the other tunes played on that historic live recording. Sam Noto was in town with the Rob McConnell Big Band. Sal Nistico flew in from N.Y.C. and the rest of us were here in L.A.

Thanks to the efforts of the late Herb Wong (my good friend) we had the opportunity to record the music of Frank Strazzeri and some of my charts. These charts were originally written for trumpet-tenor-trombone, but after the untimely death of Frank Rosolino everything was put on hold. On these recordings I played the trombone parts on baritone and some on alto.

It was curious that all the players on these recordings are from the East coast, and yet everyone considered us West coasters (always thought of as the cool school). As you will hear, these takes are anything but cool. My thanks to Jordi and Fresh Sound for re-releasing these recordings.”

- Don Menza, Los Angeles, October 2015

Thanks to Jordi Pujol, the six tracks that were originally issued as the vinyl LP Hip Pocket in 1982 on Palo Alto Jazz [PAJ 8010], were expanded to thirteen when they were released in 2015 on his Fresh Sound Records double CD Don Menza Sextet - Live at Carmelo's [FSRCD 883-2].

Recorded on the evenings of October 2nd and 3rd, 1981, the music on Don Menza Sextet - Live at Carmelo's is deserving of greater exposure given the high quality of the performances by Sam Noto, trumpet and flugelhorn, Don on alto and baritone, Sal Nistico, on tenor sax and a rhythm section made up of Frank Strazzeri, Andy Simpkins and Shelly Manne, on piano, bass and drums, respectively.

Started in 1979 by the Piscitello family, Carmelo’s was located on Van Nuys Blvd., in Sherman Oaks, CA. After Chuck Piscitello died in 1983, Ruth and Del Hoover took over the club and kept a Jazz policy in place for another three years.

Like many Jazz clubs, Carmelo’s offered an intimate environment for both Jazz musicians and fans, especially since the venue was centrally located in the San Fernando Valley [northeast of Los Angeles] where many L.A.-based musicians lived.

Leonard Feather, the esteemed Jazz author and critic, was a frequent visitor to Carmelo’s and wrote the insert notes to many of the LP’s that were recorded at the club including these liner notes to Hip Pocket [Palo Alto Jazz PAJ 8010].

“The catalogue of Don Menza’s accomplishments over the past 20 years would require the space available on a foldout, two-pocket album to enumerate all the bands and combos he has worked with, all the countries and cities he has played.  Don’s energetic personality, so well reflected in his music, has been Hollywood-based since the late 1960’s. But during the last two decades the vigorous, uncompromising sound of his saxophone, and the spirited, cooking character of his compositions and arrangements have taken him on the road with Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson and Woody Herman, to name just a few, to Germany (where he worked from 1964 to 1968 as a member of Max Greger's television house band in Munich), to Japan, and to the concert stages of the world.  Among other distinctions, he appeared in concert with the Buffalo Philharmonic playing two of his original compositions.

Since there is no way of drawing up a complete summation of Don’s achievements, it would be better at this point to concentrate on the particular session at hand, recorded live at Carmelo’s.

First, a word about the club.  New Yorkers and others who are not privileged to lead the good life in the Southland may be unaware that in the past three years this had become one of the most consistently successful jazz rooms in the world, with live jazz seven nights a week by large and small bands, local and imported talent.  Don has worked there countless times, as leader or sideman with a variety of cooking groups in the mainstream-modern idiom. On this occasion he headed a combo that owed much of its cohesion and excitement to a rapport among the members born of frequent associations over the years.

Four members in particular have much in common on the basis of their geographical backgrounds.  Don was born in Buffalo, NY, April 22, 1936. Sal Nistico (four years Don’s junior) is from the same neck of the woods, hailing from Syracuse, NY.  Like Don, he worked with Herman, thought at different times and for much longer stretches, and briefly with Buddy Rich. Sam Noto is a slightly senior member of what Don likes to refer to as “the Upstate Association”.  Born in Buffalo in 1930, he too was a Kenton, Herman, and Bellson sideman. (Nistico and Noto have another link in Count Basie, with whom they both worked around 1964-1965). Noto, after living in Toronto for several years, now has his own club in Buffalo.

The fourth member of this loosely affiliated group, Frank Strazzeri, is a greatly underrated composer and pianist, born exactly one week after Noto, in Rochester, NY.  “Strazz” has fewer big band credits, thought he has worked with Les Brown, Oliver Nelson, and Bellson, but most of his best known work has been achieved with the late Cal Tjader, and with innumerable small units in the Los Angeles area.

In a moment, a word about the music, but first and explanation for those who may find it surprising that Don Menza, so well established as a tenor saxophonist, is heard on these sides playing alto and baritone, leaving the tenor assignments to Nistico.

“The fact is,” he says, “alto was my first horn, and to this day I enjoy playing alto and baritone even more than I  like to play tenor. Besides, it adds a nice color to the album rather than the usual two-tenor line-up we could have used with Sal and me.  Don’t forget, also, that I played the baritone chair in Mike Barone’s big band, and at various times I played both the alto and the baritone parts with Supersax.”

Completing the group are two superb musicians who for many years have enriched the Southland horizon.  Andy Simpkins settled in Los Angeles in 1966 after a decade on the road with the Three Sounds. He then toured with George Shearing for eight years, and lately has been consistently busy in a variety of jobs, mainly with Sarah Vaughan’s trio.

Shelly Manne, born in New York, was world famous as a drummer (with Kenton, Herman et al) before founding his Manne Hole, one of Hollywood’s most fondly remembered jazz clubs (1960-1973).  As Don remarked when we discussed this album, “Shelly is something else! I can’t get over the tremendous support he gave everyone on this album.”

The proceedings get under way with Hip Pocket, a Strazzeri original played in unison, and typical of Strazz’s invariable personal and attractive lines.  The composer has his own outing, and Don’s muscular bari has a sound that is personal rather than the all-too-frequent attempts to duplicate Harry Carney or Gerry Mulligan.  Simpkins has one of the most creative solos of his recorded career.

A racehorse pace dominates the next  Strazzeri piece. The Third Eye with four way solo credits to Noto, Don (on bari again), Sal and Strazz, after which the horns have a stimulating series of eights exchanged with Shelly Manne.

Nobody who knows his bebop history will fail to recognize Quasimodo.  These Charlie Parker lines of 1947 are based on the changes of Embraceable You, fittingly Don switches to also here, with Sam and Frank further accentuating the bop groove.

The third Strazzeri work, Opals finds Noto switching from trumpet to flugelhorn for a legato, lyrical solo that is characteristic of him.  Don’s alto solo on this track displays a stunning fluency and the ability to create a melodically meaningful line. Strazzeri displays the two principal aspects of his style:  single note line passages alternating with contrasted sequences in chords.

Don has the spotlight (yielded for a while to Strazz) as his eloquent alto outlines Winter of My Discontent.  This is a 1955 melody by the late Alex Wilder, introduced by Mabel Mercer. “Strazz found this song for me,” Don recalls, “as he has many other ballads.  He has an uncle in Rochester who’s a pianist and who knows a vast repertoire of great tunes like this.”

Finally there is the leader’s own composition, Steppin’.  The pace is up but not too hasty, the groove essentially bop, and the most remarkable feature is a long, dazzling solo by Sal Nistico.  Don modestly stayed in the background here, playing only on the ensembles. Sam Noto, like Sal, displays the essential three C’s of great improvisation: control, chops and continuity.  The changes, as hipper ears may detect, are those of You Stepped Out of a Dream.

Altogether, the contents of this very hip pocket typify the high standards maintained throughout Don Menza’s peripatetic career.  They mirror, too, the very considerable power of that too seldom recognized cadre, the “Upstate Association.””

Leonard Feather

Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies

NOTES FROM THE PRODUCER

“A quick review of these three horn players should prompt you to realize at least two things – it’s the first time they have been on record together as a front line and their rich histories in the jazz world testify to their guarantee of very satisfying swing and unblemished musical values.  Don Menza, Sam Noto and Sal Nistico – “the upstart upstate burners” – can ignite any session; back up this phalanx with tried and true talents of Frank Strazzeri, Andy Simpkins and Shelly Manne and it should work, shouldn’t it? In truth, it’s a rhetorical matter.

There are memories of the record’s music the listener does not have – the conceptual origin of the record date and the circumstances permitting of coaxing its process of insight and mutation.  Despite this blur of experience, you can still focus on it by tapping your foot and getting in touch with the inspired players and their music. The experience is never removed from immediate consciousness.

One of the delectable things about hatching ideas for record dates is bypassing a prior framework and relying more on intuition and imagination.  Last year I was helping put together the debut performance of Rob McConnell’s heralded Boss Brass at the Monterey Jazz Festival – a consequence of my visit to catch Rob’s Big Band in Toronto on the occasion of their “live” recording in December 1980.  One of the galaxy of star players was Sam Noto, whose trumpet work I had admired since his earlier days with Stan Kenton.

Don Menza and I mused about the possibility of Noto recording in L.A. once we learned the Boss Brass would be in Hollywood too.  (Incidentally, Menza has been a popular visiting player in Toronto for years.) To add even more Sicilian fire, Sal Nistico floated into our dream.  So he was flown in from his home in Queens, New York.

Fresh music came by was of Menza and Strazzeri’s resourcefulness and rehearsals were held at Menza’s “home-rehearsal hall” with an enthusiastic Andy Simpkins and Shelly Manne.  Every one is a strikingly versatile and individualistic player – precise, mature, charmingly lyrical and unflaggingly exciting.

In fact, it’s not possible to ignore the sense of presence and the in person deliberateness.  And you can get close to the musical play of light and shadows flickering in the musicians. The scent and heat soaked through clothing – players and audiences alike.  The qualities cultivated by the event stimulated strong emotional responses independent of any values one may attach to the scene. The band of six broke through the top of the thermometer.”

HERB WONG

(Dr. Wong is a jazz journalist and educator and broadcasts on KJAZ, San Francisco.)

Here’s a link to the Fresh Sound catalogue for order information.

Sam Noto - Noto-Riety

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

From 1975 - 1980, the brilliant Jazz trumpet player, Sam Noto, made four LPs for Don Schlitten’s Xanadu record label none of which have made it into broader, digital circulation.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it would be fun to highlight Sam and his Xanadu recordings in four, separate postings before combining these into one, comprehensive feature about Sam and the other recordings he played on for Xanadu as a sideman during this period, most notably on one in which he teamed up with bebop trumpet legend, Red Rodney.

Not only are Jazz fans indebted to Don for recording Sam at the peak of his career but also for turning to four knowledgeable Jazz authors to prepare the liner notes to these LPs each of which provide a wealth of information about Sam’s background, his style of playing, the musicians on the various dates and the song selections.

Recorded on October 17, 1978, Sam Noto/Noto-Riety [Xanadu 168] features Sam along with Sam Most, flute, Dolo Coker on piano, Monty Budwig on bass and Frank Butler on drums with the following liner notes by Andrew Sussman.

“The cliche is in itself notorious — the underrated jazzman; talented but ignored, starving, unappreciated, forgotten. Well, Sam Noto is not starving: not anymore. He got the lucrative Toronto studio scene to help support him and his family. And with nine appearances on LP on Xanadu, one could hardly claim that he has been forgotten, either, though his resurgence has been a recent one.

Yet Nolo-Riety is more than a play on words, for as the trumpeter's jazz work becomes more and more available to the public his talents quite naturally become more appreciated; his ability more notorious. But he's still "underrated," and in a world of vastly inferior musical minds, many of which have been practically idolized despite their thin crust of talent, this is a monstrous sin.

In any case, Sam Noto has never let this injustice affect his art. His trumpet playing remains fluid and versatile and technically virtuosic. It's bebop at its finest, and the influence of Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro is clearly evident in each note he blows. But his own personality has evolved over the years, and his style is now individualistic and clearly identifiable. His tone is warm and full; his sensitive reading of ballads so lyrical that it sounds as if he must be playing the flugelhorn rather than the usually harsher trumpet, but he's not. Like Clifford 8rown, he is able to shape the instrument to his own needs; to create within the confines of the horn several identities. Each is viable — and each is his own.

Pairing Sam Noto with the innovative jazz flutist Sam Most might seem a natural action, their styles are so similar; their mutual understanding of melodic construction so obviously compatible. But it wasn't until 1978 that the two Sams actually met in a jazz context. It was producer Don Schlitten who instigated the session: first bringing them together for a concert at Montreux in the summer of that year, and then flying out to Los Angeles for what he called a "marathon international recording session" which resulted in five separate albums by different leaders. Kenny Drew came in from Copenhagen to record the first date on October 15 with Leroy Vinnegar and Frank Butter (Home Is Where The Soul Is, X 166); they were joined by Sam Noto (in from Toronto) and saxophonist Charles McPherson the next day (For Sure!, X 167). October 17 found Butler remaining and Dolo Coker and Monty Budwig rounding out the group for this LP. On October 18 and 19, Xanadu presented the "Two Sams' Band" at Donte's in North Hollywood. Leonard Feather noted in the Los Angeles Times that "Though they have seen service with name bands (Sam Most with Louie Bellson and Buddy Rich, Noto with Bellson, Basie and Kenton), both men have put in more than their share of time in the stultifying atmosphere of Las Vegas." He then went on to mention that "Justice should demand that the history books document Most's role as the first truly creative jazz flutist...he is a rhythmically engaging performer whose peppery, witty style may take hold of a set of chord changes and never let go for a half-dozen beautifully constructed choruses." Of Noto. Feather stated: "His sound is clear and strong, his style cast in the Clifford Brown mold. If he were free to play jazz full time, he might well develop into a major force on the horn."

Feather went on to describe the rest of the band. "Pianist Dolo Coker, a bebopper of the Bud Powell school, knows the value of understatement, often holding his considerable technique in reserve... Monty Budwig is everybody's dependable bassist, supple and swinging … Frank Butler, conceivably the most underrated drummer in Los Angeles."

But don't lake Leonard Feather's word for it—the evidence is here on this LP, and it's the type of proof which is a constant pleasure to verify.

With all that magnificent music, one might have thought that Don Schlitten would have been satisfied, but he wasn't. As he dryly related the story: "We took the next day off, and October 22 found Frank Butler leading Dolo and Monty with the added two tenors of Joe Farrell and Teddy Edwards (Wheelin' and Dealin', X 169). On October 23, Charles McPherson returned as a leader with Monty Budwig, Lou Levy, Charles McPherson Jr.,drums, and Kevin Jones (congas). Thit session also marked Xanadu debut of guitarist Peter Sprague Free Bop!, (X 170)." Phew! Quite a week!

Anyway, back to the session enclosed, pairing a trumpet and a flute, what might be a dangerous combination in less professional hands. Sam later stated with thai characteristic modesty that "I thought the session went well. We played a few times together, and I thought it was good, I was happy with the thing," which has to go down as the understatement of the year, at least as far as we are concerned as listeners.

The tunes are all originals, composed by Noto, and illustrate a fine sense of chord structure and melody. Fine Wine starts things off on a brisk, cheerful uptempo mood. Sam Noto's solo is fast and aggressive showing off not only his brilliant technical control but the ever-inventive mind behind it. Sam Most follows in his inimitable style, seeming to lay behind the best and yet pounce directly upon it at the same time. Dolo Coker adds some adept piano statements, and the two horn players trade eights with Butler, building the excitement to a climax, and then restate the theme in unison. It should be mentioned that the mix throughout the record is excellent and one is never left with the feeling that either of the horns overpowers the other, a constant problem with diverse instruments.

To Me Everything Happens is remindful of Everything Happens to Me. Sam Noto improvises masterfully from the very beginning, weaving his way through a lyrical masterpiece with ease and grace; phrasing each chorus with sensitivity and an almost tangible feeling of compassion. Dolo maintains the fantasy with a beautifully crafted solo which is simultaneously simple and complex, and almost floats over the changes, before Noto returns — proffering his warmth once again. Credit must be given to Monty Budwig and Frank Butler who, as they do throughout the proceedings, provide intelligent, empathetic support which goes so far beyond mere accompaniment: it adds a vital spice and flavor which truly helps distinguish this session as a special one.

Spanish Coffee is light and Happy, with a subtle latin feel. Both of the Sams show great facility and depth in their solos.

Sunbird takes the tempo up once again, and as Sam Noto related it, "I just wanted to put Bird's name in there somewhere and I came up with that name while looking through a magazine." With typical reverence, energy is the focus as everyone solos, including some particularly emotive fours traded between bass and drums.

Lady Arleen is named for Sam's wife and it’s a thoughtful, beautiful portrait which drawn. Note's muted trumpet is poignant and revealing with Sam Most's flute offering an appropriately exhilarating contrast.

Noto-Riety rounds out the session, and its funky, medium tempo provides the perfect vehicle for both Sams to stretch out at length. Most's distinct tonguing and breathy timbre are utilized to good advantage here, and his technique is enviable but never needlessly furious or showmany. Noto follow, with several moving, soulful, searching choruses and Dolo Coker and Monty Budwig both offer us one final opportunity to listen in awe to their uniquely swinging voices.

The history of all these artists has been documented so often in the past that I can't see repeating it here. Sam Noto's biography is outlined particularly well by Mark Gardner on the notes to his first LP as a leader—Entrance! (Xanadu 103).

Since moving to Toronto in 1975 Sam has recorded a great deal for Xanadu — but still not received the recognition or acclaim necessary to allow him to support himself playing jazz. "I've just stayed out here and had to do ail this studio crap," he candidly admits. "I sent out a big bunch of press kits, tryin' to get some gigs, to go out and play — but I haven't had too many calls." He says he does "odds and ends" and 'just can't seem to get into jazz full time, as I would like to." For the moment he accepts that philosophically. But as Sam's notoriety grows — and it is bound to with the release of this album — I feel confident that the situation will be promptly rectified. As all will perceive who listen to his music, that day cannot come soon enough.”

Notes: ANDREW SUSSMAN

Recording: ARNE FRAGER

Mixing: PAUL GOODMAN

Produced and Directed by DON SCHUTTEN

Sam Noto - Notes to You

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“ … Sam's playing … embodies his extension of the style that runs from Dizzy Gillespie to Fats Navarro through Clifford Brown. Of all the major trumpet soloists at work today who come out of Clifford, Noto is spiritually and technically most faithful to the source. His production of notes … shows a thorough understanding of Brownie's artistry. Too much, of course, can be made of artistic lineage; no one really plays like anyone else. … Sam's allegiance to the Brown style is important to his conception. But he is too forthright an individual to allow his personality to be submerged beneath even the oceanic influence of Brown.”

- Doug Ramsey, Jazz author, critic and blogger

From 1975 - 1980, the brilliant Jazz trumpet player, Sam Noto, made four LPs for Don Schlitten’s Xanadu record label none of which have made it into broader, digital circulation.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles thought it would be fun to highlight Sam and his Xanadu recordings in four, separate postings before combining these into one, comprehensive feature about Sam and the other recordings he played on for Xanadu as a sideman during this period, most notably on one in which he teamed up with bebop trumpet legend, Red Rodney.

Not only are Jazz fans indebted to Don for recording Sam at the peak of his career but also for turning to four knowledgeable Jazz authors to prepare the liner notes to these LPs each of which provide a wealth of information about Sam’s background, his style of playing, the musicians on the various dates and the song selections.

Recorded on December 18, 1977, Sam Noto/Notes to You [Xanadu 144] features Sam along with Joe Romano, tenor sax, Ronnie Cuber, baritone sax, Jimmy Rowles on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Freddie Waits on drums with the following liner notes by Doug Ramsey.

“It was late Spring or early Summer, 1957, and Stan Kenton was playing a dance at the Washington Armory. The band may not have been Kenton's best, but it was by no means his worst. Lennie Niehaus was the featured alto saxophone soloist. Bill Perkins got most of the tenor solos. Red Kelly was the bassist. The trumpet section included two players I thought showed promise as soloists. One was Lee Katzman, who dropped out of sight after the 1950s. The other was Sam Noto. None of the trumpeters got much in the way of solo time from Kenton, he kept them so busy blowing high and loud. But lead trumpeter Noto showed more than power in his scattered few bars of improvisation. He had imagination.

The few of us who had come to listen were grouped at the edge of the dance floor, and I remember one of our number remarking that it would be interesting to hear Noto stretch out in solo. None of us dreamed it would be nearly two decades before that opportunity materialized.

Note's Kenton experience lasted from 1953 to 1960, but for most of that time, he recalls, "there was precious little solo space."

"Near the end, I started to get a lot to play, but it took a long time," he says. "By then Stan had put me on first trumpet and it was kind of hard to keep my jazz chops together, and play that book. It's a different kind of thing. When you play first trumpet, you have to put your air in differently, because you're aiming for projection. When you play jazz, you have to kind of bubble your air in to get the proper inflections. It was hurting me; I wanted to be a jazz player and he was making a first trumpet player out of me. That's why I never went back on the band."

Looking back on the lead experience with Kenton, Noto today realizes its value. It made a professional reputation that helped him land lucrative lead jobs in Las Vegas, where until the mid-seventies he worked in show bands. And the ability developed in the pressure cooker brass section of the Kenton band has made it possible for him to secure more or less steady studio employment in Toronto. Now he uses the Canadian city as a base of operations for his beloved jazz work. It isn't fair, it isn't right, that a creative artist of Noto's rank should have to record jingles and other schlock to subsidize his first love. But it is more fair, more right, than starving.

Starving is what he says he did after leaving Kenton and returning to his native Buffalo.

"After a couple of years of hard times, I got myself together jazz-wise. I began to be able to play the way I had wanted to during the Kenton years."

That meant developing his improvisatory technique. An important component of that was the business of bubbling the air into his horn. Other trumpet players, notably Clifford Brown, have used it, but it is as difficult to explain as it is to master.

"I get four or five calls a week from students at the Humber College music school in Toronto asking how I do it. If I could only get an answer together, I could probably make a good living teaching. I just keep the air going, but I interrupt it, sometimes with the tongue, sometimes without it, but it sounds like I'm tonguing all the time. I picked it up from just listening to Clifford. He sometimes tongued, sometimes slurred, but he kept that air going. He did it in such a way that it became a virtuoso style of playing. It's hard to explain, and you don't do it by thinking about it too much. And you can't really tell how I do it by watching. Trumpet players from the school come down all the time and watch closely, but they still ask how I do it."

After the years of getting his style and technique together in Buffalo, Noto went on the road with Count Basie for five months in 1964 and three months in 1965. He found that big band experience considerably different from the one with Kenton. He was featured in solo on only a couple of pieces. But he says he learned something about the Basie men's approach to playing that proved a valuable lesson.

"When I first got on the band, I was sticking out like a sore thumb," he says. "Those cats play differently. They lay back. They play with the time more. A whole section will be in a different time slot than another section. But it all comes out. It's much more relaxed than Kenton. At first with Basie I was playing right on top of the beat, but after a few nights I began to get the hang of it. I really enjoyed it. With Basie, if it doesn't swing, it doesn't mean anything. With Stan, everything was more concerned with harmonic style."

When he left Basie, times were rough in Buffalo, and Sam moved to Las Vegas for several years of financially rewarding but artistically barren activity in the pits of the Strip's show hotels. There were a few Musicians Union trust fund concerts in which Noto and other jazz players attracted by Vegas' plentiful money could express themselves. Otherwise, jam sessions provided the only creative outlet.

"Playing in people's' garages after the gig, that was the only way we kept our sanity."

Among his companions at many of those after-hour sessions was Gus Mancuso, another talented upstate New Yorker who is equally accomplished on piano, vibes, bass, and baritone horn and who has been all but buried in the Las Vegas scene for two decades. The Mangione brothers, Sal Nistico, J. R. Monterose, Don Menza, Frank Strazzeri, and Joe Romano are among the upstaters who developed in the fifties and sixties and who share an indefinable but unmistakable stylistic bond.

"It sure has a certain kind of feel about it," Sam agrees. "Some people in L.A., without even knowing where we're from, can hear us play and know we're from that area. Some Upstate Italian thing, I guess."

Romano and Noto have been doing their Upstate Italian thing together off and on since the early 1950s when Sam was working at a Buffalo club called Boffo's. Romano visited from Rochester one night and sat in.

"I was impressed with Joe's playing that night, always have been. Through the years, we've been associated. When I had my own club in Buffalo, he worked with me."

Joe was a Woody Herman mainstay in the 1950s, recording outside the band occasionally, including a 1957 date with Gus Mancuso that was memorable for Joe's Sonny Rollins-inspired solos as well as Gus's robust baritone horn work. He still likes early Sonny, as you can plainly hear, but what was an almost overwhelming influence 20 years ago has been tempered by Joe's development, and to some extent by the saxophone changes of the Coltrane era. More of the fruits of the Noto/Romano relationship may be heard on Sam's second Xanadu album. Act One (X 127). Sam's first album for Xanadu is called Entrance! (X 103). He can also be heard along with Dexter Cordon, Al Cohn, Blue Mitchell, Barry Harris, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes on True Blue (X 136) and Silver Blue (X 137).

This was the first time Noto had played with Jimmy Rowles, the unclassifiable piano giant from Spokane. Rowles has accompanied virtually every major jazz artist of the modern era, and each of them has been almost unreasonably lavish in his or her praise of Jimmy's sensitivity, inventiveness, humor, and encyclopedic knowledge of tunes. It is quite likely that Rowles knows more changes to more songs than anyone else. He is a major soloist. It strikes me that his solo on Parley is an out and out masterpiece of jazz improvisation, logical, lyrical, constructed with the fluidity of thought and emotion that can be achieved only by a great artist. Producer Don Schlitten notes that "a number of so-called hip musicologists did a double take when they found out that Rowles was in the band, but as you can hear, Rowles is a giant and belongs everywhere."

Sam was thrilled with Jimmy's contribution.

"He was dancin' back there," he says. "He loosened me up. He plays a little less than other piano players. In fact, he's one of the last of the good compers. He comps lightly and in short spurts, where some guys will lay on a chord and force you into a corner with it. And studio playing is something else, you know; he was about 15 yards away from me. But, as I say, he was dancin', giving me those nice little pops to keep me going." Jimmy can also be heard in duel form with Al Cohn on Heavy Love (X 1451).

Sam Jones, one of the busiest and most respected bassists in New York, works frequently these days in clubs and on tour with Cedar Wallon. He is featured on many Xanadu albums and on his own as leader on Cello Again (X 129). He continues the Oscar Pettiford tradition of bass playing, but has long since established his reputation as a major force on his instrument.

Waits' credentials can be quickly established by listing a few of the artists he has worked with: Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Dorham, McCoy Tyner, Carmen McRae, Lee Morgan, Mercer Ellington, Stan Getz, James Moody, Milt Jackson, Nancy Wilson, not to mention Captain Kangaroo. The range of abilities implied by that variety of performer speaks for itself. So does his drumming on this session, as well as on The Inimitable Teddy Edwards (X 134).

Ronnie Cuber's first jazz experience was in the legendary Newport Youth Band led by Marshall Brown in the 1950s. From there he went to Maynard Ferguson's incendiary early sixties organization. But, for most listeners, he became a major baritone factor when he worked with the exciting small band led by guitarist George Benson in 1966 and 1967. His sound is large, but incisive. He is a solid anchorman in a sax section, and a soloist who demands attention for his swaggeringly confident improvisations. Cuber's ferocious work on Parley is among his best on record. His own album is Cuber Libre (X 135).

As for Sam's playing, it embodies his extension of the style that runs from Dizzy Gillespie to Fats Navarro through Clifford Brown. Of all the major trumpet soloists at work today who come out of Clifford, Noto is spiritually and technically most faithful to the source. His production of notes, alluded to above in his discussion of technique, shows a thorough understanding of Brownie's artistry. Too much, of course, can be made of artistic lineage; no one really plays like anyone else. Paul Quinichette, for an example, is the most faithful of Lester Young's disciples, but the experienced listener can quickly pinpoint Quinichette's touches. Sam's allegiance to the Brown style is important to his conception. But he is too forthright an individual to allow his personality to be submerged beneath even the oceanic influence of Brown. Listen to his entry on 'Round Midnight, and his controlled lyricism in the first four bars of the melody. No mistaking that for any other trumpet player. His speed and control are much like Clifford's, but his fast work on Notes To You makes it clear that his way of handling those flurries of 16th notes is his own. Brownie was inclined to play uninterrupted strings of 16ths, sometimes to the point of boredom, one of the few legitimate criticisms of his work. Noto alternates the fast passages with stretches of longer notes, imparting a distinctive variety to his solos.

This album also represents Sam Noto the composer. All of his originals here are originals in the true sense. There is one exception. Notes To You is based on the changes of I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire, of all things.

"All the bebop guys used to put new lines to old changes," Sam explains. "We were messing around with those changes one day, and that's what I came up with. But lately all my tunes have had original changes."

Quasinoto and Conclusions were written in Toronto in 1976. Cross Chris and Parley dale back to the early sixties and Noto's Buffalo hiatus.

"Cross Chris was named after my son. He was a hyperkinetic little boy, and he was always angry. Now he's 17, and he's still angry. So it's a turnaround on 'criss-cross' but it has no musical relationship to the Thelonious Monk tune named Criss Cross,"

Quasinoto was one of Sam's nicknames in Las Vegas. "Notes" was another, hence Notes To You, a song and album title definitely not to be taken as an insult.

Sam is moderately pleased with his playing here. Pressed to assign it a value on a scale of one to ten, the perfectionist Noto gives it a 6. He says he has achieved 8 a few times, and is still working for 10. Based on the perfection of his playing on this album, we must conclude that if 10 is achievable, it will be a staggering experience to hear Sam when he gets there.

With three Xanadu albums under his leadership, Sam's Notoriety is growing. After years of solid development, he is being recognized as a major jazz artist. It is gratifying to watch...and hear...his success.”

Notes: DOUG RAMSEY

Cover Photo: DON SCHLITTEN

Recording: PAUL GOODMAN

Produced and Directed: DON SCHLITTEN