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| Mel Martin and Bebop And Beyond 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 Martin”. This is the original sextet format of the band featuring the current all-star rhythm section and the great soloists Jack Walrath and Andrew Speight. Bebop and Beyond is an acclaimed classical repertory jazz ensemble committed to working with some of the foremost performers and composers in jazz. Originally 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 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. Bebop and Beyond has been awarded a number of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Marin Arts Council and, most recently, Chamber Music America. Mel Martin, the Artistic Director of Bebop and Beyond, is a versatile bop-based reed player with an open-minded style. Mel Martin has been a fixture in San Francisco since the 1970s. He had his first gig when he was 14 and after attending San Francisco State he dropped out to become a professional musician. Among his early associations were such rock groups as Santana, Azteca, Cold Blood, Boz Scaggs and Van Morrison in addition to working in the studios. During 1977-78 he led an adventurous fusion band Listen, a group that recorded two albums for Inner City Records. In 1983, after recording a duet album (for Catero) with guitarist Randy Vincent, Martin formed Bebop and Beyond, a band that has since recorded for Concord and Bluemoon including NEA funded tribute albums to Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie with Dizzy participating on the latter. Among Bebop & Beyond's sidemen have been Randy Vincent, George Cables, Frank Tusa, Donald Bailey, Jeff Chambers, Wayne Wallace, Eddie Marshall, Mark Levine, Jack Walrath, Akira Tana, Andrew Speight and Warren Gale with such guests on their albums as John Handy, John Santos, Joe Henderson and Howard Johnson. In addition to recently performing music from the Charles Mingus songbook with Bebop and Beyond and the Mingus Epitaph Performance, Martin has recorded a solo set of Benny Carter tunes, Mel Martin Plays Benny Carter on Enja Records also with funding from the NEA. Mr. Carter is a featured as a special guest as is Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Victor Lewis, Harold Jones and Roger Kellaway. He was also awarded an NEA Fellowship in 1994, which enabled him to perform several concerts on both the East and West Coasts. Since then he has been dividing his time working on both coasts. He is currently conducting the Bebop and Beyond Advanced Jazz Workshop in the Novato schools. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |