CiTR

This great band was based in San Francisco and was the brain child of tenor and soprano saxophonist Mel Martin who organized this band in the early 1980's. Mel is a well known teacher,lecturer,and a player who among others has worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Carter and so many others plus pop groups like Azteca, Tower of power and Cold Blood. Mel picked some of the very best players in the Bay Area like the great John Handy on alto saxophone. John had worked with Charles Mingus and Randy Weston and led his own groups and was an icon in San Francisco by the time this record was made in February 1984. Warren Gale is on trumpet and Gale should be more widely recognized as he is a great player with a healthy brassy sound. George Cables is on piano and there isn't much more to say about a guy who is one of the world's greatest piano players. Frank Tusa from the east coast had played with Dave Liebman's Lookout Farm and the late Eddie Marshall on drums had worked with just about everyone in the Bay Area. Two of the tunes are by Mel Martin (the opener and the closer) one is a wonderful arrangement of Tadd Dameron's "On a Misty Night". Frank Tusa wrote one. Eddie Marshall also wrote one and Mel Martin arranged two great tunes by Thelonious Monk called "Evidence" and "Monk's Mood". Bebop and Beyond is a great band and deserves to be heard so here it is!