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.
Mel Martin - June 7, 1942 in Sacramento, CA
The leader of Bebop and Beyond and 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 Records) with guitarist Randy Vincent, Martin formed Bebop and Beyond, a band that has since recorded for Concord and Bluemoon including two NEA funded tribute albums on the music of Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie with Dizzy participating on the latter. Among Bebop and Beyond's sidemen have been George Cables, Donald Bailey, Randy Vincent, Jeff Chambers, Wayne Wallace, Eddie Marshall 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. In 2007, Mel Martin released "Just Friends", by the Mel Martin/Benny Carter Quintet on the Jazzed Media Label. It is a full recording from the live 1994 Yoshi's date and was awarded **** in Downbeat magazine.
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. He was 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.
Mel Martin BiographyMel 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 people will enjoy it." .
MEL MARTIN CD-JM1043
Where the Warm Winds Blow
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Mel Martin and Bebop and Beyond CD-5006
Friends and Mentors - Bebop and Beyond Plays the Music of Mel
Martin
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MEL MARTIN / BENNY CARTER QUINTET CD-JM1025
JUST FRIENDS - LIVE @ YOSHI'S
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Mel
Martin Plays Benny Carter
featuring Benny Carter CD-9041 2
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