The Things...
Moon & Sand
BeBop Xmas...
Live At Chit Chat
Hawk's Delight
MOON & SAND, featuring Tony Zano, piano; John Lockwood, bass; and Joe Hunt, drums, is available at CD Baby
THE THINGS YOU ALL ARE and BEBOP XMAS CARD will be availbale at CD Baby very soon.
LIVE AT CHIT CHAT, with Paul Combs' Pocket Big Band, is available at Sea Breeze Jazz
HAWK'S DELIGHT is available directly from BoMuse Transcriptions (see below).
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"John Barrett, Jr., Green Mtn. Jazz Messenger, Oct. '99"
"Larry Nai, Cadence, May '99",
BTCD 1002
The Theme of this CD is thanks, appreciation and an acknowledgment of blessings. In the performing arts we are never alone. Colleagues, audience and unseen supporters all have a part in making our work possible. First I want to acknowledge my band-mates. In 1993 Jay and Paul were playing at a restaurant on a weekly basis. Once a month they were able to add a third player and asked me to join them. A year later when I reorganized my own band they were at the heart of the new one. We have been working as a trio for some five years now, with a drummer whenever possible and even a piano or vibraphone from time to time. In 1996 Stanley became our regular drummer, and these gentlemen have been my faithful musical companions on the fat gigs as well as the skinny ones; always ready to play whether the pay was guaranteed or speculative. Anyone who has performed regularly can appreciate the value of consistency of ensemble. The presence of Jay, Paul and Stanley in my music life has been a blessing.
In his passing much has been written about Ken. An artist and community activist who's commitment and courage has had, at times, had international impact. He was a man who, for me, summed up the "jazz attitude." That he always managed to be profoundly in-the-moment while maintaining awareness of the moment's context. He gave his time and energy generously to the local jazz community, making sure we all had a place to be heard, whether at the Cambridge Public Library, the Lai Lai or the 1359 Jazz Club. Any one trying to get a new band or a new sound together could count on Ken to provide the place to present it. He enriched my life and those of so many others. Knowing him was another blessing.
When I was a teenager I met a man some eight to ten years older than myself at a little coffee house that presented jazz. Don had just gotten out of the service and had some jazz records he had picked up in Europe, records that were not available in the U.S., which he was kind enough to loan to me. He was and is a man who is very committed to young people who are at that very difficult adolescent time of life, and he helped so many of us youngsters stay focused on the positive things in our lives. I do not have space for all the good memories, like taking me and another young musician friend to hear Art Blakey at a concert in North Philly, but I want to share this one. One day when I was 16 or 17 Don predicted that I would persevere as a musician and would one day record, and he requested that I play Raksin and Mercer's Laura for him. Well it has taken a lot of time and a lot of perseverance, Don, but your faith in me is something I have never forgotten.
Paul is my son and of all the blessings I have received he is a the top of the list. When he was a very little boy we were separated for a while. It was a difficult time for both of us and I was very concerned for his future. I was supplementing my income as a musician at that time by driving a taxi and one day, on the long bus ride to the cab garage, while I as thinking about him, a tune came to me. The tune was so clear and well formed that it stayed in my mind all through the long night of cab driving and the journey home. When I got home I wanted to write this melody down but was to tired and had to hope that I could remember it when I got up. I have forgotten many good tunes this way, but when I woke up it was still there just as clear as the night before. We musicians often say that we feel more like the medium for music than the originators of it and Blue Skies For Beau is, for me, a prime example of that phenomenon. I am happy to say that the blue skies have turned out to be there for my son.
1. My Little Suede Shoes (C. Parker) 5:47
2. All The Things You Are (O. Hammerstein III, J. Kern) 8:05
3. One For Ken (P. Combs) 5:25
4. Yardbird Suite (C. Parker) 6:26
5. Laura (J. Mercer, D. Raksin) 6:18
6. Road Song (W. Montgomery) 7:44
7. *Blue Skies For Beau (P. Combs) 7:50
8. *Yours Is My Heart Alone (F. Lehar, L. Herzer, F. Löhner, H. Smith) 7:24
9. *I Got My Job Through BOP (P.Combs, V. Gibson) 8:37
Paul Combs: soprano & baritone saxes; flute.
Jay Ford: electric guitar.
Paul Ebersole: bass.
Stanley C. Swann III: drums>
Recorded 2/2/97, 6/1/97 and 1/18/98 at Supervox Sound Recording, Boston MA; *8/1/97 at The Acton Jazz Café, Acton MA.
Recorded by Brook Batteau and Chris Madsen.
Mixed by Paul Combs and Chris Madsen.
Mastered by Chris Madsen.
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Reviews:
"John Barrett, Jr., Jazz Improv, Nov. '00",
BTCD 1003
Estate,
sweet summer,
cast as an errant lover.
Moon,
and sand,
and the memory of a kiss
full of elusive promises.
One returns to the beach
in winter
searching for answers
to questions
so ambiguous as to render
the notion
of an answer
moot.
***************
I began this project without trepidation. I sing because it is my first instrument and I have always sung. But I do not practice singing. My models are Dizzy, Zoot, Jack Sheldon, Earl Warren; singing horn players whom I have heard get away with singing very casually. It seems so easy when on the bandstand and the moment feels just right. The audience is caught by surprise and responds favorably. Some even express disappointment with the lack of vocals on my existing CDs.
However, once I started to record this CD, it was a different matter. The voice is an instrument with no keys, buttons, strings or reeds. One does not put one's hands on it. It has to be made to work by will power alone. Will power, and as other instruments, practice. Even though the basic tracks were laid down in one afternoon (thanks to the wonderful support of Tony, John and Joe) the CD was not ready for mixing for another year-and-a-half.
Well, so much for apologies.
The songs were chosen for their lyric qualities as much as for their melodic and harmonic strengths. One of the advantages to being a casual singer is that one can be very picky about the material. Each of these songs holds some poetic resonance for me, whether it is an ironic twist, a personal connection or both.
The one instrumental of the set, "Frank Fuller's Waltz," was written in memory of a good friend of Tony's and mine. Frank Fuller was a drummer. He was not a flashy, technically impressive type of player but with him in the rhythm section I always felt a marvelous freedom. His time was so sure and his groove so solid. Frank was a master of a swinging, joyous 3/4 feel and I came to consider the "jazz waltz" a necessary part of my repertoire as a result of his influence.
Thanks to Tony for asking for John and Joe; to Peter for friendship and good advice; to Peg E. for asking the questions that led me to Sally Weisman for her coaching and support; to Paul Broadnax and a whole long list of singing instrumentalists for inspiration and the courage to attempt this project.
***************
Post Script, January 14, 2001:
It is with the greatest sorrow that I must announce the passing of my friend Tony Zano. He was a great musician and an even greater human being and he will be sorely missed by many of us working in the Greater Boston area. I still cannot quite believe that we will never again have the pleasure of his support on the bandstand or the comfort of his gentle spirit and the inspiration of his courage.
***************
1. Estate (B. Brighetti, J. Siegel, B. Martino) 7:26
2. I've Never Been In Love Before (F. Loesser) 5:15
3. What A Difference A Day Made (S. Adams, M. Grever) 7:57
4. A Beautiful Friendship (S. Styne, D. Kahn) 5:39
5. Moon And Sand (W. Envick, A Wilder) 7:08
6. You Stepped Out Of A Dream (N.H. Brown, G. Gahn) 4:55
7. If You Could See Me Now (C. Sigman, T. Dameron) 6:42
8. Frank Fuller's Waltz (P. Combs) 5:44
9. Some Other Time (B. Comden, A. Green, L. Bernstein) 8:16
10. The Best Thing For You (I. Berlin) 4:25
Paul Combs: soprano & baritone saxes; flute; vocals.
Tony Zano: piano.
John Lockwood: bass.
Joe Hunt: drums
Recorded 7/20/98 at PBS, Westwood, MA.Addional recording 9/22 & 12/31/98 at PBS; 12/15/99 at BoMuse. Recorded by Peter Kontrimas.
Mixed by Paul Combs at BoMuse.
Mastered by Chris Madsen at Supervox Sound Recording, Boston, MA.
Photo by Jay Ford
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BTCD 1004
The BeBop Christmas card was first conceived in 1995 when Jay Ford and I were playing a brunch gig around Christmas time. It seemed like a good idea, but there was always something else to do. Finally, in the winter of 2000, I said "Alright let's do it!" There are two groups represented here. The quintet (Ford, Hemwall, Rich and Swann) is one that I assembled for a special church service performance. In November of 1999 I was asked to put together an all Ellington program for a service at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Concord, MA. The musicians had all worked with me in various contexts, and some had played with others before, but we had never played as a quintet. Schedules prevented us from assembling for a rehearsal, so I planned the performance in detail and gave every one the music and the details. We met at the church and it was like we had been working as a unit for years. I knew these guys would come through for me here.
The other group is the trio (Ford and Verdugo), with which I worked on a steady basis at Smithwicks Tavern in Lowell, MA. Smithwicks is long gone, but at that time we were playing together every Friday night and had developed a real rapport, and had a chance to run some of the tunes down ahead of the session.
Jazz Christmas albums are something of balancing act. One wants to tap into the sentiments of the season, but avoid sentiment for its own sake. I picked only tunes that I like as tunes and even reached for a couple of obscure things. Since the classics among this set are all pretty well known, I will tell you about the two that are not. Duérmete Niño Lindo is a folk song that was collected, according to my source, in New Mexico by J. D. Robb. I have also found a variant of this melody that was collected in Arizona. Here is the lyric and a singable translation, presumably by J. D. Robb:
Duérmete niño lindo,
en los brazos del amor;
Mientras que duerme y descansa
la pena de mi dolor.
(Chorus, traditional lullaby non-sense syllables)
A la ru, a la me,
A la ru, a la me,
A la ru, a la me,
A la ru, a la ru, a la me.
No temas al rey Herodes
que nada te ha de hacer;
en los brazos de to madre
y ahi nadie to ha de ofender.
******************
Oh sleep, thou holy baby,
With thy head against my breast;
Meanwhile the pangs of my sorrow
Are soothed and put to rest.
Thou need'st not fear King Herod
He will bring no harm to you;
So rest in the arms of your mother
Who sings to you "a la ru."
Tadd Dameron's A Be Bop Carroll, may or may not really be for the Christmas season. It is written on the chord changes of "Mean To Me" which are close in some ways the changes for "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Perhaps it is a cryptic reference on the part of Dameron, maybe it's all in my own mind, but it fits with the theme of a "BeBop Christmas Card."
The packaging of the "Card" is a paperboard enclosure, like a miniature of the jackets that LPs used to come in. There is a rectangle on the back in which one can write the name of a recipient as well as their own signature, and an envelope is provided for mailing. It really can be used as a Christmas Card.
1. White Christmas, I. Berlin
2. The Christmas Song, M. Tormé & R. Wells
3. There Is No Christmas Like A Home Christmas, C. Sigman, M. Addy
4. Duérmete Niño Lindo, traditional from New Mexico
5. Merry Christmas Baby, J. Moore & L. Baxter
6. A Be Bop Carroll, T. Dameron
7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Martin & Blain
8. I'll Be Home For Christmas, K. Gannon, W. Kent & B. Ram
9. A Child Is Born, T. Jones
10. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve, F. Loesser
Paul Combs, saxes, flute & vocals
Jay Ford, guitar
Don Hemwall, piano
Doug Rich, upright bass (1,2,5,6,8 &10)
Pedro Verdugo, electric bass (3,4,7, & 9)
Stanley C. Swann, III, drums
Recorded 5/7/00, Chris Madsen, engineer; 6/21/00, Brook Batteau, engineer; and mastered by Chris Madsen at Supervox Sound Recording, Boston, MA
Cover art by Peter Panas
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Review:
"Jack Bowers, Jazz Improv, Vol. 5, no. 4
Sea Breeze Jazz 3073
Thanks for a little miracle
We started rehearsing the Pocket Big Band sometime in November of 2001. In my work on a book on Tadd Dameron I had collected many of his arrangements and wanted to have a band that could play, if only in smaller group orchestrations, as much of this as possible. The first piece in our book is a previously unknown piece that Dameron wrote for Mary Lou Williams in 1942, and we were the first people to ever play it since, for various reasons, it had remained unplayed in Williams’ collection of papers from the time Dameron gave it to her almost sixty years earlier. I had also had a desire to form such a band that went back to my youth, and by 2001 I had thought it would never happen. The problem was finding rehearsal space, and that was solved by our drummer Paul Marcantonio and his wife Valerie who generously made their basement, where Valerie teaches dance, available for our rehearsals. Our pianist Don Hemwall also had us squeeze into his teaching studio on several occasions.
The first year or so required a great deal of faith and perseverance, and it is well worth noting that seven of the original members of the band are on this recording and still with the group at the time of this writing. We had managed to play for the public only three times in the first year and were getting a bit discouraged. Enter Gary Schina and the Chit Chat Lounge. Gary and I have a friendship that goes back over thirty years. In the early 1970s I played at the Chit Chat with a variety of bands, and we have kept in touch over the years since. Gary, a musician himself, is one of the most positive and supportive people I know, and when I told him the Pocket Big Band was looking for a venue in which we could “set up shop” on a weekly basis he immediately offered us the stage on Sundays. We started in January of 2003 and by the time this recording is released we will be entering our third season at the Chit Chat.
The Chit Chat Lounge is also wired for location recording and Gary has developed a deft hand with mic placement for drums as well as mastery of his, shall we say, mystical recording gear. You will hear the results on this cd. We were now in position to attempt this project in a comfortable environment, and in the company of our partisans and others. This brings me to the first batch of thank-yous that are due. Over the time we have been at the Chit Chat we have been blessed with a somewhat small but enthusiastic steady audience. These are folks check in with us regularly, some of them almost every week. It is the applause and voices of these lovely people, along with other friends, old and new, that you hear on these tracks. I have always felt that the audience is a necessary part of the process of music making and we have one of the very best audiences a band could ask for.
We have also had the support of a community of musicians who have substituted for one or another of us when needed and this has allowed us to keep our steady presence at the Chit Chat. Trumpeters Gerry Barrett, Scott Beckman, Giorgio Distante, and Hugh Nestor; trombonists Daren Cook, Garo Saraydarian, Bill Saulnier, Taka Sugita and Cliff Weeks; saxophonists Sean Berry, Alan Chase, John Franzosa, Kathleen Howland, Linda Little, Ken Mamayek, Frank Rull, Jason Samiagio, Scott Tringali and Paul Vignoli; pianists Jacques Carnier, Ed Chenowith, Alan Rowe, Sean Sweeney, Mike Valdez, Jim Zaroulis and, when no suitable pianist could be found, guitarist Mark Michaels. While Paul Marcantonio is our regular drummer, he is also a family man with many responsibilities so he is backed up by our excelent drum team of Rick Hansen, Tony Hyde, Renato Malavasi, Steve Rose and the mighty Stanley C. Swann III. Because qualified basists, who can not only read but solo, are in great demand the pocket big band does not have a regular bassist but a pool of players as well as some good souls who have come to our rescue when no one in the pool was available. These include Gary Bergin, Paul Chase , Chuck Gabriel, Herman Hampton, Manuel Kaufmann, Roger Kimball, Dave Lablue, Greg Loughman, Tracie Marsh, Tony Sumbury, Nate Therrien, Frank Zarba. I hope I have not left anyone out, but if I have please forgive me.
Finally, there are my heart felt thanks for those who have contributed arrangements to our book solely on the basis of friendship and a commitment to good music: Bob Pilkington, Scott Tringali, Nils Wacklen and our patron saint, Cliff Weeks. Many, many thanks to all who have supported the little miracle that is the Pocket Big Band.
1. Red Rock - Dan Higgins 6:40
2. Brazil - Fred Forney 6:00
3. Take 3 - Willie Smith 5:35
4. Summer Song - Dan Higgins 6:45
5. Moscow Beat Blues - Bob Pilkington 6:50
6. No Foolin’ - Cliff Weeks 5:35
7. Thrice As Nice - Dan Higgins 7:45
8. Reds - Fred Forney 5:40
9. One For Ken - Paul Combs 4:35
10. Tubarao - Trad. Cape Verde, arr. Paul Combs 5:10
11. Lady ‘C’ Good - Tom Kubis 6:00
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Reviews:
"John Barrett, Jr., Jazz Improv, Jan. '00",
"Larry Nai, Cadence, May '99",
"Alan Chase, Spotlight, Jan. '96"
BTCD 1001
This album is a collection of sessions from a period of eleven years. An "album" of perfromances in the same sense as a photo album. On the first of the sessions I recorded with a band called Jitterbug Waltz, which was led by guitarist Dean Magraw. I used to sit in with them from time to time and was hoping to use them as a rhythm section on some gigs, but one thing and another, we never got that off the ground. A few monthes after that session I went into the studio with pianist Larry Garland, who was a neighbor of mine at the time. Larry is a wonderful pianist with a unique style who deserves to be much better known. I consider him to be on of my "musical uncles," that is one of those musicians who encouraged me and from whom I learned a great deal.
The rest of the sessions are from about ten years later. The Quintet recordings are of a band that I had together for about two years in one form or another, and the duo recordings are with pianists Ken Cook and Vaughn Gibson, who were both members of that band. The drummer Mark Burdon, and bassist Tony Sumbury, are, along with Ken and Vaughn, quite busy in the Boston area. Guitarist Morris Acevedo, now resides in the San Francisco area. (Mark Burdon has relocated to New York City since the release of this CD and the writing of these notes - P.C.)
All of us had good times making these recordings, which I think comes through in the performances. I am certainly grateful to live among such talented and warm-hearted people. This includes the engineers as well, Tom Daley, Jim Terry and, most especially, Bruce Burke and Jack Clancey of Burclan Productions, who have provided help, support and companionship in many projects over the years.
-Paul Combs, Cambridge 1995
1. Hawk's Delight A (6:41) P. Combs
2. Over The Rainbow B (5:24) E.Y. Harburg & H. Arlen
3. How Insensitive C (4:23) V. de Moraes, J.C. Jobim
4. Beautiful Love D (3:40) H. Gillespie, V. Young, W. King & E. Van Alstyne
5. Barbara A (7:51) H. Silver
6. I Love You D (3:41) C. Porter
7. Someday My Prince Will Come B (3:04) L. Morey & F. Churchill
8. Long Ago (And Far Away) C (3:54) I. Gershwin & J. Kern
9. On The Trail, from the Grand Canyon Suite E (7:58) F. Grofé
10. Sonnymoon For Two B (2:05) S. Rollins
A Paul Combs: baritone sax; Morris Acevedo: guitar; Ken Cook: keyboards; Tony Sumbury: bass; Mark Burdon: drums. Effectside Studios, Somerville, MA, February 1991. Jim Terry, engineer.
B Paul Combs: alto sax; Vaughn Gibson: piano. Daley Planet Studio, Haverhill, MA, January 4, 1992. Tom Daley, engineer.
C Paul Combs: tenor sax; Dean Magraw: guitar; Henry Gordon: bass; Tommy Mac Donald: drums. Burclan Productions, Watertown, MA, April or May 1980. Bruce Burke and Jack Clancey, engineers.
D Paul Combs: baritone sax; Ken Cook: piano. Daley Planet Studio, Haverhill, MA, September 15, 1991. Tom Daley, engineer.
E Paul Combs: tenor sax; Larry Garland: piano. Burclan Productions, Watertown, MA, July 1980. Bruce Burke and Jack Clancey, engineers.
Mastered at Burclan Productions by Alan Sahatijian.Photos by Emily White.
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