''The Complete Blue Note Fifties Sessions'' is a compilatation of saxophonist, composer and bandleader

Gil Mellé Gilbert John Mellé (December 31, 1931 – October 28, 2004) was an American jazz musician, film score composer, and artist. Life and career In the 1950s, Mellé created the cover art for albums by Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rolli ...

's recordings from 1952 to 1956 which were released on the

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

label.Jazzdisco: Gil Melle Catalog
accessed July 30, 2018 They were originally released as four 10 inch LPs; ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' (which featured

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including Booker Ervin, John Coltrane, Mil ...

's first issued recordings); ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow''; ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca''; ''5 Impressions of Color''; and a 12 inch LP '' Patterns in Jazz''.

Reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

awarded the album 4½ stars and Richard S. Ginell stated "this collection leaves little doubt that he was (and remains) a marvelous saxophonist and an intriguing composer who hasn't been given his due". On

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

John Sharpe said "These extremely rare sessions contain a mix of straight bop, a number of standards and many of Melle's unique third stream compositions. Melle's use of a guitar (Tal Farlow, Lou Mecca and Joe Cinderella) in place of a piano was seen as a bold, innovative step ... Although these discs do contain some sonic imperfections they remain a valuable document of one of the most cerebral and creative figures in jazz".Sharpe, J
All About Jazz Review
accessed July 30, 2018

Track listing

All compositions by Gil Mellé except where noted Disc One: # "Four Moons" – 2:23 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "The Gears" – 3:06 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "Mars" – 2:46 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "Sunset Concerto" – 2:03 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "Cyclotron" – 3:13 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "October" – 3:41 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "Under Capricorn" – 2:58 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "Venus" – 3:40 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet'' # "

Lover Man "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" (often called simply "Lover Man") is a 1941 popular song written by Jimmy Davis, Roger ("Ram") Ramirez, and James Sherman. It is particularly associated with Billie Holiday, for whom it was written, and her ...

" ( Jimmy Davis,

Ram Ramirez Roger "Ram" Ramirez (September 15, 1913 – 11 January 1994) was a Puerto Rican jazz pianist and composer. He was a co-composer of the song " Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" Early life Ramirez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on September 15, ...

, Jimmy Sherman) – 5:55 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow'' # "Spellbound" (

Miklós Rózsa Miklós Rózsa (; April 18, 1907 – July 27, 1995) was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extensi ...

) – 3:18 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow'' # "Transition" – 5:12 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow'' # "A Lion Lives Here" – 3:50 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow'' # "Timepiece" – 3:10 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow'' # "Gingersnap" – 3:17 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quintet with Urbie Green and Tal Farlow'' # "

The Nearness of You "The Nearness of You" is a popular song written in 1937 by Hoagy Carmichael (1899–1981), with lyrics by Ned Washington (1901–1976). Intended for an unproduced Paramount Pictures film titled Romance In The Rough, the studio's publishing divi ...

" (

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, a ...

Ned Washington Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Life and career Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Be ...

) – 4:17 Previously unreleased # "

Lullaby of Birdland "Lullaby of Birdland" is a jazz standard and popular song composed by George Shearing with lyrics by George David Weiss (under the pseudonym "B. Y. Forster"). Background George Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland" in 1952 for Morris Levy, the ow ...

" (

George Shearing Sir George Albert Shearing (13 August 191914 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 so ...

George David Weiss George David Weiss (April 9, 1921 – August 23, 2010) was an American songwriter and arranger, who was a president of the Songwriters Guild of America. He is an inductee in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Biography Weiss was born in a Jewish f ...

) – 3:46 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca'' # "Ballad for Guitar" – 3:53 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca'' # "Metropolitan" – 2:50 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca'' # "Newport News" – 4:55 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca'' *Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on March 2, 1952 (tracks 1-4), January 31, 1953 (tracks 5-8), October 25, 1953 (tracks 9-15) and September 5, 1954 (tracks 16-19) ''Disc Two:'' # " Summertime" (

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...

) – 3:59 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca'' # "Quadrille for Moderns" – 3:31 Originally released on ''Gil Mellé Quartet featuring Lou Mecca'' # "Five Impressions of Color: Spectrum Violet/Sea Green/Royal Blue/Ebony" – 12:37 Originally released on ''5 Impressions of Color'' # "Life Begins at Midnight" – 4:24 Originally released on ''5 Impressions of Color'' # "Night Train to Wildwood" – 4:10 Originally released on ''5 Impressions of Color'' # "Threadneedle Street" – 4:15 Originally released on ''5 Impressions of Color'' # "Weird Valley" – 5:13 Originally released on ''Patterns in Jazz'' # "The Set Break" – 4:48 Originally released on ''Patterns in Jazz'' # " Moonlight in Vermont" ( John Blackburn,

Karl Suessdorf Karl A. Suessdorf (April 28, 1911 – February 25, 1982) was an American songwriter. Biography The son of Henry F. Suessdorf, he was born in Valdez, Alaska, United States, where his father operated from 1907 to 1917 the Copper Block Buffet, a ...

) – 4:52 Originally released on ''Patterns in Jazz'' # " Long Ago (And Far Away)" (

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the ...

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over ...

) – 4:32 Originally released on ''Patterns in Jazz'' # "The Arab Barber Blues" – 9:05 Originally released on ''Patterns in Jazz'' # "Nice Questions" – 8:17 Originally released on ''Patterns in Jazz'' *Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on September 5, 1954 (tracks 1 & 2), February 27, 1955 (tracks 3-6) and April 1, 1956 (tracks 7-12).

Personnel

– tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone *

Eddie Bert Edward Joseph Bertolatus (May 16, 1922 – September 27, 2012), also known as Eddie Bert, was an American jazz trombonist. Music career He was born in Yonkers, New York, United States. Bert received a degree and a teaching license from the Manha ...

– trombone (Disc One: tracks 1-8, Disc Two: tracks 7-12) *

Urbie Green Urban Clifford "Urbie" Green (August 8, 1926 – December 31, 2018) was an American jazz trombonist who toured with Woody Herman, Gene Krupa, Jan Savitt, and Frankie Carle. He played on over 250 recordings and released more than twenty albums a ...

– trombone (Disc One: tracks 9-15) *

Don Butterfield Don Kiethly Butterfield (April 1, 1923 – November 27, 2006) was an American jazz and classical tuba player. Biography Butterfield began to play the tuba in high school. He wanted to play trumpet, but the band director assigned him to tuba inst ...

– tuba (Disc Two: tracks 3-6) *

George Wallington George Wallington (October 27, 1924 – February 15, 1993) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Born in Sicily, his career as a pianist began in the early 1940s, when he played with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and contributed to ...

– piano (Disc One: tracks 1-4) *

Tal Farlow Talmage Holt Farlow (June 7, 1921 – July 25, 1998) was an American jazz guitarist. He was nicknamed "Octopus" because of how his large, quick hands spread over the fretboard. Early life and education Talmage Holt Farlow was born in Greensb ...

– guitar (Disc One: tracks 5-15) *Lou Mecca – guitar (Disc One: tracks 16-19, Disc Two: tracks 1-6) * Joe Cinderella – guitar (Disc Two: tracks 7-12) *

Red Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell (September 20, 1927 – November 8, 1992) was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet. Biography Mitchell was born in New York City. His younger brother, Whitey Mitchell, also became a jazz ...

– bass (Disc One: tracks 1-4) *Clyde Lombardi – bass (Disc One: tracks 5-15) *Bill Phillips – bass (Disc One: tracks 16-19, Disc Two: tracks 1-6) *

Oscar Pettiford Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazz double bassist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom. Jazz bassist Christian McBride called Pettiford "probably the most imp ...

– bass (Disc Two: tracks 7-12) *Joe Manning – vibraphone (Disc One: tracks 1-4) *

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

– drums (Disc One: tracks 1-4) *

Joe Morello Joseph Albert Morello (July 17, 1928 – March 12, 2011) was an American jazz drummer best known for serving as the drummer for pianist Dave Brubeck, as part of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, from 1957 to 1972, including during the quartet's "clas ...

– drums (Disc One: tracks 5-15) *Vinnie Thomas – drums (Disc One: tracks 16-19, Disc Two: tracks 1-6) *

Ed Thigpen Edmund Leonard Thigpen (December 28, 1930 – January 13, 2010) was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with the Oscar Peterson trio from 1959 to 1965. Thigpen also performed with the Billy Taylor trio from 1956 to 1959. Biograph ...

– drums (Disc Two: tracks 7-12) *Monica Dell – vocals (Disc One: tracks 2-4)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Blue Note Fifties Sessions, The Blue Note Records compilation albums Gil Mellé compilation albums 1998 albums Albums produced by Alfred Lion Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio Albums recorded in a home studio