Requisites

Mood Indigo is an album recorded by saxophonist Frank Morgan on June 26 & 27, 1989. It was released on the Antilles label. It was recorded at RCA Recording Studios, Studio C in New York City.

The altoist contributed two compositions among the twelve he selected among the array of standards by the best in the business. Being members of the quintet that Morgan put together for this date, Cables and Williams were also invited to contribute one song each.

Morgan chose not to drag out the album with lengthy solos, rather opting to deliver an honest and sensitive interpretation of these popular songs. This approach kept the album under an hour.

1. Lullaby (George Cables) – 1:29
2. This Love Of Mine (Hank Sanicola, Sol Parker, Frank Sinatra) – 6:36
3. In A Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington) – 4:18
4. Bessie’s Blues (John Coltrane) – 8:59
5. A Moment Alone (Buster Williams) – 1:46
6. Mood Indigo” (Ellington) – 5:59
7. Up Jumped Spring (Freddie Hubbard) – 4:58
8. Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke) – 4:29
9. We Three Blues (Frank Morgan) – 6:55
10. ‘Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk) – 6:55
11.  Lullaby (Cables) – 1:36
12.  Gratitude (Morgan) – 0:35

• Frank Morgan – alto saxophone, voice (tracks 1–4 & 6–12)
• Wynton Marsalis – trumpet (tracks 4 & 6)
• George Cables (tracks 1, 3, 8, 10 & 11), Ronnie Mathews (tracks 2, 4, 6 & 7) – piano
• Buster Williams (tracks 2, 4–7, 9 & 10) – bass
• Al Foster (tracks 2, 4, 6, 7, 9 & 10) – drums

• John Snyder – producer
• Joe Lopes – engineer

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Johnny Meijer was born Jan Cornelis Meijer on October 1, 1912 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  Widely recognized as a virtuoso jazz accordionist not only did he play popular songs but also fast swing numbers. In 1974 he recorded the Dutch Swing College Band’s Johnny Goes Dixie LP, which went gold.

He will also be remembered for his proficiency with classical and folk music in his native city.  was typically seen during performances with a cigar in his mouth. He was a major influence on French accordionist Richard Galliano.

Unfortunately, due to his short temper and drinking, during the last years of his life, Meijer was rarely invited to play large performances, mainly in connection with his short temper and his drinking, the King of the Accordion saw out his final days mostly in silence, occasionally playing weddings and parties.

The subject of a film, Amsterdam erected a statue to the musician. Accordionist Johnny Meijer, who celebrated his 75th birthday at the North Sea Jazz Festival, transitioned on January 8, 1992 in Amsterdam.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Thelma Terry was born Thelma Esther Combes on September 30, 1901 in Bangor, Michigan in 1901. After her parents divorced she moved with her mother and two sisters to Chicago, Illinois where she chose to study string bass. Her early years were spent on the road performing in Chautauqua assemblies. When she graduated from Austin Union High School, she earned first chair in the Chicago Women’s Symphony Orchestra. As this did not provide her with a living, she turned to jazz.

She found her way into Chicago nightlife, playing in and around the city with her all-women band, Thelma Combes and her Volcanic Orchestra, or her jazz string quartet, and was hired by Al Capone as the house band in his Colosimo’s Restaurant.

Withan article in Variety bringing national attention to her, the Music Corporation of America took notice of Combes and renamed her “Thelma Terry” and gave her an all-male band, Thelma Terry and Her Playboys, with a young Gene Krupa on drums.

MCA billed Terry as “The Beautiful Blonde Siren of Syncopation”, “The Jazz Princess”, and “The Female Paul Whiteman”. Bud Freeman was so enthusiastic about the band that he paid another musician to fill his seat in the Spike Hamilton Band so he could join the Playboys. The band toured nationally on the Eastern Seaboard and as far west as Kansas City. In 1929 she disbanded the Playboys,  quit MCA to marry Willie Haar and settled in Savannah, Georgia.

After a failed comeback, and a divorce in 1936 she sold her string bass, turned her back on the music profession, and took a job as a knitting instructor. She spent her last years with family in her native Michigan.

Bandleader and bassist Thelma Tery, who was the first American woman to lead a notable jazz orchestra as an instrumentalist, transitioned on May 30, 1966 from esophageal cancer at the age of 64.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Chris Abelen was born in Tilburg, Netherlands on September 29, 1959 and started out on trumpet at 11, switching to the bigger horn at 18. He studied classical trombone with Charles Toet and Henri Aarts, and then jazz and improvised music with Willem van Manen a member of Willem Breuker Kollektief, the band that first called global attention to Dutch improvised music.

Taking over van Manen’s chair in the Kollektief in 1984, they would tour and record extensively with that band until 1988. Abelen led his own groups and in 1992 led a pan-generational, pan-stylistic international tentet showcasing the players with mini-concertos that demonstrate Abelen’s preoccupations with color, texture, mood, and his wry indirect sense of humor.

His desire to lead his own band had him forming first a sextet that evolved into a quartet. He then put together a tentet, in which a quartet and quintet was produced. All the configurations went on to record several albums. Over the years Chris has toured and recorded with numerous Dutch jazz and new music ensembles, including Willem van Manen’s Contraband, I Compani, Paradise Regained Orchestra, Eric van der Westen Octet, and numerous others.

Taking his music in a new direction by 2016 he had released his sixth album, A Day At The Office, with a septet. Other new projects are still in the pipeline and trombonist Chris Abelen continues to perform and compose.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Michael Evans Osborne was born in Hereford, England on September 28, 1941 and attended Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire and the Guildhall School of Music.

From 1962 to 1972, Osborne was a bandmate in the Mike Westbrook band. During this period he also worked with Michael Gibbs, Mike Cooper, Stan Tracey, Kenny Wheeler, Humphrey Lyttelton, Alan Skidmore, John Surman, Harry Miller, Alan Jackson, John Mumford and Lionel Grigson.

During 1974–75, Osborne was part of the saxophone trio S.O.S. with John Surman and Alan Skidmore. They recorded an album, BBC radio and television sessions, and toured extensively in Europe.

Health issues hastened the end of his career in 1982, and returning to Hereford, alto saxophonist, pianist, and clarinetist Mike Osborne, who was a member of Brotherhood of Breath, transitioned while living under care at the time on September 19, 2007, aged 65.

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