Charlie Mariano

Toshiko Akiyoshi & Charlie Mariano – Toshiko Mariano Quartet (Remastered) (1961/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · March 30, 2024 · Comments off

Toshiko Mariano Quartet is the 1961 album from fourteen time Grammy Nominated pianist and composer Toshiko Akiyoshi – then known as Toshiko Mariano. Women have long been denied the credit they deserve in jazz. It must be noted that as a Japanese women in jazz, Akiyoshi had to battle for acceptance on many fronts. Jazz has been a patriarchy community from the beginning, and even critical praise of her playing could not help but take note of her gender. Leonard Feather, for example, writing at the time in the Encyclopedia of Jazz called out Akiyoshi’s playing as “fiery, powerfully articulated and exceptionally fluent,” but added that there was “nothing delicately feminine.” Even today it is still hard for people to see Jazz in any other way. We are pleased to be a part of shifting the narrative and shine a spotlight on this talented artist and this wonderful album. While she was later to compose using themes, harmonies, and instruments connected to her Japanese heritage, this album captures the pianist early in her career playing a straight ahead, harp bop style. This was already her 7th album as a band leader, and it is a shining example of her confidence and mastery of her instrument and as a band leader. Recorded at the Nola Penthouse Studios in New Your City in December of 1960, the LP includes extraordinary liner notes by Candid A&R man and producer Nat Hentoff giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these extraordinary performances.

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Charlie Mariano – Helen 12 Trees (1976/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · November 11, 2022 · Comments off

For those who don’t know American saxophonist Charlie Mariano’s music, you’re in for a treat. For his legions of fans, this may be an album that has passed beneath your radar. Critic Thom Jurek calls it “one of the great, under-heard records to ever come out of the fusion years… a stone classic and one of the best examples of post-Miles jazz-rock fusion ever recorded”. Although Mariano first made his name in the jazz caldrons of Boston and New York – his solos on Mingus’ The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady are jazz classics –, Mariano is known in Europe for his eclectic play, ranging from jazz, fusion and pop to world music. The astounding lineup for this album includes keyboardist Jan Hammer of Mahavishnu Orchestra fame, Polish violin great Zbigniew Seifert, bassist Jack Bruce from the legendary rock group Cream, Soft Machine drummer John Marshall, and the amazing Asian percussionist Nippy Noya. The sweeping opening title piece features a percussion-drum duel and stratospheric solos by Hammer and Mariano on alto sax. With Charlie on the South Indian reed instrument the Nadaswaram, Parvati’s Dance takes several steps East as it illuminates Mariano’s deep feeling for the sub-continent, with a light thrown on the Hindu goddess of love, fertility and devotion. The elegiac violin-flute duo Sleep My Love is followed by Hammer’s Thorn of a White Rose with violin and alto sax musically entwined. Neverglades Pixie has a rocking, swampy Southern feel with Mariano slashing away on soprano, slippery-slick violin and synth solos and Bruce’s rollicking down-home bass. Mariano stays on soprano and Hammer steps over to the acoustic piano for a gripping duet on the emotionally charged Charlotte, while Avoid the Year of the Monkey has consummate fusion soprano, violin, and synth solos. A fusion celebration – big fun.

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