Mel Lewis Septet - Got 'Cha

Melvin Sokoloff (May 10, 1929 – February 2, 1990), was born in Buffalo, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents Samuel and Mildred Sokoloff. Known professionally as Mel Lewis, was a jazz drummer, session musician, professor, and author. He received fourteen Grammy Award nominations.

Lewis  started playing professionally as a teen, eventually joining Stan Kenton in 1954. His musical career brought him to Los Angeles in 1957 and New York City in 1963. In 1966 in New York, he teamed up with Thad Jones to lead the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. The group started as informal jam sessions with the top studio and jazz musicians of the city, but eventually began performing regularly on Monday nights at the famed venue, the Village Vanguard. In 1979, the band won a Grammy for their album Live in Munich. Like all of the musicians in the band, it was only a sideline. In 1976, he released an album titled Mel Lewis and Friends that featured him leading a smaller sextet that allowed freedom and improvisation.

When Jones moved to Denmark in 1978, the band became known as Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra. Lewis continued to lead the band, recording and performing every Monday night at the Village Vanguard until shortly before his death from cancer at age 60. The band still performs on most Monday nights at the club. Today, it is known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and has released several CDs. *wikipedia.org*

Although he was generally reluctant to solo, Mel Lewis was considered one of the definitive big band drummers, a musician who was best at driving an orchestra, but could also play quite well with smaller units. He started playing professionally when he was 15 and worked with the big bands of Boyd Raeburn (1948), Alvino Rey, Ray Anthony, and Tex Beneke. Lewis gained a great deal of recognition in the jazz world for his work with Stan Kenton (1954-1957), making the large ensemble swing hard. In 1957, he settled in Los Angeles, became a studio drummer, and worked with the big bands of Terry Gibbs and Gerald Wilson. Lewis went to New York to play with Gerry Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band in 1960, and he toured Europe with Dizzy Gillespie (1961) and the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman (1962). In 1965, Lewis formed an orchestra in New York with Thad Jones which grew to be one of the top big bands in jazz. When Jones surprised everyone by suddenly fleeing to Europe in 1979, Lewis became the orchestra's sole leader, playing regularly each Monday night at the Village Vanguard until his death. Lewis recorded as a leader in the 1950s for San Francisco Jazz Records, Mode (reissued on V.S.O.P.), and Andex and, after Thad Jones left their orchestra, Lewis recorded with his big band for Atlantic, Telarc, and Music Masters. *Scott Yanow*

About Got 'Cha, Mel Lewis' first album under his own name: Kenton drummer, Mel Lewis, surrounded by fellow Kentonites — Pepper Adams, Richie Kamuca, Jerry Coker, Ed Leddy, etc., in a most competent outing. Set essays coolish, modern Basie feeling in arrangements by Lennie Niehaus, Bill Perkins, Coker, Adams and Marabuto that arenlean and warmly melodic, for the most part, with much space for the soloists. Could be sold to the modern jazz enthusiast. Try "In a Mellowtone" as demo band... Pepper Adams emerges as a jazz soloist to be watched.

*Billboard, April 20, 1957*

1 - In A Mellowtone

(Duke Ellington)

2 - Leave Your Worries Behind

(Lennie Niehaus)

3 - A Winters Tale

(Pepper Adams)

4 - Sir Richard Face

(Bill Perkins)

5 - One For Pat

(Lennie Niehaus)

6 - 'Enry 'Iggins 'Ead

(Jerry Coker)

7 - El Cerrito

(Johnny Marabuto)

Ed Leddy (trumpet); Richie Kamuca, Jerry Coker (tenor saxes); Pepper Adams (baritone sax); Johnny Marabuto (piano); Dean Reilly (bass); Mel Lewis (drums).

Recorded in San Francisco, California, November 19 (#1, #2, #5), and November 20 (#3, #4, #6, #7), 1956.