Dodo Marmarosa - Complete Studio Recordings '2004

Tracks list

Even if comparisons with Lennie Tristano, Al Haig and Bud Powell are inevitable,
Dodo Marmarosas music has a surrealistic imprint essentially unlike that of any
other pianist in or out of bop. In honor of this cardinal truth, the Lone Hill
Jazz label has come forward with the Complete Studio Recordings of the Dodo
Marmarosa Trio (including alternate takes), bringing together three different
West Coast sessions from 1946 and 1947, four selections waxed in his home town
of Pittsburgh in 1950, and an entire second discs worth of mature Marmarosa
material recorded in Chicago in 1961 and 1962.
The instrumentation is well worth scrutinizing; the two earliest tracks, dated
January 11, 1946, involved bassist Ray Brown and drummer Jackie Mills. Tracks
three through 14, waxed on or after September 23, 1946, had no drummer –
only guitarist Barney Kessel and bassist Gene Englund played with the pianist. A
rare example of Dodo the vocalist, Ive Got News for You was originally released
on the Atomic record label. The bedrock of this mans musical legacy is a series
of sides recorded for the Dial label in Los Angeles on December 3, 1947 (disc
one, tracks 15-19 and 24-29). The first cascading bars of Bopmatism plunge the
listener into an intoxicating groove from which there is no retreat. Here Dodo
worked with Harry Babasin, a bassist who doubled on the cello, and once again
percussionist Jackie Mills. The Pittsburgh Savoy session found the pianist in
the company of bassist Thomas Mandrus and drummer Joe Wallace. More than ten
years fraught with personal crises passed before Dodo Marmarosa, by then
operating in Chicago, recorded again in a studio with a trio. On May 9 and 10,
1961, the pianist recorded ten tracks with bassist Richard Evans and drummer
Marshall Thompson. Almost exactly one year later, on May 4, 1962, seven
additional performances were waxed with the great Sam Jones replacing Evans.
Both those who are just discovering Marmarosas music and seasoned jazzheads who
are mainly familiar with his earlier work will find this raft of latter-day Dodo
a treasure well worth savoring time and again.


Tracks:

CD 1
01. Mellow Mood (3:15)
02. Dodos Blues (3:15)
03. Raindrops (2:49)
04. Ive Got News For You (3:02)
05. Compadoo (2:20)
06. Im In Love (2:37)
07. Opus No. 5 (1:48)
08. You Thrill Me So (2:47)
09. Dodos Bounce (1:44)
10. Escape (1:44)
11. Lover Come Back To Me (2:51)
12. Raindrops (2:12)
13. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (2:41)
14. Bopmatism (1:24)
15. Bopmatism (2:57)
16. Dodos Dance (3:08)
17. Trade Winds (3:10)
18. Dary Departs (2:38)
19. Cosmo Street (2:55)
20. My Foolish Heart (2:38)
21. Blue Room (3:07)
22. Why Was I Born (3:15)
23. The Night Is Young (2:51)
24. Bopmatism (bonus track) (alternate take) (3:09)
25. Dodos Dance (bonus track) (alternate take) (3:07)
26. Trade Winds (bonus track) (alternate take) (3:07)
27. Dary Departs (bonus track) (alternate take) (2:47)
28. Dary Departs (bonus track) (alternate take) (2:46)
29. Cosmo Street (bonus track) (alternate take) (3:26)


CD 2
01. April Played The Fiddle (4:09)
02. Why Do I Love You (3:22)
03. Everything Happens To Me (4:42)
04. Me And My Shadow (4:07)
05. On Green Dolphin Street (3:18)
06. Tracys Blues (3:39)
07. You Call It Madness (3:58)
08. Mellow Mood (3:59)
09. I Thought About You (5:32)
10. A Cottage For Sale (4:59)
11. The Song Is You (7:33)
12. Just Friends (5:20)
13. Yardbird Suite (4:21)
14. I Remember You (3:42)
15. The Moody Blues (4:11)
16. The Very Thought Of You (4:05)
17. Yardbird Suite (bonus track) (alternate take) (3:51)

Personnel:

Dodo Marmarosa - piano, vocals
Ray Brown - bass
Jackie Mills - drums
Barney Kessel - guitar
Gene Englund - bass
Harry Babasin - bass, cello
Jackie Mills - drums
Thomas Mandrus - bass
Joe Wallace - drums
Richard Evans - bass
Marshall Thompson - drums
Sam Jones - bass
Marshall Thompson - drums
Recorded in Los Angeles, 1946-1947, and Chicago, 1961-1962.

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