Keep (it) Swinging: Charlie Mariano passed away

Charlie Mariano overleden (Nederlands) Charlie Mariano passed away (English)

A CHARLIE MARIANO DISCOGRAPHY

( 1923 - 2009 )
CHARLIE MARIANO PASSED AWAY
Hans Koert

Last week the US born saxophone player, Charlie Mariano, who lived in Cologne for years, passed away. He was 85 years old.

His 85th birthday, was celebrated in November 2008 at the Theaterhaus in Stuttgart with a concert by some of his friends, directed by Mike Herting, like Philip Catherine, the Belgian guitar player, Wolfgang Dauner, piano player, Wolfgang Haffner drums and the two Dutch jazz musicians, respectively on trumpet and piano, Ack Van Rooyen and Jasper Van’t Hof. It would become one of his last public performances.

Charlie Mariano - Philip Catherine - Hein Van de Geyn
Charlie Mariano studied late 1940s at the Berklee School of Music and played in and around his native hometown Boston with musicians like Jaki Byard, Sam Rivers and Quincy Jones. Early 1950s he impressed on the alto saxophone playing in the style of Charlie Parker, but soon he developed his own style on his instruments. He played in the Stan Kenton Band and played with great west coast musicians like Frank Rosolino, the trombone player and Shelly Manne. Late 1959 he married Chinese born piano player Toshiko Akiyoshi, who is a charming piano player, influenced by Bud Powell. I heard her once in a solo concert, December 2001, at the Porgy en Bess Jazz club in Terneuzen ( The Netherlands) and talked to hear for a while. Later, in 1970, she married Lew Tabackin.
He became a teacher at the Berklee School of Music himself for almost six years. Making this blog, I feel similarity in his career with another alto saxophone player, Lee Konitz. Charlie Mariano is, like Lee Konitz, a saxophone and flute player that constantly developed his music and inserted foreign elements into his style of music, like influences from Indian music. One of the instruments he learned to play was the Nadaswaram, a kind of South Indian oboe and studied several moments in India the music of this continent.

Charlie Mariano with trio Wiro Mahieu
Since the 1970s he lived in Europe and performed with musicians like Jasper Van’t Hof and Philip Catherine.

In Europe Charlie found a climate where he could develop his music with foreign elements from the Western and Eastern cultures, improvisation with African voices, the Oud ( an Arab string instrument), the Darabouka ( a kind of drum from the Middle East) and the baritone guitar. This kind of music made, that he was only known for his music to a selected public and I heard him playing for the very first time, on the 2001 album, titled Brutto Tempo, with Jasper Van’t Hof and Steve Swallow.

Wolfgang Dauner, Dino Saluzzi, Charlie Mariano "Drachenburg" - 1989

I love to finish with a quote, part of an entry I found in the Rough Guide to Jazz, as written by Ian Carr that reads: Mariano’s profound interest in other musical cultures has broadened and deepened his vision, and his greatest work has been done since he reached fifty. In his later compositions, his solos are often quite extraordinary – marmoreally sculpted, every note telling and every note meant, his soprano sand alto sound projecting a powerful, almost anguished, lyricism, as if the music were being wrong out of him.

I couldn't have said it more clear ..........

A tribute to this great jazz improvisor: 2nd Movement with the Bill Holman's "Quartet" - Shelly Manne: Stu Williamson [trumpet an vibraphone, Charlie Mariano [alto sax], Russ Freeman [piano], Leroy Vinnegar [bass], Shelly Manne [drums].

Charlie Mariano passed away in a Cologne hospital the 16th of July 2009.

Hans Koert - keepswinging@live.nl

CHARLIE MARIANO DISCOGRAPHY.

You can find an extensive, almost complete discography at the Charlie Mariano Tribute sites. This blog contains only a small selection:

OWN GROUPS:

- CHARLIE MARIANO: MIRROR (1972)

- CHARLIE MARIANO: CASCADE (1974)

- CHARLIE MARIANO: - SOLO'S AND DUO'S (1974)

- CHARLIE MARIANO: HELEN 12 TREES (1976)

- CHARLIE MARIANO: OCTOBER (1977)

- CHARLIE MARIANO & THE KARNATAKA COLLEGE OF PERCUSSION: JYOTHI (1983)

- CHARLIE MARIANO / JASPER VAN'T HOF featuring MARILYN MAZUR: INNUENDO (1991)

- CHARLIE MARIANO & DIETER ILG: A LA CARTE (2001)
IN COOPERATION WITH:

- ALTISSIOMO (1973) - JASPER VAN'T HOF'S PORK PIE: THE DOOR IS OPEN (1975)

- PHILIP CATHERINE/ CHARLIE MARIANO/ JASPER VAN'T HOF: SLEEP MY LOVE (1978) - ...IN THE MOOD WITH MOOD RECORDS (1989) - PORK PIE: OPERANOÏA (1996)/ JASPER VAN'T HOF-STEVE SWALLLOW- BRUTTO TEMPO (2001)
"THE UNITED JAZZ+ROCK ENSEMBLE"

- THE UNITED JAZZ+ROCK ENSEMBLE: TEAMWORK (1978)

- THE UNITED JAZZ+ROCK ENSEMBLE: BREAK EVEN POINT (1979)