The Mike Mainieri Quartet – Blues On The Other Side
Released 1962
Recording and Session Information
Mike Mainieri, vibraphone; Bruce Martin, piano; Julius Ruggiero, bass; Joe Porcaro, drums
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, September 5 1962
11875 B.R. blues
11876 Blues on the other side
11877 When I fall in love
11878 Waltzin' in and out
11879 When I grow too old to dream (unissued)
11880 If I were a bell
11881 Tenderly
Track Listing
| Blues On The Other Side | Mike Mainieri | September 5 1962 |
| If I Were A Bell | Frank Loesser | September 5 1962 |
| Tenderly | Walter Gross | September 5 1962 |
| B. R. Blues | Mike Mainieri | September 5 1962 |
| When I Fall In Love | Victor Young | September 5 1962 |
| Waltzin' In And Out | Mike Mainieri | September 5 1962 |
Liner Notes
THE REALITIES of commerce and the artistic temperament both being What they are, it is likely that the careers of many jazzmen have been stunted by an idealistic refusal to admit that they are in show business. This refusal can manifest itself in attitude the audience, or in an attempt to remove the element of entertainment from their music. Whatever size the career of vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, whose first LP as a leader is contained in this LP as a leader is contained in this jacket eventually assumes, such attitudes will have little to do with it. He has been of show business for as long as he can remember. Both his parents are veterans of vaudeville...his father was a tap dancer...and so he is thoroughly versed in the discplines of entertainment. His first professional appearances were spent performing a vibraphone display-piece that had been transcribed from Flight Of The Bumblebee. When he was fifteen, he had formed a trio that was appearing on a Paul Whiteman radio show. Not Bumblebee, though, He had already become aware of Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo, and was playing jazz.Today, less than a decade later. his career had already undergone enough twists and turns to make up a full life for someone twice his age. A drummer friend of Mainieri's, Pete Voulo, was also a friend Buddy Rich. Rich had, a years back, retired from the big band scene because of illness, and was now seeking to return to active life via a small group. Rich's unit was playing at New York's Village Gate one night when Voulo brought Mainieri down to sit in. The vibraphonist looks even younger than he is, and Rich, fearful of what might happen, made him stay until the club had begun to empty before allowing him to play. It is sufficient to say, minus the star-is-born details, that when the evening ended, Mainieri had a job in the Rich group, and had signed a personal management contract with the drummer. He stayed with Buddy for two years, and feels today that any jazz notoriety he has came about as a result of Rich's attention, concern and promotion.
One tangible result of the association was the New Star vibraphone award which Mainieri won in the Down Beat Critics' Poll in 1961. Fittingly enough, an original on this LP as a leader is titled, in thanks, B. R. Blues.
Such recognition, coming as it did before he had any albums of his own released (and only two with Rich), might have seemed to the beginning of an unstoppable career. But things were not to work out that way. In 1961, Mainieri went on a State tour lasting six months. That in itself is enough to take one out of the viciously competitive and short-memoried jazz limelight, but on his return he came with an ailment contracted overseas. Hospitalized for three months, he was unable to play for two more. Other new musicians have come to notice in that time, so this album, made soon after Mainieri was able to play again, represents, in a very real sense, the comeback of a twenty-four year old musician.
What all this amounts to, in a sense is the strange opposite of the Sonny Rollins sabbatical; a promising musician absent from the scene through no fault of his own, unattended by publicity. But in another sense, it is similar, in that Mainieri will startle no-one with an all-new, all-different style. He plays much the same sort of music that brought him to his recent attention, plays it with more authority because he is more mature, and plays it better.
The musicians who play With him on this album were the ones he had worked with around his home in Yonkers, New York, after his release from the hospital. Drummer Joseph Porcaro Jr., has played with different bands, most notably one led by Bobby Hackett. Bassist Julie Ruggiero was a member of the trio that played on the Whiteman show, and is currently a member of the Tonight Show band led by Skitch Henderson. Mainieri, in speaking of the album, dwells very little on his own work, but stresses that of the pianist, Bruce Martin. Martin studied for two years with Oscar Peterson ("You can hear some of, Mainieri says), and was working with trumpeter Charlie Shavers at the Metropole in New York when Mainieri heard him. Mike strongly believes the pianist to a future star, and succintly sums up the rapport he feels when working with him: "We've kind of got our own little bag."
Out of that bag comes some of the pleasant, unassuming yet thoroughly musicianly albums in quite a while. Three of the tunes are well-known standards: Temderly, If I Were A Bell, and When I Fall In Love. The latter two are closely associated with Miles Davis, but their inclusion is sheer coincidence. They are played "because the piano player and I like them," not because of an influence. Mainieri, who professes not to listen to other vibraphonists very much, names the same two musicians when asked the inevitable question: Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker in that order.
The remaining three are Mainieri originals. Two of them are blues: the slow, moody Blues On The Other Side and the faster, previously mentioned tribute to Buddy Rich. For this listener's tastes, the most distinguished track is the final Waltzin' In And Out, which manages to bring a fresh inventiveness to funk at this late date. But the entire set, from the joyous Bell to the Tenderly played with perfect attention to the title, is enough to make Mike Mainieri's return so welcome that many will wonder why they didn't know he was away,
Joe Goldberg
