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Page last updated 05 Aug 2010

News.

19 April 2010.
75-0312 WARNE MARSH QUARTET. 'The Times', Studio City, CA. March 12, 1975.
Incorrect information in this entry removed and Charles Coffman credited for this recording.

22nd. March 2010.
Yoichi Suzuki of the website Chasin' the Bird - for Charlie Parker fans - has sent me the full itinerary for the Supersax tour of Japan in January 1975. The band included Warne Marsh in its personnel and this itinerary corrects the date of January 15th. 1975 given for the Hindsight HSCD-618 issue. This should now read January 18th. 1975. I show the whole itinerary in the Warne Marsh discography on this site under the January 1975 date.
Yoichi also gave a "Record Concert" on March 13th. 2010 at the "Cafe Eagle", Yotsuya City, Tokyo playing seventeen tracks from various Warne Marsh recordings. He tells me the concert was very well attended by fans of Warne Marsh.

12th. January 2010.
Storyville Records has released a boxed set four CD's (Cat No: 1088606) covering the period in December 1975 when Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz played at the Club Montmartre, Copenhagen and Warne Marsh recorded at the Rosenberg Studios. All forty eight tracks have been previously released by Storyville Records, but it's good to have them available again, especially having them collected together as a set.
Thanks to Mike Keefe for telling me about this release.

2nd. December 2009.
Addition to the discography. 81-1117+h Warne Marsh-Sal Mosca Quartet, 'Village Vanguard', NYC, November 17-22, 1981.
From Sal Mosca's personnel archive courtesy of the Mosca Family.

18 November 2009.
The wonderful two CD's issued some years ago by Storyville Records under the title "Red Mitchell/Warne Marsh - The Big Two" Vols. 1 & 2 have just been reissued as a double CD set with the same title, on Storyville 1038406. If anyone asks me which Warne Marsh records I'd recommend, these two CD's are always among the first to come to mind. Red and Warne knew each other from their early days playing in the Los Angeles area and they link together here in an amazingly telepathic way. I couldn't recommend this issue more highly.

4th. September 2009.
Guitarist John Klopotowski, who studied and played with Warne Marsh in the 1980’s, has recently completed work on a book detailing his studies with Warne and has published it on the scribd website.
The book is in two parts: Part 1 is the story and Part 2 is the musical material that was covered in Warne’s teaching. There are many audio examples and a couple of video files, linked throughout.
If anyone would like an invitation and link, to read the book, please send John an email at: jklopotowski@gmail.com and he’ll get back to you.
Having read the book, I believe it to be the most personal document on Warne Marsh, both in terms of the man and his music and the methods he used to teach his students.

12th. August 2009.
I've recently added a photograph of Warne Marsh with Tal Farlow to the Photo Gallery on this site. It was taken at the Silver Screen Room of the Hyatt Hotel, on Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California on September 15th, 1984 by the photographer Joel Mark - http://www.joelmark.com - to illustrate an article written for the L.A. Reader, a weekly paper for the Los Angeles area. Many thanks to Joel.

22nd. March 2009.
There's an interesting piece on Warne Marsh in the blog written by David Valdez here

http://davidvaldez.blogspot.com/2007/05/warne-marsh-plays-abersold.html

The tracks David refers to were recorded by Warne himself as he improvised to the pre-recorded accompaniment of the Jamey Aebersold play-along LP "All Bird". Gary Foster can remember playing with Warne and this recording around late 1977.

30th. January 2009.
An additional track (April) added to the Half Note sessions recording 58-0700. Thanks to Seth Kaplan for this one.

19th. October 2008.
I've had several enquiries from musicians interested in the music of Warne Marsh asking if any transcriptions of his recorded solos are available.
I'm pleased to tell everyone that Bill Bauer, the son of the guitarist Billy Bauer, has set up a new web site where transcriptions of solos by
Warne Marsh, Lennie Tristano, Billy Bauer, Lee Konitz and Connie Crothers are available for purchase direct. Go to Billy Bauer's Music Home Page

6th. October 2008.
Shown below is an excerpt from Down Beat magazine for March 21. 1957 reviewing the Warne Marsh-Ted Brown Quintet playing at Bill Whisling's
Club on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood.

29th. September 2008.
Additions to discography. 79-0708 - 79-0718 - 79-0725 & additional titles added to 79-0808. All by Warne Marsh & Sal Mosca Duo at Sal's Mount Vernon Studio, NY. and all from Sal Mosca's personal archive courtesy of the Mosca Family.

27th. August 2008.
Additions to discography. 1.    Three additional titles (12-14) added to 81-1115. Warne Marsh-Sal Mosca Quartet at the Mount Vernon studio.
                                        2.    82-0630 Warne Marsh - Sal Mosca Quartet. Mount Vernon Studio - rehearsal for North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands.
                                                 All from Sal Mosca's personal archive courtesy of the Mosca Family.

14th. August 2008.
Addition to discography. 65-0900 Warne Marsh - Sal Mosca Quartet with Bob Sachs. Studio recording, Westchester County, NY. Autumn 1965.
Thanks to Bob Sachs for this one.

22nd. July 2008.
Lonehill Jazz Records based in Spain, has just issued a CD which combines two Warne Marsh recording sessions - "Warne Marsh" originally on Atlantic and featuring Paul Chambers on bass, and "Music For Prancing" originally on Mode and recently reissued by VSOP Records. The new CD has the title "Warne Marsh Trio/Quartet - Coast To Coast" and the catalogue number is LHJ 10342. Thanks to Henrik Lafrenz of Berlin for this notification.

28th. June 2008.
Addition to discography. 81-1115. Warne Marsh - Sal Mosca Quartet recorded at Sal's Mount Vernon Studio.
From Sal Mosca's personnel archive courtesy of the Mosca Family.

19th. May 2008.
Addition to discography. 74-1000. Warne Marsh and Lou Levy interviewed by Gerald Wilson for Radio Station KBCA, Los Angeles.
Thanks to Charles Coffman for this one.

14th. April 2008.
Sal Mosca, one of the greatest jazz piano improvisers of all time and a long time associate of Lennie Tristano and Warne Marsh, died July 2007 at the age of 80 years. We are fortunate that he left us a reasonably large recorded legacy and this legacy has now been enhanced by a newly released CD "You Go To My Head" - Blue Jack Jazz Records BJJR046 - recorded privately at Sal's studio in Mount Vernon, New York, between February and March, 2004. He is accompanied by musicians with whom he had played regularly for many years - Jimmy Halperin on tenor, Don Messina, bass and Bill Chattin on drums. The sympathetic thinking between these four musicians is very evident throughout these recordings and I thoroughly recommend this new release. Visitors to this site can see Sal, Jimmy and Don, playing at Birdland, NYC on New Year's Day, 2007 - one of Sal's final New York appearances - by clicking on this link: http://www.sonnyspianotv.com/gal_students_detail_40.php

7th. April 2008.
Mark Weber has provided more photographs of the Warne Marsh-Harold Land Quintet playing at the Hyatt Hotel, Sunset Boulevard, L.A. April 12th. 1985 and these have been added to the Photo Gallery page. Many thanks Mark.

22nd. December 2007.
As most visitors to this site will know, tenor saxophonist Ted Brown was a long term student of Lennie Tristano and played and recorded with Warne Marsh during the 1950’s. Ted is still actively playing in and around New York City, and has toured with Lee Konitz in Europe and played in Holland with Hod O’Brien. In January 2007 Ted recorded for the Danish record label SteepleChase with guitarist Steve Lamattina and bassist Dennis Irwin and this recording has just been released on SteepleChase SCCD 31628 under the title "Shades Of Brown". Ted has one of the most instantly recognisable sounds on tenor and the trio play a very relaxed twelve tracks on the CD. A very professional job well done, and a very enjoyable listening experience. Recommended.

23 October 2007.
Three years after it was published, my attention has been drawn to an article written by Joe Milazzo for the web site One Final Note. Mr Milazzo writes a review of the then recently issued Warne Marsh "All Music" Nessa CD and I consider this review to have one of the best descriptions of Warne Marsh's true individuality.
I'd recommend a visit to this site: http://www.onefinalnote.com/reviews/m/marsh-warne/all-music.asp

22 September 2007
“LEE KONITZ. Conversations on the Improviser’s Art”
by Andy Hamilton. Published by The University of Michigan Press.

Reviewed by Jack Goodwin

This is quite a unique biography. It is composed of conversations, in question and answer form, that Andy Hamilton has had with Lee Konitz over the past eight years and is published just as Konitz approaches his 80^th. birthday in October. Lee talks at length about his apprenticeship with Lennie Tristano, his playing with Warne Marsh, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, etc., and more recently, his continuing tours around the world as featured soloist with other jazz musicians.

Konitz has the desire, and the ability, to play pure improvised jazz music, without clichés, licks and quotes and throughout the book, his honest approach to music and improvising comes across. His recorded output is quite vast and despite his uncompromising attitude, he has managed to make a living for over sixty years playing jazz.

Visitors to this site will be interested to read the extensive comments he makes about Warne Marsh. As an example: “When I think of Warne Marsh, I think of the definitive creative player, no theatricality, no showboating, just a true musical improviser. It’s a true unexaggerated voice, that’s what’s so sophisticated about it – without the “bleating” and overblowing that many saxophone players seem obliged to do.”

Included are many valuable interviews with other musicians commenting on how they feel about Konitz, and also several pages of photographs which span the life of Lee Konitz and which, generally, are previously unseen.

This is an excellent book, and Andy Hamilton is to be congratulated in producing something which probably Lee, himself, would never have contemplated writing, and it is unreservedly recommended.

3rd. September 2007
Photographs taken by Mark Weber of the Warne Marsh-Harold Land Quintet playing at the Hyatt Hotel, Sunset Boulevard, L.A. April 12th. 1985, now appear on the Photo Gallery page.

29th. July 2007
News has just reached me that Sal Mosca died on Saturday, 28th. July. This means two links to the Tristano era have died in only a week. Sad news indeed.

23rd. July 2007
I've just received news of the passing, on Saturday 21st. July, of Sonny Dallas, who spent ten years as bassist with Lennie Tristano. Sonny was injured in a fall some time ago, and had been more recently in hospital with heart problems.

15th. June 2007
Most visitors to this site will have an interest in Lennie Tristano and will be interested to learn that a symposium on the life and impact of Lennie was hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, on April 15th. 2007. You can see video, recorded at the symposium, by going to http://www.jazzhistorydatabase.com/collections/tristano-video.html

6th. March 2007
Amendment to discography. 86-1203 WARNE MARSH - SUSAN CHEN. New Orleans Bar & Grill, Oakland, CA. Track times added.

19th. February 2007
Addition to discography. 86-1203 WARNE MARSH - SUSAN CHEN. New Orleans Bar & Grill, Oakland, CA.
Amendment to discography. 86-1204 WARNE MARSH - SUSAN CHEN radio interview with KJAZ, San Francisco. Date added.
Thanks to Mark Sowlakis for this information.

12th. November 2006.
Addition to the discography. 80-0610 and 80-0611 - WARNE MARSH - SAL MOSCA QUARTET live at the Village Vanguard, NYC.
Thanks to Tom Marcello for these. Tom is the Manager of vibraphonist Joe Locke.

6th. November 2006.
My co-worker on the Warne Marsh discography, Joop van der Leij, has been involved with the release of a CD in the “Forgotten Tapes” series on the Dutch “Blue Jack” label and I feel sure that fans of Warne Marsh will be interested in this one. It’s by the Hod O’Brien Quartet and features Ted Brown who, as most of you will know, played and recorded with Warne in the 1950’s. It was recorded live at a public concert at the “Bimhuis” in Amsterdam, Holland on October 2 1987 and the musicians involved, like the sound and balance, are in excellent form. The insert, written by Joop, is extremely informative and the recording is well worth having. The CD is Blue Jack Jazz Records BJJR029. Go to www.bluejackjazz.com or email the distributor for the UK and Ireland john@cadillacjazz.co.uk for full information.

20th. October 2006.
I’ve been asked several times in the recent past if there is a source for any transcriptions of the lines recorded by Warne Marsh. The late Billy Bauer published several transcriptions of lines by Lennie Tristano, Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz and his son, Bill Bauer, is continuing to make these available. Anyone interested can email him at billybauer121@yahoo.com

12th. October 2006.
Amendment to discography. 77-0423 -WARNE MARSH INTERVIEW. Time of track added.
Thanks to Jon Easton for this one.

6th. September 2006.
Addition to discography. 83/840000 - WARNE MARSH solo.
Thanks to Dave Frank and John Easton for this one.

21st. August 2006.
Addition to discography. 84-1100a WARNE MARSH QUINTET - Norway.
Additional tracks. 85-0312 WARNE MARSH QUARTET

16th. August 2006.
Additional tracks and detail changes to discography.
46-0000B WARNE MARSH WITH THE SPECIAL SERVICES BAND U.S. ARMY.
50-0300 HADDA BROOKS - thanks to Ted Brown for this information.

7th. August 2006.
Additions and amendments to discography.
42/43-00 WARNE MARSH - earliest recordings.
52-1130 LIGHTHOUSE ALL STARS.

6th. August 2006.
I received the following email from Ted Brown today:

Amazing what you can find on this Internet thing...

I discovered a CD which has been issued by Lone Hill Jazz in Spain which is called:

"The Complete Free Wheeling Sessions"

Art Pepper & Ted Brown - featuring Warne Marsh

Lone Hill Jazz - LHJ10236

It is supposedly the 50th anniversary of a "marathon studio date" which took place on November 26, 1956 and produced these two albums:

1) "Free Wheeling"

Ted Brown, Warne Marsh, Art Pepper, Ronnie Ball, Ben Tucker, Jeff Morton

2) "The Way It Was"

Art Pepper, Warne Marsh, Ronnie Ball, Ben Tucker, Gary Frommer

It says the personnel is the same on both albums...except on the second one Ted Brown is removed from the front line and Jeff Morton is replaced by Gary Frommer.

"Free Wheeling" was actually recorded on December 21, 1956 and "The Way It Was" was recorded November 26, 1956. That is quite a "marathon studio date."

Also each date contains the tune "Avalon" which is rather odd if both were done the same day.

I know it was a Friday afternoon that we did "Free Wheeling"...because we had to go to work that night at Whistlings. Try that after doing TWO record dates that day.

This "fake" record marathon is only one CD.

Their liner notes say that due to lack of space they were only able to include the MASTER takes from "The Way It Was." So from that date there are only 7 tracks on this new disc.

They are making up a whole new story that both these record dates were done in one long marathon session on November 26, 1956.

That is the premise of this new CD which they call "The COMPLETE Free Wheeling Sessions" because they stress the point that they were both done the same day....not that they are COMPLETE because they contain all the takes. If they were to correct those dates they would have to take this CD off the market because they are advertising it as a marathon session...and are calling that marathon The Free Wheeling Sessions.

But the weirdest thing is they used the same stupid cover with the wolf mask that was on the original "Free Wheeling" but now it is called "The Complete Free Wheeling Sessions" and is listed under Art Pepper.

How is that for a discography problem?

There ain't no business like the record business!!

Best regards,

Ted

27th. June 2006.
Addition to discography.
87-1209 WARNE MARSH QUARTET at Donte's, North Hollywood - only eight days before Warne passed away. Thanks to Roger Mailhot for this one.

"NE PLUS ULTRA"

This famous 1969 recording by the Warne Marsh Quartet is again available. Originally issued on a Revelation LP and then on CD by Crown and hat ART, it has been reissued by Hatology -CD603, and is available for $20.00 plus postage from Cadence - www.cadencebuilding.com

5th. October 2005.

JAZZ VISIONS
Lennie Tristano And His Legacy
By Peter Ind.

The above 192 page book was published by Equinox Books on 24^th. October at £16.99/$29.95 and is available to order on-line at Click here: Equinox - Books - Book Details
There have been two previous studies of Lennie Tristano, each being a thesis/dissertation submitted towards a university degree. The first was "The Pedagogy Of Lennie Tristano" by John F. McKinney in 1978 and the other "Lennie Tristano (1919 – 1978) : His Life, Music and Teaching" by Eunmi Shim, 1999. Both of these studied Tristano in immense detail but were written, as it were, from the outside in. In this new book, Peter Ind writes from the viewpoint of both a Tristano admirer and a student and he is able to write in both an objective as well as a subjective way.
Ind emigrated to the U.S. in April 1951 in order to be able to study with Lennie and he captures the excitement of arriving in New York City and meeting other Tristano students like Lee Konitz, Don Ferrara, Ted Brown, Sal Mosca, Ronnie Ball, Willie Dennis, Al Levitt, Jeff Morton and of course, Warne Marsh. He describes the musical haven that was Lennie's studio at 317 E. 32^nd. Street and the sessions held there each Wednesday and Saturday, where they would all play for twelve hours or more.
Peter Ind gives space to the students and what happened to them since the early fifties and follows on with lengthy discussion on Tristano as Ind knew him. He demolishes many of the myths which have grown up around Lennie and the fact that he didn't play in public very much after the 60's. One of these myths calls Tristano a 'recluse' and Ind refutes this with a well reasoned argument.
For those who have loved the music of Tristano and his students for so long and for those more recently attracted to the music of Warne Marsh, this is a great read. We learn a lot about Lennie Tristano but we also learn quite a bit about Peter Ind. Jack Goodwin

16th. September 2004. Amendment to discography: 59-0217/24 Lee Konitz - Warne Marsh Quintet at the Half Note, NYC.
Forty two tracks were recorded live at the club on 17th. and 24th. February 1959 and some of these have been commercially issued. Firstly, Connie Crothers edited the original tape down to basically Warne Marsh's solo excerpts at the request of Lennie Tristano who wanted a solo tape of Warne's playing from that date. Ultimately, thirty four excerpts were issued in the mid-1970's by Revelation Records on two LP's entitled "Warne Marsh - The Art Of Improvising". In 1994, Verve Records issued twelve of the forty two full length tracks on a 2CD set entitled "Lee Konitz Live at the Half Note". However, during all of this period, some collectors possessed all the original tracks on tape. It has been my long term aim to edit the private tapes and to try to sort out the issued tracks from the unissued, and to identify all of the excerpts released by Revelation. The forty two tracks have now been edited and after many hours listening, it has been possible to identify, sort and then list everything - I hope!
Grateful thanks go to my pal Joop van der Leij for all the hours he spent sorting and then formatting the results and to guitarist/arranger Axel Hagen who spent hours with Joop analysing the Revelation excerpts to be able to correctly identify which of the original tracks these snippets came from.
You can take the dog out for a walk now, Joop.

15th. August 2004.
I've received word from Safford Chamberlain that his book "An Unsung Cat - the life and music of Warne Marsh" will be published as a paperback towards the end of October. It will contain some revisions, but the photographs which featured in the hardback edition, will not be present in this new edition. But, helpfully, there will be an index which was a glaring omission from the original. The book will again be published by Scarecrow Press and will cost $20 - $25.

31st. March 2004. CD review
A review of Nessa ncd-7 - "Warne Marsh - All Music". By Jack Goodwin.

It’s good to have this recording available again and on CD, especially with the additional tracks. It was a while in arriving, but the exceptionally improved sound on the CD compared to the original LP issue, has made the wait worthwhile. I quote Chuck Nessa – “In '76 I had a bitch of a time trying to make the record sound decent. I think we remixed the date 4 times. For the reissue we dumped the multi-tracks into the computer and discovered a problem. We recorded Warne's sax with 2 microphones - one top and one bottom. We discovered the 2 saxophone mikes were out of phase. We simply corrected the phasing and it sounds much better now.” And I agree.
The members of this quartet were in Chicago as regular members of Supersax, booked in to Ratso’s Club, and they show their familiarity with each other’s playing on this recording. Lou Levy was one of Warne’s favourite accompanists and they played regularly together after this date. The bass and drums are in perfect accord and the whole session generates a sense of enjoyment in the music.
All the seven issued LP tracks are here, plus an additional seven, previously unissued. “A Time For Love” is featured for the first time, plus an additional take of “On Purpose”. The best part for me though, are the extra takes of “I Have A Good One For You” – a line on “It’s You Or No One”. From the two false starts to the wonderful final take, the playing just gets better and better.
Warne Marsh, himself, is in fine form, and I understand these tracks were some of his personal favourites. Again, and again, he plays improvised lines which sound as though they must have been carefully written out beforehand, they sound so logical.
For newcomers to Warne’s music, this CD would make a wonderful introduction. To those who have come to love Warne’s work, this is a recording to cherish. Essential.

22nd. March 2004. Further to the item dated 1st. March below regarding the proposed reissue of the Nessa Records "All Music" session. This CD is now available and I show below latest information from Chuck Nessa:

cnessa@earthlink.net

The price is $15. We accept checks, money orders, cash, MasterCard and Visa. The address is:

Nessa Records

PO Box 394, Whitehall,

MI 49461, USA

Thanks,

Chuck

The new release is on a single CD and the disc should arrive here in 2 weeks. Excluded are (not including incomplete performances) alternates of everything on the LP with three exceptions. "A Time For Love" was attempted something like seven times, "Subconscious-Lee" was done only once (right at the end of the recording of that tune Warne told me "That's the best I ever played that tune") and "I Have A Good One For You" (you get every scrap of that one).

To respond to a question about a possible two disc version mentioned in Safford Chamberlain's book - after listening for over a year to all the tapes I decided I could get the "meat" onto one disc and a single disc would sell better than a set. The CD includes a note from me about this and I will post it below, as well as the tracks and times.

Before the sessions Warne told me he would record one tune each by Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz and himself from his New York days. He also said they would do a ballad, a blues and Lou had a tune ("Lunarcy"). Lastly, he was working on the changes of "It’s You Or No One" and wanted to record it too. He said “I have a good one for you”. Lou asked me to rent an electric piano because he wished to use it for a recording of Johnny Mandel’s "A Time For Love". The electric piano turned out to be defective and generated random static on all takes. We performed a salvage job on one of them for this issue, but some noise remains.

We have included the initial take of "On Purpose" (complete with a shaky ending) to show the transformation from first to final version.

On the first day of recording we started with a performance of "Lunarcy" and then Warne launched into a series of takes of his “good one”. We have included all versions of this piece at the end of the disc so you can loop back to the final master (track 1). "I Have A Good One For You" was the first piece recorded on the second day in the studio. They nailed that one.

TRACK LISTING (the first 7 tracks are the LP sequence)

1 I Have A Good One For You (take 13) 5:29
2 Background Music (take 24) 4:32
3 On Purpose (take 16) 7:07
4 317 E. 32nd (take 22) 6:57
5 Lunarcy (take 25) 9:02
6 Easy Living (take 28) 4:09
7 Subconscious-Lee (take 18) 5:04
8 On Purpose (alt take 14) 5:44
9 A Time For Love (take 8) 5:20
10 I Have A Good One (false starts tk 2 & 3) 0:47
11 I Have A Good One (take 4) 6:48
12 I Have A Good One (take 5) 5:29
13 I Have A Good One (take 6) 5:49
14 I Have A Good One (take 9) 5:55

I forgot to add: Tracks 9-14 recorded on Friday, Feb 20 and the rest on Feb 21 1976.