Pianist Mike Melillo has granted AAJ permission to reprint the liner notes from his three CDs: "Moonlight on Ganges," "Bopcentric" and "Chet Lives." A true unsung jazz hero, Mike is involved in every aspect of the production of his music all the way down to writing his own CD jacket notes. These writings not only present rare insight into a musician's opinion about his own music, but also reveal his poignant thoughts on the state of jazz and art.

From Moonlight On The Gange   (Red Records)

The increased politicization of our values over the past thirty years or so has affected the arts where more than a pinch of polemical seasoning has required a search for meaning and justification. Holding the spirit to account for itself defeats the purpose of art whose value is in the revelation of sensory truth and not in the determination of meaning. The result is the disastrous confusion of artistic expression with propaganda. "Why", is the one question never asked of one who works in the world of non-rationality, of dreams. The love brought to this endeavor is it's own justification. The task of the artist is to give form to the formless sensations in as efficacious and elegant a way as possible. Charlie Parker once said, "I'm just trying to find the prettiest notes." Thelonius Monk, when referring to group interplay, said, "I follow the one who loves the song the best. "W.A. Mozart, in a letter to his father said, "You can express any idea or feeling in music, however distasteful. The trick is that it must be beautiful. In other words, music." Implicit in these remarks is the joy in the act of free and unfettered creative invention which these three geniuses certainly exemplify. Further, there are those who even question the right, no less, to create in a particular genre depending on racial, ethnic, cultural or national origins. The truth is, self-serving ideologues to the contrary, that any activity or expression belongs to the one who creates, protects and, or, supports it. In fact, it is the property of those who love it! No one has a monopoly on spirit, no less those whose concept of art has all the profundity of a bumper sticker. By definition, the unconditional and uncompromising nature of the artistic impulse is pure, and naturally, the artist searches for a way to express it undiluted in order to retain the full force of the experience. This has been labeled purism by some who mistakenly use it to describe a refusal to accept changing styles or technologies, either out of pure stubbornness or fear of commercialization. Instead, it refers to the business of art being contaminated by the art business, which has always been a valid concern of serious artists. On the contrary, all is permissible so long as the goal of free expression remains apart from self-conscious censoring considerations. In short, the naked unvarnished life sustaining truth is the quintessential procreative act in art. No more. No less. Sadly, in recent years, I have had to reflect on the passing of unsung heroes in music whom I've been fortunate to have had as friends. Harry Leahey, a true creative genius and the greatest jazz guitarist I ever heard, died not too long ago without the recognition that he deserved or ever having been recorded in a manner true to his merits. Shame! And recently, a fine Italian saxophonist, Massimo Urbani died suddenly. I would like to dedicate "Groovin' High", which closes the program, to the memory of these two pure spirits. Art, by it's very nature, is revolutionary because unlike the so called "real world", it's value is life giving; it reminds us of where we really live. I hope that this disc represents a contribution to love, beauty and joy. Our only purpose is to set a good example. I want to thank Michael and Ben for their marvelous playing and also Sergio Veschi for his continuing encouragement and firm belief in accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative and not messing with "Mr. In-between."

From Bopcentric   (Red Records)

Generic labels attached to art in order to characterize a particular style or peroid often have the unfortunate effect of marginalizing exceptional individuals. Even geniuses, such as Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. As in positivist science where anomales are rationalized away in order to achieve desired results, Nichols and Monk were dismissed as eccentrics, making proper consideration difficult if not impossible for years and depriving them of needed public exposure. Fortunately, the praise of fellow musicians and, above all, faith in their creative logic helped to mitigate their inevitable isolation. Historically, serious musicians have been pressured to temper their ideas in order to accommodate the myopic vision of record producers, promoters and agents with short-term market values.

The story goes that Monk retired when asked to record an album of Beatles' tunes, of all things. If true, such an insult is beneath contempt and analogous to kind of cultural terrorism. Herbie Nichols, on the other hand, refused from the outset to participate in the game as Charles Ives, the great American composer, had done fifty years before. Today, attempts at cultural manipulation have reached monumental proportions with fusions of, "rock", and even ethnic musics being exploited and diluted, particularly in Europe, to create a "politically correct" industrial solidarity market complete with jazzy solos and obligatory accordion, proving once again that excuses for mediocraty and bad taste are inexaustable. In addition, the artist's need to pursue inspiration freely has been misunderstood by those who confuse the individual's difficult search for common ground in society with facile compromise. As Lenny Bruce, the American comic, once advised, "don't be a baby, be a man, sell out". Monk and Herbie Nichols, in free association with other unique individuals such as "Bird", "Diz"' Bud, Miles, Art, Sonny, Gil, "Philly Joe"' Trane, Horace and Bill, among others, form the Bopcentric jazz family. This disc is humbly dedicated to all the unfashionable "mavericks", as Orson Welles once referred them, who, above all else, add to the diversity of imagination and fantasy essential to the free creative spirit. I want to thank Massimo and Giampaolo for their spirit in this endeavor, Sergio Veschi for the opportunity, and Pierre Rieben for his help.

From Chet Lives   (Philology)

Of the two basic schools of jazz cornet/trumpet playing, namely Bix and Louie, I've always thought of Chet Baker as coming from the Bix school along with, for example, Miles Davis, Art Farmer and Johnny Coles. The notes left out are as audible as those sounded while the ones played form long, limpid, beautifully intoned and deceptively simple lines full of dramatic pauses without any sign of ostentation. However, for those who might mistakenly believe this to indicate a lesser technique I would refer them to the magnificent west coast recordings Chet made in the middle fifties which inspired most of the material on this disc. The playing is of extraordinary perfection, grace and speed with a relaxed spontaneity that belies the difficulty. It is rather the lack of glibness and not technique that is the hallmark of Chet's style, the expression of beauty being paramount.

Too often in these days of the cult of virtuosity, the emphasis on technical as well as technological bravura substitutes for substance while distracting one from the lack of it. I was in Arts High School when I heard the "Bea's Flat" quartet recording and could have sworn that Chet worked out those incredible solos before-hand. Later I realized that no musician could plan then play that music with such seeming effortlessness and spontaneous ease no matter how many conservatories attended. Now, in our brave new world of virtual everything including fruits and vegetables, and with jazz in the U.S.A. having become museum music performed at performing arts centers to a public used to "seeing the symphony", Chet Baker might seem an anachronism. This may unfortunately be true, nevertheless I hope, certainly without any pretensions to equal the quality, to be able to achieve such status. Whether you know it or not, we're still here and Chet lives!

I especially would like to thank the marvelous Italian bassist Ares Tavolazzi for his beautiful playing on this date.