Joe Puma

The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet: The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet

Read "The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet" reviewed by Robert Spencer

by Robert Spencer
June 1, 1999

There's no use denying it, so I'll confess: I am not a big jazz flute fan. The instrument has always seemed to me to be too slight to power a rhythm section and too breathy to maintain an individual attractiveness. But Herbie Mann and Sam Most have converted me on this unlikeliest of ensembles, a double flute quintet.The Herbie Mann-Sam Most Quintet is a 1956 album of eleven genial, high-spirited tracks featuring Mann and Most trading bright, up-tempo, ...

Video / DVD

Backgrounder: Joe Puma - East Coast Jazz/3

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 13, 2025

I love precious jazz guitarists who place a premium on harmony, swing and compelling chords. One of the best in this category was Joe Puma. In the 1950s, Puma was a session sideman on many recordings and led his own groups. He recorded into the 1990s and died in 2000 at age 72. One of his finest early albums was Joe Puma Quintet: East Coast Jazz/3, which was part of a series produced by Creed Taylor for Bethlehem, in November ...
read more

145

Interview

Bill Evans and Joe Puma

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 21, 2010

Before he began recording exclusively as leader of a working trio, pianist Bill Evans was a prolific sideman. Between 1954 and 1958, Evans appeared on more than 20 recordings led by other artists. Except for New Jazz Conceptions, his first one-off trio date for Riverside in 1956, Evans was a top keyboard gun for hire in New York. One of those dates in 1957 was accompanying guitarist Joe Puma on an album called Joe Puma: Jazz. Unfortunately, the quartet with ...
read more