R. I. P., Marchel Ivery

[Joe]

Just reported.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark...goodbye_the.php

[ghost of miles]

Very sorry to hear that. Texan posters here and at the old BNBB had hipped me to him, for which I'm forever grateful.

[JSngry]

Jesus....

I just talked to Lyles West. Marchel had had a form of leukemia for about 10 years running, and apparently the pneumonia overtook him in spite of the antibotics having an initially positive effect.

Damn...

There's heroes you have from afar, and then there's heroes you have up close and personal. Marchel was/is/and always will be one of the latter for me. This is a surprise, and it stings hard, hurts like hell. Marchel was a man who was continuously robust and who just did what he did year after year after year.

Knowing him was a blessing, so I can't complain, but still...

Life is short. Carpe diem.

[Dan Gould]

Definitely a loss. If those Leaning House releases can be found, anyone who doesn't have them should grab 'em. Great player.

[DukeCity]

Sad news! I regret that I didn't seek out Marchel during the time I lived in the D/FW area, so he remained a "hero from afar" for me.

When Sangrey has the time and the inclination, I'd love to hear a story or two...

[Shawn]

Damn, this is a painful loss! I had the pleasure of seeing Marchel numerous times while living in the DFW area. He was a beautiful player and a genuinely nice man.

R.I.P.

[jazzbo]

FORK!

Too much Death!

"Deah don't. . . have no mercy. . .in this land."

RIP Marchel.

Post script: I was very fortunate to see Marchel playing with the great drummer (and occasional poster to tos board) Andrew Griffith in Dallas, sitting at a table with my lovely wife and posters here, Shawn and Joe. One of the best nights of my life.

Edited October 31, 2007 by jazzbo

[Michael Weiss]

I played with Marchel in the early 70s while in high school, and since then, everytime I'd return to Dallas. We played several gigs together throughout the years, including a duo just six months ago. Had no idea he was even sick...WTF!

Marchel was a beautiful straight up guy and a wonderful player.

RIP

[Kevin Bresnahan]

During my traveling days, I often found myself in the DFW area. I always looked to see where Marchel was playing and I was happy to support the guy by buying a couple of CDs from him. I'll never forget that night at the Jazz Connection when there was about 7 people in the house to see him. 7! He still played his ass off for us. I was not surprised when the Jazz Connection was closed during one of my last trips.

I also vividly remember him playing at that club in Addison with the airport runway behind the stage... what was the name of that place... Sambuca's maybe? Anyway, there's Marchel wailing away during a solo and suddenly there's a plane heading straight at us! Freaked me out the first time it happened.

RIP Marchel.

Kevin

Edited October 30, 2007 by Kevin Bresnahan

[kh1958]

During my traveling days, I often found myself in the DFW area. I always looked to see where Marchel was playing and I was happy to support the guy by buying a couple of CDs from him. I'll never forget that night at the Jazz Connection when there was about 7 people in the house to see him. 7! He still played his ass off for us. I was not surprised when the Jazz Connection was closed during one of my last trips.

I also vividly remember him playing at that club in Addison with the airport runway behind the stage... what was the name of that place... Sambuca's maybe? Anyway, there's Marchel wailing away during a solo and suddenly there's a plane heading straight at us! Freaked me out the first time it happened.

RIP Marchel.

Kevin

The Jazz Connection has been closed for seven or eight years. I saw Marchel there, playing with Joey DeFrancesco.

One of my favorite Marchel Ivery concerts was at the Caravan of Dreams years ago, where his group played a set of bebop standards for the first set--then for the second set Cornell Dupree joined the group, and the style changed rather radically to blues and grease, and he sounded masterful in both contexts.

Another was the Texas tenors concert in Fair Park a few years back, with Marchel playing first, then David Newman, and a final tenor battle.

[mikeweil]

One of my favorite Marchel Ivery concerts was at the Caravan of Dreams years ago, where his group played a set of bebop standards for the first set--then for the second set Cornell Dupree joined the group, and the style changed rather radically to blues and grease, and he sounded masterful in both contexts.

Another was the Texas tenors concert in Fair Park a few years back, with Marchel playing first, then David Newman, and a final tenor battle.

I have a CD recorded at the Caravan of Dreams with Newman, Dupree, James Clay, and Ellis Marsalis - wish Marchel Ivery had joined in, too!

R.I.P. - those Texas tenors are something else.

[Peter Friedman]

I saw Marchel Ivery playing once when I happened to be in Dallas quite a few years ago.

Two CDs with him in my collection are definitely worth getting.

Marchel Ivery - Marchel's Mode - Learning House

Fathead Newman/Marchel Ivery/Rein de Graaf Trio - Blue Greens& Beans - Timeless

The one on Learning house which also features Cedar Walton is a definite winner. Marchel swings his tail off.

R.I.P. Marchel

[Stereojack]

I only know Marchel from his recordings - never got to see him in person. A beautiful Texas tenor player.

R.I.P.

[Free For All]

Too much Death!

No shit! Way too much.

RIP Marchel.

[kh1958]

I saw Marchel Ivery playing once when I happened to be in Dallas quite a few years ago.

Two CDs with him in my collection are definitely worth getting.

Marchel Ivery - Marchel's Mode - Learning House

Fathead Newman/Marchel Ivery/Rein de Graaf Trio - Blue Greens& Beans - Timeless

The one on Learning house which also features Cedar Walton is a definite winner. Marchel swings his tail off.

R.I.P. Marchel

I also recommend Three and Meets Joey DeFrancesco, both on Leaning House.

[Big Al]

RIP

Ashamed to say I've lived here all my life and never went to see him.

Strange/sad that, just yesterday, DFW jazz station KNTU's "Live Wire" listed an upcoming Marchel Ivery gig.

[kh1958]

I saw Marchel Ivery playing once when I happened to be in Dallas quite a few years ago.

Two CDs with him in my collection are definitely worth getting.

Marchel Ivery - Marchel's Mode - Learning House

Fathead Newman/Marchel Ivery/Rein de Graaf Trio - Blue Greens& Beans - Timeless

The one on Learning house which also features Cedar Walton is a definite winner. Marchel swings his tail off.

R.I.P. Marchel

I also recommend Three and Meets Joey DeFrancesco, both on Leaning House.

The three Leaning House CDs are all available from amazon and/or from amazon sellers.

[John L]

[White Lightning]

RIP :(

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The Jazz Connection has been closed for seven or eight years. I saw Marchel there, playing with Joey DeFrancesco.

I had originally written that the show I saw at the Jazz Connection had Joey D on organ but I figured my memory was going. Thanks for confirming my sanity. It was a great show. Nice club. The sitting area had a couple of couches you sit on. I was sitting there in a couch listening to Marcel and I remember thinking, "Why have I never heard of this guy"? I was glad when he offered CDs for sale. Until then, I figured I was seeing some local legend that I'd never be able to hear again. Those Leaning House Jazz CDs are very nice. It's too bad the label went under.

[Morganized]

Great, great loss.

Marchel Ivery's Death Marks "A Sad Day for Dallas"

Tue Oct 30, 2007 at 04:40:57 PM

UNT Division of Jazz Studies

Last night, local sax great Shelley Carrol was told he would need to fill in tonight for Marchel Ivery, who was scheduled to play Terilli's on Greenville Avenue for the second time this month. Carrol was told only that Ivery was ill: He'd been checked into Presbyterian Hospital for pneumonia, a rather sudden development. Carrol thought nothing of it: He and Ivery often swapped gigs, almost as often as they performed with each other. Indeed, Carrol and Ivery just finished recording an album together, an homage to the great Texas tenors -- that fat, wide-open sound pioneered by the likes of Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, James Clay and David "Fathead" Newman. Carrol and Ivery were old pals, introduced years ago by pianist Roger Boykin at the Green Parrot, where Ivery was playing with Clay. They were also labelmates on Mark Elliott's late, lamented Leaning House.

Then, early this afternoon, Carrol -- like every other jazz musician around town -- got the phone call: Marchel Ivery, at age 69, died around 5:30 this morning. And just like that, one of Dallas' most beloved and influential musicians -- not to mention one of its most famous, if only outside the city limits -- was gone. "And, man, he was a really great guy -- he was inspiring," Carroll tells Unfair Park today. "He never said a negative word. He'd go around the way to teach you rather than scold you. I loved him. He was a sweetheart. He's gonna be missed. It's a sad day in Dallas."

The earliest recordings of Ivery were recently released: from the South Dallas Pop Festival in 1970. He did not record under his own name until 1994, when he released Marchel's Mode on Leaning House; also on the album was Dallas-born piano great Cedar Walton, who had performed on John Coltrane's original recordings for Giant Steps, among the most influential albums ever made. Walton and Ivery met in Dallas in 1966, at the Arandas Club, a legendary haunt. Years later, Walton would tell Marchel's Mode liner-note writer Doug Ramsey, "Marchel is a great exponent of the tenor sound that includes Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson, and he is a delight to play with. He's at a state where he deserves to be heard nationally and internationally."

Ivery was born in Ennis on September 13, 1938, and though he'd gain international renown as a sax player, he originally played trumpet -- when he was all of 12. As Ramsey noted, Ivery switched to sax after hearing Charlie Parker on the radio.

After graduating George Washington Carver High School, he went into the Army, and as Dave Oliphant notes in his invaluable 1996 book Texas Jazz, Ivery was stationed in Europe in the late 1950s -- and it was there he began performing with no less a legend than Bud Powell at Cheque Peche. By the mid-1960s, he was playing with another Dallas-born great: pianist Red Garland -- "whom he joined in June of 1983 in New York for Red's last job," Oliphant wrote.

Eight years ago, I spoke with Ivery about his friendship with Garland -- and the role he played in shaping Ivery's career. This is what he said, in part:

"I was always in awe of him," Ivery says. "Whenever we were on the bandstand, it was an experience I can't explain. It's something I will cherish forever. I wish he was here today. I talked to Red every day. He would call me, and we would talk an hour, two hours. Then, when we'd get off the phone, he'd say, 'You coming over?' I'd sit over there till one in the morning, and we'd talk, talk, talk. I wish I had a tape recorder. We talked about Dizzy, Max, Charlie Parker. He said that when he played with Charlie, he didn't want to solo after him, he was so good. I asked him if he recorded with Parker, and he said yeah, but he didn't know what happened to the recording. The record they did together, Live at Storyville, came out a year after Red passed. He passed without even knowing about it."

Ivery released two more albums on Leaning House: Marchel Ivery Meets Joey DeFrancesco in 1997 and, two years later, 3. He also recorded with David Newman in 1990. All are essential recordings. As Elliott notes in the liner notes for Marchel's Mode, "It is rare for a recording with musicians of this quality to take place outside of New York or Los Angeles, and rare for players outside those circles to get recognition commensurate with their talents. I hope this effort will bend those conventions." Ten years ago, Texas Monthly's John Morthland wrote: "Its not so much that 57-year-old Ivery has slipped through the cracks as that he has conducted his entire career between them."

Elliott has graciously allowed us to include a track from that album below: a stunning rendition of the Cole Porter standard, "Every Time We Say Goodbye."

Shelley Carrol has spent the better part of the afternoon phoning jazzers with whom Ivery played -- among them, Wynton Marsalis, who would jam with Ivery at Sandaga Market on Levee Street whenever he came to town. They were there last December and only last month. And in January they performed together at a tribute to Texas tenors at the Trinity Jazz Festival -- some extraordinary photos are available here from the event. But tonight, Carrol says, he will play "what Marchel would have played" when he takes the stage at Terilli's. No doubt there will be memorial concerts to come; his will be a loss deeply felt, by the players who admired him and the fans who adored him.

"He plays here almost every week," says Terillli's manager, Joey Terilli. "Has since I was 24, and I'm 38. I always call him 'Marchel My Bell,' and I can't do it no more. It's a crushing thing to me and to the music industry. I don't ever cry, but this, it brought a tear to my eye." --Robert Wilonsky

And here...............

Marchel Ivery

Edited November 1, 2007 by Morganized

[agriffith]

For me Marchel was/is a mentor, friend, and constant source of inspiration on and off the bandstand. I was honored to play drums with him for over 13 years here in the Dallas area, and I can honestly say that the nights I was with him on the bandstand were the greatest I've ever had. He played the TRUTH, period. Knowing him and playing with him helped me to know myself better.

I played with him Friday night (along with great bassist Lynn Seaton) and he sounded beautiful! Full of energy and passion, and he always had something in reserve.

As far as I'm concerned, he's one of the greatest Tenor saxophonists of all time (and a wonderful alto player as well). I think Jim Sangrey would agree.

Although I played hundreds of gigs with him, he always would play something I'd never heard; always surprise me with something. Like Sonny Rollins, he played in the moment. Spontaneous beauty.

One of the most patient and humble people I've ever met. And a wonderful sense of humor. He could find humor in anything. I've learned more from him than anyone else.

So, thank you for everything Marchel. I love you.

[Soul Stream]

A friend of mine just called me with the news. I can't believe it.

Last Sunday a musician on the road called from Dallas, "Hey, I'm off tonight, what's there to do on a Sunday?" You gotta go to Terrelli's and see Marchel. That's the only thing you should do tonight was my reply. I guess this was the gig Shelly filled in for.

I was fortunate enough to back Marchel up twice here in Austin the last couple of years. I was talking last month to the club owner about bringing Marchel back soon. This is a devestating blow on a lot of levels. I grew up in Dallas and had the pleasure of seeing Marchel play many times. He used to play with the great bluesman Zuzu Bollin after he made his comeback in the 80's. Those were some wonderful gigs to watch. Marchel could play it all, and had passion for it all equally it seemed. I saw him play Honky Tonk note perfect with feeling you've never heard live before in your life, then turn around and play Lover Man with equal enthusiasm. Man, I WILL miss Marchel more than you know. Even if I didn't get to see him play as much these days, just knowing he was alive and blowing somewhere on planet earth made me feel good about being a musician and music in general.

I couple of things that come to mind...

Last time he came to Austin to play, we rehearsed and then he went back to the hotel to get changed. When he came back, he had kind of a pimped-out outfit on that I just couldn't imagine he'd wear (He was always a suit on a gig guy whenever I saw him). Anyway, after the gig he said they lost his bag or something on the plane and that he had to borrow his nephew's clothes for the gig.

Another time I asked him to play "Moanin'" since I knew he had played with Art Blakey anyway he counted a tempo faster than God. I could just barely keep up and sweated my ass off trying to make it to the end of the tune. Afterwards, I told him I'd never do that again. He just laughed.

I'm really, really, really gonna miss Marchel.

My condolences really go out to Andrew especially. I saw Andrew, Marchel, Clint Strong and Joey DeFrancesco live a few years ago up in Dallas. That was one of the best gigs I've ever seen in my life.

[Soul Stream]

Here's a little clip I found of Marchel on the web, wish there was more to choose from, but for those who'll never get a chance to see him in person..."I Remember You" (and we will Marchel)

http://vidsearch.myspace.com/index.cfm?fus...ideoid=21162641

Edited November 1, 2007 by Soul Stream

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I'm sorry to hear this. I have just picked up on it. RIP.

Your stories about him show what a man he was.

MG