king ubu Posted November 2, 2008 Report Posted November 2, 2008 Happy Birthday to the great alto sax player Herb Geller! To celebrate, I played the fine "Gellers" 2CD compilation on Fresh Sound (the Gellers being Herb and his then wife, Lorraine - here's a thread about her). A few years after he made the fine three EmArcy albums with his wife (plus an Imperial EP, all on said Freshsound set), he went to Europe, working first with the radio big band (or was that just a band, more an Unterhaltungsorchester really?) of RIAS Berlin, and after that for many, many years he led the reeds section of the NDR Big Band in Hamburg, helping to make it into one of the best European jazz big bands. I guess in America he was largely forgotten... which is quite sad, given the fact that he's a hell of an alto player (and also a fine tenor player). You can read up some about him here: http://www.herbgeller.de or here: http://www.herbgeller.com Right now I'm playing another Fresh Sound album, this one being one of their own productions from 1990, featuring Geller on alto with backing by Kenny Drew, NHOP and drummer Mark Taylor: This here's the fine set with the Gellers' recordings from 1954/55: Quote
Cyril Posted November 2, 2008 Report Posted November 2, 2008 Herb Geller, at eighty with 'Obama Bound'... A Jazzy Tribute Song for Barack Obama by Herb Geller. Happy Birthday Herb Geller!!! Quote
sidewinder Posted November 2, 2008 Report Posted November 2, 2008 Happy Birthday Mr Geller ! The one time I've seen him was actually in the States - one what must have been a rare West Coast visit for him. He was predictably excellent ! Quote
Clunky Posted November 2, 2008 Report Posted November 2, 2008 Happy Birthday,,,,, some fine Geller on the Hep label. Quote
Peter Friedman Posted November 3, 2008 Report Posted November 3, 2008 I recall seeing Herb Geller some years ago in England. he was playing at Peter Ind's club. More recently I saw him in California. He was playing at a Jazz Party weekend produced by Ken Poston. One part of the weekend event took place at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. Geller was playing marvelously. In fact, he was perhaps my favorite player of the weekend which featured a large number of good musicians. Some fairly recent CDs I especially like by Geller are: You're Looking At me - Fresh Sound Plays The Al Cohn Songbook - Hep To Benny & Johnny With Love - Hep Quote
jazzoper Posted November 3, 2008 Report Posted November 3, 2008 Hi, nice to see some Geller-fans around ! Had him on the phone this morning, the man sounds as young as ever and was enjoying forward a big birthday-concert tonight with the NDR BigBand (his orchestra for 30 years). As for the CDs, I'll mention another Hep recording: "Herb Geller plays the Arthur Schwartz Songbook" recorded 2004-5 with a British rhythm section. Quote
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