Here’s the second of a series of excellent recordings that he made for Emarcy in the 1950s, all of which have been reissued by Emarcy in Japan.
Herb Geller – The Herb Geller Sextette
01 – Outpost Incident
02 – Crazy He Calls Me
03 – Gin For Fuguelhorns
04 – Tardi At Zardi’s
05 – Vone Mae
06 – Rockin’ Chair
07 – Owl Eyes
08 – You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
Herb Geller – alto sax
Ziggy Vines – tenor sax
Conte Candoli – trumpet
Lorraine Geller – piano
Red Mitchell – bass on tracks 1,2,6,8
Leroy Vinnegar – bass on tracks 3,4,5,7
Lawrence Marable – drums
Recorded:
Tracks 1,2,6,8: August 19, 1955 Los Angeles, CA
Tracks 3,4,5,7: August 22, 1955 Los Angeles, CA
Taken from the CD Emarcy MG-36040 (UCCM-9109)
AMG Biography by Scott Yanow
Herb Geller is a survivor of the Los Angeles jazz scene of the 1950s who played better than ever in the mid-’90s. Geller played in 1946 with Joe Venuti’s Orchestra and in 1949, he traveled to New York to play with Claude Thornhill. In 1951, he moved back to L.A. and married the excellent bop pianist Lorraine Walsh. Geller was a fixture in L.A., playing with Billy May (1952), Maynard Ferguson, Shorty Rogers, Bill Holman, and Chet Baker, among others; jamming with Clifford Brown and Max Roach (1954); and leading a quartet that included his wife (1954-1955). Lorraine Geller’s sudden death in 1958 eventually resulted in the altoist deciding to leave the country to escape his grief. He played with Benny Goodman off and on between 1958-1961, spent time in Brazil, and in 1962, moved to Berlin. Geller worked in German radio orchestras for 30 years, played in European big bands, and continued to grow as a musician, although he was pretty much forgotten in the U.S. From the early ’90s on, Herb Geller returned to the States on a more regular basis and he recorded a tribute to Al Cohn for Hep. Geller also recorded as a leader in the 1950s for EmArcy, Jubilee, and Atco, and in the 1980s and ’90s for Enja, Fresh Sound, and V.S.O.P.