This loosely given title is somewhat apropos given the amount of musicians Mitch has played with over the years, many of whom he met while leading the Amnesia Jam Session for 7 years in San Francisco, CA. Varying in size from trio to large ensemble, this group, a democratic enterprise, mostly plays material already in common between the different musicians. While there are adjustments to the arrangements here and there, the sessions are meant to be a friendly get-together jam session.
Below are a few musical samples from the recent SF Jazz Festival show dedicated to the music of Joe Henderson. This show featured members of the mmq: Mitch on tenor sax, Mike Abraham on guitar, George Ban-Weiss on bass, and Jeff Marrs on drums. Joe Henderson has long been a huge influence for me and I was delighted to be a part of an evening dedicated to him. Here are the first 3 tunes from our second set that evening:
Recordame
Tetragon
Ask Me Now
These next two were recorded with some of the regulars at the Amnesia Jam Session with I ran for almost 7 years in San Francisco. These two tracks have Sameer Gupta on drums, Mike Abraham on guitar, Eugene Warren on bass, Mitch Marcus on tenor sax and we are also joined by Dayna Stephens on tenor saxophone, and Darren Johnston on trumpet. Two great tunes by two of the greatest musicians; Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins
Fables of Faubus
Alfie
The following is a video shot by Peter Varshavsky from Porto Franco Records. It’s from Amnesia in San Francisco of MM and Friends playing Jump Monk by Charles Mingus
Here’s another video from Amnesia of us playing “take the coltrane”. It’s a bit shakey for the first few seconds but settles down and it’s a nice rendition of this tune, thought i’d post it! Didn’t capture the whole tune but did capture a nice moment from what was the last session i ran before moving back to NY.
