Eighty years ago today (December 16, 1937), two great jazz saxophonists were born: Joe Farrell and Bobby Porcelli. They both played most of the saxes, but Joe's main instrument was tenor sax, while Bobby's is alto sax. They're also both great flute players as well, so I also couldn't resist on their joint birthday putting up a composition of Bobby's that he wrote and arranged for two flutes, That's Good. I wish I also had a recording of both of them playing the flute parts together, but, ironically, neither one recorded it on flute.
Joe Farrell's name might be known to many jazz fans since he played on albums that were widely distributed (Chick Corea). Unfortunately, Joe died in 1986. But who is Bobby Porcelli? If you don't know the answer to this question, you're in for a real treat.
Bobby has been highly regarded in the Latin and Latin-Jazz world for many years. That's great, but for some of us, Bobby is much more than that. If you check out his straight ahead jazz playing, you'll realize he is also one of the greatest jazz soloists around: he's instantly recognizable.
I'm very excited that jazzleadsheets.com can give you the opportunity to check out Bobby Porcelli. He's already present on over 30 of the recordings found on jazzleadsheets.com, and very soon we will be releasing more of his solo transcriptions. If you've ever talked to me about Bobby Porcelli, you know that as far as I'm concerned, musically, Bobby can do no wrong!
Here are links to the new titles related to these two birthday celebrants:
-- Farrell's Ultimate Rejection, recorded by Maynard Ferguson
-- Porcelli's That's Good (the two-flute feature) and his lyrical Rejuvenate which has been recorded by Ralph Moore and T.S. Monk, along with a vocal version, It's All In The Mind. A heretofore unreleased-to-the-public recording of Bobby playing Rejuvenate with me at a 1977 rehearsal is available.
Don Sickler and the jazzleadsheets.com team