Tag: frank basile

Boss Baritones w/ Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile out tomorrow!

A new exciting album drops tomorrow, Friday June 7th. Two of my favorite baritonists will be releasing their album finally. I’ve seen the group play live a couple times and its tremendous. Gary Smulyan, and Frank Basile are both solidly in the Pepper Adams school of baritone playing, but each have their own take on it.

This group they have together is somewhat a throwback to the notable groups that had two tenor saxophones as the front men (Think Sonny Stitt & Gene Ammons, or Johnny Griffin & Lockjaw Davis etc)

I’ve pre-ordered my copy, if you’d like to grab yours the link is here.

UPDATED: Frank Basile to give free online presentation on 6 baritonists

UPDATE 10/18/2021: Frank’s presentation has been archived and is available on YouTube. See below to watch!

On Sunday, October 17th at 3pm EST Frank Basile will be giving an online presentation on 6 of the most important jazz baritone saxophonists:
Harry Carney, Leo Parker, Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams, Ronnie Cuber, and Gary Smulyan!

In addition to being one of the best baritonists alive, Frank is a great historian and is incredibly well versed in the history and lineage of the baritone saxophone. So this is a great opportunity to see him delve into a topic that he knows more about than almost anyone.

The presentation will be available on the njjs.org website as well as on the NJJS Facebook page and YouTube channel. Attendance is free, but donations are suggested. If you can’t watch it live, it will be archived on njjs.org and the NJJS YouTube channel.

Read the full news article about  it on newjerseystage.com

Catch Frank Basile on a live stream Friday!

There aren’t too many opportunities to hear music that is being performed live these days. Fortunately for baritonists everywhere Frank Basile will be performing at Small Club in NYC this Friday September 18th and it will be live streamed. We recently wrote about the album that Frank co-led with Sam Dillon and this will serve as the album release celebration. We highly recommend the album, and of course definitely recommend checking out the stream!

Its 4:45pm-6:30pm Eastern Standard, and you’ll need to sign up for an account but its otherwise free at http://smallslive.com

Leo Parker Transcriptions and Frank Basile on a radio show

The transcriptions keep rolling in. Thank you to Avery Barten, for sending in another couple Leo Parker transcriptions. This time on “Glad Lad” and “VI”. Some nice medium-up tempo tracks off of Let Me Tell You Bout It. Head over to the transcriptions page and grab copies for yourself.

In other news, fantastic baritonist, record collector, and jazz scholar Frank Basile recently participated in a very interesting radio show. Its a show that features music found on 78 records. For you young ones out there, that’s not 1978, that 78 rpm vinyl shellac records (thank you for the correction, Frank) that were used mostly in the first half of the 20th century. Frank brought in and discussed a number of excellent Be-Bop era records. To listen to the show head over to the Hot Club of New York website and scroll down to “Frank Basile”.

Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile Quintet shows available for stream!

A few weeks ago at Smalls club in the West Village of New York City, I had the extreme pleasure or watching two sets that featured some of the best baritone playing around. Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile are two incredible baritone saxophonists that are directly connected to the Pepper Adams lineage.

Everyone can now watch both evenings (4 sets total) on the online streaming archive from Smalls – called SmallLive. You’ll need to sign up for a membership, but $10 a month is a small price for the incredible amount of live jazz you’ll have access to. This concert alone had a $20 cover per set to see. Also, in these strange times Musicians and Clubs need all the support they can get – Smalls shares revenue from online streaming with the musicians.

Head over to the Smalls Live archive and watch these incredible sets:
https://www.smallslive.com/events/16554-frank-basile-gary-smulyan-quintet-boss-baritones/

Leo Parker’s complete discography, compiled by Frank Basile

Leo Parker

is definitely among the greats when it comes to baritone saxophonists, although he is mostly known only to dedicated baritone saxophonists. He passed away at a somewhat early age and only produced a few different albums under his own name. But fortunately we now have a new resource for finding recordings with Leo on them.

Baritone saxophonist Frank Basile has completed was must have been a massive project to compile Leo Parker’s complete discography. Including all recordings he appeared on, both as a sideman, co-leader, and as a leader. The amount of research that Frank did is astounding and this is a great document for those of us interested in the original Leo P.

You can check out the fruit of Frank’s labor over at jazzdiscography.com:
http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Leo-Parker/Leo-Parker-Complete-Discography.php

Hurry, help Frank Basile! [UPDATE]

UPDATE: 6/21/2012 – Frank’s project has reached its funding goal and the project can proceed! Excellent work everyone.Frank Basile

has under a week and needs just over $1,000 to successfully fund his Kickstarter project. Having purchased and extensively listened to all of Frank’s previous albums I can safely say that this next one will be great. Remember, this is Kickstarter, so Frank doesn’t get any of the funding unless he reaches that $5,000 goal. Check out the video:

Head over to pledge to Frank’s project on