Sheller spent many afternoons at Malabe's house on Simpson Street in The Bronx (across the street and a few doors down from the infamous police station nicknamed "Fort Apache") studying African and Afro-Cuban rhythms. The group included conguero Frankie Malabe, whom Sheller sites as an important early influence. In 1960, Sheller and Ramirez put together a Latin-jazz band that played jazz songs with a Latin rhythm section, but the band found little work. In 1959 Sheller began playing with composer, arranger, timbalero, vibraharpist and pianist Louie Ramirez. Many musicians who played in these bands went on to become very influential in the jazz and Latin-jazz scene, including drummers Pete "La Roca" Sims, Phil Newsum and Steve Berrios, pianists Rodgers Grant and Arthur Jenkins, bassists Bill Salter and Larry Gales, trombonist Barry Rogers, alto saxophonists Bobby Porcelli and Bobby Capers, and Hubert Laws who doubled on tenor sax, flute, guitar and vocals. There were three bands working that circuit Hugo Dickens, Pucho, and Joe Panama. The clubs wanted a band that could play rhythm and blues as well as Latin, and there was a group of musicians in New York that had grown up listening to both kinds of music and knew how to play them authentically. In the fall, Sheller joined a band led by tenor saxophonist Hugo Dickens that played at dances, fashion shows and cocktail sips sponsored by black social clubs in Harlem on Friday and Saturday nights. As young adults, they were passionate about the emerging music of Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and John Coltrane, and that summer was spent transcribing and playing songs from their recordings. Sheller made his professional debut in 1958, playing a summer gig with Porcelli, Schwartzman, and drummer Wilbur Bailey at the Woodbine Hotel in the Catskill Mountains. They have all remained close friends since those days, when Sheller and Porcelli could be heard practicing Charlie Parker-Dizzy Gillespie unison lines in Marty's dorm room. In September of 1957, Sheller began college at Columbia University in New York City where he met fellow student and pianist Myron Schwartzman who introduced him to another student at the school, alto saxophonist Bobby Porcelli. His first instrument was snare drum which he took up at age 10, studying with a neighborhood friend of his family, and even though he switched to trumpet a year later, his love of percussion has played a major role in his career. Marty Sheller, trumpet player, composer, arranger and record producer was born March 15,1940 in Newark, New Jersey.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |