Live at Donte's 1968 in Bloomington, MN

In 1968, trombonist
Mike Barone
had a rehearsal band comprised mostly of Los Angeles-based studio musicians who occasionally played for the fun of it at the legendary
Donte's
. The music on this CD was privately taped (the recording quality is excellent) and not released for the first time until 30 years later.
Barone
wrote most of the arrangements and the lineup of soloists includes altoist
Med Flory
(the future leader of
Supersax
); pianist
Mike Wofford
; trumpeter
Steve Huffsteter
; and the tenors of
Bill Hood
,
Lou Ciotti
, and (on
"Juss Messin' Around"
) the young
Tom Scott
. The music is essentially swinging
hard bop
, even such unlikely material as
"T"
and
"The Non-Viennese Waltz Blues."
This is a valuable piece of otherwise long-lost musical history that has fortunately been saved by the
V.S.O.P.
label. ~
Scott
Yanow