Jazz Around Town
Musician in the Spotlight!
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Carl Saunders was born on Aug. 2, 1942 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was on the road from the start of his life for his mother Gale Sherwood was a singer who toured as part of her brother trumpeter Bobby Sherwood's orchestra. She retired from the music business when Carl was five and settled in Los Angeles. For a time the two lived with Carl’s aunt Caroline and her husband, tenor-saxophonist Dave Pell, who was with Les Brown at the time. Young Carl started playing trumpet in the seventh grade and he quickly found his musical voice. After he graduated from high school, his mother helped get him a job with her old friend Stan Kenton. After an audition, Saunders was given a choice of waiting for the first opening in the trumpet section or joining the band the following week as a member of the mellophonium section. He chose the latter, spending 1961-62 on the road with Stan Kenton playing the mellophonium, an instrument he has avoided ever since. After the Kenton period, Saunders worked as a drummer with Bobby Sherwood, settled in Las Vegas, and during the next 20 years played with many show bands plus the big bands of Si Zentner, Harry James, Maynard Ferguson, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet and Buddy Rich (1966). Moving to Los Angeles in 1984, Saunders became the lead trumpeter with Bill Holman (a position he still holds), and worked with Supersax, Bob Florence's Limited Edition, the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Phil Norman Tentet and with his uncle in the Dave Pell Octet. Saunders also leads his own groups which include the Carl Saunders Big Band, his sextet and a quartet. To hear him at his best, listen to the recordings he has led in recent times. Out Of The Blues features him with pianist Roger Kellaway in a quartet and a sextet, highlighted by a miraculous version of “Minute Waltz.” Eclecticism has the trumpeter (who sometimes overdubs on five trumpets) accompanied by 23 strings and three French horns, not just on ballads but on such numbers as “Fascinating Rhythm,” his own “Blues For The Common Man” and Chopin's “Valtz Opus 64 #2.” And Bebop Big Band (which is available on Sea Breeze) has some outstanding playing by some of Los Angeles' top musicians including altoist Lanny Morgan, trombonists Bob McChesney and Andy Martin, and tenor-saxophonist Jerry Pinter, playing arrangements by Herbie Phillips. Other sets include the jam session flavored Live At Capozzoli's (Woofy 109) with altoist Lanny Morgan, the quartet outing Can You Dig Being Dug (Orchard 105307) with the great pianist Christian Jacob, and The Lost Bill Holman Charts (Mama 1032). Few trumpeters in jazz of the past 15 years are on Carl Saunders' level. He may not win the Downbeat polls but he certainly deserves to be heard by fans of modern jazz and the trumpet in general. Check out these You Tube performances: Donna Lee In A Sentimental Mood My Foolish Heart Carl Saunders' Website Last Month's Musician In The Spotlight |
| He is one of the world's greatest jazz trumpeters but Carl Saunders is little known outside of Southern California. A brilliant musician who can hit stratospheric high notes quietly, play as fast as Arturo Sandoval, and is both an outstanding lead trumpeter and a very skilled soloist, Saunders deserves much greater recognition. |
| Carl Saunders |