Junior Mance and Me...

You know, it really wasn’t a leadership thing. We just got on the stand and they would call a tune and you’d blow.
Junior Mance

***At The Village Vanguard (1961) signed by Junior***

The first time I played with Hawk (Coleman Hawkins) was in Chicago in May 1954... When he played the Bee Hive, he needed a piano player so I was called for the gig. Hawk and I did eight weeks there together. Man, he knew more tunes. I learned more songs playing with him than with anyone else. I’d ask him what key he wanted to play a song in, and Hawk would say, “Wherever you want to put it. Just play the intro and I’ll figure out where we’re at.” When you’ve been playing as long as that guy, things come automatically.
Junior Mance

***Jam Session (19(54) signed by Junior, Maynard Ferguson, Clark Terry, Max Roach, Harold Land***

I played with Dizzy almost three years – three great years. I learned more in that span of time than I learned from any teacher, and certainly more than I got out of the time I was in college. I lived maybe a 10-minute walk from Dizzy. He had a studio in his basement and he said, “Come on over any time.” We’d go down to his studio and he showed me a lot about comping, a lot about the alternate changes on things. It was like a music lesson. Most of the time it started off with some tune we were doing.
And I learned a lot just from listening to him every night on the gig. The first night in the band, playing with the great Dizzy Gillespie, I was all over the place with notes. And he just eased over to me and calmly said, “You know, the sign of a mature musician is when you learn what not to play; what to leave out.” It took me a while to do.
Junior Mance on Dizzy Gillespie

***The Chicago Sound (1957) signed by Junior Mance, Johnny Griffin***

I never got involved with that. I had looked at enough of these guys from Chicago who messed up. They were only fooling themselves. Lester Young smoked pot, but he wasn’t outrageous with it… I smoked a joint on one record date early on and played worse than I ever did. I never was in my right mind. I never touched it again.
Junior Mance on staying clean

***Griff & Lock (1960) signed by Johnny Griffin, Junior Mance***

I like outside tunes, things you don’t hear often, and just what hits me. I was taught very early to listen to everything. You don’t have to use it all, just listen to it. When I was young, Benny Carter said to me, “When a musician stops listening, he’s in trouble.” And of course, he was right.
Junior Mance, liner notes Truckin’ And Trakin’

***The Soul Of Hollywood (1962) front cover***

***The Soul Of Hollywood (1962) back cover signed by Junior***

The year before my mother died, I had my own trio band and we recorded my first album. We were playing at the London House, a very upscale jazz club in Chicago. My working there coincided with her birthday, so my father decided we would give her a surprise party. He told Mama, “I want to see this movie,” and they drove downtown. The London House had a marquee almost like a movie theatre. And she looked up and said, “What?” when she saw my name.
She didn’t say a word. She walked in. I had long-stemmed roses on the table, and it was the first time she’d ever seen me perform in a club. So after the night was over and I’m walking back to the car with her, I said, “Ma, did you like it, did you enjoy it?” She said, “Son, I had a great time, but I still wish you’d been a doctor.” My ego hit the floor. My father whispered in my ear, “Dummy, why didn’t you leave well enough alone?” But he told me in later years, “She was proud of you.” There’s so many times I’ve wished she could have been there – like the one this past weekend at the Kennedy Center. But I don’t regret one instant of my career. There were hard times, but I don’t regret that either.
Junior Mance

***Live At The Top (1968) signed by Junior, David “Fathead” Newman***

A jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Junior Mance was born in Chicago in 1928. Junior became the house pianist for the Bee Hive lounge in Chicago and served as the accompanist for Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins and other great artists when they were passing through. He began his recording career with Gene Ammons in 1947, and later toured with Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, and Cannonball Adderley. Junior released his first trio album in 1960 which has since become his preferred music and art form ever since.

***Get Ready, Set, Jump! (1964) signed by Junior***

A very soulful and blues-based pianist, Junior has an exquisite touch on ballads and standards. He released over fifty albums as a leader, and appeared on over one-hundred as a sideman for such renowned artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Dinah Washington, Joe Williams and Johnny Griffin. Also an educator, Junior taught at The New School in New York City for over twenty years before retiring in 2011. Brad Mehldau, certainly one of the most influential jazz pianists extant, is one of Junior's most celebrated and accomplished students.

***Straight Ahead! (1965) signed by Junior***

I saw Junior perform many times in some really interesting venues in New York City, including The Blue Note, Birdland and, for many years, Junior appeared with bassist Martin Rivera at the Knickerbocker Bar and Grill near New York University in the heart of Greenwich Village. An old neighborhood steakhouse with Al Hirschfield framed caricatures adorning its walls, The Knickerbocker was the perfect environment to see Junior Mance perform his compelling mix of blues, gospel, soul, and jazz, and Martin Rivera's beautiful, resonant bass was the perfect complement to Junior's virtuoso playing.

***I Believe To My Soul (1966);signed by Junior***

The last time I saw him, Junior was playing an intimate show at the Kitano Hotel in midtown Manhattan. He played a tremendous set, including the Billy Taylor penned civil rights classic "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" and Duke Ellington's glorious "The Single Petal Of A Rose." From the gospel burn of "I Wish...." to the lyrical elegance and brilliance of "The Single Petal...", it was a bravura performance.

***Harlem Lullaby (1967) signed by Junior***

After the show, I spent some time with Junior as he signed some albums. I told him how much I enjoyed his performance. He laughed when he saw The Junior Mance Touch (released in 1973). I told him that I really liked the album. It had a great mix of songs, from Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" to George Harrison's "Something" to Leadbelly's "Midnight Special." Junior said he hated it. He said it was his first album (and last) for Polydor, a label he joined after he had left Atlantic Records. He said he recorded the album with Martin Rivera and turned it in, and the label put strings on it. Suffocating, syrupy, saccharine strings. Junior said he was shocked when he listened to it. After all these years, he was still not happy. I told him he should reissue the album without the strings. Junior said he had no idea where the tapes were, and he was moving forward, not backward.

***The Junior Mance Touch (1973) signed by Junior***

Junior was impressed with my records and their quality. "How many do you have?" I told him a lot, probably 7,000 or more. A collector himself, he asked: "Do you ever get calls from collectors? I get calls all the time, people want to buy my collection. I don't even know how they find me." I told him it's because of his ownership, his provenance makes his records more interesting and valuable. That, and I'm sure there are a lot of original issue Blue Note records, the holy grail. "Well, I ain't selling", he replied defiantly. On that, we could both agree.

Junior Mance, a wonderfully gifted jazz pianist, vinyl enthusiast and collector.