AprilCadence2013

107 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013
Interview Dennis Mackrel
others, and he wrote a lot of music for them and other bands, so he kept that up
with the Basie Band.
CAD: He kept adding to the library?
dm: Yes he did. he’d get on the bus with another heap of manuscript and work as
we went along. he drove sonny cohn nuts with this, always trying out something
new. frank was amazing – he’d be writing a chart and carrying on a conversation
at the same time!
CAD: But he’d leave the standard Basie repertoire alone?
dm: oh, from time to time he might try some different tempos, but it’s better to
leave those big ones alone.
CAD: Frank left after a little under two years, and you also made the break at
around that time?
dm: i’d been there for five years, got lots of great exposure and without really
knowing it, i’d built up a good reputation. Then my mother got very sick and i
wanted to look after her, so i left the band, stayed in nYc and moved into the
freelance field.
CAD: Did you miss the Basie band?
dm: naturally you wonder for a while if you’ve done the right thing, and i kept in
touch with those guys. The two older members who had kind of looked out for me
in the earlier days, Grover mitchell and Bill hughes, both later became leaders of
the band and occasionally i still did gigs with them. But i’d met and got to know
a lot of top guys in the business while i’d been with Basie and quite quickly i was
getting a call for top jobs.
CAD: For some time we’ve had a copy of the Grover Mitchell CD Hip Shakin’.
dm: oh, you’ve got that, great! That was a very enjoyable date – a lot of people
put in to help get that recorded, and it was well worth it. Grover had been so good
to me over a long time and we were really pleased with the result. at that time i
was getting very busy with recording work of all sorts and that one stood out.
CAD: You’d been playing with the Vanguard Orchestra quite often?
dm: Yes, and that came through my meeting with mel lewis some time before.
When Thad took over the Basie leadership, in fact even before that, i’d get to the
vanguard whenever i could, and sat in at mel’s invitation a few times. so by the
time i struck out on my own, i’d played with and been heard by a lot of top players
and made a lot of friends and the phone started ringing.
CAD: The list of recording sessions you’ve done reads like a Who’s Who, and
covers a wide range of styles.
dm: Well again, that takes us right back to college and frank Gagliano – he was
so important to my development and stressed versatility and appreciation of so
much. When frank guided you through the full course you were ready to try almost
every situation.
CAD: That CD list certainly contains some wild items – from the American Jazz
Orchestra through Maria Schneider, through Mingus, Toshiko Akiyoshi, George
Shearing, and even Buck Clayton?