Keyboardist Mike Melvoin, who died last February at age 74, really had two parallel careers -- as an in-demand session musician in Los Angeles and as a first-rate jazz improviser and composer.
After he moved to L.A. in 1961, his session credits included such landmark recordings as Pet Sounds and Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys, That's Life by Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole's Unforgettable. In the meantime he was also playing with West Coast jazz stalwarts like Gerald Wilson, Plas Johnson and Frank Rosolino.
Between the Two, released on Liberty in 1968, sticks pretty much to the easy listening-instrumental pop genre. And like many such instrumental LPs of the period, it was aimed more at radio DJs than the record-buying public. All of the tracks, like Alabamy Bound available from the link below, were around 2:30-3:00 minutes in length, perfect for radio airplay.
Alabamy Bound
Melvoin concentrated on jazz during the latter part of his career, releasing several excellent albums on the City Light Entertainment label. Most are available at ridiculously low prices in the Amazon Marketplace.
Between the Two, unfortunately, has never been available in a digital format.
From YouTube comes Mike Melvoin performing They Play the Blues in Kansas City. The audio is accompanied by a series of still images from a celebration of Melvoin's 50-year career at an L.A. club in December 2011, two months before his death from cancer.
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