Med Flory - Go West, Young Med! Med Flory and His Orchestras 1954-1959 (2017)

Although saxophonist Med Flory (1926-2014) was associated with the West Coast jazz scene for most of his life, he started his career in New York in 1950, playing with the bands of Claude Thornhill, Art Mooney, Woody Herman and Tommy Tucker. In 1954 he had his own band there and he did his recording debut as a leader for Mercury’s jazz label, EmArcy.

While freelancing around New York, he recorded as a sideman with groups led by trumpeter Dick Collins, trombonist Urbie Green, pianist Nat Pierce, but in October 1955, Ray Anthony, who was touring the country with his band, hired him. By February 1956 they had arrived in Los Angeles and Flory decided to settle there, where he wrote arrangements for such combos as Billy Usselton’s and Dave Pell’s. Eventually he did some fine swinging arrangements for a 14-piece band that drew heavily on Anthony’s personnel, recording them for Kapp on March 12, 1956; the highlight of the session was his own Joanie’s Jump, a truly swinging piece with a Basie-like opening ensemble.

The following year he assembled a great band featuring Al Porcino’s superb lead trumpet work and recording for the Jubilee label, the album “Jazz Wave.” Their spirit, and the quality of the writing by Flory, Bill Holman, Bob Enevoldsen, Lennie Niehaus and Bill Hood, turned these big band sessions into jazz of the highest order. This compilation closes with two tracks by a saxophone band that Med Flory formed in 1959, called “The Sax Maniacs,” a concept he would revisit later with his renowned band “Supersax”.