Virgil Gonsalves - The Virgil Gonsalves Sextet & Big Band. Jazz in the Bay Area 1954-1959 (2022)

This CD set includes a 28-page booklet with an essay by the producer, photos, illustrations, detailed personnel, recording dates, and the original liner notes from the albums.

Virgil Gonsalves (1931-2008) was a gifted baritone sax and bandleader. However, despite his undeniable qualities, his name is often missing from the “best of” lists of his instrument, most likely because his fame never really did go beyond the Bay Area.

In 1952, Virgil introduced an artfully arranged sextet at concerts and club dates, contributing to the development of a nascent modern jazz scene in San Francisco. From 1955-1959 the sextet worked long stints at well known clubs such as the Black Hawk and the Jazz Workshop, and somehow his music represented a San Francisco style, a hybrid response to the jazz that had been brewing in Los Angeles and had already been labeled the West Coast style. Gonsalves himself was a huge fan of Gerry Mulligan, Shorty Rogers, and the fresh sound emanating from Southern California. In 1959 Virgil, always restless and enthusiastic, also organized a modern big band in collaboration with trumpeter Jerry Cournoyer, which was a well-conceived extension of his sextet.

Bandleader and trumpeter Rudy Salvini (1925-2011) was another indefatigable Bay Area musician, and teacher. In 1954, he organized his 17-piece rehearsal band. It was a young, Kenton-Basie derived band which, however, was extremely original in its arrangements, notably by Jerry Coker, Jerry Mulvihill, and Jerry Cournoyer. The band played casual concerts, and appeared weekly during two years at Oakland's Sands ballroom. In 1958 played at the first Monterey Jazz Festival, being hailed by jazz critics as one of the most exciting on the Pacific Rim.

Virgil Gonsalves and Rudy Salvini were two very importance driving forces of jazz in the Bay Area in the 50’s. With this compilation CD, we want to pay tribute not only to their talent as musicians and bandleaders, but also to their perseverance and their little remembered musical accomplishments, a true labor of love for jazz.

—Jordi Pujol