Thurs. 9/8 at noon: Today we feature the music of Gildo Mahones whose crystalline perfectly balanced piano backed everyone from Sonny Stitt, Lorez Alexandria, Booker Ervin, James Moody, O.C.Smith, Benny Carter, Pony Poindexter, Jimmy Witherspoon, King Pleasure, and on and on. Mostly notably you know him from his years (1959-1964) he worked with Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.
In our pre-production discussions Gildo has expressed how some of his personal favorite recordings were with Les Jazz Modes w/ Charlie Rouse and Julius Watkins, tenor saxophone and French horn in the front line.
He was born (1929) in NYC and grew up there, even played gigs at Minton's with Milt Jackson. Somewhere in the 60s he relocated to Los Angeles where I'd catch him at Dontes playing with guitarist John Collins, or with Big Joe Turner, and on one legendary gig in 1985 for a week at the Hyatt on Sunset in a quintet with Harold Land & Warne Marsh dual tenors.
BUT most of all I want to talk with him about the three years (1953-9156) he was with the Master of Time & Space: Lester Young. That's right, we're going to speak to maestro Gildo Mahones in a live telephone interview this day, as well, as play as much of his music as we can squeeze into 83 minutes of radio time.
--Mark Weber