with Mundell Lowe – Nagel-Heyer, 2000

 

1. Windy Wendy (Meurkens) 

2. Mundell’s Mood (Meurkens) 

3. Please Let The Sun Come Out Again

4. Shoreway

5. Darn That Dream

6. Seven Steps To Heaven

7. A Lad Named Charlie 

8. Opus 1

9. Body And Soul 

10. You Say You Care

11. I’ll Follow My Secret Heart

12. There Is No Greater Love

Mundell Lowe – guitar
Hendrik Meurkens – vibes, harmonica
Larry Porter – piano
Pat O’Leary – bass
Chuck Redd – drums

Hendrik’s Notes

This album was recorded during a German tour. Mundell and I had already recorded WHEN LIGHTS ARE LOWE the year before and now we were on the road playing every night and selling that CD on our gigs.

On this CD, I play more vibes than harmonica. It just happened that way. On the Road, in Europe, I always play both, because I started out as a vibist and people know me as that over there.

I like to honor the wishes of my listeners, but I always whine and wince about not wanting to play the vibes again. But then, after a set or two, it starts to feel good and I am hooked again. Ask any musician who traveled with me about my vibes neuroses. They probably roll with their eyes and start moaning. Sorry, guys.

Chuck Redd plays drums on this one. Interestingly, Chuck is also a great vibes player and on these long tours he gets some serious withdrawal symptoms because he doesn’t play any vibes on the gig. But he sees that beautiful shiny instrument about two feet away from his drum set every night and so he’s always circling around the vibes when we aren’t playing. Has anybody seen Chuck? Yup, he is playing vibes. In 2002 we had a gig in D.C. were we finally both played vibes and it actually was a lot of fun.

Pat O’Leary is the bassist here and Pat is all music. He is a great bass player and composer, someone who lives by the Phil Woods motto, music first!

Larry Porter joined us in the studio. We did the tour as a pianoless quartet but the producer wanted a keyboardist and Larry lives in Berlin which is just a few hours from Hamburg where we recorded. Larry fit in nicely and brought in the Jobim-inspired tune Shoreway.

This was my first recording of Mundell’s Mood. Since this recording, the composition has become a fixture in my repertoire. These days I play it faster than on this CD.

Review

“Lowe and Meurkens blend well together and offer prime examples of why this music remains timeless.” Jim Santella – Cadence– July, 2001

Currently Out of Print