Mel Martin—composer, arranger, bandleader, saxophonist, flutist—is one of the most versatile and inventive musicians ever toemerge from the San Francisco Bay Area. In his long career, he’s played a part in many of the innovative movements that have emerged from that creative community. He worked and recorded with a number of the progressive rock and Latin bands of the late ’60s and early ’70s, including the Loading Zone, Cold Blood, Azteca, and Boz Scaggs. In 1977 he founded the award-winning Listen, one of the first West Coast jazz-fusion bands. And he’s currently artistic director of Bebop and Beyond, a group he formed in 1983, as well as leading The MEL MARTIN BAND and Big Band, the Tenor Conclave, and the Benny Carter All-Star Tribute Band.

Martin’s latest CD, Just Friends by the Mel Martin/Benny Carter Quintet, was recorded live at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland in April 1994 with Carter on alto saxophone, Martin on tenor saxophone and flute, Roger Kellaway on piano, bassist Jeff Chambers, and drummer Har