It has always been important to capture a creative artist in optimum circumstances but like the risks one takes at the crap table or in going to the ball park for only a single game a season, the odds against catching a jazz musician at his very best on any given performance in nightclub surroundings are prohibitive. Boisterous customers, clanging cash registers (they may be poetry to club owners but they're misery to musicians), off-pitch pianos and noisy plumbing have contributed their share of obstacles to proper club performance... let alone trying to record under such conditions. The importance of atmosphere for attaining at least near-perfection in the recording of jazz has been realized only since the advent of tape recording techniques, the long-play record, and accurate stereophonic pickup. That the old days of jazz, prior to 1950, really must have sounded much better than studio-cut 78 rpms (3-5 minutes) ever let us realize, is made quite clear by the handful of concert recordings and radio transcriptions which are available. Compare the Goodman of his radio air-shots or Carnegie Hall concert with the stuffy commercial studio efforts that were issued; listen to Basie from the Spirituals to Swing stage-recordings and match that informality with the stiffness of the 78 rpms of 1939. The matter of atmosphere is most important to the recording you are perusing ; in fact, beyond the Scaletta Trio itself, it is the fourth essential ingredient. There is a very special feeling about the Trident, a waterfront cabaret in Sausalito (on San Francisco Bay) where this performance was committed to tape on a balmy Sunday afternoon. The Trident is the most beautifully situated jazz club in America. Ask anyone in jazz: Kenny Burrell, Gary Burton, Bill Evans, Joe Sullivan... it's a long list of great names that the Trident has accumulated ; they may not agree on music, but they agree on the Trident. From its full wall windows the city by the Golden Gate radiates by day and sparkles by night just a few miles across the current-rippled water ; and boats and yachts languish at the Trident's dock only a few feet from Don Scaletta's piano. On the pier, within easy audio range, a few jazz inclined boatsmen can enjoy two pastimes at once during the afternoon. Within the tiered Trident (not a large club, but eminently comfortable) the musical sounds fill the room, if conversation allows. When Don Scaletta played during the engagement which prompted the live recording of this album, good times on the keyboard suggested more subdued talk by the patrons.
Philip Elwood (from the original Liner Notes)
Don Scaletta
At The Trident
Tracks
1 Summer Samba (So Nice) (Valle, Valle, Gimbel) 3:56
2 People Will Say We're in Love (Rodgers, Hammerstein II) 3:19
3 Sweet Betsy From Pike (Scaletta) 6:40
4 Favela (DeMoraes) 3:58
5 My Little Houseboat (Scaletta) 2:25
6 Love For Sale (Porter) 8:39
7 Time Weary Rock (Scaletta) 4:39
8 Cheesy Cat (Scaletta) 3:39
*
Personnel
Don Scaletta - p
Mel Nowell - b
Nikki Lamkin - dr
Recorded at Columbus Recording Studio, San Francisco ; 1967