Jesse Meman
Education/Background
When Jesse Meman was seven years old he met with fellow ukulele enthusiasts and started a barbershop quartet. In the second grade songs like 'Ain't she Sweet' and "You are my Sunshine" were harmonized for concerts astounding parents at Avalon Elementary School
in return performances at several PTA’s and the school.
|
|
|
In Taney Jr. High School, he performed such songs as 'Green River' and 'Not your Stepping Stone' as lead guitarist/singer for The Stoned Vultures in 1972.
|
|
|
In Crossland High School he began writing hippie love songs to each new perceived girlfriend. The songs made up sets of other covers for talant shows performing at small gigs and open mic venues such as Oxon Hill Library and The Oak Tree Restaurant.
In 1976 Jesse began studying rudiments of jazz on saxophone with Ronnie Deale, lead alto saxophonist for the Navy Commodores. These were his first serious efforts in the jazz idiom. After a short time, he began playing 1st chair alto saxophone for the jazz band at Prince Georges Community College. Meanwhile he continued rock and soft rock/country as well, performing for college functions and open mics at the Agora Pub.
|
|
|
He then studied classical saxophone with Bill Street and Chris Ford as well as classical flute with Mary Beth Kiss at St. Mary’s College of Southern Maryland.
|
|
|
I Since graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary’s in 1981, I have spent my career focused on music and education, working closely with clients, students, parents, colleagues and associates.
Bob Ranalli owner of Ranalli Music and Sound
|
|
|
Matt Kleiss |
|
|
|
 Zack Dupy, Ben Thompson and Lauren Rostek |
 steve zerlin |
I have worked with numerous students (from young children to professional adults) nurturing their interest and skills in music. I have continued my music education studies at the graduate level at George Mason University.
|
|
|
A PERSONAL ALTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY
EARLIEST ARTISTIC INFLUENCES to 1977
My first memories are of music. My mother taught me this song when I was just learning to speak.
Planting rice is never fun
Bent from morn to the setting sun
Cannot sit and cannot stand
She said I then sang it in Tagalog, but I don’t remember that.
My father played ukulele and had an old arch top guitar. I still see him in his chair playing guitar and smoking a pipe. He unknowingly taught me to wear a porkpie hat. Pop loved to sing what Mom called ‘impertinent’ songs while she prepared the table for dinner. Because it was in Illocano (a different Philippine dialect and his native language) I never knew what he was saying. Considering Mom’s objections it was obviously dirty. The effect of music was introduced.
During my 3ed and 4th year my Aunty Aida watched me during the afternoons. She played songs on a record player. Mary Tyler Moore slacks were all the rage and she used to do a new ‘in’ dance called ‘Twisting’. Another one of my first songs was from her record collection. The name of the song was ‘Shimmy Shimmy Go Go Bop’. I sang it and danced the
Cha-Cha-Cha with her.
My mom played organ in her church as a child, and made sure my oldest sister took lessons on piano. At 6 years old I could play 12 measures of Beethoven’s Fur Elise. I learned it by ear. It seemed impossible to read it, so years later I learned.
When I was 5 my father began bringing me to his barbershop to shine shoes and sweep. Looking across the barber shop the morning sun streamed in the front window past open curtains and live plants. Pop (in chair #1) and usually two to three other barbers reclined in their own chairs, all reading newspapers quietly listening to the radio. It was usually violins. By then I had a few songs memorized on ukulele. I got silver dollars for shining shoes and sometimes got them for tips playing ukulele singing ‘You are my Sunshine’. I got at least fifteen of them. They remain in my coin collection to this day.
Primo Meman in front of Primo's Barbershop #3
My brother Nick, and Charlie Salem used to get together to play music at Scott Wayhabs' house in the mid 60s. When Scott took a solo, I always observed his facial expressions and heard he was ‘getting into it’. I was 7 years old and have sought the place he was 'in' since then.
Mrs. Ebersol was my first ever music teacher. To this day I remember the song I learned from her, “Grasshopper Green”. It seemed that among all the students in the class, she turned her attention to me. From that recognition my vocal abilities went into high gear. My first concert was of my ukulele barbershop quartet in 2ed grade harmonizing and playing songs including ‘Bye Bye Blue’ and ‘Ain’t She Sweet’.
Charlie Salem, Scott Wayhab, Nick Meman 
When I was eight years old, pop came home walking up the steps heavily. As I greeted him I was surprised that he was carrying something big in his hand. Under the yellow sheen of our living room lamp poppa loudly triggered spring loaded locks and opened a rectangular case. When the already weary box creaked opened I saw my first sax. I squatted next to it on the floor and realized I had never really seen a saxophone. It was deep in purple velvet shining gold with silver keys. It had a distinctive smell, and shined past a few rusty scratches and pearls. On the bell was a picture of a proud elk with four point horns. It was an
Having held an alto saxophone since 3ed grade created conflict. Jazz wasn’t cool to an elementary school student so I never listened to it. The closest thing to it was on the radio in the barbershop, and watching Sing Along with Mitch, and Lawrence Welk with my father. As the youngest in the family I took cues from my older brother and sisters who didn’t think much of it. I followed suit and paid it no mind. At the time, Coltrane was finding and adding spiritualism to his ‘sheets of sound’. Thirteen years later, my friends would douse me with it to utter disbelief. Decades after that, I can’t get enough of it.
The first record I ever bought was ‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies. The flip side was ‘Bang-Shang-Alang’. It was a 45-rpm record with a full color cartoon picture on the front cover of Archie on guitar, Betty on tambourine, Veronica on keys, Regi on guitar, and Jughead on drums. It remained into my mature record collection but then I got embarrassed and threw it away. It played fine. It would be worth a fortune today.
During the 60’s electric guitar was really making a stand. The first top 40 bands I took to were the Herman’s Hermits because he was playing ukulele on ‘Mrs. Brown you have a Lovely Daughter’ and the Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ because they were playing the first electronic instrument called an Electro-Theremin. When the Beatles hit, I got in front.
The current fashions took the front seat to music, and I was first to have collarless shirts under a pastel Peters jacket and you know I only wore my Chuck Tayor's with no socks. Then that gave way to shirts with extremely long collars, big belt buckels on bellbottom jeans and J.C. Waterwalkers actually went to heels. It was Rock and Roll that dominated the newest fashions so I naturally took to Beatles haircuts and begged for a Nehru coat. I was won over by the current trends into high school wearing a long fringed suede jacket to make the hang with the Hippies and Flower Power at protests in
It was 1969 when I was becoming a teenager. I left
Racial bigotry was so accepted in 1960’s
The one thing I was good at was arguing with my parents about growing my hair, but I had to be. It aligned me with something that was bubbling up and occupying everyone’s awareness.
In the hippy community I expected to be accepted no matter how off the wall I liked to be. Plus they were all about art, new knowledge of exotic spiritualism, music; it was a new Renaissance. Everything was being reexamined. They even suggested loving everyone. For me, it seemed this would be the only real level playing field. No matter where I was from, I was welcome.
Barbara Bailey was this chick in the neighborhood. She was a hippie and went by the name Miss Sycamore. My first experience of real absolute bigotry FROM AN ADULT came when she introduced me to her father. He only looked at her angrily and said, “Get that out of my house.” Barbara decided to adopt me as a friend. I was in 8th grade, she just entered 10th. I’d cut class and meet her at the High School, where I got to hang out with real sophistication. She wrote me letters with colorful Flair magic markers every night till we began seeing each other. We’d sneak out of our houses and beat the streets together till sunrise. She turned me onto Salvador Dali by bringing me a book from the library. This made us even closer pals, the oversized book upon our laps, hands touching. I introduced her to my parents who accepted her graciously. They called her my firefly girl.
Dennis Connelly was this freak from up the street who loved to play harmonica. He wore a leather hat and would walk for miles bearfoot playing one lick on the blues harp:
bweedo bweedo bweedoeee,
bweedo bweedo bweedoeee,
bweedo bweedo bweedoeee,
bweedo bweedo bweedoeee!
Though repetitious, he never got tired of it and it made me wonder...here was this music thing that was so cool, a dude would walk up the street reciting one perfect lick, over and over and over?
Known for his harp, Dennis also played a little guitar. He taught me two of my favorite songs that I play and teach thirty eight years later:
Willin' by Little Feet, and Friend of the Devil by Greatful Dead.
Jazz opposed the views of the rock and roll and psychedelia that I had already studied since 6th grade. At 8th grade I met my first jazz person. Lloyd Weinberg played for the Navy Commodores and was a new young band director at
Jim Snidero and Phil Burlin were the finest jazz players. They were outfitted with the best horns and private teachers. They were the coolest cats that I couldn’t hang with and along with trumpet player Marc Neagles, were the ONLY peer jazz influence I had. Compared to dozens of ‘freaks’ who I hung out with regularly, they presented little effect. I was an average reader (hack) and had great ideas but was not able to conform to the practice regimen of exploring rudiments until my college career began. It was a genuine effort to switch gears and turn my attention to my saxophone and the very music rudiments that I had continued to resist throughout my public school career.
After writing poems and soft-rock folk songs on guitar and piano in Taney Junior and
Jazz soon had found it’s way into top 40. Maynard and Chicago had nothing for me to appreciate. Really cool jazz approximations were on WPFW and WGTB radio. Later it would even be WHFS.
"21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson really messed me up-
once more harkening me to my saxophone. I craved ingenuity. After dismal attempts at making up symbols that had specific musical outcomes I knew it was time to study music in an academic way. Saxophone and the new sophistication made it necessary to use a complete system in writing my ideas down.
In 1976 at
Phil Burlin started hangin with me after he graduated from high school in the late 70’s. We jammed on many Jamie Abersol records, and listened and talked jazz. These were my earliest opportunities at really understanding what was happening in jazz and talking about it. He had been actively pursuing it since Jr. High School. As he included me in his studies I was truly blessed to have had him around so much. We played a lot of music and I started my first jazz record collection going with him to the best record stores-once to spend a 100-dollar bill he got from his dad for his birthday at Orpheus Records in
We played pinball at the local arcade. One was across the street from Andrews Air Force Base. In the olden times we would spend 25 cents to play pinball or a video game for about 3 minutes. I also had one of the first game consoles that had Space Invaders on it so naturally we played it after we ran out of money. During one of the more heated battles my television (with a ‘pop’) suddenly went black. Within seconds Phil stands up and grabs his horn. “Well, see ya later Jesse.” Slam. After a year of loyal academic pursuits, I was met head on by opposite forces.
Along with the theme park feel of Mardi Gras meets Alice in Wonderland, I joined the forces of “The Committee”: A collection of late teenage to mid twenties freaks (truly) who lived (and breeded) in the basement of a familiar house in the neighborhood. These were hippies gone wild. We hung out in a basement among heaps of porn, underground newspapers, art and loud music.
At the nucleus of ‘the committee’ were Arthur and Paul C. along with Dave and his sister Terry who were introduced to me by my long time comrade Thomas Von Knebelsdorf. When I spoke of Paul Desmond, Paul C. would put on the avante guard of Anthony Braxton. When I gave them Charlie Parker Dave V. would put on his record of a sine wave. They ALWAYS had an answer. Theirs always had a stronger impact on me and I knew its mystery superseded any lack of satisfaction.
Our film shot, reel to reel recorded, open music sessions included Kirby on drums, Arthur on electric ukulele and poetry, his brother Paul played bass clarinet noises, Dave played sonic backdrops on synthesizer, Tom played free clarinet, and I tried my pentatonic scales over all that. We played all at once. Though I was the most musically trained, their huge musical expressions were stronger then my learned recitations.
Arthur’s vast passion and sheer honesty had symptoms of Punk, while his brother Paul spoke on Bass Clarinet like he was under an ocean. Dave played synthesizer like Subotnik or 'Schoenberg on crack', Tom screamed on clarinet like Pharaoh Saunders. I was submerged in so much primal ooze my naive artless efforts felt useless and vanquished. My virtuoso inside was left searching. Without training, why did it seem that they were better musicians? Above all I noticed that these sessions were engineered with the highest level of culture and noble civilization and the best intentions of seeking truth. My answers became the essence of my current sessions with Frequent Arc 34 years later.
I followed Phil to St. Mary’s College to join their noted jazz band but I didn’t make the audition. The band director offered no wing for me to go under. With unyielding ambition Frequent Archestra was born. Phil left the college early to follow Jim Snidero in
Bill Davis was a child prodigy introduced to me by Phil. When he was attending
When he played me a tune he wrote, he’d play for A LONG TIME. He executed concentration I had never before seen. I immediately knew that this kind of concentration was necessary to do what I was trying to do. Witnessing his listening skills changed me in a profound way. When we talked music, Bill would sing the sax’s solo and became the player note for note, and could derive the very nature of each preexisting emotion. Whenever we played JA (Jamie Abersol music-minus-one record albums) he played with the force of a professional yet he was only 19. I felt beaten after each session.
For me, the lyrics of Joni Mitchell fully established the Hippie idiom, John Lennon was really rebellious. Paul Simon was classical, Bob Dylan was American traditional to me, and Hendrix almost 'took it outside'. In 1977 at Prince George Community College I met a Philippine brutha who ‘did poetry’. Not the ditsy romantic jargon of the hippy dynasty that I had been pursuing for 10 years.
Ben Gage brought me The Beat Generation’s free verse poetry of the 1950s. Of all the poets he dug and turned me onto, I homed in on Alan Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. They created verbal landscapes that reminded me of the paintings of Salvador Dali or Heironimos Bosch. Ben brought me their unique gestures of verse and recited them like a great horn player. After showing an interest in this new phenomenon, I started talking about the ‘top tier’ artists that I was aware of. Ben who was an art student also knew of Dali and Bosch, and then spoke of his new guru that taught him 3-D art of marble sculpture. I soon joined a marble sculpture class.
Kathy Knebel, Thomas von Knebelsdorf, Ben Gage
I learned that the sculpture existed already in the heart of the stone, and I had to obliterate everything that it was not. From this I learned that the essence of music exists already in sound and I began drawing from that concept.
My free sessions are sound sculptures. I tell the human story that caused man to begin to make music. At the core of music is what enables its continuity, perpetuating it’s own life. Inspiration is what all artists created for themselves for centuries. I slowly realized that is what I saw when I was 7 years old watching Scott Wayhab accidentally drool while ‘jammin’.
Jesse participated in several Master Classes that range from classic jazz with the famous Cat Anderson, Cab Calloway, Keter Betts, Charlie Byrd to contemporary studies with Jackie Byard,
Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Archie Shepp, and many others.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1979 |
Working Gigs
Fresh Oven Baked Composition/Arranging
While attending St. Mary's College, I formed and composed for Frequent Archestra, whose renegade performances (which became part of many frisbee golf tournaments, parties, and Music Department concerts) included classically composed songs, traditional freebop, 20th century musics and free songs for settings for trio to octet. We also played Christmas Carols.
Dave Andreason, Ed Scott
After graduation, we performed in various instrumental groupings as Frequent, and Frequent Archestra (from straight-ahead to 20th century avant-garde) monthly at DC Space, as well as in concerts for University of Maryland's Twentieth Century Consort. It has been my honor to have musicians of the highest caliber perform with me, many not included in the pictures below.
Here, my original compositions for two settings of Frequent Archestra
were recorded at Red Apple Works recording studio in 1982.
Frequent 1981
Ed Scott, Tigi Taloa,
Dave Andreason
Frequent Arc 2009
Ben Thompson,Dave James,Dave Andreason,
Bill Roberts,Ben Gage
My experience includes playing in the pit orchestra for “The Stars of Lawrence Welk”, Tony Kelly Orchestra featuring “Tina Turner” several theatrical productions including “Grease” and “Anything Goes”, and other stage bands for shows at various venues including Trump’s Castle and Casino and the Trump Tower in Atlantic City for Regis Philbin. I have played functions for American presidents as well as European royalty at weddings in Europe. I have played at the Breaker’s Hotel, in Palm Beach Florida, The Copa Cabana, New York City, and many notable venues in Washington, D.C.
Featured soloist on saxophone (alto, tenor, soprano and baritone), flute, and clarinet for the following:
Jazz :
Dish trio, Gaylord Resort Jazz Trio, The Radiance Ensemble, Frequent Arc,
Peter Fraize featuring Jon Carlos Schiaffini,
George Washington University Free Poetry Band.
Ran Blake, Frank Kimbrough, Paul Murphy, Ben Allison, Clifford Jordan,
Carl Grubbs, Anthony Braxton Big Band.
Bands:
Eddie Stone, Greg and the Macgregers, Mudshark, Tangent, Highway Star, Rick Normoyal, and many agency bands such as Productions Unlimited, Washington Talent, Music Unlimited
Latin :
Los Professionals, Ricky Losa, Evolutiones dos Mill,
La Pacha(Haitian,Afro,Cuban) Coriente Tropicale, Paligro and others.
Los Professionales
Big Bands:
King James and the Serfs of Swing, Doc Scatlin and the Imperial Palms Orchestra, Peaches Odel and the Royal Cocoanuts, Tom Cunningham, Richard Bray, Tony Kelly Bigband, The Metronomes,
Kaleidoscope, Stars of Lawrence Welk, Potomac Jazz Orchestra
and many others.
Recordings
Windmill Saxophone Quartet
Very Scary
1988
Masters from Different Worlds
(featuring Clifford Jordan, and Ran Blake)
1989
This and That
1998
Touch of Evil
(featuring Ran Blake,
Ben Allison, Frank Kimbrough, and Paul Murphy) 2002
Jesse Meman
Meman by Windmill
vol. 1 & 2
unreleased compilation
Peter Fraize, featuring Gian Carlo Sciafini
Post Deconstruction
2000
Bazen's Wednesday Night Pizza Band
Merry Christmas Take One
2000
2002 
Don Lerman, Hally Schonberg,
Craig Bazen,Jeff Grey
King James and the Serfs of Swing
Introducing…King James and the Serfs of Swing
My original music and arrangements have been recorded on numerous occasions including television. I have written for several combo settings, from duets to contemporary bigband, completed an original Kyrie for band and choir in 1993,
and compiled a volume of Charlie Parker duets in 2004.
I was the chief composer and arranger for Windmill Saxophone Quartet for more then 20 years. I have led and composed for Frequent Arc for 30 years.
Clayton Englar, Mark Gilbert
& Bruce Robinson
Ken Plant & Phil Burlin
Tom Monroe
