Merl Saunders

This post was inspired by Merl Saunders’s son Tony who was recently interviewed on the Old and in the Way Podcast. We begin this post with a clip from the interview with Tony Saunders who reflects on all the times his Dad played at the Trident. Tony is two time Emmy Award winner and is considered one of the top bass players in the world. He’s played with Crosby Stills and Nash, ABBA, Elton John, Jerry Garcia, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of people he’s performed or recorded with. Check out is Wikipedia page here at Tony Saunders.

Following the video is an article from Russ Wilson Tribune Jazz Wrtier in 1968.

SAUNDERS AGAIN FILLS A GAP by Russ Wilson Tribune Jazz Writer

May 23, 1968

Organist Merl Saunders with Jimmy Daniels on guitar, Eddie Moore on drums form the Merl Saunders Trio, which as the baseball expression goes had a cup of coffee at the Trident last year and is back at the Sausalito Jazz Club for a three-week engagement.

The group’s playing, and audience reaction, made evident last night that the booking is a happy one.

Saunders, who spent his childhood years in Berkeley, is an organist who knows his stops as well as his keyboards and who builds on this foundation with musicality, taste, and a strong ability to swing.

As a result, though he may not have the “name” of more acclaimed colleagues, Saunders’s perspective use of these basics often makes his output superior to that of a widely known jazz organist.

Jazz being what it is – a music of the moment – there are times that Saunders and his cohorts fall into a dismal swamp, as they did on the current popular tune, Up Up and Away.

This was a minor flaw, however, overshadowed by such numbers as the extensive reworking of Pete Jolly’s Little Bird which became a complex, uptempo tune utilizing fascinating changes and including a jet-propelled drum solo by the now rotund Moore.

There were also Latin-based tunes, a melodic and romantic “You Better Love Me,” and “Sometimes I’m Happy” that were all in blue.

Daniels, a native of Connecticut and former associate of Johnny “Hammond” Smith, who has been with Saunders for almost a year, is a strong voice both in support and solo.  On appropriate numbers he utilizes a blues vibrato that gets into the nitty gritty and on ballads he plays with a full melodic sound that enhances the time.

Moore, who is Saunders’ first cousin, supplies a firm and appropriate foundation and in solo shows a dexterity that is amazing in view of his size.

Saunders’s group played three days at the Trident last year as a fill-in for a combo that had to cancel. This time, oddly enough, they stepped in when Vince Guaraldi sprained a finger getting off an airplane and notified the Trident he couldn’t keep his booking according to Trident manager Lou Ganapoler.

Fortunately for Ganapolar and the Trident, which is owned by The Kingston Trio and Frank Werber, Saunders had just come in from a tour.