Born on 6 September 1942 in Athol, Massachusetts, Dave Bargeron has supplied trombone to an array of landmark jazz ensembles. His playing surfaces on Johnny Griffin’s 3 Dances Of Passion, Michel Camilo’s One More Once, Gerry Mulligan’s Re-Birth Of The Cool and the Miles Davis / Quincy Jones set Live At Montreux. Over an eight-year stretch he contributed to eleven Blood, Sweat And Tears albums, later becoming a member of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band during the 1990s. Only in 1995 did he issue his debut recording as a leader. Speaking to journalists, he recalled that for years he had felt uneasy about documenting his own work: “for a long time I never felt comfortable making a record myself. It was me and this unwieldy trombone that I wanted to wrap around a post most of the time. Can you imagine having this music run around in your head, your soul, your heart, for 30 or 40 years, and not be able to play it?” Relief arrived once he perfected the Bargeron Articulating Valve Option, or BRAVO, a custom mouthpiece valve that finally let him step forward as a soloist. The resulting album, Barge Burns... Slide Flies, paired him with pianist Larry Willis, formerly of Blood, Sweat And Tears, drummer Kenwood Dennard and bassist Steve Novosel. Alongside originals by Bargeron and Willis, the session included the standard “There Is No Greater Love.” Additional credits include dates with Howard Johnson’s Gravity and with Michel Godard.
