Fellow musicians and music lovers--
I'm Doug Robinson, and jazz trombonist Frank Rehak was my friend and
mentor for the last 15 years of his life.
Beyond being a stunningly good player who appeared on over 4000 jazz,
pop and commercial recordings between 1949 and 1969, Frank Rehak was
also a hugely inspiring cat--in no small part due to the fact that he
overcame a crippling addiction to heroin that no doubt robbed him from
wider recognition like his friends and peers, such as JJ Johnson, Kai
Winding, Bill Watrous, Urbie Green and Frank Rosolino. Even so, he
managed to leave his mark, and none other than Leonard Feather
described Frank Rehak as being "...one of the most individual of modern
trombonists."
I met Frank when I was volunteering at Synanon--I was 14 and he looked
like a stone cold zombie as he arrived to clean up his act once and for
all. When he got his health together, he stayed in the community to
help other recovering addicts and to teach young musicians like me how
to play from the heart.
And so, working with his widow and my friend Sandy, I've been building
a website that features free mp3s of his most astounding solos and
complete tracks. At frankrehak.com, you can hear him blowing some soul
with Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Bill
Watrous, Kai Winding, Wayne Andre, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane,
Lalo Schifrin...and believe it or not, dozens of other greats. I've
been digitizing tracks from private tape collections, LPs, and people
I've hunted down on the internet.
I've also included some of the multi-track experiments we created
together in Synanon, as well as previously-unheard treasures such as
the complete Ken Elias Trombone Sonata, which Kenny composed for Frank
only months before Frank's death in 1987 from cancer.
There are photos, rare videos and even recorded interviews with Ira and
Sava Nepus, Sandy Rehak and Frank himself.
I hope you will visit the site, and by all means tell your bebop-loving
friends about it. Even though I've been through hundreds of hours of
recordings by now, I know he appeared on many amazing out-of-print
projects, and someone out there has copies. I want those tracks for the
site!
Once again, it's frankrehak.com.
Many thanks, and I hope this email finds you well. If you do not want
to be contacted again, just let me know.
As Frank used to tell me--straight ahead and strive for tone!
