Lex French Quintet Featuring Al McLean: Johnny Come Lately 

Jazz, Period. @ Upstairs Bar & Grill
Lex French - Trumpet
Al McLean - Saxophone
Jim Doxas - Drums
Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon - Piano
Levi Dover - Bass
On this Jazz, Period. date, we hear Montreal based trumpeter Lex French at Upstairs Bar & Grill with special guest Al McLean. The two are backed by Montreal's drummer of call, Jim Doxas, bassist Levi Dover, and critically acclaimed pianist Gentiane Michaud-Gagnon.
In this take, the band raises the stage a few inches in an inspired rendition of Billy Strayhorn's "Johnny Come Lately". Al McLean is egged on by Michaud-Gagnon instant replies to his jaunty harmonic deviations, and the tone is set for leader Lex French and Michaud-Gagnon's similarly snaking solos.
The session was produced by Montreal filmmaker and photographer Randy Cole, in part to trot out a pair of rare vintage microphones.
Lex French, besides playing on a vintage trumpet that is not his own (Holton 48, Circa 1948), is being captured by an exceedingly rare 1933-35 RCA KU-2A, which bears the Warner Brothers Studio No. 37 branding. One of the first directional microphones, the KU-2A is still sought after by Engineers for its distinctive and realistic sound.
Al McLean is being picked up by a rare variant of the Sony C-37 tube microphone, branded in the original company name (pre 1958) Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Co. Ltd., model C-NU1.
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