This live CD really captured the excitement of this iconic Portland band during its early days. Below is the CD review that appeared in The Oregonian:

MEL BROWN: THE SOUND OF SPONTANEITY
by Kyle O’Brien, The Oregonian, 3-19-04

Sometimes, the best moments are unplanned: a spontaneous flick of the switch, and magic takes place. That’s exactly what happened to the Mel Brown B-3 Quartet at last September’s Britt Festival, and the result was a captivating recording of the group playing live.

On the second night of the quartet’s gig, opening for R&B legend George Benson, sound engineer George Relles turned on the soundboard’s two-track recording, unbeknownst to the band. Since nobody except Relles knew the recording was occurring, the band let loose with a sizzling, uninterrupted 45-minute set of soul-jazz originals and covers.

Now, the B-3 Quartet—Brown on drums, Louis Pain on Hammond B-3 organ, Dan Balmer on guitar and Renato Caranto on tenor sax—is releasing the resulting disc, “Live at the Britt Festival,” this week with a party at Jimmy Mak’s, the club that gave the group its start.

Pain said, “it’s kind of a plus” that they didn’t know the recorder was on. “Musicians tend to play differently when they know they’re being recorded,” he said. “If we went into the studio, it wouldn’t capture the essence of what kind of band we really are.”

What kind of band they are is completely spontaneous. “I love the spontaneity,” Pain said. “We don’t rehearse.” The group gets onstage and then plows straight through a set of whatever tunes they fancy at that moment, with no breaks in between tunes, just improvised segues.

“During a tune, one of us will call out a suggestion of what tune to do next—it’s kind of tune to tune.” As Brown tells the crowd on the introduction on the disc, “Once we start, we don’t stop until we’re finished.”

The quartet, which was known as the Mel Brown B-3 Quintet until last year (“we’re musically leaner and meaner as a quartet,” Pain said) has been playing at Jimmy Mak’s for six years, pumping out a soulful blend of blues, jazz and R&B to a growing and fervent crowd, many of them younger jazz fans who had never heard the music of the original greats of jazz organ, such as Jimmy Smith and Dr. Lonnie Smith (with whom Brown played in the 1960’s). The were one of the first groups in the region to bring the organ-based sound back to prominence, and with the top-flight musicianship of the members, they quickly captured a huge following for their accessibly, on-the-fly blues-based sets.

Brown anchors the quartet with his understated, melodic drumming. The Motown and Portland jazz veteran is equally at home with a fast swing or a funky groove, as on the quartet’s take of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Pain adds the soul with his expressive organ playing, holding down the bass lines and adding color. Balmer has a dual role of chunky chord strummer and searing soloist, and Caranto blisters with his note-laced flurries.

The group is happy with the Britt Festival recording. “We had a feeling that it was a really good set. The tunes were totally different than the previous night,” Pain said.

The crowd response was intense, and Benson’s bass player, Stanley Banks, can be heard shouting his approval throughout the set. Benson even remarked, “If this band appeared in New York City, they’d be a sensation!”

They are most certainly a Portland sensation.