QUINTANA ALL-STARS: “‘WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD,’ A TRIBUTE TO AL MALLET“

On September 27, 2025 from 6 to 8 pm, at Second Stage | Amherst, 194 Second Street, Amherst, VA 24521, Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) and Second Stage | Amherst will present Quintana All-Stars Ernest Deane, playing trumpet and flugelhorn; Glenn Buck, Saxophone and flute; Gary Meisner, piano; Ed Mikenas, bass; and Worth Proffitt, drums and percussion. As a tribute to the Quintana All-Stars’ s late saxophonist, Al Mallet, who passed away April 30 in Lynchburg, the group will play many of his favorite tunes:

• What a wonderful World, composed by George David Weiss, lyricist, working together with Bob Thiele. It was first recorded and made famous by Louis Armstrong in 1967.
• Now’s the Time (1945), composed by Charlie Parker as an instrumental bebop jazz standard, though later versions had lyrics added by others.
• Misty (954), an instrumental jazz standard written in by Composer Erroll Garner. Lyricist Johnny Burke later added the lyrics in 1959. The first famous vocal version was sung by Johnny Mathis in 1959, which helped make the song widely popular.
• When Sunny Gets Blue (1956), was written by Composer Marvin Fisher and Lyricist Jack Segal. It was first made popular by Johnny Mathis.

Trumpet player Ernest Deane, who played with Albert (Al) Mallet in several Lynchburg jazz groups, most notably and for the longest time, Quintana and the Quintana All-Stars, remembered their early music days: “Albert was a longtime friend. We met when I was in junior high, and he was still in grade school, he was already playing saxophone; I think he started in the fifth grade. I started playing with the high school jazz group at Dunbar around 1955, when we put some guys together that liked the same jazz music. We all played by ear, and our favorite composers were trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, saxophone players Lester Young, Red Prysock, and Charlie Parker, and pianists Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Al and I collaborated together in the House Band starting over 20 years ago and we’ve been playing together in Quintana for eight years now.”

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