Jazz Articles

James Spaulding: Round To It!

by Brandt Reiter
August 23, 2005

High quality hard bop from one of the pillars of the music.

Master alto saxophonist and flutist James Spaulding has been an A-list sideman since the late fifties, when he worked frequently with Sun Ra. During the sixties he could be found on countless Blue Note recordings, lending invaluable support to such legendary artists as Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, and Freddie Hubbard. (The Joe Chambers ballad “Mirrors," from Hubbard's 1964 release Breaking Point, in which Spaulding's delicate flute inseparably twines ...