Results for "saxophone, alto"

Prince Lasha

Born: September 10, 1929

To many jazz fans, the name of Prince Lasha will be an unknown quantity. The reason for that is in part that he hasn’t too many records out. Taking the time since the early sixties, when he started to belong to the forefront of jazz, the number of his records as a leader has remained small and even as a sideman he had little covering. The one piece that will still be on the mind of jazz fans already around in the sixties is a composition entitled ”The Cry”. Lasha recorded it in 1962 in a quintet version also featuring Sonny Simmons for the famous West Coast company Contemporary

Lee Konitz

Born: October 13, 1927

Konitz is sometimes regarded as the preeminent cool jazz saxophonist, because he performed and recorded with Claude Thornhill, Lennie Tristano (both often cited as important cool jazz proponents of the mid 1940s), and with Miles Davis on his epochal Birth of the Cool, which gave the form its name.

Konitz has also been repeatedly noted as one of the few jazz saxophonists of the late 1940s and 1950s who did not seem imitative of the massively influential Charlie Parker.

In the early 1950s, Konitz recorded and toured with Stan Kenton's orchestra.

In 1961, he recorded Motion with Elvin Jones on drums and Sonny Dallas on bass

Charlie Kennedy

Born: July 2, 1927

Charlie Kennedy, a talented alto saxophonist who was best known for his association with Gene Krupa's big band. The best years of Kennedy's career were the 1940s, when he played with Louis Prima's big band. His fine tenor solo can be heard on Prima's 1943 version of "The White Cliffs of Dover."

He moved on to lead his own quartet before joining Krupa's big band from 1945 to 1948 and was the featured soloist on a number of recordings, including "How High the Moon," "Disc Jockey Jump" and "I Should Have Kept on Dreaming."

While living in the East, Kennedy also played with a number of other leading bands, including groups led by Charlie Ventura, Flip Phillips and Chico O'Farrill.

After moving to the West Coast in 1950, he played with Med Flory, Bill Holman's orchestra and, most notably, Terry Gibbs' Dream Band from 1959 to 1962.

He was also an active studio musician, playing on popular movies, including My Fair Lady and West Side Story.

A native of Staten Island, N.Y., he was born Charles Sumner Kennedy on July 2, 1927

Louis Jordan

Born: July 8, 1908

At the height of his career, in the 1940s, bandleader and alto saxophonist Louis Jordan scored 18 Number One hit records. Jordan exhibited a brilliant sense of showmanship that brought audiences first-rate entertainment without any loss of musical integrity. He performed songs that appealed to millions of black and white listeners. Able to communicate between these two audiences, Jordan emerged as one of the first successful crossover artists of American popular music. Born on July 8, 1908, in Brinkley, Arkansas, Jordan was the son of Jim Jordan, a bandleader and music teacher. Under the tutelage of his father, Jordan began studying clarinet at age seven, then saxophone

John Jenkins

Born: January 3, 1931

John Jenkins is from Chicago where he was born on January 3, 1931 and has been another pupil of the famous Capt. Walter Dyett of Du Sable High. Johnny Griffin, Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore were among his schoolmates. Jenkins began on clarinet and six month later switched to alto. His baptism of fire came in 1949 at the Roosevelt College sessions promoted by Joe Segal and he continued to play at these swinging affairs during his next seven years in Chicago. He also played at local clubs like the Bee Hive. In 1955, John did a week apiece in Chicago and Cleveland with Art Farmer when Gigi Gryce was unable to be present

Hilton Jefferson

Born: July 30, 1903

A reliable and invaluable mainstay in the best black bands of the swing era, Hilton Jefferson raised the standard of every horn section he played in. His first gigs were playing banjo for the Julian Arthur Orchestra at the Hay Theater in Philadelphia in 1925. He then switched to the alto sax and by the ‘30s he was playing with many bands in New York City, including Claude Hopkins, Chick Webb and King Oliver. Later he played with McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Benny Carter and Fletcher Henderson. In the 40s he played with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway, with whom he spent the greater part of the decade

Jaared

Born: January 20

PA virtuoso on the alto, soprano, and tenor saxophones, as well as the unique EWI breath controller, Jaared is an internationally acclaimed recording artist. He is also an accomplished singer, who often brings the house down with his vocals. Jaared entered the Washington, D.C., music scene at a very young age, rapidly gaining prominence for his work on the alto sax. As he continued as a full-time entertainer, he received more and more recognition for his music, and was soon known to audiences all over the world. Always wanting to keep things fresh, Jaared chose to expand his musical message with the soprano sax, EWI, and tenor sax, and now plays all three, while continuing with his main voice, the alto sax

Noah Howard

Born: April 6, 1943

One of free jazz's more enigmatic figures, alto saxophonist Noah Howard was documented so infrequently on record and spent so much time living in Europe that the course of his career and development as a musician remain difficult to trace, despite a late-'90s renewal of interest in his music. Howard was born in New Orleans in 1943 and began playing music in church as a child. He started out on trumpet (the instrument he played in the military during the early '60s) but subsequently switched to alto, and got in on the ground floor of the early free jazz movement. Most influenced by Albert Ayler, Howard made his debut as a leader for the groundbreaking ESP label, recording a pair of dates in 1966 (Noah Howard Quartet and At Judson Hall). Dissatisfied with the reception accorded his music and the avant-garde movement in general in America, Howard relocated to Europe, where he initially lived in France

Michael Hornstein

Michael Hornstein was born of a German father and an Italian mother in 1962. He started playing the piano at the age of 10 and later saxophone at the age of 14. Michael Hornstein began as a self-taught musician under the influence of listening to Charlie Parker. He studied music at the University for music and interpretative arts in Graz from 1979 to 1982. In 1983 he received a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music. He has collaborated with musicians like Sunny Murray, Al Porcino, Albert Mangelsdorff, Udo Lindenberg, Hector Martignon, Blank & Jones, Bob Dorough, Billy Hart, Fred Braceful, Gary Peacock, Sandra Kaye, Joe Bonner, Joe Madrid among many others

Johnny Hodges

Born: July 25, 1907

"Never the world's most highly animated showman orgreatest stage personality, but a tone so beautiful itsometimes brought tears to the eyes, this was JohnnyHodges. Because of this great loss, our band will never sound the same. Johnny Hodges sometimes sounded beautiful, sometimes romantic, and sometimes peoplespoke of his tone as being sensuous. With the exception of a year or so, almost his entire career was with us. So faras our wonderful listening audience was concerned, therewas a great feeling of expectancy when they looked up andsaw Johnny Hodges sitting in the middle of the saxophonesection, in the front row.I am glad and thankful that I had the privilege of presenting ohnny Hodges for forty years, night after night. I imagine I have been much envied, but thanks to God...” Duke Ellington eulogy.