Results for "saxophone, tenor"

Andres Boiarsky

Born: October 9, 1957

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Andres Boiarsky began piano lessons at the age of six. He later switched to the clarinet while getting deeply involved with the strong revivalist jazz scene that existed in Buenos Aires during the mid seventies. While stylistically evolving within the jazz idiom, Andres began playing the tenor, alto and soprano saxophones. In 1978 he left Argentina for London, England, to study at the renowned Royal College of Music from where he received an A.R.C.M. Diploma. During his British sojourn, he formed his own group and recorded his first solo album for Spotlight Records and several radio programs for the BBC. After completing his studies in England, Boiarsky returned to his homeland where he spent the next six years

Wilton 'Bogey' Gaynair

Born: January 11, 1927

Tenor saxophonist Wilton 'Bogey' Gaynar was another of the stellar graduates of the famous Alpha Boys School in Jamaica who left behind a brief but enduring legacy as a prominent jazz musician of his time. After leaving Alpha, he began his professional career playing in the clubs of Kingston, backing touring acts as George Shearing and Carmen McRae before joining up with Ossie Williams in a forerunner to Count Ossie & the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. In 1955 Gaynair relocated to Germany seeking out the burgeoning jazz scene which was happening in Europe. Though recognized for his hard bop expertise, he recorded only three times as a bandleader

Frank Wright

Born: July 9, 1935

Reverand Frank Wirght is one of the most underrated musical geniuses of the 20th century. He was born on July 9th 1935 in Grenada Mississippi but grew up in Cleveland. As a young man he was an electrical bassist in R and B bands in both Memphis and Cleveland. He switched to tenor sax and embraced the free jazz movement after meeting Albert Ayler and being greatly influenced by him. In the mid 60s he moved to New York City and played with some of the big names in the Avant Garde movement including, briefly, John Coltrane. His first sessions as a leader were recorded for the small ESP label. Not finding an appreciative audience for his music he moved to Europe in 1969 and except for a brief return to New York in the 1970s he spent the rest of his life in Europe

Barney Wilen

Born: March 4, 1937

Barney Wilen made a strong impression on the Paris scene in the mid 1950s. Wilen was a self taught player and became one of Europe's best and more modern saxophonists. Bernard Jean Wilen, AKA Barney was born March 4, 1937, in Nice to a French mother and an American father. He studied the alto and, at 16, moved to Paris where he played with Henry Renaud, Bobby Jaspar and Jimmy Gourley He grew up mostly on the French Riviera; the family left during World War II but returned upon its conclusion. According to Wilen himself, he was convinced to become a musician by his mother's friend, the poet Blaise Cendrars

Don Wilkerson

Born: 1932

Don Wilkerson born abt 1932 and died 18 July 1986, was an American soul jazz/R&B tenor saxophonist born in Moreauville, Louisiana. Probably better known for his Blue Note Records recordings in the 1960s as bandleader with guitarist Grant Green. Prior to signing with the label, he worked frequently with Cannonball Adderley. Some of his earliest recording were done in the 1950s as a sideman for Amos Milburn and Ray Charles. One of the paragons of the "Texas tenor" style, Don Wilkerson gained his greatest notoriety as a soloist with Ray Charles throughout much of the 50s and 60s. Less known is Wilkerson’s limited work as a leader, the majority of which is collected on this two-disc package from Blue Note

Frank Wess

Born: January 4, 1922

Frank Wess (born January 4, 1922 in Kansas City) is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone (both alto and tenor) and flute.

He began with classical music and played in Oklahoma. He later switched to jazz on moving to Washington, D. C. and by nineteen was working in the Big Bands. His career would be interrupted during World War II although he did play with a military band in the period. On returning from service he joined Billy Eckstine's orchestra.

He returned to DC a few years after this and received a degree in flute at the city's Modern School Of Music. From 1953 he joined Count Basie's band, playing flute and tenor sax. He reverted to alto sax in the late '50s, and left Basie's band in 1964. From 1959 to 1964 he won Down Beat's critic poll for flute. Since then he has done a variety of TV shows and telethons. He was a member of Clark Terry's big band from 1967 into the '70s and played in the New York Quartet (with Roland Hanna). In the '80s and '90s, he worked with Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Buck Clayton, Benny Carter, Billy Taylor, Harry Edison, Mel Tormé, Ernestine Anderson, Louie Bellson, John Pizzarelli, Howard Alden, Dick Hyman, Byron Stripling, Jane Jarvis, Frank Vignola and was a featured member of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra.

Bobby Wellins

Born: January 24, 1936

Saxophonist Bobby Wellins was born in Scotland in 1936 and grew up in the Gorbals. His mother and father were both in the variety side of show business, and his father played a big part in his early musical education. He heard a lot of jazz in the family home including Jimmy Lunceford, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, but when his father brought home a record by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie he was bitten with the bebop bug. He played piano, alto sax and clarinet before joining the RAF as a musician playing tenor sax. After leaving the RAF and playing in a few Scottish bands he made the inevitable move to London for an apprenticeship with the big touring bands including a trip to the USA with Vic Lewis in 1955

Ben Webster

Born: March 27, 1909

Ben Webster was considered one of the "big three" of swing tenors along with Coleman Hawkins (his main influence) and Lester Young. He had a tough, raspy, and brutal tone on stomps (with his own distinctive growls) yet on ballads he would turn into a pussy cat and play with warmth and sentiment. After violin lessons as a child, Webster learned how to play rudimentary piano (his neighbor Pete Johnson taught him to play blues). But after Budd Johnson showed him some basics on the saxophone, Webster played sax in the Young Family Band (which at the time included Lester Young). He had stints with Jap Allen and Blanche Calloway (making his recording debut with the latter) before joining Bennie Moten's Orchestra in time to be one of the stars on a classic session in 1932. Webster spent time with quite a few orchestras in the 1930s (including Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson in 1934, Benny Carter, Willie Bryant, Cab Calloway, and the short-lived Teddy Wilson big band). In 1940 (after short stints in 1935 and 1936), Ben Webster became Duke Ellington's first major tenor soloist

Tim Warfield

Born: July 2

Veteran saxophonist Tim Warfield, Jr., a native of York, Pennsylvania, began studying the alto saxophone at age nine. He switched to tenor saxophone during his first year at William Penn Sr. High School where he participated in various musical ensembles winning many jazz soloist awards, including second out of forty competitors at the Montreal Festival of Music in Canada. After high school, Warfield attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. for two years before leaving to lead and co-lead groups in the Central Pennsylvania and Baltimore/Washington areas. In 1990, he was chosen to be a member of trumpeter and CBS/Sony recording artist Marlon Jordan's Quintet, of which he remained a member for three years. In 1991, he was selected to record "Tough Young Tenors" on the Island/Antilles label, which was listed as one of the top ten recordings of the year by the New York Times, ultimately rising to number five, on the Billboard top 100 Jazz charts

David S. Ware

Born: November 7, 1949

David S. Ware played the saxophone for over 40 years. First in New Jersey public school bands, and in informal practice sessions with Sonny Rollins as a youth in the '60s; then as part of the fertile NYC Loft Jazz era of the '70s. During this decade, he joined the Cecil Taylor Unit and Andrew Cyrille's Maono. He also worked together with drummers Beaver Harris and Milford Graves. In the early '80s he toured Europe with both Andrew Cyrille and his own trio. In mid-decade, Ware purposefully engaged himself in a period of extensive woodshedding - in order to further develop both his personal sound and his visionary group concept. The '90s saw the full-on actualization of this group, and the recognition of David S