Results for "saxophone, tenor"

Anthony Ortega

Born: June 7, 1928

Anthony Ortega is one of the finest bop reedmen of the second half of the 20th century, though he is better known in Europe than in the U.S. A highly original improviser with impeccable tone and great emotional range, Ortega's style blends bebop with forms and techniques that evolved later. He is currently active and has released "Afternoon In Paris," in 2007.

Coming out of the famed Los Angeles Central Avenue scene, Ortega was very much the peer of such sax men as Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon. After a stint in the Army, he came back in ‘51 to join up with Lionel Hampton with whom he traveled to Europe where he would garner quite a reputation. He came back to the states in ’58 and played steadily though not in the limelight until his release in ’61 of “A Man And His Horn.” This was a great hard bop set where he was accompanied by pianist Hank Jones.

Big Nick Nicholas

Born: August 2, 1922

Tenor saxophonist Big Nick Nicholas was active for more than 50 years without ever receiving consistent recognition or material rewards commensurate with his contribution to early modern jazz. He is usually remembered as the caloric soloist who improvised for 16 bars on Dizzy Gillespie's 1947 recording of "Manteca"; as the honoree of a warmly whimsical portrait recorded by John Coltrane with Duke Ellington in 1962, and as a weathered veteran who enjoyed a brief comeback during the 1980s. George Walker Nicholas was born in Lansing, MI on August 2, 1922 and studied clarinet, saxophone, and piano during the years 1933-1939

David "Fathead" Newman

Born: March 24, 1933

David "Fathead" Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas on February 24, 1933. His family soon moved to Dallas, where they settled and David stayed through graduating Lincoln High School. After school, David found gigs in local bands. He received a scholarship to Jarvis Christian College where he studied theology and music. After two years of college, David decided to go on the road full time with Buster Smith (Charlie Parker's mentor). The band played lots of one-nighters and dance halls, touring Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and sometimes California. On one of those tours, David met Ray Charles. Ray was working as a sideman with another group on the night's roster

Roger Neumann

Born: January 3, 1941

Roger Neumann is a Los Angeles-based jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger and music educator. He has contributed arrangements to some of the most important artists in jazz, including the Count Basie, Buddy Rich. Ray Anthony and Ray Charles bands, the Phil Norman Tentet, and Anita O'Day, as well as for such pop stars as The Beach Boys. He is an active music educator at venues across the country. Since 1983 he has taught at the Reggie Schive Jazz Camp in Iowa, Since 2002 he has been a mentor for the L.A. Jazz Society, in its Bill Green Mentorship Program. Neumann was born in 1941 in Minot, North Dakota, moved first to Akron, Ohio, then to Spencer, Iowa at age 4

David Murray

Born: March 19, 1955

Few musicians in jazz history have proven more vigorously productive and resourceful than David Murray. During the past 35 years, from the moment he first visited New York as a 20 year-old student, playing in a walkup loft, in 1975, David has careened forward in a cool, collected, rocket-fueled streak. He has released over 150 albums under his own name. Yet more impressive than the numbers is the constancy of two abiding achievements: as a tenor saxophonist, he has perfected an instantly recognizable approach to improvisation that even in its freest flights acknowledges the gravity of a tradition he honors more than most; and he has altered the context for his improvisations as an infinite mosaic of musical challenges and explorations

Sandy Mosse

Born: May 29, 1929

Sandy Mosse (May 29, 1929, Detroit, Michigan - July 1, 1983, Amsterdam) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist influenced by Lester Young. Mosse learned clarinet and alto saxophone early in life, and switched to tenor sax at the beginning of the 1950s. Based out of Chicago during the decade, he made several forays abroad, playing in Paris with Wallace Bishop in 1951, Django Reinhardt, and Woody Herman on his 1953 tour of Europe. Upon returning to Chicago in 1955 he played with Bill Russo, Chubby Jackson, James Moody, and Cy Touff. Mosse and Touff also co-led an octet called Pieces of Eight late in the 1950s into the early 1960s, featuring trumpeter John Howell

Wild Bill Moore

Born: June 13, 1918

In the summer of 1948, Texas tenor saxophonist Wild Bill Moore scored a hit on the R&B charts with a kicking number called "We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll," one of the first tunes whose title combined two words--"Rock" and "Roll"--that would define popular music for the rest of the 20th century, and beyond. Detroit's Wild Bill Moore, played alto sax early in life but his main interest was boxing. He was Michigan's amateur Golden Gloves light heavyweight champ for 1937, later turned pro, went back to sax and by 1945 was recording on tenor sax with the Slim Gaillard Orchestra, on the Queen label

Brew Moore

Born: March 26, 1924

The tenor saxophonist Brew Moore (Milton Aubrey Moore) was born in Indianola, Mississippi on March 26th 1924. He showed musical prowess at an early age. As a child of 7 he started playing popular tunes on a toy harmonica that he had received as a gift for his birthday. After a few years he played in his junior high school’s band and after graduating he entered Mississippi University to study music but left after only one semester to pursue a career as a tenor saxophonist. He arrived in New Orleans nearly broke but was quickly hired by the Fred Ford’s Dixielanders. For the next six years he played with different local bands in both New Orleans and Memphis

J.R. Monterose

Born: January 19, 1927

Frank Anthony Monterose Jr. ("J.R." is simply a corruption of the Junior) is a native of Detroit, where he was born in 1927. He is not, however, a Detroiter by any other token than the accident of birth, for before he was old enough to talk, let alone blow a horn, he was transplanted by his family to Utica, N.Y., which has been home base ever since.

J.R.'s musical studies were centered mainly on the clarinet; he had very little formal saxophone training. The first great influences were Coleman Hawkins and the late Chu Berry; but "the real inspiration that decided me to take up tenor seriously rather than clarinet or alto was, believe it or not, Tex Beneke."

Hank Mobley

Born: July 7, 1930

As one of the founding members of the original Jazz Messengers, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was part of a brilliant innovation. Bebop's second generation of players had pulled the music into a tailspin of virtuosity. But there was a new inspirational sound taking hold, with roots in gospel and blues. By combining the best of bebop with the soulful new thing springing up, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Doug Watkins fashioned a sound with a percussive, street feel inspired by the hot steam grates and pavement they walked, the propulsive drive of the lives they were leading. Mobley was born in Eastman, Georgia, but was raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, near Newark