Results for "saxophone, tenor"

Ricky Ford

Born: March 4, 1954

Tenor Saxophonist Ricky Ford was born 4 March 1954, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Ford started to play drums, and then changed to tenor saxophone at the age of 15, inspired by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Ran Blake heard him playing in a Boston Club and persuaded him to study music at the New England Conservatory. (Blake later invited him to play on several albums too, including “Rapport,” “Short Life Of Barbara Monk” and “That Certain Feeling”). In 1974 Ford joined the Duke Ellington Orchestra under the leadership of Mercer Ellington and in 1976 he replaced George Adams in the Charles Mingus group, recording on “Three Or Four Shades of Blue” and “Me Myself An Eye.” In the late 70s and early 80s he played with Dannie Richmond, Mingus Dynasty, George Russell, Beaver Harris, Lionel Hampton and Adbullah Ibrahim’s Ekaya group

Med Flory

Born: August 27, 1926

Med Flory has enjoyed both a profitable music career and successful stints as a television and film writer and actor. His alto sax and clarinet work are deeply influenced by the classic bebop sound, notably the playing of Charlie Parker. Though he doesn't directly emulate Parker, Flory's sound, phrasing and approach reflect his reverence for his music. He played clarinet and alto with Claude Thornhill in the '50s, and tenor with Woody Herman. Flory formed his own New York band in 1954, then moved to the West Coast two years later. He organized a big band that performed at the inaugural Monterey concert in 1958

Wilton Felder

Born: August 31, 1940

{{m: Wilton Felder = 6670}} is well known to jazz fans as the saxophonist and composer who spent some thirty years playing, along with {{m: Joe Sample = 4033}}, {{m: Stix Hooper = 7731}}, and {{m: Wayne Henderson = 7577}} in the phenomenally successful Crusaders. The group’s combination of jazz, soul, r&b, and gospel influences created a sound that was rooted in jazz, but which was accessible to listeners raised on pop and rock music. Unlike many fusion bands, The Crusaders never lost their blues and soul roots, which was one key to their success. Another was the fact that each musician had a definite style on their instrument, and it was a pleasure to listen to each of them play

David Evans

Born: January 22, 1944

David Evans began playing professionally in his native Alabama before he was old enough to drive to his gigs. A scholarship to Loyola University brought him to New Orleans in 1984, where he quickly became a busy commercial and jazz musician, performing with the likes of Pete Fountain, B. B. King, Mose Allison, Nicholas Payton, Brian Blade, Johnny Vidacovich, Luther Kent, Matt Lemmler, Johnny Mathis, Gladys Knight, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and many others. From 1986 to 1994, David was musical director on the National Historic Landmark steamboat Delta Queen. In addition to performing with and managing his band, he was busy as a writer and arranger for musical shows

Booker Ervin

Born: October 31, 1930

Booker Ervin had a large hard tone like an r&b tenor saxophonist, but he was actually an adventurous player whose music fell between hard bop and the avant-garde. Ervin originally played trombone but taught himself the tenor when he was in the Air Force in the early 1950s. After his discharge, he studied music for two years before he made his recording debut with Ernie Fields in 1956. During that year he first performed with Charles Mingus and he was a key part of Mingus’s groups during 1956-1962, offering a contrast to the wild flights of Eric Dolphy. During 1963-1965, Ervin led ten albums for Prestige and each has its rewarding moments

Dave Ellis

Tenor saxophonist Dave Ellis has long been a key figure in the fertile Northern California jazz scene. His story is a tapestry woven from myriad musical adventures. It begins with his days as a ten-year-old musical prodigy and opens on a new chapter with State of Mind, his debut recording for Milestone, featuring a sterling jazz veteran cast of pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassists Peter Washington and Christian McBride, drummers Carl Allen and Lewis Nash, and alto saxophonist Vincent Herring. Along the way, Ellis was named Best New Talent (along with Diana Krall) in the 1997 Jazziz magazine Readers Poll

Teddy Edwards

Born: April 26, 1924

A pioneer hard bopper on the tenor and recognized as one of the masters in the L.A. Central Avenue scene, Edwards leaves a huge legacy of recorded music, stretching from the Forties right through to his death in 2003. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, on 26th April 1924, Edwards moved to Los Angeles in 1945, first coming to attention the following year when, with trumpeter Howard McGhee's group, he recorded the groundbreaking bebop tune, “Up In Dodo's Room.” By the end of that decade Edwards was sufficiently well known to front his own bands. In 1949 he was also one of the first members of the Lighthouse All Stars, the group based at the famous Lighthouse Club in Hermosa Beach

Miles Donahue

Born: August 19, 1944

Grammy award winning Boston Globe jazz critic Bob Blumenthal says, “Discover a jazz treasure. Miles Donahue is one of the best-kept secrets. Equally adept on trumpet and various saxophones and a composer of grace and originality…” Miles Donahue’s jazz career did not begin in earnest until age 45. Although in the '60s he performed at many venues with his own group that featured Harvey Swartz, Jerry Bergonzi, Charlie Banacos, Nick Goumas and Jack Diefendorf. One of these concerts in 1972 performed with Charlie Banacos and Jerry Bergonzi became known as the famous Arlington street Church Concert. In the '80s Miles did two albums for which he wrote all the original material with New York Philharmonic flutist Paige Brook

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis

Born: March 2, 1922

Eddie Lockjaw Davis was one musician who provided a link from the big band era through to the soul jazz phenomenon of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Davis developed one of the most unmistakable tenor sax sounds in post war jazz. With a full bodied yet reedy tone that was equally at home in rhythm & blues settings as more modern contexts, his playing always had a direct, singing quality that was a huge influence on the next generation of sax men. Davis began to make his mark on the jazz scene in New York when he worked at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in the late 30s. Despite this establishment's close ties with the emergence of bebop a few years later, Davis' tenor saxophone playing was rooted in swing and the blues, and early in his career he displayed a marked affinity with the tough school of Texas tenors

Ravi Coltrane

Born: August 6, 1965

Ravi Coltrane- tenor and soprano saxophonist, bandleader, and composer - has fronted a variety of jazz lineups, recorded critically-hailed albums as leader, produced recordings by other artists - including his mother, worked as sideman for jazz luminaries, overseen important jazz reissues, and founded an independent record label. Seventeen years since finding his life's path, it seems music was Ravi's destiny from the outset. Born the second son of John and Alice Coltrane in 1965 in Long Island, New York and raised in the Los Angeles area, he was named after Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar