Results for "saxophone, tenor"

Don Byas

Born: October 21, 1912

Don Byas was one of the most respected and recorded tenor players of the 1940’s. In that fruitful period he had few peers in the the area of prolific productivity. Byas was a masterful swing player with his own style, an advanced sense of harmony, and a confidence and adventurousness that found him hanging around the beboppers and asking to play. He held his own and did so while insistently remaining himself: he never picked up the rhythmic phrases, the lightning triplets, which are indigenous to bop. Yet Charlie Parker said of him that Byas was playing everything there was to play. Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1912, he played alto as a teenager, subbing in territorial bands like Bennie Moten's and Walter Page's Blue Devils

Igor Butman

Born: October 27, 1961

World famous saxophone player and producer Igor Butman enjoys one of the most successful and flamboyant careers in the history of modern jazz. Berklee alumnus runs Moscow Jazz Orchestra aka Igor Butman Orchestra and Igor Butman Quartet, their intensive schedule include regular US tours and the most important European and Asian jazz festivals (in 2013 Igor's orchestra, rendered by Downbeat as "an outfit of virtuosos", took part in Umbria Jazz Festival, Jazz à Juan and Wigan Jazz Festival while he performed as a soloist with a symphonic orchestra in Singapore and with IB Quartet in India)

Iain Ballamy

Born: February 20, 1964

Ballamy established himself playing alongside notables including Hermeto Pascoal, the late Gil Evans, George Coleman, Dewey Redman, Mike Gibbs and the New York Composers Orchestra. Touring extensively world-wide, he has appeared at most international festivals and venues. Ballamy can be heard on over 40 CDs. A long time collaborator with Django Bates, since the days of Loose Tubes and Bill Bruford's Earthworks he is currently a member of Django's 'Human Chain' and 'Delightful Precepice'. Parallel to his international jazz career, Ballamy has pursued his interest in world music, playing concerts in India and Europe with the Karnataka College of Percussion

Bill Barron

Born: March 27, 1927

Bill Barron was born on March 27, 1927 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the oldest of five. His first interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a piano and gave him lessons at the age of nine. At the age of thirteen, Bill switched to saxophone and studied musical theory, harmony and counterpoint throughout high school. He left school in 1944 to go on the road with the Carolina Cotton Pickers, through whose ranks have passed the such legendaries as Jimmy Heath, John Coltrane and Johnny Coles. Barron's civilian musical career was interupted with his induction into the army where he continued playing and arranging for the army band, which included fellow jazz-artists Randy Weston and Ernie Henry

Albert Ayler

Born: July 13, 1936

Tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler was born on July 13th 1936 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He learned to play the alto sax at a young age. His father, Edward, encouraged his musical interests and was his first teacher. Albert Ayler continued his musical education at John Adams High School, where he played oboe, and at the local music academy. His first gig was with Lloyd Pearson and his Counts of Rhythm when has was 15 in 1951. This led to a job with Little Walter Jacobs’ R&B band with whom he spent the following two summer vacations traveling. After graduating from high school in 1954 he went to a local college but financial difficulties forced him to leave college in 1956 and join the army

Gene Ammons

Born: April 14, 1925

Eugene "Jug" Ammons was a jazz tenor saxophone player, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons. Ammons began to gain recognition when he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax band in 1943, at the age of 18. He became a member of the Billy Eckstine and Woody Herman bands in 1944 and 1949 respectively, and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt. His later career was interrupted by two prison sentences for narcotics possession, the first from 1958 to 1960, the second from 1962 to 1969. Ammons and Von Freeman were the founders of the Chicago School of tenor saxophone. His style of playing showed influences from Lester Young as well as Ben Webster

JD Allen

Born: December 11, 1972

Hailed by the New York Times as "a tenor saxophonist with an enigmatic, elegant and hard-driving style," J.D. Allen is one of the most thoughtful jazz saxophonists on the scene today. The Detroit natives apprenticeship has largely been in New York, where he has performed, recorded, and toured with legends Lester Bowie, George Cables, Betty Carter,Louis Hayes , Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette, Frank Foster Big Band, Winard Harper, Butch Morris, David Murray, Wallace Roney, and contemporaries Cindy Blackman, Orrin Evans, Marcus Gilmore, Russell Gunn, and Me'shell N'degeocello, Dave Douglas among others

Chuz Alfred

The Chuz Alfred Quintet began traveling the U.S. and Canada in June 1954. In March 1955, the president of Savoy Records contacted the group. The quintet recorded a rhythm and blues single at King Studios in Cincinnati; then, in September, went to New York to record another. On September 27, 1955, the group's album, Jazz Young Blood, was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey with Ola Hanson, trombone; Chuck Lee, piano; jazz great Vinnie Burke, bass; and the legendary Kenny Clarke, drums. In 1956, the quintet left New York's Gale Booking Agency and signed with General Artists Corporation (GAC)

Eric Alexander

Born: August 4, 1968

Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to tenor when jazz became his obsession during his one year at the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Harold Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. "The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says Alexander

George Adams

Born: April 29, 1940

George Adams - tenor saxophone, flute, bandleader (1940 - 1992) A soulful soloist of fierce energy, with a sound that could break into a bluesy, vocalized cry, Adams was heavily steeped in the blues and gospel tradition of his roots. George Adams was born in Covington. Georgia on 29 April 1940. At the age of eleven he started to play the piano, at High School he switched to tenor sax. He studied at the Clark College and got lessons on flute by that former Chick Webb man, Wayman Carver. At first George Adams played mostly rhythm and blues in so-called organ trios. He worked with Sam Cooke and some local guys