Results for "Saxophone"

Joe Harriott

Born: July 15, 1928

Joseph Arthurlin 'Joe' Harriott was a Jamaican jazz musician and composer, whose principal instrument was the alto saxophone. Initially a bebopper, he is now widely acknowledged as one of the worldwide pioneers of free jazz. He was educated at Kingston's famed Alpha Boys School, which produced a number of prominent Jamaican musicians. He moved to the UK as a working musician in 1951 and lived in the country for the rest of his life. Harriott was part of a wave of Caribbean jazz musicians who arrived in Britain during the 1950s, including Dizzy Reece, Harold McNair, Harry Beckett and Wilton Gaynair. While recovering from tubercolosis in 1958, Harriott developed his own style of free jazz independently from Ornette Coleman, although he used a piano-based quintet (sax, trumpet, piano, drums, bass)

Everette Harp

Born: August 17, 1961

As the 90's progressed and smooth jazz artists began incorporating more hip-hop and classic R&B grooves into the music which came to define the genre, Everette Harp found himself ahead of the curve. Raised in church and weaned on gospel and soul music, the Houston born saxman on his first two Blue Note recordings, Everette Harp (1992) and Common Ground (1994), was already leaning this way, combining dynamic funk edges and urban textures into the mix. His popular 1997 tribute to Marvin Gaye's 1971 watershed album What's Going On combined the best of his two worlds, modern day contemporary jazz and the classic soul he grew up with

Billy Harper

Born: January 17, 1943

In his early recordings and performances with leaders such as Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Max Roach, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Randy Weston and Gil Evans, during the 60s and 70s, Billy Harper already had a massive sound on the tenor saxophone, combining John Coltrane’s spiraling intensity with a bluesy brawn that pointed back to his Texas origins. 

Harper’s authority has only grown with age: a half-century on, he stands as one of the most commanding horn men on the planet, a pillar of stirring post-bop jazz whose robust back catalog seems long overdue for rediscovery. 

Craig Handy

Born: September 25, 1962

Born in Oakland, CA, as a music-hungry youngster, Craig Handy experimented on guitar, trombone, and piano before settling on his first true love, the saxophone. At the age of 11 while listening to the radio, Handy fell under the spell of the transcendent saxophone playing of jazz legend Dexter Gordon. Berkeley High School’s (CA) reputable Jazz Program soon beckoned, and Handy joined the ranks of graduating stellar saxophone talent including David Murray, Peter Apfelbaum, and Joshua Redman, to name a few. He attended North Texas State University and won the coveted Charlie Parker Scholarship which enabled his early college experience as a psychology major and frontrunner in the school’s exceptional One O’ Clock Jazz Ensemble. His distinctive sound and authentic instrumental prowess were redoubtable traits immediately noticed by artists of stature, especially those committed to nurturing new talent on the bandstand and road

John Handy

Born: February 3, 1933

John Handy is an alto saxophonist who plays the tenor, saxello, baritone, clarinet, oboe and vocals. He is actually a consummate world musician and teacher who devoted his life to using music to elevate the human spirit. His soulful and fiery saxophone style is instantly recognizable to generations of jazz fans world-wide.

As a performer and composer, he continues to sweep audiences into ecstasy with his vast range of creative, emotional, and technical inventiveness. With a superb knowledge and practical experience with music of several cultures, he fuses, with each selection, a musical genre that is coherent, provocative, logical, and enjoyable.

Gigi Gryce

Born: November 28, 1927

Gigi Gryce was born George General Grice(sic) on 28th November, 1925 (not 1927) in Pensacola, Florida - although he was brought up in Hartford, Connecticut. He spent a short period in the Navy where he met musicians such as Clark Terry, Jimmy Nottingham and Willie Smith, who were to turn his thoughts from pursuing medicine to the possibility of making music for a living. In 1948 he began studying classical composition at the Boston Conservatory under Daniel Pinkham and Alan Hovhaness. It has been reported that he won a Fulbright scholarship and went to Paris to study under Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Honegger, although confirmation of this has been hard to establish. Although illness interrupted his studies abroad, the fruits of this immersion in classical modernism were the production of three symphonies, a ballet (The Dance of the Green Witches), a symphonic tone-poem (Gashiya-The Overwhelming Event) and chamber works, including various fugues and sonatas, piano works for two and four hands, and string quartets. Gryce strictly separated his classical composing from his work in jazz and received inspiration and instruction from a number of 'unsung' jazz saxophonists

Steve Grossman

Born: January 18, 1951

Steven Mark Grossman was an American jazz fusion and hard bop saxophonist. Grossman was Wayne Shorter's replacement in Miles Davis's jazz-fusion band. Then, from 1971 to 1973, he was in Elvin Jones's band. In the late 1970s, he was part of the Stone Alliance trio with Don Alias and Gene Perla. The group released four albums during this period, including one featuring Brazilian trumpeter Márcio Montarroyos. The albums also feature an array of other musicians. They went on to release three live reunion albums during the 2000s.

Euge Groove

Jimmy Greene

Saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Jimmy Greene has emerged as a positive young presence in the creative music world. His solo recordings, True Life Stories (Criss Cross), Forever (Criss Cross), Brand New World (RCA Victor) and Introducing Jimmy Greene (Criss Cross) have been met with much critical acclaim. In fact, Tony Hall of Jazzwise Magazine calls Greene "...without doubt one of the most striking young tenors of recent years." Greene was born in Hartford, CT on February 24, 1975. From a young age, he exhibited a God-given affinity for music. Greene's parents started him on alto saxophone at age six, and encouraged him to practice

Dave Glasser

Dave Glasser has performed extensively with the Clark Terry Quintet since 1995 and with the Count Basie Orchestra (1989-91 under the direction of Frank Foster), Illinois Jacquet (1988, 1991-95), and Barry Harris. He also performs with the Dizzy Gillespie All Stars (Feat. Jon Faddis, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, James Moody) and was a featured soloist with the Earl May Quartet at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in NYC in 2000, 2001, and 2002. For the past three years he has performed as a leader on an annual tour in Frankfurt, Germany, the latter with pianist Hank Jones and performs regularly around NYC and the world. Mr