Performer

(b Paris, Jan 16, 1920; d Suresnes, Hautes de Seine, France, March 29, 2020). French clarinetist and bandleader. In 1941 he put together a jazz band which by 1943 had been joined by Boris Vian and was considered the first revival band in France. At its peak, in the years 1944–6, Abadie introduced such musicians as Claude Luter, Jef Gilson, and, from 1945, the Fol brothers, who may be heard on Tin Roof Blues (1946, Swing 212) and I’ve found a new baby (1946, Pathé 1013 [EP]). The band was strongly influenced by the Chicagoans and Bix Beiderbecke. In 1949 Abadie assembled a new band with such young players as Benny Vasseur and Jean-Claude Fohrenbach. He then retired from music (1952–63), but from 1965 led a modern-jazz nonet or tentet, which included the tenor saxophonist Paul Vernon (playing in a style influenced by Lester Young), with a repertory consisting of compositions by Ahmad Jamal, John Lewis, John Coltrane, and others. Abadie continued to lead this group for the remainder of his life, to age 100, directing and playing clarinet solos; they perform compositions of Thelonious Monk in the video ...

[Abramson, Raymond Joseph]

(b New York, Jan 23, 1920; d New York, July 6, 1992). American tenor saxophonist, brother of Lee Abrams. In the early 1940s he played in the resident band at Monroe’s Uptown House, which accompanied Coleman Hawkins in performances and on the first studio recordings of bop (February 16, 1944); he remained with the group when it became the core of Dizzy Gillespie’s first big band in 1945. The following year he recorded with Kenny Clarke and (during a tour of Europe) Don Redman; his solo playing is well represented on Redman’s For Europeans Only (1946, Ste. 6020–21). His own band (formed 1947) recorded with the singer Billy Stewart (1947, 1949) and under Abrams’s name (1948); Fats Navarro and Coleman Hawkins were among his sidemen. After playing with Andy Kirk (1947–8) he rejoined Gillespie and recorded with Cecil Payne (both ...

(b Turin, Italy, March 21, 1952). Italian tenor and baritone saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and leader. He first played jazz in the Turin area in the early 1970s. In 1974 he was a founding member, with the guitarist Claudio Lodati, the double bass player Enrico Fazio, and the drummer Fiorenzo Sordini, of the quartet Art Studio, for which all four members provide compositions and arrangements; the group plays throughout Europe in a style mixing free improvisation techniques, extended forms, and contrapuntal work. In 1984 Actis Dato formed his own quartet, consisting of the saxophonist Piero Ponzo, Fazio, and Sordini; it toured internationally through the 1990s, from the USA to Africa to Japan. He was also a member of the Democratic Orchestra (1982–5), Mitteleuropa Orchestra (1982–90), Pino Minafra’s quintet (1984–9) and Sud Ensemble (from 1994), and the Italian Instabile Orchestra (from 1990). In ...

[Rama IX Bhumibol; Phoemipol Aduldej]

(b Cambridge, MA, Dec 5, 1927; d Bangkok, Oct 13, 2016). Thai clarinetist and reed player. He was brought up in the USA and in Switzerland, where he learned to play clarinet; he later mastered the whole family of reed instruments, favoring soprano saxophone. Although he was interested in early jazz he was influenced predominantly by Benny Goodman, and participated in jam sessions with Goodman and other jazz musicians who visited Thailand, notably Jack Teagarden and Lionel Hampton. He occasionally played with his court orchestra in a swing style of the 1940s that was modified by the strong influence of traditional Thai music, but, on account of his official status as the king of Thailand, no recordings by him have been authorized for distribution. (H. Esman and V. Bronsgeest: “Een jazz king: Koning Phoemipol,” ...

(Vilhelm)

(bLapinjärvi, nr Lovisa, Finland, Dec 10, 1918; d Finland, Aug 19, 2002). Finnish trumpeter and trombonist. He began his career in dance bands in the late 1930s in Helsinki and played with Eugen Malmstén and others. During World War II he led a band that introduced the big-band swing style to Finland; as the Rytmiorkesteri it made a series of recordings in ...

(b Los Angeles, CA, March 31, 1935). American trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and record company executive. He studied trumpet as a child and left college to play in the army for a two-year period. After three years of producing records on his own, he launched A&M Records with Jerry Moss in 1962. A&M’s first issue was also Alpert’s first recording as a trumpeter and bandleader, The Lonely Bull (A&M, 1962). The title track included sounds from the bullring in Tijuana, Mexico, so Alpert dubbed his band the Tijuana Brass. His music exploited a distinctive combination of Mexican mariachi-style brass with jazz rhythms, which was dubbed Ameriachi. A string of hits including “Mexican Shuffle” (A&M, 1964) and “Tijuana Taxi” (A&M, 1965) followed. In 1966 Alpert had five recordings simultaneously listed on the Billboard Top 20. His cover of “This guy’s in love with you” reached no.1 in ...

Brass quintet, formed by trombonists Arnold Fromme and Gilbert Cohen in 1960; its present members are Kevin Cobb and Raymond Mase, trumpets; David Wakefield, horn; Michael Powell, tenor trombone; and John D. Rojak, bass trombone. The group gave its first public performance at the 92nd Street Y and made its official New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1962. At that time the brass quintet was little heard in the concert hall, and the ensemble played a major part in introducing audiences to brass instruments in the chamber context. Its commitment to the expansion of the brass chamber literature and its renowned virtuosity, precision, and stylistic accuracy have resulted in the composition of more than 100 new works by such composers as Bolcom, Carter, Thomson, Druckman, Ewazen, Plog, Sampson, Schuller, Schuman, Starer, and Tower. The group's concerts usually include premieres and the performance of “rediscovered” older pieces. The quintet has also explored performance practice on older instruments, and its many recordings include two of 19th-century American brass music played on period instruments. Since becoming the ensemble-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival in 1970 and at Juilliard in 1987, the group has played a key role in training members of other prominent brass ensembles, including the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Manhattan Brass Quintet, and Urban Brass Quintet....

(Julius)

(b Manchester, CT, Nov 17, 1931; d New York, Aug 26, 2003). American trombonist. His full name appears in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index. After studying at the Schillinger House in Boston (1949–50) he performed and recorded with Charlie Spivak (1950–51). During the Korean War he served in an Air Force band (September 1951 – June 1955) and began writing arrangements. Following his discharge he performed and recorded with the Sauter–Finegan Orchestra (July 1955 – December 1956), and Woody Herman (Dec 31, 1955 – July 1956) and recorded with Kai Winding’s septet (July 1956 – May 1958). He also composed and arranged for Winding, and he plays a solo in his own piece Nutcracker on Winding’s Trombone Sound (1956, Col. CL936). He then studied at the Manhattan School of Music (BA 1962) and began working as a studio musician in New York (from ...

(b Pforzheim, Germany, Oct 6, 1929; d Königsbach-Stein, Germany, Aug 5, 2015). German soprano, tenor, and bass saxophonist. After receiving three lessons on guitar from a member of the Reinhardt clan he played in dance bands until 1950. He then contacted Sidney Bechet in Paris and learned to play soprano saxophone. He played in Germany with the arranger and bandleader Ernst Simon and also with American soldiers. In 1952 he founded the Quartier Latin Jazz Band, which he led to at least 2009; among its recordings is Dieter Antritter’s Quartier Latin Jazz Band (1996, Jazzpoint 1046). It gave concerts with many visiting musicians, including Mezz Mezzrow, Michel Attenoux, Benny Waters, Nelson Williams, and Peanuts Hucko. Antritter visited Canada in 1989 and worked with local musicians. His playing was influenced by the creole New Orleans jazz musicians and by swing musicians. He also wrote many articles for various newspapers and magazines....

(b Porus, Jamaica, June 2, 1903; d 2000). Jamaican tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader. He was a bandsman with the West India Regiment at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 and later returned to Great Britain and played in dance bands there and in Europe until the early 1930s. He led his own band in London in 1931–2 and in November 1932 relocated to the Netherlands with the pianist and singer Lily Jemmott, Welsh born of mixed African American and Bajun parentage, whose stage name was “Spadie Lee.” They remained in Europe until 1935. From 1936 he played in London with West Indian jazz musicians, including Leslie Thompson’s Emperors of Jazz (1936), and in 1937 he led his own band. In the 1940s he worked mainly with Cyril Blake and also with Jiver Hutchinson (1944–5). Appleton’s clarinet playing may be heard on Muscat Ramble...

(Crook)

(b Lichfield, England, Jan 28, 1966). English saxophonist, brother of Steve Argüelles. He began clarinet and flute in 1975, and played as a teenager in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and the European Community Big Band. He studied saxophone and flute at Trinity College, London, for six months in 1984 before joining Loose Tubes, with which he remained until 1989. In the 1990s he emerged as a striking improviser on tour and recordings with Kenny Wheeler, Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, the Tommy Smith Septet, Django Bates’s Delightful Precipice, the Mike Gibbs Orchestra, Hermeto Pascoal, Carla Bley, and, in 1996, Stan Tracey. Energized by a four-month stay in New York in 1994, he returned to England to make a series of recordings for the Babel label which exhibited his strong, individualistic writing.

Argüelles appeared in Bley’s big band in France in 2006 and recorded with the reed player Gebhard Ullmann’s band Basement Research (...

Member of Ashley family

(b ?London, ?1734; d London, March 14, 1805). English bassoonist and conductor. He was first bassoon at Covent Garden Theatre, and became more widely known after his success as assistant conductor to Joah Bates at the 1784 Commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey. Charles Burney (An Account of the Musical Performances … in Commemoration of Handel; London, 1785) records that the ‘unwearied zeal and diligence’ of ‘Mr John Ashly of the Guards … were constantly employed with such intelligence and success, as greatly facilitated the advancement of the plan’. According to Burney he was also the ‘Mr Ashley’ who played the then novel double bassoon at these celebrations. Ashley’s four sons (see below) also took part in the commemoration and later in 1784 the whole family first appeared in the provinces at the Hereford meeting of the Three Choirs; they took part in subsequent Handel commemorations and from ...

Member of Baermann family

(b Munich, Oct 24, 1810; d Munich, May 23, 1885). German clarinetist and basset-horn player, son of Heinrich Baermann and Helene Harlas. He was taught the clarinet by his father and by the age of 14 was occasionally playing in the court orchestra. In 1832 he was officially appointed second clarinetist and in 1834 succeeded his father as principal. Carl accompanied his father on concert tours in 1827, 1832 and 1838, attracting much attention playing the basset-horn. Conscious of his father’s superior talent as a soloist, he turned to teaching, making a great success of this as professor at the Königliche Musikschule in Munich. His Vollständige Clarinett-Schule (1864–75) remains one of the most used methods. His other compositions, comprising 88 opus numbers in all, were once popular with virtuosos. In 1860, in conjunction with Ottensteiner of Munich, he produced an 18-keyed Müller-type clarinet, which found favour with many players, including Mühlfeld. He was pensioned from the court orchestra in ...

(Joseph)

Member of Baermann family

(b Potsdam, Feb 14, 1784; d Munich, June 11, 1847). German clarinetist. He and his brother Carl Baerman (i) (1782–1842), a bassoonist in the Berlin court orchestra, were sent by their soldier father to the School of Military Music in Potsdam. At 14, having first studied the oboe, Heinrich became a bandsman in the Prussian Life Guards and during this time studied the clarinet with Beer. In 1805, under the patronage of Prince Louis Ferdinand, he had lessons with Tausch. He fought at the battles of Saalfeld and Jena and was captured, but escaped and found his way to Munich. Here he obtained a court appointment, which he held until his retirement in 1834.

Baermann toured extensively, first to Switzerland and France in 1808. In 1811, after successful performances at Munich of Weber’s newly composed Concertino and concertos, clarinetist and composer toured together through Austria and Germany. At Berlin Baermann’s artistry helped to convince the musical public of the composer’s worth. In Vienna and Prague in ...

(Mark)

(b Guildford, England, Feb 20, 1964). English tenor, alto, and soprano saxophonist. His father, Mark Ballamy, is a pianist. Having studied piano privately from 1970 to 1978, he taught himself to play alto saxophone from the age of 14, and later took up tenor saxophone. From 1983 he led a quintet (which included Django Bates and Mick Hutton), re-forming it in November 1983 as a quartet, the Iains, with Bates, Hutton, and Steve Argüelles; in the same month he joined Graham Collier’s workshop band, which later developed into the group Loose Tubes. In April 1985 he formed the quartet Bush Sense, including Dale Barlow and Argüelles. In May of that year he became a member of the Voice of God Collective, led by Billy Jenkins, and in December he recorded with Gil Evans for the film Absolute Beginners. He also worked with Clark Tracey (briefly in 1983), Jim Mullen (late ...

(b Welwyn Garden City, England, April 17, 1930; d Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, March 2, 2021). English trombonist and bandleader. He began studying violin while evacuated to Royston, England, in 1943 during World War II, starting a sizeable collection of jazz and blues records at the same time. In 1946, in London, he took up the trombone. He formed his first amateur band in 1948. In 1951, while studying to become an actuary, he led this band, which included Dickie Hawdon, on its first issued recordings, modeled on King Oliver’s 1920s work. Barber’s early bands often included Alexis Korner, who shared his interest in the blues. In September 1951 he abandoned accountancy to study trombone and double bass at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

In 1952 he formed his first professional band, with Pat Halcox, Monty Sunshine, and Lonnie Donegan, to play jazz in the New Orleans revival style. Ken Colyer replaced Halcox and assumed titular leadership of the group. After touring to Denmark and recording there and in the UK, the band split from Colyer in ...

(b Përmet, Albania, May 2, 1929; d Përmet, Jan 26, 2014). Albanian folk music performer. A clarinettist and vocalist, nicknamed ‘Përmeti’s nightingale’, founder of the instrumental iso-polyphonic group (saze ensemble) in the Southern town of Përmet (1944–2004). At a young age, he showed a special ability to design and make instruments. He was taught to play the lute and the clarinet by the saze masters in the city of Korçë. Then his family returned to Përmet, where he joined the saze of Vangjel Leskoviku (1944). At Përmet, he organized his own saze and participated in the Folk Music Festival in Tirane (1952), where he was awarded the First Prize for the best folk clarinettist. His saze was composed of a clarinet, two lutes, two accordions, a frame drum, and a violin. The saze played instruments and sang at the same time. He is a composer of songs, clarinet ...

(Jeffrey)

(b London, Dec 26, 1957). English trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He played in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and began a classical performance course at the Royal College of Music, but left to work with Chris Hunter, John Dankworth, Mike Westbrook, and, most notably, Stan Tracey, with whom he performed and recorded into the 1990s. In 1983 he began working with Clark Tracey, eventually making international tours and recording with him. In the mid-1980s he played and recorded with Gil Evans’s British Orchestra and made New York club appearances with Evans. He also worked with the Paris Reunion Band, Joe Henderson, Bobby Watson, Ornette Coleman, Hermeto Pascoal, Carla Bley’s big band, and Tommy Smith (in the 1990s he toured with Bley and Smith). As a member of the pianist and composer Colin Towns’s Mask Orchestra, he recorded six albums (1991–2003). In 2007 he was commissioned by the San Diego Mainly Mozart Festival to write ...

(b Altrincham, England, July 23, 1959). English saxophonist and clarinetist. Inspired by Acker Bilk, he took up clarinet at the age of 12 and three years later began playing alto saxophone. He attended Leeds College of Music (1977–80) before moving to London, where, while playing nostalgia and mainstream styles with the Midnight Follies (intermittently, 1980–83), the Pasadena Roof Orchestra (1981–3), and others, he became involved in the hard-bop revival. In this vein he performed and recorded with the drummer Tommy Chase (1983–6) and recorded with the Jazz Renegades (1986–8). He then returned to a more mainstream outlook, playing and recording as leader, with Humphrey Lyttelton (1988–92), with the Pizza Express Modern Jazz Sextet (from 1989), and in a quintet co-led by the trumpeter Bruce Adams (from 1992); he has also worked as a freelance with Mike Westbrook, Kenny Baker, Don Weller, and many others. In ...

(Aldrich Stanley)

(b Trinidad, Feb 7, 1914; d Sydney, Aug 24, 1998). Trinidadian clarinetist. He was brought up in Maracaibo, Venezuela. After learning tenor horn in Trinidad (1926–32) he played clarinet with a police band (1933–6). In 1934–5 he worked in Port of Spain with the Jazz Hounds and the Williams Brothers Blue Rhythm Orchestra. In May 1937 he moved to London and became a principal soloist in Ken “Snake Hips” Johnson’s West Indian Swing Band, with which he recorded Washington Squabble (from a BBC broadcast in 1938 issued on Black British Swing, Topic 781, 2001) and Tuxedo Junction (1940, HMV BD5576). He was named “best clarinetist” in Melody Maker for seven consecutive years. After Johnson’s death in March 1941 Barriteau performed as a soloist with several bands before forming his own recording group in 1942; his recordings as a leader include Ol’ Man Mose/A Sultan Goes to Harlem...