Word: saxophonist
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Session with Brubeck. Brubeck bends his lanky torso over the keys, concentrating like a child on a jigsaw puzzle, but his eyes are closed. The other members of the quartet-Alto Saxophonist Paul Desmond, Drummer Joe Dodge and Bass Player Bob Bates-go to work. Desmond's tones are plaintive and pure, the rhythm of drum and bass is as rich and firm as a deep-pile carpet. Like Bach starting off to improvise a passacaglia, they lay down the tune-say, Let's Fall in Love-as a kind of groundwork. Desmond's eyes close...
...music he began playing was ruggedly individual. Even Dave's own sideman and best friend, Saxophonist Desmond, almost walked out when he first played with him. "We decided to play the blues in B flat," says Desmond, "but the first chord Dave played was G major! It almost scared me to death...
...into musical blossom. About that time, Progressive Bandleader Stan Kenton passed through Los Angeles, and some of his crew, e.g., Trumpeter Shorty Rogers, Arranger Pete Rugolo, Drummer Shelly Manne, French Hornist John Graas, settled there and became famous. A hollow-eyed trumpeter named Chet Baker and an underweight baritone saxophonist named Gerry Mulligan made themselves fast killings among the cats. By 1952, the West Coast was the U.S.'s newest, biggest stomping ground for jazz. Brubeck felt right at home, shuttled between such clubs as San Francisco's Blackhawk and Los Angeles' The Haig...
...musician himself, Granz became a jazz fan while a philosophy major at U.C.L.A. After his junior year, he rounded up a group of little-known musicians who are now famed in their fields-Pianist Nat King Cole, Saxophonist Lester Young and Singer Billie Holliday-and held his first concert. "I felt there was something lacking," he says. "Nobody was bringing together the great musicians...
While the clarinet was put to the services of jazz, the saxophone was played like a symphonic instrument. James Powers, a freshman who has never taken a lesson with a professional saxophonist, gave an excellent example of the serious saxophone style now prevalent in France. Mr. Powers learned this style by listening to records. In addition to a flawless technique, he displayed a rich tone, occasionally enhanced by a discreet vibrato...