Buddy Tate
George Holmes " Buddy" Tate ( born February 22, 1915 in Blue Creek Community at Sherman ( Texas), † February 10, 2001 in Chandler ( Arizona)) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist of the swing. He played with Count Basie, Roy Eldridge and Buck Clayton.
Life and work
Buddy Tate began his career after local appearances as a saxophonist in Troy Floyd and Terrence Holder, 1933/34, worked for Andy Kirk and Kansas City just at Basie. In 1939, he was finally a member of Count Basie's band and stayed until 1949 in his orchestra. Basie took him in after the sudden death of Herschel Evans. After time with Basie, he worked in various formations, so at Lucky Millinder, Hot Lips Page and Jimmy Rushing, until 1950 he was in Harlem attention to himself with his own bands. During this time he also worked on recordings by Coleman Hawkins, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Buck Clayton, Vic Dickenson and Roy Eldridge and several visits to Europe in 1959 with Buck Clayton and 1962 and 1969 with his own band, to which, inter alia, Skip Hall belonged. With its own Big Band he was at the Newport Jazz Festival and played at the Savoy Ballroom and finally regularly in the Celebrity Club ( until 1974 ). In the 1970s, he led a band with Paul Quinichette and worked in the late 1970s with Benny Goodman. Almost every year he appeared in the eighties in Europe at festivals, so with Torsten Zwingenberger, with whom he recorded an album in 1985 and with Basie alumni formations. During this time he also played with Scott Hamilton (Tour de Force, Tokyo 1981) and Budd Johnson ( Kool Festival 1984).
In 1981 he became seriously ill, had to reduce its activities and eventually retired in the 1990s from the jazz scene back, but occasionally played with Lionel Hampton and other musicians. In 1992 he was on the Documentation Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story involved. Until shortly before his death in 2001, Tate was living in New York, then moved to Arizona in order to take care of his daughter. Shortly thereafter, he died at the age of 87 years.
Tate's powerful style of play represents the powerful school of Coleman Hawkins (as opposed to Lester Young) and shows influences of the game of Herschel Evans. He is regarded as a typical Texas tenor with strong blues roots, melodic directness and large, warm tone. His solos on " Rock-A- Bye Basie " (1939 ) and "Super Chief" (1940 ) are jazz history.