Harold Land

Harold de Vance country ( born December 18, 1928 in Houston, Texas, † July 27, 2001 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer.

Country grew up in San Diego and started in the rhythm and blues scene. His first recordings as a leader he made in 1949 for Savoy Records. A highlight was told his career in 1954/55 as a member of the Quintet by Max Roach and Clifford Brown, to which he also contributed his own compositions. In 1955 he left the band ( he was succeeded by Sonny Rollins before the quintet was disbanded in 1956 due to the death of Brown) and moved back to Los Angeles, where his family lived since 1954 and his grandmother was just dying. 1956 to 1958 he played in the band of Curtis Counce. His 1958 released album The Fox enjoys taking hard bop connoisseurs cult status. Initially located in the hard bop (and thus the counter-example to the thesis, it would have been on the west coast no hard bop ), he played in the 1960s under the influence of John Coltrane. In Los Angeles, he worked as a studio musician, played in the band of Gerald Wilson ( 1955 ), 1961 at the Jazz Giants Shorty Rogers, led his own groups and was the co - leader in groups with Red Mitchell (1961 /2), Bobby Hutcherson (1969 to 1971), Blue Mitchell ( 1975-1978 ). In the 1980s he played in the Timeless All Stars with Billy Higgins.

From 1996 he was a professor in the Jazz Studies program at the University of California at Los Angeles.

In addition to saxophone, he also played flute and oboe. His son Harold Land Jr., born in 1950, is a jazz pianist, who also starred in various groups of his father.

Discography (selection)

• The Harold Land Quintet, 1958
• 1958 ( later published as Groove Yard, based on the play by Carl Perkins on the album, with Rolf Ericson, Leroy Vinnegar, Frank Butler, Carl Perkins ) Harold Land in the Land of Jazz, Contemporary Records / OJC
• The Fox (HiFi Jazz, 1959) with pianist Elmo Hope, trumpeter Dupree Bolton, bassist Herbie Lewis, drummer Frank Butler
• West Coast Blues, Jazz Country / OJC, 1960 ( with Wes Montgomery )