James Moody (Saxophonist)
James Moody ( born March 26, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia, † December 9, 2010 in San Diego, California ) was an American jazz musician ( tenor and alto saxophone occasionally, flute, vocals), composer and bandleader. He was one of the first tenor saxophonist who played bebop, and was regarded as an important " institution in jazz " (Scott Yanow ).
Life and work
Moody, whose father played trumpet with Tiny Bradshaw, grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and learned from 1941 self-taught saxophone. He was inspired, among others, by Don Byas and Count Basie. In the U.S. Air Force from 1943 he played in a military band. From 1946 to 1948 he played with Dizzy Gillespie in the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, with whom he later worked sporadically; in addition he played with bebop musicians such as Al Haig, Howard McGhee and Milt Jackson. His first album was released in 1948 on Blue Note Records. From 1948 to 1951 he lived in Europe, where he worked with Tadd Dameron in Paris and Arne Domnérus in Stockholm. With Dameron and Miles Davis, he has performed at the Festival International de Jazz in May 1949. At the end of a recording session with Lars Gullin he borrowed his alto saxophone for fun: His solo on " I'm In The Mood For Love" made him known as a great improviser; the piece was later known as " Moody 's Mood for Love" became a hit for King Pleasure and Blossom Dearie.
He then worked in the United States until 1953 with Babs Gonzales and then led his own jazz combo, where he worked with the singer Eddie Jefferson (1953 to 1957 and then again from 1968 to 1973 ). Recordings of 1954/55 as " Moody's Workshop" showed him as a great ballad player this time, with earthy, influenced by rhythm and blues solos. Both on the tenor saxophone as well as on the flute, which he began at the suggestion of Yusef Lateef from the end of the 1950s, he developed a warm sound preferred the dark Register. In 1958 he created his album Last Train from Overbrook, which includes many good albums for Argo Records followed. The late 1950s, he toured with a Tentett through the southern United States.
In 1962, he worked with Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt the formation Battle of the Saxophones, then worked again with Gillespie's big band, with which he appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1968. In 1971 he was one of the main soloists on Charles Mingus ' big band album Let My Children Hear Music. Between 1974 and 1980 he worked in Las Vegas in the show band of a hotel and escorted guest stars. Since then, he is again active in the jazz scene and worked primarily with smaller formations, which included in the 1980 George Mraz and Victor Jones, in the following decade Mulgrew Miller, Terri Lyne Carrington and Marc Copland. He put numerous recordings with his quartet ( with Renee Rosnes ) before, played with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and worked in 2007 with the WDR Big Band. Yet in November 2009, Moody played among others with Cyrus Chestnut and the singer Roberta Gambarini in Germany.
Moody was honored as a 1998 NEA Jazz Master. He lived with his wife Linda in San Diego. Like his friend and role model Gillespie he was enthusiastic about the Bahai faith and was active in the religious community.