Pony Poindexter

Norwood " Pony" Poindexter ( born February 8, 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana, † April 14, 1988 in Oakland, California ) was an American jazz saxophonist (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone and tenor saxophone), clarinetist and singer.

Life and work

Pony Poindexter began as a seven -year-old with the clarinet, and played with twelve years in a rhythm-and - blues band. He eventually switched to alto, then for soprano saxophone and began his career in 1940 at Sidney Desvigne, then played in San Francisco with Jerome Richardson and accompanied 1947/48 and 1950 Billy Eckstine. In addition, he visited 1948/49, the Candell Conservatory of Music in Oakland. In 1950 he played in a quartet of Vernon Alley, 1951/52, with Lionel Hampton and Stan Kenton in 1952. After that Poindexter had his own groups and also played with Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Nat King Cole, T-Bone Walker and Jimmy Witherspoon on the west coast. From 1959, he worked with the Montgomery brothers and Jon Hendricks and belonged from 1961 to 1963 the accompanying ensemble of Lambert, Hendricks And Ross at, with whom he appeared in 1960 at the Newport Jazz Festival. In 1963, with his quartet first album Pony Express under his own name as well as a live album Live At The Basin Street East. In 1964 Poindexter to Europe, worked in Paris, among others, with Kenny Clarke and played in Barcelona, later from Ibiza with countless musicians at festivals and tours. At the 10th German Jazz Festival 1967, the album Annie Ross & Pony Poindexter was taken. In 1969, he took The Happy Life of pony on. He lived in the 1970s in Germany. In 1977 he returned to San Francisco. In 1985, his autobiography Pony Express.

Pony Poindexter made ​​a decisive impetus to enforce the soprano saxophone in modern jazz. His saxophone style is strongly influenced by blues and processed influences of Charlie Parker, but also by Johnny Hodges and Jimmy Dorsey. As a singer he is dominated by Eddie Jefferson.

Auswahldiskographie

Singing Deutsches Jazzfestival Richard Cook (journalist) Integrated Authority File
656550
de