#Mingus Big Band

[jazzdailyblog]

Chris Potter: A Modern Jazz Virtuoso Redefining the Saxophone

Introduction: In the world of jazz, there are those who follow tradition and those who push its boundaries to new heights. Chris Potter, an extraordinary saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, falls into the latter category. With his technical brilliance, harmonic sophistication, and an unrelenting quest for innovation, Potter has earned a reputation as one of the most influential voices in…

[diceriadelluntore]

Storia Di Musica #281 - Mingus Big Band, Live At Jazz Standard, 2010

Chi e cosa è stato Charles Mingus? Le domande non sono così tautologiche come possono apparire. Nella storia dei grandi del jazz, porta agli estremi la ribellione culturale, l’esigenza di una riabilitazione personale, i problemi psichiatrici, una vitalità che molto spesso superava ogni eccesso nel cibo, nel sesso, nell’esternazione delle emozioni. Ma sopra ogni cosa Mingus è stato un genio creativo con pochi pari. Il burbero, scontroso, violento passa in secondo piano rispetto al musicista. È quello che successe poco dopo la morte, avvenuta nel gennaio del 1979: molti dei musicisti che avevano collaborato con lui, si strinsero intorno alla figura di Sue Mingus, la sua quarta moglie, e iniziarono a pensare a come omaggiare la sua musica. Tra l’altro, nonostante la debilitante malattia che lo stava progressivamente fermando, Mingus continuò a comporre e dettare musica, tanto che alla sua morte lasciò in eredità almeno 200 idee musicali tra spartiti, linee melodiche, idee sparse qua e là. Nello stesso anno della morte, si forma il primo nucleo di questo percorso di ricordo con la Mingus Dynasty, formata dai sessionisti che collaborarono con lui nell’ultimo periodo. Iniziarono a suonare concerti in giro per gli Stati Uniti prima, e nel mondo poi, garantendo a Mingus una nuova fioritura di notorietà, persino più sincera e ragionata rispetto a quella legata al suo strabordante personaggio. Sue costituirà una Fondazione, che oltre a celebrare la musica di Mingus, diventerà attiva nella formazione musicale e culturale, garantendo borse di studio ai ragazzi emarginati, legando il tutto ad uno dei punti centrali della parabola artistica di Mingus: il rispetto interrazziale e l’importanza della conoscenza per le minoranze etniche. Mingus Dynasty prende il nome dal titolo di un album del 1959, Mingus Dynasty, che contiene due classici mingusiani, Song With Orange ma soprattutto Gunslinging Bird, che stavolta fu davvero dedicata al grande Parker, e come titolo provvisorio aveva If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats. Nell’album del 1959 al trombone c’era Jimmy Knepper, all’epoca fido collaboratore di Mingus, che nonostante i due denti rotti che gli fece il Maestro e il conseguente processo, rimase sempre un suo grande amico. E Knepper fu il band leader di uno dei grandi live che la Dynasty ebbe presso il Teatro Boulogne-Billancourt di Parigi, l’8 Giugno 1988, racchiusi in due emozionanti cd (titolo Live at the Theatre Boulogne-Billancourt/Paris, Vol. 1 e 2). Ma personalmente credo che il ricordo più vero e sentito è stato quello che ha portato avanti l’evoluzione della Dynasty, la Mingus Big Band. Uno dei sogni di Mingus era di creare una Big Band sulla falsariga di quelle del suo mito Duke Ellington, e un po’ come successe allo stesso Ellington, a Glenn Miller o ai fratelli Tommy e Jimmy Dorsey, le cui musiche sono sopravvissute al loro creatori anche grazie alla continuazione delle big band, così è capitato pure indirettamente per Mingus. La Mingus Big band nasce nel 1991, formata da 14 elementi: il repertorio mingusiano viene riarrangiato, anche seguendo delle idee di Charles, in stile Big Band, che rimase il grande sogno inespresso in vita del grande contrabbassista. Il successo delle prime esibizioni è esaltante, e in pochi anni la Mingus Big band suona in tutti gli Stati Uniti d’America, e inizia anche acclamatissimi concerti in Europa, in Giappone, in Oceania. Nel 1997, viene ingaggiata per l’apertura di un nuovo locale, il Jazz Standard, situato nel quartiere Rose Hill di Manhattan, New York City. La band viene ingaggiata per due lunedì di seguito, ma il successo dei Mingus Mondays diviene così eccezionale che in pratica la band suona, quando non è in tour, tutti i lunedi fino a quando, causa Covid, il locale non chiude nel 2020. Ma la sera del 31 dicembre 2009, casualmente non un lunedì ma un giovedì, Sue Mingus decide di registrare l’esibizione della Big Band, e pochi mesi più tardi esce Live At Jazz Standard, nell’aprile del 2010. Quella sera fa parte della Big Band anche Randy Brecker alla tromba, che agli inizi degli anni ‘70 fu sessionista prediletto di Mingus. In scaletta, il meglio della produzione: Self-Portrait in Three Colors, Bird Calls, Open Letter To Duke, Cryin' Blues, la leggendaria Goodbye Porky Pie Hat, ma anche scelte minori come E's Flat Ah's Flat Too (aka "Hora Decubitus"), da Blues & Roots del 1959, New Now Know How e una finale Song With Orange da antologia. Band, pubblico, atmosfera sono così perfetti che il disco vince un Grammy Award come Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album nel 2011, e i Mingus Mondays sono ormai uno dei 5 eventi jazz migliori di tutta New York per i primi due decenni degli anni duemila. La Big Band continua a suonare in tutto il mondo, anche in Italia dove ha un folto seguito di appassionati, e quest’anno i Mingus Mondays sono tornati presso il Drom, un altro locale di New York, nell’East Village. Per celebrare il centenario della nascita di questo genio, pazzo e scalmanato, e davvero unico. Persino nella storia del jazz.

[georgeromerosanalcavity]

[ticketstubs-and-pits]

Mingus Big Band

@ Yoshi's, SF

went up with some band people, don't remember a ton but it would have been a good performance

added 9/26/2023

[jazzplusplus]

[topoet]

mingus Monk

Jazz runs the gamut from easy listening to complex challenging. There is the from the gut playing of John Coltrane to the intellectual work of Anthony Braxton. There are those who argue that ‘instrumental’ is pap – is Lawrence Welk big band or ‘instrumental’ pap? If it’s too popular does it lose creative credibility?  Mingus and Monk are two jazz masters who have never attempted to be popular &…

[hezigler]

"Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat."

Lester Young outside the Five Spot Jazz Club, the Bowery, 1958.

The first jazz musician I ever photographed, Lester Young performing at The Five Spot Café, on the Bowery, 1958. Now here was a quiet soul, someone who let his music speak for him. I took this shot outside before the show, Lester being greeted by an unknown admirer or so I believe. I've never been able to identify this person. The famous pork pie hat at a slight—and cool—angle.

     —Herb Snitzer

Photo: Herb Snitzer

[mara-and-its-the-same]

PSA TO EVERYONE

this is my official request that you all listen to Don’t Let It Happen Here by Charles Mingus

[kinsey3furry300]

An extremely dumb guid to “Which famous 60’s/70's Jazz man is that?”

1, Is it Piano lead or Brass lead? If piano go to question two. If brass question three.

2, Does the Pianist sound like he’s taken all the acid, or is there a guy making love to a clarinet?

Oh yeah: he’s taken all the acid alight. Is… is he okay? Thelonious Monk.

Oh yeah, some guy is going ham on a clarinet. Dave Burkbeck Quartet.

Neither of the above: Duke Ellington.

3, If brass lead: is it Louis Armstrong? If Yes, it’s Louis Armstrong. If no, question four.

4, Does the Trumpet player make you feel sad? Even, dare I say, Blue?

Almost? Chet Barker

Kind of? Miles Davies.

If no, question five.

5, Is the trumpet player trying to blow your face clean off? Like, actively trying to kill the first row of the audience? Dizzy Gillespie.

It’s brass led, but Sax not Trumpet.  

Okay, question 6, isolate the stings: is Charles Mingus doing what he’s actually paid to do in the back of the ensemble, or is he dicking around and seeing how far a man can take a double bass before his band-mates kill him?

Seems to be playing normally: Charlie Parker

He’s fucking around in F minor, and also that Bari sax is filthy! The Mingus Big band, with Ronnie Cuber on the Sax.

[hustlerose]

Sorry for the spam likes today. Favorite jazz album?? I saw a post on your blog that mentioned Mingus ah um. That’s either my fave or Birth of Cool (Miles Davis does do my favorite version of On Green Dolphin Street). Though both are kinda basic choices I want to expand my listening.

so i'm gonna give you a few albums (and album-adjacent things) with the caveat that i haven't heard most of what's out there ^_^ i'm just a casual fan

ornette coleman - the shape of jazz to come

this album is on another level. the multiple layers of brass crisscross each other, playing dissonant chaos, then they rip into solos that could melt charlie parker's fingers. the bass shreds and stumbles up and down some wild assortment of scales. the drums patter out a frantic rhythm that somehow ties everything together.

it shouldn't make sense, but it feels so alive. you'll catch quotes from flight of the bumblebee over rainy oceans of rhythm. herds of wild animals shuffle back and forth in a forest painted by jackson pollock. and then whoever's not soloing yells "woo! alright!"

it's not even my favorite ornette coleman recording. that honor goes to this youtube upload of a live show in germany, 1978. the bass intro, instantly picked up by the drummer, is so electric. the haunting melodies, borrowed from the rite of spring, are traded from sax to guitar. the whole band feels like they're operating on instinct. this is what a basquiat painting SOUNDS like. like a genius artist drawing with their non-dominant hand. LITERALLY coleman plays a violin left-handed at one point. it's incredible.

john coltrane - my favorite things

trane puts so much panache into this simple little pop song. the opening chords are heavy with drama. the groove is insanely tight. every time he plays the melody, it's got a new rhythm, to the point where he seems to be playing a game with the listener. "how many ways can i get you to feel this groove?" the song is melted, bent, and stretched like molten glass, in a 13 minute display of total virtuosity

and that's just track 1!!!! this album is timeless. every second is as fresh and vibrant as it was in 1961

herbie hancock - headhunters

herbie has always been at the cutting edge of jazz fusion. this is his definitive statement on funk

this album is intensely rhythmic, laying out catchy melodies over funk foundations. the whole band seems to just be having a blast. the grooves are often busy and hypermelodic, with no room to breathe as everyone jams at once. it's like an all-night house party in a bouncy castle full of confetti

if you're a fan of japanese jazz like caseopia, or jazz-influenced video game music, this album will feel shockingly familiar to you. its wildly creative synth work, uplifting and colorful chords, and eclectic sound palette are all DECADES ahead of their time.

where would we be without herbie? i'd wager the entire global music landscape would be different. from hip hop to big beat to drum n bass, we all stand on the shoulders of giants. hancock is a titan. the giants that raise us up are standing on his shoulders

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Obituary: The son who soared: Jeff Buckley

Date: June 6, 1997

From: The Guardian (London, England)

Publisher: Guardian News & Media

Document Type: Obituary

Byline: ADAM SWEETING

FEW ROCK business careers began more tantalisingly than that of Jeff Buckley, who has drowned in the Mississippi river, aged 30 (his body was found on Wednesday this week). In 1991, record producer Hal Willner, known for assembling imaginative, star-studded tributes to Charles Mingus and Kurt Weill, put together a tribute concert for Jeff's father, Tim Buckley, at St Ann's Church, Brooklyn, New York. Tim had died of a heroin overdose in 1975, aged 28, but his early death ignited a slow-burning musical legend. It was founded on his recorded legacy in which soul, blues and jazz influences mingled freely, the process stirred by his arrestingly elastic vocal style.

His son Jeff, born in California during Tim's brief marriage to Panama-born Mary Guibert, had always been ambivalent about his father. Tim left Mary when Jeff was six months old, and his son was brought up by his mother and stepfather during a peripatetic childhood. 'We moved so often I had to put all my stuff in paper bags,' Jeff recalled. 'My childhood was pretty much marijuana and rock 'n' roll.'His decision to participate in Willner's tribute event launched Buckley Junior as a new phenomenon on the New York music scene, and simultaneously affirmed his quasi-mythic credentials, particularly when he performed his father's song Once I Was. 'It bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I've never been able to tell him anything,' said Jeff. 'I used that show to pay my last respects.'

Thus launched in public, Buckley was rescued from a string of odd jobs by joining the avant-garde combo Gods & Monsters, which featured Pere Ubu's ex-bassist Tony Maimone and Captain Beefheart's erstwhile guitarist Gary Lucas. But it was more a loose group of individuals than a real band and Buckley quit in early 1992 to pursue a solo career.

He began performing at small Manhattan clubs, particularly the Cafe Sin-e, where record company executives and A&R men were soon arriving by the limo-full, waving chequebooks. 'I went into those cafes because I really felt I had to go to an impossibly intimate setting where there's no escape, where there's no hiding yourself,' he explained.

Buckley's remarkable voice (his most obvious inheritance from his father) and movie-star looks left nobody in doubt that he was a star in the making, though the eclecticism of his shows confused some listeners. Buckley would pluck songs out of the air as the mood took him. It might be something by Van Morrison, the Hollies or Big Star, or a tune made famous by Nina Simone or Mahalia Jackson.

With a hippie-esque suspicion of large corporations, he turned down several deals before signing with Columbia at the end of 1992, apparently because he knew and trusted the label's A&R man Steve Berkowitz. The company previewed their new acquisition with a live EP, Live At Sin-e, following which Buckley travelled upstate to Bearsville to start work on his debut album, Grace.

The disc was released in 1994 to instant critical adulation. The sleeve pictured Buckley clutching a microphone and looking poetically dishevelled, while the music inside was a cornucopia of rockers, ballads, hymns and even a bold rendition of Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol, by no means standard rock 'n' roll fare. His voice was wild, passionate and sensual. If his music was hard to describe in a soundbite, it was bursting with hidden depths and infinite potential. Grace won Buckley the Best New Artist award from Rolling Stone magazine in 1995.

Buckley's inquisitiveness and musical ambition earned him acceptance across a broad spectrum of fellow performers. Elvis Costello brought him over in 1995 to perform at London's Meltdown Festival, where he easily held his own among string quartets and jazz ensembles, and last year he featured on Patti Smith's comeback album, Gone Again. He was also a fan of Eastern music, particularly the Islamic devotional Qawwali songs of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Buckley had been in Memphis since February, recording new material. He decided to go swimming in the Mississippi, fully clothed and carrying his guitar, but was apparently pulled under by the wash from a passing tug.

Jeff Buckley, rock singer, born August 1, 1966; died May 29, 1997

[1skullwallet1]

Hi, 'm tobias, (tho you can call me whatever u want as long its not soul crushingly scathing.) I'm a swedish gay autistic guy!

I use he/him and they/them (:

I am a MINOR.

Big fan of dialtown, daz games, schlatt, Ted nivison, james marriot, tecnoblade, willne, and the game dragon adventures!! <3

I'll probably only post bout dialtown tho-

Bands + artists I like! >_<

Soad, Rob zombie, ghost, lemon demon, and James marriot!

My fave characters EVER are: stabby + shooty, randy jade, abel brannigan, bunny(dialtown), mayor mingus, Charlie cutter, Harry flynn, and william hill(thohh) :3

My pinterest, bluesky, discord(pls add me if u wanna be friends, as i am a lonely little man), and tiktok are all under 1Skullwallet1 !

DNI if u are a tr*mp supporter, homophobe, a transphobe, a zionist, an islamaphobe, a racist, a proshipper, etc.

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Joni Mitchell - The Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980)

Deciding too much is better than not enough, Joni Mitchell took the former tack on Vol. 4 of her ongoing Archives series.

Covering the 1976-1980 period spanning Mitchell’s Asylum Records releases Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus and Shadows and Light, this seven-hour, six-disc box set bogs down with some poorly recorded solo performances culled from Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue (“Jericho,” “Edith and the Kingpin”) and the 1979 Coalition Rally Against Nuclear Power (“Big Yellow Taxi”) alongside some awkward full-band arrangements (“Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow”) of brilliant numbers. These moments are historically significant to be sure; however, do not merit repeated spins.

Fortunately, such examples are scattered throughout what is otherwise gold as Mitchell, under the influence of Charles Mingus and others, dived deeply into her jazz phase and shared studios and stages with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Don Alias, Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorious. Alias, Metheny and Pastorious are each featured on live solo pieces, with Pastorious’ “Third Stone from the Sun” from Aug. 25, 1979, being particularly stunning in its virtuosity and musicality.

Mitchell still had some folkie in her during this period, though, as she revisits such earlier compositions as “For Free” and “A Case of You,” among many others on concert recordings spanning the Asylum Years. But when she pairs the soundalike “Coyote” and “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter,” Mitchell suggests she really did her most-enthralling work as a jazzer.

For those who don’t have what amounts to nearly a full workday to devote to Vol. 4, Sound Bites recommends diving into discs 3, 4 and 5 first to experience the glory of Mitchell’s respective Hejira demos and Don Juan’s and Mingus sessions. Each disc also includes on-stage and in-studio recordings; branch out from here.

Grade card: Joni Mitchell - The Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980) - B+

12/4/24

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Unrehearsed Perfection 1998 Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Smooth Jazz / Post-Bop

Some of you folks may find this a bit hard to believe, but as someone who never drinks any coffee themselves, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times in my life that I've actually stepped foot inside of a Starbucks. And yet, through some kind of osmosis, I was still somehow ambiently aware of just how integral music had become to their own business model and brand in the 90s, as they pumped out a constant stream of exclusively-sold CDs that matched what was in rotation over their very own speakers at the time.

And it'd all apparently started at some point in the late 80s, when they were still just a small Seattle chain, and had hired a former record store owner named Timothy Jones, who'd just decided that he needed a change in his own life and was then given the keys to manage his own favorite nearby coffee spot across the way from his old record shop. By the time Jones had arrived, each Starbucks was being sent a different four-hour cassette tape of classical music each month to play, and as someone who'd spent his entire life around music himself, he became the store's curator for those tapes. Without anyone's knowledge, though, Jones proceeded to diversify Starbucks' musical programming, and eventually expanded into jazz, reggae, and blues too. And with this change then came the inevitable question from customers, "do you guys sell any of this music that you play here?"

And at first they didn't, but by 1995, they had started to, with their first ever release, Blue Note Blend, which had initiated their original run of jazz compilations too. Within less than a month, this album had managed to sell 50,000 copies across Starbucks' 500 stores, which then naturally led to the vast expansion of their own serious music hustle that saw them releasing CDs on a consistent basis well into the 2010s.

And there were certainly bumps along the way too. At a certain point, beyond just selling nicely curated compilations of classy coffeehouse ambiance, they'd decided to take things a step or two further, and haphazardly got themselves more directly involved in the record business, which ended up resulting in a lot of anodyne, exclusive, unwanted, contemporary crap from beloved legends who should've known better. Even Sonic Youth put out a song exclusively through Starbucks once 😆.

And eventually, as the returns on CDs continued to diminish, and streaming became peoples' typical avenue for listening consumption, Starbucks dropped their CD-selling angle and their record label antics altogether and decided to partner with Spotify in the mid-2010s.

But as we now go back in time to their late 90s musical heyday, here's one of the greatest classic jazz compilations that they had apparently ever put out, Unrehearsed Perfection, which may've come off as a somewhat random assortment to the casual listener, but as its title indicates, was actually pretty uniquely thematic, as it consisted solely of recordings from the catalog of the legendary Impulse! Records that'd somehow been made in only one, single, miraculous take.

So on here, we've got a whole host of legends: Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, twice—who himself played an integral role in the early success of Impulse! with A Love Supreme—Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Milt Jackson, McCoy Tyner, and Charles Mingus.

And while most of these selections seem to match that idyllically cozy, warm, and familial 90s Starbucks aesthetic, it's Mingus' own "II B.S.," off of his classic 1964 album, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, that serves as the big exception here, as it starts from just Mingus' own lonely double-bassline, but progressively expands into a beast of its own making, with sharp, addled lead horn action among an actively large backing band that is surely to take every coffee drinker's focus off of whatever else they're doing and tune their ears to this masterpiece instead 😌.

So, you may not really think about it, but with people digging the ambiance that Starbucks had provided as they rapidly expanded all across the US throughout the 90s and 2000s, they also sort of somewhat quietly managed to become kind of a big pop cultural music staple with their varied litany of CD offerings too. And before today, I had never listened to any of the many compilations that they had put out over the years, but if this CD itself is any indication, then it's easy to see why music became such a focal point of their business, because the selection job that was done by their very own former-Seattle-record-shop-owner-turned-store-manager here, Timothy Jones, was definitely top-tier👏.

Starbucks has kind of grown into a gross, impersonal behemoth like all large, ubiquitous chains more or less inevitably seem to do, but their idea to sell more than just coffee and pastries in that pivotal mid-90s moment definitely went a long way towards endearing themselves to folks in more lasting ways than just being a dime-a-dozen coffee shop ever could. People deriving pleasure from a restaurant business in a way that doesn't actually involve food or drink is not something that seems to organically happen very often, but you have to think that Starbucks' CD venture was akin to what a business like McDonald's had managed to pull off by putting collectable toys in their very own Happy Meals. Get people to think fondly of your business beyond your main selling point, and you've got some serious loyalty!

OK, that's more than enough positive big business spin from me today 😅. Shop local whenever you can so that the money you spend can circulate within your own community for a longer period of time, but don't hate something good that a big business might incidentally end up doing, like putting out quality CDs like this one! ✌️

Highlights:

McCoy Tyner - "Caravan" Duke Ellington - "Limbo Jazz" Johnny Hartman - "Ain't Misbehavin'" Oliver Nelson - "Stolen Moments" Diana Krall - "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" John Coltrane - "Acknowledgement" J.J. Johnson & Kai Winding - "I Concentrate On You" Benny Carter & His Orchestra - "Body and Soul" Charles Mingus - "II B.S." Milt Jackson Quartet - "Paris Blues" Sonny Rollins - "Blue Room"

[jazzplusplus]

1991 - Jazz sur son 31 - Autour de Mingus - Toulouse (and surrounding towns)

Aldo Romano, Betty Carter, Irakere, Jack DeJohnette Special Edition, Mingus Epitaph, Big Band 31, Herbie Hancock & Wayne Shorter Quartet, Lou Bennett trio, Guy Lafitte Quartet, ...

[jpbjazz]

LÉGENDES DU JAZZ

HAMIET BLUIETT, LE PLUS MODERNE DES SAXOPHONISTES BARYTON

“Most people who play the baritone don’t approach it like the awesome instrument that it is. They approach it as if it is something docile, like a servant-type instrument. I don’t approach it that way. I approach it as if it was a lead voice, and not necessarily here to uphold the altos, tenors and sopranos.”

- Hamiet Bluiett

Né le 6 septembre 1940 au nord de East St. Louis à Brooklyn, dans les Illinois, Hamiet Ashford Bluiett Jr. était le fils d’Hamiet Bluiett Sr. et de Deborah Dixon. Aussi connu sous le surnom de Lovejoy, le quartier de East St. Louis était majoritairement peuplé d’Afro-Américains. Fondé pour servir de refuge aux anciens esclaves affranchis dans les années 1830, le village était devenu plus tard la première ville américaine majoritairement peuplée de gens de couleur.

Bluiett avait d’abord appris à jouer du piano à l’âge de quatre ans avec sa tante qui était directrice de chorale. Il était passé à la clarinette cinq ans plus tard en étudiant avec George Hudson, un populaire chef d’orchestre de la région. Même s’il avait aussi joué de la trompette, Bluiett avait surtout été attiré par le saxophone baryton.

Après avoir amorcé sa carrière en jouant de la clarinette dans les danses dans son quartier d’origine de Brooklyn, Bluiett s’était joint à un groupe de la Marine en 1961. Par la suite, Bluiett avait fréquenté la Southern Illinois University à Carbondale, où il avait étudié la clarinette et la flûte. Il avait finalement abandonné ses études pour aller s’installer à St. Louis, au Missouri, au milieu des années 1960.

Bluiett était au milieu de la vingtaine lorsqu’il avait entendu le saxophoniste baryton de l’orchestre de Duke Ellington, Harry Carney, jouer pour la première fois. Dans le cadre de ce concert qui se déroulait à Boston, au Massachusetts, Carney était devenu la principale influence du jeune Bluiett. Grâce à Carney, Bluiett avait rapidement réalisé qu’un saxophoniste baryton pouvait non seulement se produire comme accompagnateur et soutien rythmique, mais également comme soliste à part entière. Expliquant comment il était tombé en amour avec le saxophone barytone, Bluiett avait déclaré plus tard: "I saw one when I was ten, and even though I didn't hear it that day, I knew I wanted to play it. Someone had to explain to me what it was. When I finally got my hands o n one at 19, that was it."

DÉBUTS DE CARRIÈRE

Après avoir quitté la Marine en 1966, Bluiett s’était installé à St. Louis, au Missouri. À la fin de la décennie, Bluiett avait participé à la fondation du Black Artists' Group (BAG), un collectif impliqué dans diverses activités artistiques à l’intention de la communauté afro-américaine comme le théâtre, les arts visuels, la danse, la poésie, le cinéma et la musique. Établi dans un édifice situé dans la basse-ville de St. Louis, le collectif présentait des concerts et d’autres événements artistiques.

Parmi les autres membres-fondateurs du groupe, on remarquait les saxophonistes Oliver Lake et Julius Hemphill, le batteur Charles "Bobo" Shaw et le trompettiste Lester Bowie. Hemphill avait aussi dirigé le big band du BAG de 1968 à 1969. Décrivant Bluiett comme un professeur et mentor naturel, Lake avait précisé: “His personality and his thoughts and his wit were so strong. As was his creativity. He wanted to take the music forward, and we were there trying to do the same thing.”

À la fin de 1969, Hemphill s’était installé à New York où il s’était joint au quintet de Charles Mingus et au big band de Sam Rivers. Au cours de cette période, Bluiett avait également travaillé avec une grande diversité de groupes, dont ceux des percussionnistes Tito Puente et Babatunde Olatunji, et du trompettiste Howard McGhee. Il avait aussi collaboré avec le Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra.

En 1972, Bluiett avait de nouveau fait équipe avec Mingus et avait fait une tournée en Europe avec son groupe. Collaborateur plutôt irrégulier de Mingus, Bluiett quittait souvent le groupe avant de réintégrer la formation un peu plus tard. En 1974, Bluiett avait de nouveau regagné le giron du groupe de Mingus aux côtés du saxophoniste ténor George Adams et du pianiste Don Pullen, qui deviendrait plus tard un de ses plus fidèles collaborateurs. Il avait aussi joué avec le groupe de Mingus à Carnegie Hall. Bluiett avait continué de travailler avec Mingus jusqu’en 1975, lorsqu’il avait commencé à enregistrer sous son propre nom.

Le premier album de Bluiett comme leader, Endangered Species, avait été publié par les disques India en juin 1976. L’album avait été enregistré avec un groupe composé d’Olu Dara à la trompette, de Junie Booth à la contrebasse et de Philip Wilson à la batterie. En 1978, Bluiett avait enregistré Birthright, un magnifique album live dans lequel il avait joué en solo durant quarante minutes et qui comprenait un hommage à son idole Harry Carney.

En 1976, la même année où il publiait son premier album solo, Bluiett avait co-fondé le World Saxophone Quartet avec d’autres membres du Black Artists Group comme Oliver Lake et Julius Hemphill. Le saxophoniste ténor (et clarinettiste basse) David Murray faisait également partie de la formation. Surnommé à l’origine le Real New York Saxophone Quartet, le groupe avait amorcé ses activités en présentant une série de cliniques et de performances à la  Southern University de la Nouvelle-Orléans, avant de se produire au Tin Palace de New York. Menacé d’une poursuite judiciaire par le New York Saxophone Quartet, le groupe avait éventuellement changé de nom pour devenir le World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ).

Le groupe avait enregistré son premier album (d’ailleurs largement improvisé) sous le titre de Point of No Return en 1977. Jouant une musique diversifiée allant du Dixieland au bebop, en passant par le funk, le free jazz et la World Music, le groupe avait remporté un énorme succès (il est aujourd’hui considéré comme une des formations de free jazz les plus populaires de l’histoire) et avait reçu de nombreux éloges de la critique. Qualifiant le groupe de ‘’the most commercially (and, arguably, the most creatively) successful" de tous les ensembles de saxophones formés dans les années 1970, Chris Kelsey écrivait dans le All Music Guide: ‘’At their creative peak, the group melded jazz-based, harmonically adventurous improvisation with sophisticated composition." Commentant un concert du groupe en 1979, Robert Palmer avait déclaré dans le New York Times: “The four men have made a startling conceptual breakthrough. Without ignoring the advances made by musicians like Anthony Braxton and the early Art Ensemble of Chicago, they have gone back to swinging and to the tradition of the big‐band saxophone section.” Palmer avait ajouté: “Some of the music looks to the more archaic end of the tradition, to the hocket‐style organization of wind ensembles in African tribal music, and in doing so it sounds brand new.” 

Reconnaissant la contribution de Bluiett dans la création du son d’ensemble du groupe, Kelsey avait précisé:  "The WSQ's early free-blowing style eventually transformed into a sophisticated and largely composed melange of bebop, Dixieland, funk, free, and various world musics, its characteristic style anchored and largely defined b y Bluiett's enormous sound." Très conscient de l’importance de la mélodie, Bluiett avait toujours insisté pour que le groupe se concentre principalement sur les balades et l’improvisation. Il expliquait:  “I think melody is very important. When we went into the loft situation, I told the guys: ‘Man, we need to play some ballads. You all playing outside, you running people away. I don’t want to run people away.’ ”

Parallèlement à sa collaboration avec le World Saxophone Quartet, Bluiett avait également publié d’autres albums comme leader comme Im/Possible To Keep (août 1977), un enregistrement en concert qui comprenait une version de quarante minutes de la pièce ‘’Oasis - The Well’’ (en trio avec le contrebassiste Fred Hopkins et le percusionniste Don Moye) et une version de trente-sept minutes de la pièce Nali Kola/On A Cloud en quartet avec le pianiste Don Pullen. En novembre 1977, Bluiett avait enchaîné avec Resolution, un album enregistré en quintet avec Pullen, Hopkins et les percussionnistes Don Moye et Billy Hart. À peine un mois plus tard, Bluiett avait récidivé avec Orchestra Duo and Septet, qui mettait à profit différentes combinaisons de musiciens comprenant le violoncelliste Abdul Wadud, le trompettiste Oldu Dara, le pianiste Don Pullen, le joueur de balafon Andy Bey, le flûtiste Ladji Camara, le contrebassiste Reggie Workman, le joueur de oud (un instrument à corde d’origine iranienne) Ahmed Abdul-Malik et le batteur Thabo Michael Carvin.

Avec le temps, les albums de Bluiett publiés en dehors de sa collaboration avec le World Saxophone Quartet étaient devenus de plus en plus accessibles. En faisaient foi des parutions comme Dangerously Suite (avril 1981), qui était une sorte de bilan de la musique populaire afro-américaine, et Ebu (février 1984), enregistré avec John Hicks au piano, Hopkins à la contrebasse et Marvin Smith à la batterie. L’album live  Bearer of the Holy Flame (juillet 1983) documentait la collaboration de Bluiett avec un quintet composé de Hicks au piano et de deux percussionnistes. En juillet 1987, Bluiett avait aussi collaboré avec le trompettiste sud-africain Hugh Masekela dans le cadre de l’album Nali Kola qui mettait en vedette un saxophoniste soprano, un guitariste et trois percussionnistes africains

Littéralement passionné par son instrument, Bluiett avait également dirigé plusieurs groupes composés de plusieurs autres saxophonistes baryton. Également clarinettiste, Bluiett avait formé en 1984 le groupe Clarinet Family, un ensemble de huit clarinettistes utilisant des clarinettes de différents formats allant de la clarinette soprano E-flat à la clarinette contrebasse. Le groupe était composé de Don Byron, Buddy Collette, John Purcell, Kidd Jordan, J. D. Parran, Dwight Andrews, Gene Ghee et Bluiett à la clarinette et aux saxophones, de Fred Hopkins à la contrebasse et de Ronnie Burrage à la batterie. Le groupe a enregistré un album en concert intitulé Live in Berlin with the Clarinet Family, en 1984.

DERNIÈRES ANNÉES

Le World Saxophone Quartet avait continué de jouer et d’enregistrer dans les années 1990. Lorsque Julius Hemphill avait quitté le groupe pour former son propre quartet au début de la même décennie, c’est Arthur Blythe qui l’avait remplacé. En 1996, le groupe avait enregistré un premier album pour l’étiquette canadienne Justin Time. Intitulé "Four Now’’, l’album avait marqué un tournant dans l’évolution du groupe, non seulement parce que c’était le premier auquel participait le saxophoniste John Purcell, mais parce qu’il avait été enregistré avec des percussionnistes africains. Comme compositeur, Bluiett avait également continué d’écrire de nombreuses oeuvres du groupe, dont Feed The People on Metamorphosis (avril 1990) et Blues for a Warrior Spirit on Takin' It 2 the Next Level (juin 1996).

Lorsque le World Saxophone Quartet avait commencé à ralentir dans les années 1990 après la fin de son contrat avec les disques Elektra, Bluiett s’était lancé dans de nouvelles expérimentations comme chef d’orchestre. En collaboration avec la compagnie de disques Mapleshade, Bluiett avait fondé le groupe Explorations, une formation combinant à la fois des nouveaux talents et des vétérans dans un style hétéroclite fusionnant le jazz traditionnel et l’avant-garde. Après avoir publié un album en quintet sous le titre If You Have To Ask You Don't Need To Know en février 1991, Bluiett avait publié deux mois plus tard un nouvel album solo intitulé Walkin' & Talkin', qui avait été suivi en octobre 1992 d’un album en quartet intitulé Sankofa Rear Garde.

Depuis les années 1990, Bluiett avait dirigé un quartet appelé la Bluiett Baritone Nation, composé presque exclusivement de saxophonistes baryton, avec un batteur comme seul soutien rythmique. Mais le projet n’avait pas toujours été bien accueilli par la critique. Comme le soulignait John Corbett du magazine Down Beat, "Here's a sax quartet consisting all of one species, and while the baritone is capable of playing several different roles with its wide range, the results get rather wearisome in the end." Le groupe avait publié un seul album, Liberation for the Baritone Saxophone Nation’’ en 1998, une captation d’un concert présenté au Festival international de jazz de Montréal la même année. Outre Bluiett, l’album mettait à contribution les saxophonistes baryton James Carter, Alex Harding et Patience Higgins, ainsi que le batteur Ronnie Burrage. Commentant la performance du groupe, le critique Ed Enright écrivait: "In Montreal, the Hamiet Bluiett Baritone Saxophone Group was a seismic experience... And they blew--oh, how they blew--with hurricane force." Décrivant le concept du groupe après sa performance, Bluiett avait précisé:

‘’This is my concept, and it’s all about the baritone, really. The music has to change for us to really fit. I’m tired of trying to fit in with trumpet music, tenor music, alto music, soprano music. I'm tired of trying to fit in with trumpet music, tenor music, alto music, soprano music. It takes too much energy to play that way; I have to shut the h orn down. Later! We've got to play what this horn will sound like. So, what I’m doing is redesigning the music to fit the horn {...}. It’s like being in the water. The baritone is not a catfish [or any of those] small fish. It’s more like a dolphin or a whale. And it needs to travel in a whole lot of water. We can’t work in no swimming pools.The other horns will get a chance to join us. They’ve just got to change where they’re coming from and genuflect to us—instead of us to them.”

En mars 1995, Bluiett avait publié un album en sextet intitulé  New Warrior, Old Warrior. Comme son titre l’indiquait, l’album mettait à contribution des musiciens issus de cinq décennies différentes. Le critique K. Leander Williams avait écrit au sujet de l’album:  "The album puts together musicians from ages 20 to 70, and though this makes for satisfying listening in several places, when it doesn't w ork it's because the age ranges also translate into equally broad--and sometimes irreconcilable--stylistic ones.’’ Tout en continuant de transcender les limites de son instrument, Bluiett avait également exprimé le désir d’une plus grande reconnaissance. Il expliquait: "[A]ll the music these days is written for something else. And I'm tired of being subservient to it. I refuse to do it anymore. I refuse to take the disrespect anymore." En juin 1996, Bluiett avait publié  Barbecue Band, un album de blues.

Après être retourné dans sa ville natale de Brooklyn, dans les Illinois, pour se rapprocher de sa famille, enseigner et diriger des groupes de jeunes en 2002, Bluiett s’était de nouveau installé à New York dix ans plus tard. Décrivant son travail de professeur, Bluiett avait commenté: “My role is to get them straight to the core of what music is about. Knowing how to play the blues has to be there. And learning how to improvise—to move beyond the notes on the page—is essential, too.”

À la fin de sa carrière, Bluiett avait participé à différentes performances, notamment dans le cadre du  New Haven Jazz Festival le 22 août 2009. Au cours de cette période, Bluiett s’était également produit avec des étudiants de la Neighborhood Music School de New Haven, au Connecticut. Le groupe était connu sous le nom de Hamiet Bluiett and the Improvisational Youth Orchestra.

Hamiet Bluiett est mort au St. Louis University Hospital ade St. Louis, au Missouri, le 4 octobre 2018 des suites d’une longue maladie. Il était âgé de soixante-dix-huit ans. Selon sa petite-fille Anaya, la santé de Bluiett s’était grandement détériorée au cours des années précédant sa mort à la suite d’une série d’attaques. Il avait même dû cesser de jouer complètement du saxophone en 2016. Même si le World Saxophone Quartet avait connu de nombreux changements de personnel au cours des années, il avait mis fin à ses activités après que Bluiett soit tombé malade. Les funérailles de Bluiett ont eu le lieu le 12 octobre au Lovejoy Temple Church of God, de Brooklyn, dans les Illinois. Il a été inhumé au Barracks National Cemetery de St. Louis, au Missouri.

Bluiett laissait dans le deuil ses fils, Pierre Butler et Dennis Bland, ses filles Ayana Bluiett et Bridgett Vasquaz, sa soeur Karen Ratliff, ainsi que huit petits-enfants. Bluiett s’est marié à deux reprises. Après la mort de sa première épouse, Bluiett s’était remarié, mais cette union s’était terminée sur un divorce.

Saluant la contribution de Bluiett dans la modernisation du son du saxophone baryton, Garaud MacTaggart écrivait dans le magazine MusicHound Jazz: "Hamiet Bluiett is the most significant baritone sax specialist since Gerry Mulligan and Pepper Adams. His ability to provide a stabilizing rhythm (as he frequently does in the World Saxophone Quartet) or to just flat-out wail in free-form abandon has been appare nt since his involvement with St. Louis' legendary Black Artists Group in the mid-1960s." 

Tout en continuant de se concentrer sur le saxophone baryton, Bluiett avait continué de jouer de la clarinette et de la flûte. Avec son groupe Clarinet Family, il avait même contribué à faire sortir de l’ombre des instruments moins bien connus comme les clarinettes contrebasse et contre-alto ainsi que la flûte basse.

Refusant de confiner son instrument à un rôle essentiellement rythmique, Bluiett avait toujours considéré le baryton comme un instrument soliste à part entière. Il expliquait: “Most people who play the baritone don’t approach it like the awesome instrument that it is. They approach it as if it is something docile, like a servant-type instrument. I don’t approach it that way. I approach it as if it was a lead voice, and not necessarily here to uphold the altos, tenors and sopranos.” 

Refusant de se laisser dominer par les ordinateurs et les nouvelles technologies, Bluiett avait toujours été un ardent partisan d’un son pur et naturel. Il poursuivait: "I'm dealing with being more healthful, more soulful, more human. Not letting the computer and trick-nology and special effects overcome me. I'm downsizing to maximize the creative part. Working on being more spiritual, so that the music has power... power where the note is still going after I stop playing. The note is still going inside of the people when they walk out of the place." Doté d’une technique impeccable, Bluiett affichait une maîtrise remarquable de son instrument dans tous les registres. Le jeu de Bluiett, qui atteignait un total de cinq octaves, lui permettait de jouer dans des registres qu’on croyait jusqu’alors hors de portée du saxophone baryton.

À l’instar de son collaborateur de longue date, le saxophoniste ténor David Murray, Bluiett était un adepte de la respiration circulaire, ce qui lui permettait de prolonger son phrasé sur de très longues périodes sans avoir à reprendre son souffle. Reconnu pour son jeu agressif et énergique, Bluiett incorporait également beaucoup de bebop et de blues dans le cadre de ses performances. Très estimé par ses pairs, Bluiett avait remporté le sondage des critiques du magazine Down Beat comme meilleur saxophoniste baryton à huit reprises, et ce, sur quatre années consécutives de 1990 à 1993 et de 1996 à 1999. Décrivant la virtuosité et la polyvalence de Bluiett, le critique Ron Wynn écrivait dans le magazine Jazz Times en 2001: ‘’There haven’t been many more aggressive, demonstrative baritone saxophonists in recent jazz history than Hamiet Bluiett. He dominates in the bottom register, playing with a fury and command that becomes even more evident when he moves into the upper register, then returns with ease to the baritone’s lowest reaches.’’

Décrivant Bluiett comme un des saxophonistes les plus dominants de son époque, le critique Stanley Crouch avait déclaré: "He had worked on playing the saxophone until he had an enormous tone that did not just sound loud. And the way that Bluiett described Harry Carney's playing — he basically was telling you how he wanted to play: 'I want to be able to play that very subtle, pretty sound, way at the top of the horn, if necessary. I want to play a foghorn-like low note. And if they want a note to sound like a chain beat on a floor, I can do that, too.'"

Tout aussi à l’aise dans les standards du jazz que dans le blues, Hamiet Bluiett a enregistré près de cinquante albums au cours de sa carrière, que ce soit en solo, en duo, dans le cadre de petites formations ou en big band. Bluiett a collaboré avec de grands noms du jazz et de la musique populaire, dont Babatunde Olatunji, Abdullah Ibrahim, le World Saxophone Quartet, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, James Carter, Bobby Watson, Don Braden, Anthony Braxton, Larry Willis, Charles Mingus, Randy Weston, Gil Evans, Lester Bowie, Don Cherry, Eddie Jefferson et Arthur Blythe. Même s’il croyait que les musiciens devaient faire un effort pour se rapprocher du public, Bluiett était aussi d’avis que le public devait faire ses propres efforts pour comprendre la musique qu’on lui proposait. Il précisait:  "Get all the other stuff out of your mind, all of the hang-ups, and just listen. If you like it, cool. If you don't like it, good too. If you hate it, great. If you love it, even better. Now if you leave the concert and don't have no feeling, then something is wrong. That's when we made a mistake."