Jackie McLean, jazz saxophonist, dies

[Starbucks Anarchist]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-omccleanapr02,0,3205889.story?coll=sfla-news-nationworld

HARTFORD, Conn.: Jazz saxophonist Jackie McLean, a performer and teacher who played with legendary musicians including Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, died Friday. He was 73.

Mr. McLean, a contemporary of some of the 20th century's most famed jazz musicians, died at his Hartford home after a long illness, family members told the Hartford Courant.

(snip)

Mr. McLean went on to play with his friend Rollins under the tutelage of pianist Bud Powell, and was 19 when he first recorded with Miles Davis.

He drew wide attention with his 1959 debut on Blue Note Records, "Jackie's Bag," one of dozens of albums he recorded in the hard-bop and free jazz styles.



RIP, Jackie McLean

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. THEY'RE ALL DYING!!

Fuck it, man.

:grr:

:cry::cry:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

2. No kidding.

I really hope to see Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins in concert before they leave us.

[Metta]

3. A great player and a real gent.

I saw him at the Pitt jazz forum some years back. I could have reached out and touched him. He talked about getting started with Bird, etc. I'm glad he gave back to others through his school.

He's in heaven jamming with Bird and Diz.

[Shakespeare]

4. WKCR in NYC is doing a tribute broadcast right now.

Good stuff, and you can listen over the 'net.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/wkcr/

edit: and they're spinning VINYL; just heard that lovely, unmistakable crackle between cuts.

[Metta]

5. They're playing 40 uninterrupted hours.

Thanks for the link. :thumbsup:

[Shakespeare]

7. You're welcome. I had to go into the office and work today....

...so here I sit, all by myself in the building, jamming to Jackie and catching up on work. Things could be worse. :-)

[Arkham House]

6. Shit...

...what a downer. I used to hear him a lot when I was younger, and he was one of the true giants. The Legendary Epoch of jazz is disappearing before our eyes...:-(...

[misanthrope]

13. No joke...

...and we're left with performers like 50 Cent and Britney Spears in their wake.

But, you know, Bird's been dead for half a century and his music and legend lives on. 'Trane's been dead for 40 years and he still survives in memory and impact. Maybe all isn't lost after all...

[Arkham House]

14. No, the music lives on...

...but I wonder if jazz isn't a museum piece, like "classical" music seems to be...I listen to a lot of contemporary jazz via my cable TV--there's a jazz channel...and the new stuff sounds just like what they were doing in the Legendary Era, 40 years ago...but they did it first, and better. Ken Burns' documentary was terrific--but I felt, watching it, as if the music was already being stuffed and put in a mueum exhibit. Is there anything really new being done these days? I'd like to think the music has a future as well as a glorious past... And one more thing--it's remarkable that jazz paralleled classical's evolution--but did it in *one lifetime*. Pops was Bach, if you will...Ellington was Mozart...Bird was Beethoven...Ornette Coleman was Schonberg, and Coltrane was Stravinsky...and Miles was who, Wagner?...but Pops actually outlived Coltrane--and I saw them both, though I was only 11 when I saw Trane at a festival...but it seems weird, in retrospect...

[misanthrope]

16. There are still new jazz fans...

...being created every year, just as with the symphony. Granted, it's not the abundantly popular medium it once was, but considering what popular music is really like and all about, that may not be a bad thing.

I live in a small town where we have one club that has live jazz. I can go in there a couple of times a week and see kids who otherwise listen to popular forms of music sitting down and really getting into jazz, provided the musicianship is of a certain caliber. You assemble some real players who can swing hard with a great tempo and not many folks, musicians especially, can fail to be captured by it. Much moreso than with a string quartet playing Haydn.

Other towns, like New York and Seattle have jazz clubs that are still bringing folks in to enjoy the music on a regular basis.

And not all new players sound exactly like their predecessors. I don't think Matthew Shipp or The Bad Plus sound exactly like Keith Jarrett or the Bill Evans Trio.

Jazz is a complex and nuanced form in which every performance of the same piece by the same combo sounds different to its fans than that which went before. Some cat playing "Impressions" or "Well You Needn't" doesn't sound like the guys who did it forty years ago or even last week.

Not to mention the various genres of jazz that already exist provide a lot of avenues of exploration. How do you get more avant-garde than Cecil Taylor or Ornette Coleman?

[Arkham House]

18. Thanks...:-)...

...your answer reassures me...guess I'm just not listening in the right places. Well--that's a fault easily corrected...and as you say--every performance, every set, is different...the music is being created a solo, a chorus, at a time...thank God...

[djeseru]

8. NO! *sob*

:cry:

I didn't want to see this one. *sniff* He's the one that helped me understand Bird and Art Blakey.

Thank you Jackie...

[MiniMandaRuth]

9. .....

:cry:

Why god, why?

Now I gotta go play a sad song on my horn.

[johnfunk]

10. I met Jackie at the University of Hartford

Amazing, AMAZING man and musician.

He's going to be missed -- but boy, is he going to be remembered for and through superb proteges he's nurtured over four decades as a teacher.

[Sisaruus]

11. Hartford Courant front page report

The Hartford Courant ran an above-the-fold front page story - Blues for Jackie - on Saturday.

http://www.courant.com/hc-mcleanobit0401.artapr01,0,1097955.story

He will be missed here.

[misanthrope]

12. Dammit!...

...Well, that sucks.

I just can't believe Max and Brubeck are still kicking.

[jpgray]

15. Speaking of that, didn't Elton Dean die a few days ago?

That sucks. :(

[Starbucks Anarchist]

17. Here's a pic:

[klook]

19. Tears for Jackie

I just heard today that he'd died. (I'm obviously working too much!) "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross played her interview with him in 2001, when he was named an NEA Jazz Master. What a wonderful guy, and it was so interesting to hear him talk about his early days with Miles, Bird, Bud, and Art Blakey, and a little bit of what he knew about the craft and art of music.

I had the pleasure of seeing him perform only twice, although I've listened to many of his recordings. Once was at that fabulous subterranean paradise the Village Vanguard in New York. He was there with a band composed mostly of his students from the University of Hartford's Julius Hartt School of Music (later renamed to the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz). He was nervous and fidgety, fiddling around with a DAT recorder before they played, even starting tunes over a couple of times when he thought they'd gotten off on the wrong foot. But the band was smokin'! And his playing was searingly intense and absolutely sure. Just incredible to see him live, up that close.

The other time I saw him play was at the Atlanta Jazz Festival one year in the late '80s, when they Charlie Parker tribute day. On the bill that day at Piedmont Park were Charles MacPherson and Arthur Blythe, as I recall, with Jackie Mac as the closer. This was on Labor Day weekend, a time when there are often thunderstorms in Atlanta, and this occasion was no exception. As dusk descended, storm clouds gathered, the stage lights came on, and Jackie McLean's alto saxophone soared and swooped in front of a big band. It was incredibly exciting, even without the threat of impending rain. Between tunes, when the applause died down, we heard distant thunder. Some people left the park early, but I wasn't going to miss a moment of this. If I got struck by lightning, I would die a happy man!

While McLean played some incredibly fast bebop tune, his shoulders rising and falling as he played one blistering run after another and poured forth an incredible array of creative ideas, heat lightning pulsed in the sky above and behind the stage. It was literally as though the entire landscape was crackling with electricity, with Jackie McLean and his white-hot saxophone as the dynamo driving it all. Wow, it was a moment I will never forget. For this and so much more, thanks, Jackie.