[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Herbie Mann, Jazz Musician, Is Dead at 73

[Stan Brager]

The jazz band in the sky is getting larger.

Stan
Stan Brager
----- Original Message ----- >
> Herbie Mann, Jazz Musician, Is Dead at 73
>
> July 2, 2003
>  By PETER KEEPNEWS
>
> Herbie Mann, who helped to popularize the flute as a jazz
> instrument and to introduce the music of other cultures
> into the mainstream of American jazz, died late Monday at
> his cabin in Pecos, N.M., near Santa Fe, where he lived. He
> was 73. .
>
> The cause was prostate cancer, his family announced.
>
> Mr.
> Mann's first instrument was clarinet, and when he began his
> career he was primarily a tenor saxophonist. But by the
> late 1950's he was concentrating on flute, a choice almost
> unheard of for a jazz musician at the time.
>
> Within a decade, the flute had become far more common in
> jazz, although then as now it was usually a second or third
> instrument for saxophonists. Much of the credit for its
> higher profile belonged to Mr. Mann, who by then had
> achieved a degree of popularity extending well beyond the
> confines of the jazz world, largely because of his
> willingness to look beyond that world for inspiration.
>
> In 1962, he became one of the first American jazz artists
> to embrace Brazilian music and work with Brazilian
> musicians, recording an album in Brazil with Antonio Carlos
> Jobim, Sergio Mendes and others. He later incorporated
> elements of African, Japanese and Middle Eastern music into
> his repertory.
>
> American blues and soul were also part of the mix. His live
> recording of "Comin' Home Baby," an up-tempo blues with an
> infectious dance beat, was a hit in 1962. Later in the
> decade he expanded his audience with albums like "Memphis
> Underground," on which his working group was supplemented
> by Southern session musicians and the repertory had a
> contemporary rhythm-and-blues flavor.
>
> The critics, for the most part, were not impressed. "To
> most jazz critics I was basically Kenny G," he said in an
> interview with United Press International last year. "I was
> too successful. I made too much money. Alternate fringe
> audiences liked me too much, so obviously that can't be
> important."
>
> In the 1970's Mr. Mann put even more distance between
> himself and the jazz purists with albums whose titles -
> <object.title class="Movie" idsrc="nyt_ttl"
> value="155250">"Reggae,"</object.title> "Discothèque,"
> "London Underground" - were often self-explanatory. He had
> two singles in Billboard magazine's Top 40, <object.title
> class="Movie" idsrc="nyt_ttl"
> value="138248;63250">"Hijack"</object.title> in 1975 and
> <object.title class="Movie" idsrc="nyt_ttl"
> value="66900">"Superman"</object.title> in 1979.
>
> Mr. Mann had recently been devoting more time to playing
> the Brazilian jazz and bebop that formed the core of his
> repertory early in his career. But while he acknowledged
> that he had sometimes been guilty of "accommodating the
> market," he never entirely disavowed his more commercial
> work. "I made disco records," he said. "Some of them I
> liked, some of them I hated."
>
> Born Herbert Jay Solomon on April 16, 1930, in Brooklyn,
> Mr. Mann had his first clarinet lesson at 9, soon mastered
> saxophone and flute, and began performing while stationed
> in Italy with the United States Army in the early 50's.
> After being discharged in 1953, he worked with the Dutch
> jazz accordionist Matt Mathews and the arranger Pete Rugolo
> before going out on his own, first as a freelance soloist
> and then, in 1959, as the leader of his own group, the
> Afro-Jazz Sextet.
>
> Mr. Mann toured extensively in the 60's, traveling to
> Africa under the auspices of the State Department as well
> as to Japan, Europe and Latin America.
>
> After recording for Savoy, Verve and other labels, he began
> a long association with Atlantic Records in 1960, and a
> decade later he undertook a second career as a record
> producer and executive for the short-lived Atlantic
> subsidiary Embryo. In the early 1980's, after leaving
> Atlantic, he started his own label, Herbie Mann Music. He
> later briefly ran another label, Kokopelli.
>
> Mr. Mann was an astute talent scout. Over the years he
> hired a number of young musicians who later became stars,
> among them the pianist Chick Corea and the vibraphonist Roy
> Ayers.
>
> He is survived by his wife, Susan Janeal Arison; a son,
> Geoffrey, who played drums in his band, Sona Terra; another
> son, Paul; two daughters, Claudia Mann-Basler and Laura
> Mann; his mother, Ruth Solomon; and his sister, Judy
> Bernstein.
>
> After four decades of multicultural exploration, Mr. Mann
> finally got around to the music of his own people in 2000
> when he recorded "Eastern European Roots," an album of
> traditional songs and new compositions evoking his Jewish
> heritage.
>
> "I wanted this to be my musical statement above all the
> rest," he said last year. "I love `Memphis Underground.' I
> loved the Brazilian music I played. But this is finally me.
> For the first time I think it's really me."
>
>
> Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
>