[Dixielandjazz] saxophonist James Moody, obit, LA Times

[Norman Vickers]

To: Musicians and Jazzfans, DJML

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

Here's the James Moody obit from LA Times.  It was previously announced that
he had cancer of the pancreas and treatment options were few.  

fnv

 

latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-james-moody-20101210,0,5483254.story


latimes.com


James Moody dies at 85; jazz saxophonist and flutist


Moody's improvised solo on 'I'm in the Mood for Love' became a jazz classic.
A version with lyrics added became a cross-genre hit and has been recorded
by Van Morrison, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse and others.


By Don Heckman, Special to The Times

December 10, 2010

	
	

James Moody, a jazz saxophonist and flutist <http://www.jamesmoody.com/>
whose improvised solo on a recording of the song "I'm in the Mood for Love"
became a jazz classic, died Thursday in San Diego, where he had lived in
recent years. He was 85 and had pancreatic cancer.

His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the San Diego Hospice.

The recording, made in Stockholm in 1949, became a rare jazz hit as an
instrumental. When singer King Pleasure recorded Eddie Jefferson's lyrics
for Moody's improvisation in 1954, it became a cross-genre hit, subsequently
recorded by singers ranging from Van Morrison, George Benson and Aretha
Franklin to Tito Puente and Amy Winehouse. Moody, himself, frequently sang
the version with lyrics in his live performances.

  _____  

FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier online version of this article said singer King Pleasure wrote
and recorded lyrics for James Moody's improvisation of "I'm in the Mood for
Love" and that the recording was made in 1952. Eddie Jefferson wrote the
lyrics and Pleasure recorded them in 1954. 

  _____  



The original improvisation was recorded on alto saxophone, an instrument
Moody had not been playing at the time.

"Up to this point, I had been playing strictly tenor saxophone," he told
Times jazz writer Leonard Feather in 1988. "At one session, I noticed that
Lars Gullin, the Swedish saxophonist, had an alto sax lying around. I said,
'Do you mind if I try it out?' "

Moody did not initially expect to record with the alto, however, and the
song came to life only as a spontaneous, last-minute addition to the
session.

"The producer decided we needed an extra tune," he recalled. "But [he]
didn't have any music prepared. I suggested making 'I'm in the Mood for
Love,' and we went ahead and did it, in one take, with me playing this
beat-up alto saxophone. Well, you know what happened."

Universally called by his last name by friends and fans alike, Moody was
warm and amiable, invariably greeting acquaintances with a hug and a kiss on
the cheek. The same qualities were present in his instrumental playing, as
well, which matured in sync with the arrival of bebop in the mid-'40s.
Quickly grasping the complexities of the new style, with its extended
harmonies and shifting rhythms, Moody added an appealing melodic flow to his
improvised solos, expressed in instrumental timbres approaching the
qualities of the human voice.

"Over the years, Moody has become so free - not in a random fashion, but a
scientific freedom - that he can do anything he wants with the saxophone,"
Moody's contemporary, saxophonist Jimmy Heath, told Down Beat magazine's Ted
Panken. "He has true knowledge. He is in complete control."

Feather, reviewing a Moody performance for The Times in 1972, agreed. "Moody
brings to his tenor saxophone an immense sound," he wrote. "Relying on the
natural tone quality....he offers hard-hitting, stimulating jazz, rooted in
the idiom fathered by [ Charlie] Parker and [ Dizzy] Gillespie."

Like his lifelong friend and mentor, trumpeter Gillespie, Moody was able to
find a convincing balance between entertainment and art - a balance that
eluded many of his contemporaries. In any given set, he would frequently
juxtapose long, inventive improvisations against his witty vocal renderings
of  <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php%3FstoryId=4539516>
"Moody's Mood For Love," then switch to a humorous paraphrase of "Pennies
>From Heaven" titled "Benny's From Heaven," topped off with another briskly
exploratory solo.

Moody's easygoing manner, wry humor and musical versatility served him well
in a career in which he moved deftly from alto and tenor saxophones to
clarinet and flute. His rich resume included - in addition to his continuing
jazz performances with small groups and big bands - stints in which he
backed the likes of Elvis Presley, Redd Foxx, Liberace and the Osmonds.

In 2005, he added an unusual sidebar to his busy career when he made a cameo
appearance in the Clint Eastwood-directed film, "Midnight in the Garden of
Good and Evil," as a porter in a law office who walks an imaginary dog.
Moody frequently joked about the fact that he only had one line to say:
"Yessir. Patrick do like his morning walk."

The affection with which Moody was viewed by musicians, celebrities and fans
was on full display in several musical parties celebrating his milestone
birthdays. His 75th anniversary, which took place at New York City's Blue
Note jazz club, was released as a live recording titled "Moody's Birthday."

"I think you're looking at a man who knows love and knows how to accept it
and give it without hiding, without treating it as if it was some sort of
weakness," Bill Cosby, who hosted Moody's 80th birthday celebration concert
at Walt Disney Concert Hall, said in an interview with the Copley News
Service. Moody "has taught me integrity, how to express love for your fellow
human beings, and how to combine and contain manhood and maturity."

James Moody was born March 26, 1925, in Savannah, Ga., and was raised in
Reading, Pa., and Newark, N.J. His father was a trumpeter, his mother a
dedicated jazz fan.

"My mother loved jazz," he told Calvin Wilson in the St. Louis Post
Dispatch. "She had records by Chick Webb, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and
Jimmy Lunceford, and I heard those records playing at home. I'm thankful for
that, because she could've been a doo-wop person, and that would have been a
drag."

Moody was born with a hearing defect in his left ear. Initially undiagnosed,
it made it difficult for him to hear questions in class. Because of his poor
grades, he was sent to a school for retarded children. The malady was
properly treated when he entered high school in Newark, where his grades
improved and he began to play the alto saxophone, a gift from an uncle.

After serving in the Army Air Forces from 1943 to '46, Moody joined
Gillespie's band and made his own first recording, "James Moody and His
Bebop Men." He moved to Europe in the late '40s, remaining there until 1951,
performing with Miles Davis and others, and recording "I'm in the Mood for
Love."

Settling in New York City in the early '50s, he led various ensembles -
including a septet that played jazz-influenced rhythm & blues - made a
series of recordings for Argo, and worked with Gillespie, an association
that would continue intermittently until Gillespie's death in 1993. A brief
period working with Las Vegas show bands in the '70s was followed by a
return to jazz and the leadership of his numerous ensembles. In the late
'80s, he was a founding member of Dizzy Gillespie's United Nation Orchestra.

Moody, a multiple Grammy nominee, was chosen an NEA Jazz Master in 1998.

Survivors include his wife of 21 years, Linda; a brother, Lou Watters; a
daughter, Michelle Bagdanove; sons Patrick, Regan and Danny McGowan; four
grandchildren and one great grandson.

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