Flute Flight

Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet (including bass clarinet), but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute. His most popular single was "Hi-Jack", which was a Billboard No. 1 dance hit for three weeks in 1975.

Mann emphasized the groove approach in his music. Mann felt that from his repertoire, the "epitome of a groove record" was Memphis Underground or Push Push, because the "rhythm section locked all in one perception."

== Early life, family and education ==

Herbie Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, to Jewish parents Harry C. Solomon (May 30, 1902 – May 31, 1980), who was of Russian descent, and Ruth Rose Solomon (née Brecher) (July 4, 1905 – November 11, 2004), of Romanian descent who was born in Bukovina, Austria-Hungary but immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 6. Both of his parents were dancers and singers, as well as dance instructors later in life.

Mann started studying the clarinet when he was in grade school. He attended Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. By the time he graduated, he had begun to take saxophone and flute lessons.

== Career ==

His first professional performance was playing the Catskills resorts at age 15. Following high school graduation, he served four years in the U.S. Army and for most of his tour was stationed in Italy with the 98th Army Band. After discharge, Mann worked with accordianist Mat Mathews and then joined Pete Rugolo's band. After Rugolo disbanded, Mann formed a quartet with guitarist Benny Weeks, bassist Keith Hodgson and drummer Lee Rockey and recorded his first album for Bethlehem Records in December of 1954. In the 1950s Mann was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods, Sam Most, Bobby Jaspar and Buddy Collette, occasionally playing bass clarinet, tenor saxophone and solo flute. In 1957, he won the Down Beat jazz magazine poll for best flutist, winning again in 1958, 1959 and 1960.

Mann was an early pioneer of the fusion of jazz and world music. In 1959, following a US State Department-sponsored tour of Africa, he recorded Flautista!, an album of Afro-Cuban jazz. In 1961, Mann toured Brazil, returning to the US to record with Brazilian musicians, including Antonio Carlos Jobim and guitarist Baden Powell. These albums helped popularize bossa nova in the US and Europe. He often worked with Brazilian themes. In the mid-1960s Mann hired a young Chick Corea to play in some of his bands. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Mann played duets at New York City's The Bottom Line and Village Gate clubs, with Sarod virtuoso Vasant Rai.

Following the 1969 hit album Memphis Underground, a number of smooth jazz records influenced by Southern soul, blues rock, reggae, funk and disco elicited criticism from jazz purists but allowed Mann to remain active during a period of declining interest in jazz. The musicians on these recordings are some of the best-known session players in soul and jazz, including singer Cissy Houston, guitarists Duane Allman, Larry Coryell, and Sonny Sharrock, bassists Donald "Duck" Dunn, Chuck Rainey, and Miroslav Vitous, and drummers Al Jackson, Jr. and Bernard Purdie. In this period Mann had a number of pop hits — rare for a jazz musician. According to a 1998 interview Mann had made at least 25 albums that were on the Billboard 200 pop charts, success denied most of his jazz peers."

Mann provided the music for the 1978 National Film Board of Canada animated short Afterlife, by Ishu Patel.

In the early 1970s, he founded his own label, Embryo Records, distributed by Cotillion Records, a division of Atlantic Records. Embryo produced jazz albums, such as Ron Carter's Uptown Conversation (1970); Miroslav Vitous' first solo album, Infinite Search (1969); Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (1971); and Dick Morrissey and Jim Mullen's Up (1976), which featured the Average White Band as a rhythm section; and the 730 Series, with a more rock-oriented style, including Zero Time (1971) by TONTO's Expanding Head Band. He later set up Kokopelli Records after difficulty with established labels. In 1996, Mann collaborated with Stereolab on the song "One Note Samba/Surfboard" for the AIDS-Benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization. Mann also played flutes on the Bee Gees' album Spirits Having Flown.

His last appearance was on May 3, 2003, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

In a review of Mann's Beyond Brooklyn (2004), his final recording (co-led with Phil Woods), critic George Kanzler proposed that Mann's status as an innovator had been overlooked:

...Mann's career, in both its questing nature and embrace of various musical styles, parallels that of Miles Davis. Mann championed Brazilian music even before Stan Getz. When Miles was fusing jazz with rock, Mann was fusing it with Memphis soul and Southern rock. He also was an early exponent of world music. But while Miles was usually hailed as a visionary, Mann was dismissed as just a popularizer selling out. It was a bum rap.

== Personal life and death ==

Mann was married to Susan Janeal Arison. His four children are: Paul Mann, Claudia Mann, Laura Mann-Lepik and Geoffrey Mann. Geoff is a multi-instrumentalist who plays drums for Los Angeles-based metal/afrobeat group Here Lies Man.

Mann died from prostate cancer on July 1, 2003, at his home in Pecos, New Mexico.

== Discography ==

== References ==

=== Notes ===

=== Sources ===

Ginell, Cary, "The Evolution of Mann: Herbie Mann and the Flute in Jazz" - Hal Leonard Books, 2013, ISBN 9781458419811

== External links ==

Herbie Mann Interview allaboutjazz.com

National Public Radio's Jazz Profiles: Herbie Mann

Herbie Mann Official Website (final July 2008 snapshot on archive.org)

Source: Wikipedia ↗

Bobby Jaspar (20 February 1926 – 28 February 1963) was a Belgian cool jazz and hard bop saxophonist, flautist and composer.

== Early life ==

Born in Liège, Belgium, Jaspar learned to play piano and clarinet at a young age. Later, he took up the tenor saxophone and flute.

== Career ==

With the "Bob Shots" band, he took his first steps in the jazz world. In 1950, Jaspar moved to Paris, playing and recording with the best musicians of the era. Here he met singer Blossom Dearie; the two were married in 1954, but divorced in 1957.

In 1956, Jaspar was persuaded to try his luck in the United States, where his reputation in jazz circles had preceded him. He played and recorded with the quintet of J. J. Johnson, with Kenny Burrell, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Donald Byrd and many others.

In 1961/1962, Jaspar returned to Europe for a year for a series of concerts and a number of recordings, and formed a successful quintet with Belgian guitarist René Thomas. In some sessions, this was expanded to a powerful sextet with American trumpeter Chet Baker. One of those sessions, recorded in 1962, was released on record as Chet Is Back!.

== Death ==

Bobby Jaspar died from a heart attack in New York City, on 28 February 1963 at age 37.

== Discography ==

=== As leader/co-leader ===

New Sound from Belgium, Vol. 4 (Disques Vogue, 1953 [1954])

Bobby Jaspar/Henri Renaud (BMG France, 1953–54 [2000])

Revisited (Inner City, 1953–54 [1980])

New Jazz, Vol. 1 (Disques Vogue/Swing, 1954)

New Jazz, Vol. 2 (Disques Vogue/Swing, 1954 [1955])

Bobby Jaspar and His Modern Jazz (BMG France, 1954–55 [1998])

Bobby Jaspar and His All Stars (EmArcy, 1955 [1956]) – aka Modern jazz au club Saint Germain (Barclay, 1956) and Memory of Dick (EmArcy, 1988)

Rencontre a Paris (Disques Vogue/Swing, 1955) – with Don Rendell

Bobby Jaspar Quintet (Columbia, 1956 [1957])

Clarinescapade (Fresh Sound, 1956 [2007])

Joue pour Savoy (Savoy, 1956) – released in the US under Mort Herbert's name as Night People (Savoy, 1956)

Flute Flight (Prestige, 1957) – with Herbie Mann

Flute Soufflé (Prestige, 1957) – with Herbie Mann

Interplay for 2 Trumpets and 2 Tenors (Prestige, 1957) – with Idrees Sulieman, Webster Young, John Coltrane et al.

Tenor and Flute (Riverside, 1957) – aka Bobby Jaspar with George Wallington and Idrees Sulieman (Riverside/OJC, 1992)

Bobby Jaspar (Barclay, 1958 [1959]) – aka Phenil Isopropil Amine (EmArcy, 1988) and Jeux de quartes (Gitanes Jazz, 2002)

The Soul of Jazz (World Wide, 1958) – with Bill Harris, Joe Wilder, Pepper Adams and Eddie Costa

The Spirit of Charlie Parker (World Wide, 1958) – with Frank Wess and Seldon Powell

Bobby Jaspar with Friends … (Fresh Sound, 1958; 1960; 1962 [1991]) – with Mundell Lowe and René Thomas

Thomas-Jaspar Quintet (RCA, 1961 [1962]) – with René Thomas

Bobby Jaspar Quartet at Ronnie Scott's (Mole Jazz, 1962 [1986])

With Chet Baker

Chet Baker and His Quintet with Bobby Jaspar (Barclay, 1956)

Chet Is Back! (RCA, 1962)

With Donald Byrd

Byrd in Paris (Brunswick, 1958)

Parisian Thoroughfare (Brunswick, 1958)

Cannes '58 (Sam, 1958 [2022])

Paris '58 (Sam, 1958 [2023])

With Chris Connor

Chris Craft (Atlantic, 1958)

Sings Ballads of the Sad Cafe (Atlantic, 1959)

With Blossom Dearie

Blossom Dearie Plays April in Paris (Barclay, 1955–56 [1987])

My Gentleman Friend (Verve, 1959 [1960])

With J. J. Johnson

Jay and Kai (Columbia, 1955–57 [1957])

J Is for Jazz (Columbia, 1956)

J. J. Johnson Quintet Featuring Bobby Jaspar: Complete Recordings (Fresh Sound, 1956–57 [2009])

Dial J. J. 5 (Columbia, 1957)

Really Livin' (Columbia, 1959)

With others

Toshiko Akiyoshi, United Notions (MetroJazz, 1958)

Kenny Burrell, Weaver of Dreams (Columbia, 1960–61 [1961])

Tal Farlow, The Guitar Artistry of Tal Farlow (Verve, 1959)

Barry Galbraith, Guitar and the Wind (Decca, 1958)

Michel Hausser, Vibes + Flute (Columbia, 1960)

André Hodeir, American Jazzmen Play André Hodeir (Savoy, 1957)

Milt Jackson, Bags & Flutes (Atlantic, 1957)

Hank Jones, Hank Jones Trio Plus the Flute of Bobby Jaspar (Savoy, 1956)

Wynton Kelly, Kelly Blue (Riverside, 1959)

John Lewis, A Milanese Story: Original Soundtrack (Atlantic, 1962)

Helen Merrill, The Nearness of You (EmArcy, 1957–58 [1958])

The Nutty Squirrels, The Nutty Squirrels (Hanover, 1959)

John Rae, Opus de Jazz, Vol. 2 (Savoy, 1960)

Jimmy Raney, Visits Paris (Dawn, 1954 [1958])

Henri Renaud, Henri Renaud quintet joue Gigi Grice avec Bobby Jaspar (Disques Vogue, 1953 [1955])

== References ==

== External links ==

Bobby Jaspar Discography

Bobby Jaspar at Find a Grave

Page on jazzinbelgium.com

Source: Wikipedia ↗