Serge Chaloff's music and playing deserves to be mentioned more, like so many forgoten jazz names. Hopefully more people might here it and lake it. Here are couple of facts, together with few links.
'The best baritone saxophonist most listeners have never heard of, whose rather incredible talents combine Harry Carney's tone and Cecil Payne's vocabulary.
Chaloff was born in Boston on November 24, 1923. His father was a pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra while his mother, Margaret, taught music at the Boston Conservatory of Music, over time educating an illustrious series of pianists including Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, and Richard Twardzik. Chaloff himself studied piano and clarinet before teaching himself the baritone sax in emulation of Jack Washington and Harry Carney. Charlie Parker was also a monumental influence.
Chaloff nevertheless remains best known for his stint with Woody Herman's Second Herd, which he joined in late 1946. Alongside tenors Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Stewart he vaulted to jazz immortality the following year via the Jimmy Giuffre composition "Four Brothers," a landmark recording extending each of the saxophonists a solo turn.
In 1954, he signed to George Wein's Boston-based Storyville to cut The Fable of Mabel, recorded with local luminaries including alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano and trumpeter Herb Pomeroy, and a year later the label also issued his collaboration with altoist Boots Mussulli. After completing work on Boston Blow-Up!, a loose but impassioned Stan Kenton-produced date for Capitol, Chaloff relocated to Los Angeles, where in 1956 he assembled pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Philly Joe Jones to record his masterpiece Blue Serge, a gripping, evocative set that ranks among the finest jazz recordings of its era. But by the time of its release Chaloff was confined to a wheelchair, partially paralyzed as the result of a spinal tumor. The cancer spread, and he died July 16, 1957, at the age of just 33.'
https://youtu.be/Yxyx9U-8R_I
https://youtu.be/GSnSSeMHUI4
https://youtu.be/FrgsundqISs
https://youtu.be/eZge-q63EQs
'The best baritone saxophonist most listeners have never heard of, whose rather incredible talents combine Harry Carney's tone and Cecil Payne's vocabulary.
Chaloff was born in Boston on November 24, 1923. His father was a pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra while his mother, Margaret, taught music at the Boston Conservatory of Music, over time educating an illustrious series of pianists including Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, and Richard Twardzik. Chaloff himself studied piano and clarinet before teaching himself the baritone sax in emulation of Jack Washington and Harry Carney. Charlie Parker was also a monumental influence.
Chaloff nevertheless remains best known for his stint with Woody Herman's Second Herd, which he joined in late 1946. Alongside tenors Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Stewart he vaulted to jazz immortality the following year via the Jimmy Giuffre composition "Four Brothers," a landmark recording extending each of the saxophonists a solo turn.
In 1954, he signed to George Wein's Boston-based Storyville to cut The Fable of Mabel, recorded with local luminaries including alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano and trumpeter Herb Pomeroy, and a year later the label also issued his collaboration with altoist Boots Mussulli. After completing work on Boston Blow-Up!, a loose but impassioned Stan Kenton-produced date for Capitol, Chaloff relocated to Los Angeles, where in 1956 he assembled pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Leroy Vinnegar, and drummer Philly Joe Jones to record his masterpiece Blue Serge, a gripping, evocative set that ranks among the finest jazz recordings of its era. But by the time of its release Chaloff was confined to a wheelchair, partially paralyzed as the result of a spinal tumor. The cancer spread, and he died July 16, 1957, at the age of just 33.'
https://youtu.be/Yxyx9U-8R_I
https://youtu.be/GSnSSeMHUI4
https://youtu.be/FrgsundqISs
https://youtu.be/eZge-q63EQs