Bobby Few (October 21, 1935 – January 6, 2021) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
pianist and vocalist.
Early life
Few was born in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, and grew up in the
Fairfax neighborhood of the city's East Side. Upon his mother's encouragement, he studied classical piano but later discovered jazz upon listening to his father's
Jazz at the Philharmonic
Jazz at the Philharmonic, or JATP (1944–1983), was the title of a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz.
Over the years, "Jazz at the Philharmonic" featured many of the era's preeminent musicians, including Loui ...
records. His father became his first booking agent and soon Few was gigging around the greater Cleveland area with other local musicians including
Bill Hardman
William Franklin Hardman Jr. (April 6, 1933 – December 6, 1990) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist who chiefly played hard bop. He was married to Roseline and they had a daughter Nadege.
Career
Hardman was born and grew ...
,
Bob Cunningham, Cevera Jefferies and
Frank Wright. He was exposed to
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist.
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swi ...
and
Benny Bailey
Ernest Harold "Benny" Bailey (August 13, 1925 – April 14, 2005) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Biography
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Bailey briefly studied flute and piano before turning to trumpet. He attended the Cleveland Conserva ...
as a youth and knew
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.
After early experience playing R&B and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Howev ...
, with whom he played in high school. As a young man, Few also gigged with local tenor legend Tony "Big T" Lovano –
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarin ...
's father.
Career
In the late 1950s Few relocated to New York, where he led a trio from 1958 to 1964; there, he met and began working with many world-class musicians, including singer
Brook Benton
Benjamin Franklin Peay (September 19, 1931 – April 9, 1988), better known as Brook Benton, was an American singer and songwriter who was popular with rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and pop music audiences during the late 1950s and early 1960 ...
, and saxophonists
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935Kernfeld, Barry.Kirk, Roland" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. ''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Retrieved February 1, 2009-. "The year ...
,
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...
,
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent l ...
and Ayler. Few played on several of Ayler's albums and also recorded with
Alan Silva
Alan Silva (born Alan Lee da Silva; January 22, 1939 in Bermuda) is an American free jazz double bassist and keyboard player.
Biography
Silva was born a British subject to an Azorean/Portuguese mother, Irene da Silva, and a black Bermudian fat ...
,
Noah Howard
Noah Howard (April 6, 1943 – September 3, 2010) was an American free jazz alto saxophonist.
Biography
Born in New Orleans, Howard played music from childhood in his church. He first learned trumpet and later switched to alto, tenor and sopran ...
,
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
,
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II (October 31, 1930 – August 31, 1970) was an American tenor saxophone player. His tenor playing was characterised by a strong, tough sound and blues/gospel phrasing. He is remembered for his association with bassi ...
, and . In 1969 he moved to France and rapidly integrated the expatriate jazz community, working frequently with
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz.
Biography Early life
Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...
,
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (September 21, 1936 – December 7, 2017) was an American musician, and was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.
Biography
Murray was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he was raised by an ...
,
Steve Lacy and Rasul Siddik. From 2001, he toured internationally with American saxophonist
Avram Fefer, with whom he recorded four critically acclaimed CDs.
Few played extensively around Europe and made
[Whitehead, Kevin (April 4, 2002)]
"Avram Fefer & Bobby Few"
''Chicago Reader''. regular trips back to the United States. Recently, he played with saxophonist
Charles Gayle
Charles Gayle (born February 28, 1939) is an American free jazz musician. Initially known as a saxophonist who came to prominence in the 1990s after decades of obscurity, Gayle also performs as pianist, bass clarinetist, bassist, and percussioni ...
and led his own trio in Paris. He was working on a
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II (October 31, 1930 – August 31, 1970) was an American tenor saxophone player. His tenor playing was characterised by a strong, tough sound and blues/gospel phrasing. He is remembered for his association with bassi ...
tribute project called ''Few's Blues'' that featured tenor player
Tony Lakatos
Antal "Tony" Lakatos (born 13 November 1958 in Budapest) is a Hungarian Jazz saxophonist (tenor, soprano saxophone), who currently lives in Frankfurt (Germany).
Lakatos attended the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest from 1975 to 1980, then ...
, bassist
Reggie Johnson and drummer
Doug Sides
Douglas Joseph Sides (born October 10, 1942, Los Angeles) is an American jazz drummer and composer.
Doug started playing the piano when he was four years old. Later he became interested in playing timpani and drums in general. Sides attended U ...
. Few was interviewed in a 2008 documentary, later released on DVD, on drummer
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (September 21, 1936 – December 7, 2017) was an American musician, and was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.
Biography
Murray was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he was raised by an ...
– "Sunny's Time Now".
Bobby Few died in January 2021, aged 85.
Playing style
Some of Few's various playing styles were described by
Kevin Whitehead
Kevin Francis Whitehead (born April 27, 1952 in New York City) is an American jazz critic and author.
Biography
Whitehead studied at Oswego State University in New York, then earned a Masters in American Literature and Culture at Syracuse Unive ...
: "He can play delicate single-note melodies, roll out lush romantic chords, rap out explicitly Monkish close-interval clanks – though he's a busier pianist than
Monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
– or roil around in classic free style, using a sustain pedal to shape the density of his sound".
Discography
As leader or co-leader
As sideman
Years in brackets refer to dates of recording.
With
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.
After early experience playing R&B and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Howev ...
*''
Music is the Healing Force of the Universe'' (
Impulse!
Impulse! Records (occasionally styled as "¡mpulse! Records" and "¡!") is an American jazz record company and label established by Creed Taylor in 1960. John Coltrane was among Impulse!'s earliest signings. Thanks to consistent sales and positiv ...
, 1969)
*''
The Last Album'' (Impulse!, 1969)
With
Jacques Coursil
Jacques Coursil (March 31, 1938 – June 26, 2020) was a composer, jazz trumpeter, scholar, and professor of literature, linguistics, and philosophy.
Early life
Coursil was born in Paris, France, of Martinican parents. At age nine, he began studyi ...
*''
Trails of Tears'' (Sunnyside, 2010)
With
Hans Dulfer
Hans Dulfer (born 28 May 1940) is a Dutch jazz musician who plays tenor saxophone.
Life and music
Hans Dulfer was born on 28 May 1940 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He began at age 17 and has been referred to as "Big boy" because of his album of ...
*''El Saxofón'' (Catfish, 1970)
With Mike Ellis
*''What Else is New?'' (Alfa, 1985)
With
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II (October 31, 1930 – August 31, 1970) was an American tenor saxophone player. His tenor playing was characterised by a strong, tough sound and blues/gospel phrasing. He is remembered for his association with bassi ...
*''
The In Between'' (
Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...
, 1968)
With Zusaan Kali Fasteau
*''Sensual Hearing'' (Flying Note, 1994–95)
*''Camaraderie'' (Flying Note, 1997)
*''Making Waves'' (Flying Note, 2004)
With
Avram Fefer
*''Few and Far Between'' (Boxholder 2002) w/ Wilber Morris
*''Kindred Spirits'' (Boxholder, 2005)
*''Heavenly Places'' (Boxholder, 2005)
*''Sanctuary'' (CIMP, 2006) w/ Newman Taylor Baker, Hill Greene
With Ricky Ford
*''Songs for My Mother'' (Jazz Friends Production, 2001)
With Noah Howard
*''Space Dimension'' (America, 1969)
*''
Red Star
A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...
'' (
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
, 1977)
*''Traffic'' (Frame, 1980)
*''In Concert'' (Cadence, 1997)
*''Live at the Unity Temple'' (Ayler, 1997)
With
*''Egyptian Oasis'' (Cryonic, 1986)
With
Steve Lacy
*''
Songs
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...
'' (hat ART, 1981) with
Brion Gysin
Brion Gysin (19 January 1916 – 13 July 1986) was a British-Canadian painter, writer, sound poet, performance artist and inventor of experimental devices.
He is best known for his use of the cut-up technique, alongside his close friend, the ...
*''
Ballets
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
'' (hat ART, 1981)
*''
The Flame'' (
Soul Note
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.
History
Black S ...
, 1982)
*''
Blinks'' (hat ART, 1983)
*''Lift the Bandstand'' (1983) DVD
*''
Prospectus'' (hat ART, 1983) also released as ''Cliches''
*''The Condor'' (Soul Note, 1985)
*''
The Gleam'' (Silkheart, 1986)
*''
Momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
'' (RCA Novus, 1987)
*''
The Door'' (RCA Novus, 1988)
*''
Anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
'' (RCA Novus, 1989)
*''
Itinerary
Itinerary or Itineraries or Itinerarium may refer to:
Travel
* Itinerarium, an Ancient Roman road map in the form of a listing of cities, villages, and other stops, with the intervening distances
* ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'', also known as the ...
'' (hat ART, 1991)
*''
Live at Sweet Basil'' (RCA Novus, 1992)
*''Associates'' (Felmay 1992)
*''
Clangs
''Clangs'' is a live album by soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy featuring a double sextet, which was recorded in Germany in 1992 and released on the Swiss hat ART label in 1993. '' (hat ART, 1993)
*''
Vespers
Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern), Lutheranism, Lutheran, and Anglican ...
'' (Soul Note, 1993)
*''Findings'' (CMAP, 1994)
With
David Murray
*''
Flowers Around Cleveland'' (Bleu Regard, 1995)
With
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (September 21, 1936 – December 7, 2017) was an American musician, and was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.
Biography
Murray was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he was raised by an ...
*''Aigu-Grave'' (Marge, 1979)
With
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz.
Biography Early life
Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...
*''
Pitchin Can'' (
America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, 1970)
*''
Coral Rock'' (America, 1970)
With
Alan Silva
Alan Silva (born Alan Lee da Silva; January 22, 1939 in Bermuda) is an American free jazz double bassist and keyboard player.
Biography
Silva was born a British subject to an Azorean/Portuguese mother, Irene da Silva, and a black Bermudian fat ...
*''
Seasons
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
'' (BYG, 1971)
*''
H.Con.Res.57/Treasure Box'' (Eremite, 2003)
With
Marzette Watts
Marzette Watts (March 9, 1938, Montgomery, Alabama – March 2, 1998, Nashville) was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist. He performed and recorded on bass clarinet as well. He had a brief career in music and is revered for his 1966 sel ...
*''
The Marzette Watts Ensemble
''The Marzette Watts Ensemble'' is the second and final album by saxophonist and composer Marzette Watts. It was recorded in 1968 in New York City, and was released on LP by Savoy Records in 1969. On the album, Watts is joined by cornetist George ...
'' (
Savoy
Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps.
Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south.
Savo ...
, 1968)
With
Joe Lee Wilson
Joe Lee Wilson (December 22, 1935 – July 17, 2011) was an American jazz singer from Bristow, Oklahoma, who lived in Europe since 1977.
Biography
Part African-American and part Creek people, Creek Native American,John Fordham (jazz critic), ...
*''Secrets From The Sun'' (Sun, 1977)
With
Frank Wright
*''
Uhuru na Umoja'' (Emarcy, 1970)
*''
One for John
''One for John'' is an album by saxophonist Frank Wright (jazz musician), Frank Wright. Dedicated to Wright's mentor, John Coltrane, it was recorded at Studio Saravah in Paris on December 5, 1969, and was released in 1970 by BYG Records as part of ...
'' (BYG, 1970)
*''
Church Number Nine
''Church Number Nine'' is an album by saxophonist Frank Wright. It was recorded in Paris on March 7, 1970, and was released in 1971 by Odeon Records in Japan. On the album, Wright is joined by saxophonist Noah Howard, pianist Bobby Few, and drumme ...
'' (Odeon, 1971)
*''
Center of the World'' (Center of the World, 1972)
*''For Example – Workshop Freie Musik 1969–1978'' (
FMP, 1972)
*''
Last Polka in Nancy?'' (Center of the World, 1973)
*''
Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...
'' (
ESP-Disk
ESP-Disk is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman.
History
Though it originally existed to release Esperanto-based music, beginning with its second release (Albert Ayler's ''Spiritual Unity''), ESP b ...
, 1974)
References
External links
*
AllMusic biography
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
br>
All About Jazz*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Few, Bobby
1935 births
2021 deaths
American jazz pianists
American male pianists
Musicians from Cleveland
CIMP artists
20th-century American pianists
Jazz musicians from Ohio
21st-century American pianists
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians