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 ...
group founded in 1987 by
saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
Roy Nathanson
Roy Jay Nathanson (born May 17, 1951) is an American saxophonist, composer, bandleader, actor and teacher. He became the leader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six piece group that he founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987. They have ...
and
trombonist
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...
Curtis Fowlkes
Curtis Fowlkes (born March 19, 1950) is an American jazz trombonist and singer. He is a founding member of The Jazz Passengers.
Career
In 1987, Fowlkes started The Jazz Passengers with saxophonist Roy Nathanson. He has also been a member of The ...
.
The band grew out of a partnership between Nathanson and Fowlkes in 1987, after the two had played with
John Lurie
John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including '' Stranger than Paradise'' and '' Down by Law''; has composed ...
's band
The Lounge Lizards
The Lounge Lizards were an eclectic musical group founded by saxophonist John Lurie and his brother, pianist Evan Lurie, in 1978. Initially known for their ironic, tongue-in-cheek take on jazz, The Lounge Lizards eventually became a showcase fo ...
. Other regular members include vibraphonist
Bill Ware
Bill Ware III born William Anthony Ware III (b. January 28, 1959, East Orange, New Jersey) is an American jazz vibraphonist.
Musical career
Ware played bass and piano early in his career, playing at the Harlem Jazzmobile. After spending several ...
E. J. Rodriguez
E is the fifth letter of the Latin alphabet.
E or e may also refer to:
Commerce and transportation
* €, the symbol for the euro, the European Union's standard currency unit
* ℮, the estimated sign, an EU symbol indicating that the weigh ...
; the group has often featured a violinist (Rob Thomas,
Jim Nolet
Jim Nolet (born 1961) is an American jazz violinist, artist, performer, and educator known internationally as a composer/improviser in world and jazz idioms. He has a particular interest in the music of Brazil. He has performed in the United Sta ...
or, more recently, Sam Bardfeld). Guitarists
Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot (;
born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.
His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Wait ...
and
David Fiuczynski
David Fiuczynski (born March 5, 1964) is an American contemporary jazz guitarist, best known as the leader of the Screaming Headless Torsos and David Fiuczynski's KiF, and as a member of Hasidic New Wave. He has played on more than 95 albums as a ...
played in earlier formations of the group. The album that is perhaps their masterpiece, the
Hal Willner
Hal Willner (April 6, 1956 – April 7, 2020) was an American music producer working in recording, films, television, and live events. He was best known for assembling tribute albums and events featuring a wide variety of artists and musical sty ...
-produced ''In Love'' ( High Street, 1994), features vocal contributions from
Deborah Harry
Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981.
Born in ...
,
Jeff Buckley
Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...
,
Jimmy Scott
James Victor Scott (July 17, 1925 – June 12, 2014), known professionally as Little Jimmy Scott or Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist known for his high natural contralto voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs.
After ...
,
Bob Dorough
Robert Lrod Dorough (December 12, 1923 – April 23, 2018) was an American bebop and cool jazz vocalist, pianist, composer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Dorough became famous as the composer and performer of songs in the TV series ''School ...
and
Mavis Staples
Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress, and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers (she is the last surviving member of that band). Durin ...
. Harry later became a regular member of the band, appearing on a number of follow-up albums, including ''Individually Twisted'' (which includes a duet with
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
), Costello also sings on another track without Harry. Recently the Passengers have recorded infrequently as a full ensemble, though the individual bandmembers' recent side projects tend to feature many fellow Passengers, as well as a similarly skewed musical sensibility.
In 2005, Nathanson composed a work commemorating the world's oldest object, a 4.404 billion year old
zircon
Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of the r ...
found in Australia. The work was performed by The Jazz Passengers at a "Rock Concert" held in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
in April of that yea
Discography
* 1987 – ''Broken Night Red Light'' (Les Disques du Crépuscule)
* 1988 – ''Deranged and Decomposed'' (Les Disques du Crépuscule)
* 1990 – ''Implement Yourself'' ( New World Records, New World)
* 1991 – ''Live at the Knitting Factory'' (
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States.
The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...
Windham Hill
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
The label was ...
)
* 1996 – ''Individually Twisted'' ( 32 Jazz) with
Deborah Harry
Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981.
Born in ...
* 1998 – ''"Live" in Spain'' (32 Jazz) with Deborah Harry
* 2005 - ''The Rock Concert'' (A Stony Muse Production/Roy Nathanson)
* 2010 – ''Reunited'' ( Justin Time)
* 2017 - ''Still Life with Trouble'' (
Enja
Enja Records is a German jazz record company and label based in Munich which was founded by jazz enthusiasts Matthias Winckelmann and Horst Weber in 1971.
The label's first release was by Mal Waldron, and early releases included European and Ja ...