Frank
Wess, whose career as a saxophonist and flutist began prior to World
War II and was still going strong seven decades later, died yesterday,
Oct. 30, it was confirmed by NPR's A Blog Supreme. The cause of death
was kidney failure. Wess was 91.
Wess, who recently released a new album, Magic 101,
recorded in 2011, was born Jan. 4, 1922 in Kansas City, Mo., where, at
age 10, he began playing alto saxophone. He would later add tenor sax,
flute and clarinet and began working professionally in Washington, D.C.
Following a stint in the Army he led singer Josephine Baker’s band and
also played with Lucky Millinder, Billy Eckstine and others.
In
1953, Wess joined Count Basie’s orchestra, staying with that ensemble
for 11 years, during which time he helped popularize the use of the
flute in jazz. He moved to New York City in 1964 and, in addition to
playing with bands in the area, he worked in the TV medium, performing
on such programs as Saturday Night Live andThe Dick Cavett Show.
As
a sideman, Wess contributed to recordings by Elvin Jones, Zoot Sims,
Gene Ammons, Yusef Lateef, Houston Person, Milt Jackson, Woody Shaw and
others.
In
1967, Wess joined Clark Terry’s big band, staying with them into the
'70s. In subsequent years he played with the New York Jazz Quartet,
Kenny Barron, Mel Torme, Benny Carter, Frank Vignola, Toshiko Akiyoshi
and others.
Wess
also maintained an active performing partnership with saxophonist and
fellow Basie alumnus Frank Foster for more than 20 years. Foster died in
2011.
Wess recorded more than a dozen albums as a leader beginning in 1957. He was still performing in 2013.
Frank Wess, 91, Saxophonist and Flutist With the Basie Band, Dies
Frank Wess,
who helped popularize the flute as a jazz instrument in the 1950s and
’60s with the Count Basie Orchestra, where he was also a standout
saxophone soloist, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 91.
The cause was a heart attack related to kidney failure, said his longtime companion, Sara Tsutsumi.
Mr.
Wess was not the first flutist in jazz. But his tonally rich and
technically deft flute solos enjoyed an unusually prominent platform:
the front row of the powerhouse Basie ensemble.
Mr.
Wess had been studying flute at the Modern School of Music in
Washington when Basie asked him to join a big band he had formed in 1952
to highlight new compositions and arrangements, many of them by Neal Hefti.
It became known as Basie’s “New Testament” band, to distinguish it from
the equally impressive and popular big band he had led in the ’30s and
’40s.
Mr. Wess, who had earlier played with bands led by Billy Eckstine and others, initially resisted, saying he was weary of the road and wanted to finish school. But Basie kept calling.
“And
at about the end of my school year, he called again and said he thought
he could get me more exposure than I had,” Mr. Wess recalled in a 2005 interview with the website All About Jazz. “That struck a chord in me. I said, ‘Maybe that’s what I need.’ ”
He
joined in 1953 and was an immediate success. Mr. Wess would play tenor
saxophone for a few tunes, swapping solos with his fellow tenor player
Frank Foster, then switch to flute on
the next song. Beginning in 1959, he was voted best jazz flutist for
five years in a row in Down Beat magazine’s critics’ poll.
The critic Gary Giddins called that Basie band “the most irreproachable virtuoso ensemble ever to work the dance-band idiom.”
Mr.
Wess left Basie in 1964 and moved to New York. There, he played with a
band led by the trumpeter Clark Terry and alongside the pianist Roland
Hanna in the New York Jazz Quartet. He also led groups of his own and
played on television (he was a member of the “Dick Cavett Show”
orchestra), in recording studios and in the pit of Broadway musicals.
In the 1980s, he and Mr. Foster formed a quintet,
Two Franks, that stayed together for two decades. Mr. Wess also led a
big band that toured Japan and featured many Basie alumni, including the
trumpeter Harry Edison, the trombonist Benny Powell and the saxophonist
Billy Mitchell.
He released several albums as a leader and continued to record and perform until earlier this year. He released “Magic 101,” featuring the pianist Kenny Barron, in June. “Magic 201” is to be released in February.
“Retire?”
he said in response to a question from All About Jazz. “To what? I’ve
never done anything else in my life. I never had a 9 to 5, or none of
that — I wouldn’t even know where to start. So you just do what you know
how to do.”
Frank
Wellington Wess was born on Jan. 4, 1922, in Kansas City, Mo. His
father was a school principal, and his mother was a teacher who
encouraged him to learn music. When he was a boy, she took him to hear
the classical tenor Roland Hayes and the blues singer Ida Cox. He
received his first instrument, a saxophone, when he was 10.
He
trained as a classical musician early on — on saxophone, not flute. He
played in a state high school orchestra in Oklahoma, where the family
had moved. The family later moved again, to Washington, where met the
pianist Billy Taylor in high school. The two became lifelong friends,
and Mr. Wess appears on the 1959 recording “Billy Taylor With Four
Flutes.”
In
addition to Ms. Tsutsumi, his survivors include two daughters, Francine
and Michelle; two grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
He
played tenor saxophone and clarinet in an Army band during World War
II. Afterward, he played in the Eckstine orchestra before he began
studying flute in 1949 at the Modern School. He studied under Wallace
Mann of the National Symphony in Washington as well as with Harold
Bennett, the longtime principal flutist for the Metropolitan Opera. And a
few years later, Count Basie called.
Rememberance of Frank Wess by Raul da Gama
http://jazzdagama.com/features/frank-wess-rest-in-peace/
