Billy Root

William "Billy" Root (* 6. March 1934 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ; † the thirtieth July 2013 ) was an American jazz - tenor saxophonist and bandleader .

Career

Billy Root came from a musical family; his father, a drummer , took him to the Earle Theater at an early age, where big bands from Ellington , Basie and Lunceford performed in Philadelphia . At the age of ten he learned the saxophone, at the age of 16 he played briefly with Hot Lips Page . He later toured with the Hal McIntyre Orchestra and then returned to Philadelphia to perform in jazz clubs. At Blue Note , he played as a member of the house band in performances with Clifford Brown , Roy Eldridge , JJ Johnson , Sonny Stitt , Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Art Blakey , Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham . In 1953 he went to New York, where he played with Bennie Green in an orchestra at the Apollo Theater , which was directed by Earle Warren .

Root also worked as an accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald , Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine . He played in the bands of Bennie Green (on whose album Soul Stirrin ' for Blue Note he participated in 1958) and for two years in the Red Rodney Quintet, also in the big bands of Buddy Rich , Stan Kenton and as a baritone saxophonist with Dizzy Gillespie ( Birks Works ). In 1958 he was a member of the Hank Mobley Sextet; In 1959 he was a soloist in John Lewis ' orchestral work "European Windows". In the late 1950s he replaced Billy Mitchell in Al Grey's quintet and briefly played in the Harry James Orchestra. With Mitchell and Gray he worked on Lee Morgan's album Dizzy Atmosphere in 1957 .

For family reasons, Root stopped touring in the early 1960s, from then on worked in local clubs and studied flutes, clarinet and bass clarinet for seven years before playing in various orchestras in Las Vegas , such as in 1968 in the Philadelphia Orchestra at performances of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris . In Las Vegas he worked from 1968 with stars like Tony Bennett and Peggy Lee .

Discographic notes

• Monday Nights at Birdland - Complete Recordings: Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Hank Mobley & Billy Root ( Roulette Records / Fresh Sound Records , 1958)
• Clifford Brown: The Beginning and the End ( Columbia Records , 1952-1956)
• Dizzy Gillespie: Birks Works ( Verve Records , 1956/57)
• Bennie Green: Go Ahead and Blow! (Ocium, 1948–1954)

Web links

• Literature by and about Billy Root in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary by Marc Myers ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} biography of Michael Fitzgerald