John Lee (bassist)
John Gregory Lee , (born June 28, 1952 in Roxbury (Massachusetts) ) is an American bass guitarist of fusion and modern jazz , who is also active as a composer, producer and teacher. In the team with Gerry Brown he was considered to be "the background pairing that you need to be able to fall back on a powerful, accomplished and inspired rhythmic background as a soloist" ( Stu Goldberg ).
Live and act
Lee is the son of a marine musician; he grew up first in Connecticut and New York, then in Philadelphia . In high school he met Gerry Brown, with whom he also studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Music (1970 to 1972) before traveling to Europe with Brown and playing in the bands of Gary Bartz and Chris Hinze ; Recordings with Joachim Kühn , Toto Blanke , Toots Thielemans and Philip Catherine ( September Man ) followed. In 1974 Lee temporarily returned to the States, where he worked with Lonnie Liston Smith , Michal Urbaniak , Urszula Dudziak, and Joe Henderson before joining Larry Coryell's Eleventh House with Brown . The respected rhythm team Brown-Jones made their debut with "Infinite Jones" (1973), which was followed by other records (such as "Mango Sunrise", "Still Can't Say Enough" (1976)). In Europe they have since performed with Jasper van't Hofs Pork Pie ; they also went on tour with Danny Toan and Eef Albers . With Palle Mikkelborg and Bob Malach they recorded their album "Chaser" (1979). In 1981 Lee also played with the Heath Brothers , then between 1982 and 1984 with McCoy Tyner . He then worked from 1984 to 1992 as a bassist in the touring bands of Dizzy Gillespie , but also in Dizzy's 70th Anniversary Big Band , the United Nation Orchestra and the posthumous Alumni Band . He continued to play with Sonny Rollins , Max Roach and the Fantasy Band . He also appeared with Gil Evans , Jon Faddis , Freddie Hubbard , Robin Kenyatta , Slide Hampton , Stefanie Schlesinger , Wolfgang Lackerschmid and Claudio Roditi .
Lexical entries
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
Web links
- Short bio ( Memento from January 16, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- John Lee at Discogs (English)
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Lee, John |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lee, John Gregory (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American fusion and modern jazz bass guitarist |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 28, 1952 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Roxbury, Massachusetts |