Julius Hemphill

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Julius Hemphill (1988; Photo: Brian McMillen)

Julius Arthur Hemphill (born January 24, 1938 , Fort Worth , Texas, † April 2, 1995 , New York City ) was an American musician of creative jazz . He played mainly on the alto saxophone , but also appeared on the tenor and soprano saxophone and on the flute .

Live and act

Hemphill first learned the clarinet before turning to the saxophone. Gerry Mulligan was an early influence. After volunteering for military service in 1964, he performed with Ike Turner . In 1968 Hemphill moved to St. Louis , where he became one of the founders of the Black Artists' Group , an artist collective where he met the saxophonists Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett and the trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Floyd LeFlore as well as the writer Malinke Robert Elliott .

Hemphill played with Anthony Braxton in the early 1970s and worked in Sweden and Paris . During this time he was also active as an author and in 1972 he performed his stage work Kawaida at Washington University in St. Louis , in which instrumental music, song, dance and drama were integrated. In the mid-1970s, Hemphill moved to New York City, where he was active in the loft scene . He gave saxophone lessons to notable musicians such as David Sanborn and Tim Berne . After playing with Anthony Braxton in various saxophone ensembles, he was one of the founders of the World Saxophone Quartet in 1977 , which he left in the early 1990s.

Hemphill recorded more than twenty records under his own name, ten with the World Saxophone Quartet , but also played with Björk , Bill Frisell and Anthony Braxton. In the last years of his life, diabetes and heart problems prevented him from continuing as a wind player, so that he mainly concentrated on composing. He performed these works with a saxophone sextet conducted by Marty Ehrlich . The last album The Hard Blues was recorded live in Lisbon after his death .

In Rafi Zabor's scene novel The Bear Comes Home , Hemphill is the role model of the saxophonist Bär, whose loss he repeatedly mourns.

Discography

swell

  • I. Carr et al .: Jazz Rough Guide

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hemphill, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hemphill, Julius Arthur (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz saxophonist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Worth , Texas
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1995
Place of death New York City , New York