Paul Gonsalves

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Paul Gonsalves (born July 12, 1920 in Brockton , Massachusetts , † May 14, 1974 in London , Great Britain) was a tenor saxophonist of swing and bebop .

Live and act

Gonsalves grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island , and, like his two brothers, learned to play the guitar from his father. He played international folklore before switching to the tenor saxophone at the age of 16 . After graduating from high school, he studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1938 and also received private lessons, including on the clarinet. Gonsalves had his first engagements as a professional musician with Henry McCoy in Providence , with Phil Edmonds in New Bedford and after three years of military service in 1945 with Sabby Lewis in Boston . As the successor to Illinois Jacquet , he played in Count Basie's orchestra (1946–1949) to then work with Dizzy Gillespie (1949/50). After his big band broke up, he became a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra that same year , where he immediately became one of the stars of the orchestra as the successor to Ben Webster . He had a Coleman Hawkins- influenced personal style, a successful synthesis of swing and bebop . Ellington said of him: "Paul had a thorough musical training, his solos are great and his playing is unbreakable." In 1953 he was a member of the Tommy Dorsey orchestra for a short time , but then went back to Ellington where he was up remained to his death.

At a time when interest in the larger swing orchestras was waning and Ellington was being abandoned by various longstanding musical collaborators, Paul Gonsalves was instrumental in the successful comeback of the Duke Ellington orchestra.

The Duke Ellington Orchestra took part in the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956 . As in 1951 at the legendary Birdland jazz club , Ellington combined his originally separate compositions Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue from 1937 to form Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue and allowed Gonsalves a tenor saxophone solo at the end of the diminuendo part. The subsequent release of the live recording of this solo stretching over 27 choruses of a blues scheme brought the orchestra the long-awaited comeback. Gonsalves is also in the foreground in the sessions that were created in Chicago that same year ( The Private Collection Volume 1 - Studio Sessions, Chicago 1956 ) .

In addition, a number of albums were created under his own name, on which he a. a. Starred with Nat Adderley , Roy Eldridge , Rolf Ericson , Raymond Fol , Tootie Heath , Earl Hines , Johnny Hodges , Jo Jones , Wynton Kelly , Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Ray Nance . His 24-year membership in the Ellington Band was interrupted by occasional absences stemming from his alcoholism and substance abuse . While in London, his health collapsed. Paul Gonsalves died of heart failure on May 14, 1974, just 10 days before his longtime friend and bandleader Ellington, who was too sick to pick up the news. Gonsalves, Ellington and Tyree Glenn were laid out at the same New York undertaker at the same time.

meaning

Paul Gonsalves had a large, but light, silky-warm tone that was particularly evident in his rhapsodic interpretations of ballads (for example in Ellington's Far East Suite ). Ellington praised him as "highly experienced and of tremendous imagination". Technically, Gonsalves could have played anything he could think of.

Influenced by Gonsalves, David Murray wrote a tribute to him (on his album David Murray Big Band Conducted by Lawrence "Butch" Morris ).

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personal data
SURNAME Gonsalves, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz saxophonist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Brockton , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1974
Place of death London , UK