Art Pepper, Alto Sax, 1925, Gardena, CA
Art first studied the clarinet, switching to the also sax when in his teens. His first professional work was with the big bands of Benny Carter and Stan Kenton. After two years of army service during the second world war, Art rejoined Kenton as one of the band's star soloists, for around eight years. At this point in his life, Art became involved with drugs and the law. He served several one to two year terms, for a total of around five years. He managed to play in prison bands, and between jail terms he was able to work with jazz groups and lead several bands of his own. During the early '60s Pepper worked with and became friendly with Shelly Manne, Jack Montrose, Howard Rumsey, and Shorty Rogers. He became one of the most popular members of the West Coast movement, performing and recording with the top players of this period. In 1968 he joined Buddy Rich for a year, but serious illness forced him to leave and enter rehabilitation for three years. Thereafter, he worked as a bookkeeper and instrument demonstrator for Buffet Instruments. He returned to performing, and worked for Don Ellis in 1975, recording in Japan and starring at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977. He participated in some of the earliest ground-breaking recordings of the West Coast music style under the leadership of Shorty Rogers. Some of Art's finest playing was done with the rhyrhm section of Miles Davis' group in 1960, and with Marty Paich's harmonized recastings of solos by Charlie Parker. This beautiful ensemble work was done about 15 years before the formation of Supersax. For a while, Art was under the overwhelming influence of John Coltrane, and took up the tenor sax. Art was one of the few alto players of his era that did not play in the Charlie Parker style. He eventually returned to the alto sax, an instrument on which he made a most important contribution to the world of modern jazz. Art Pepper died in 1982.
Willie Ruff, Bass/French Horn, 1931, Sheffield, AL
Willy was already performing on bass when he entered the army in 1947. It was while in the army that he took up the french horn and continued to study the instrument after his discharge, at Yale University under the composer Paul Hindemuth. It was while in the service that Willie befriended Dwike Mitchell, with whom he would later form an important combo. After leaving Yale, Willie joined Lionel Hampton with whom Mitchell was already playing. Ruff and Mitchell formed their famous duo in the mid '50s. They have lectured and performed extensively throughout the U.S., and in 1959, they toured with the Yale Russian Chorus, and were the first Western jazz musicians to perform in the USSR after WWll. In 1967 they made an important film in Brazil which traced the African roots of Brazilian music. Ruff, who eventually became a professor of music at Yale, inaugurated the Duke Ellington Fellowship program in 1972. In 1979, with the scientist John Rodgers, he recorded a realization of "Harmonics Mundi", a treatise by the German mathematician and music theorist Johannes Kepler. This kind of work really doesn't mean much in the world of straight-ahead jazz, but it does illustrate the kind of musician Willy Ruff was. Ruff is fluent in eight languages, and his unusual talents as both a performer and a teacher have helped to make jazz accessible to audiences throughout the world.
Gene Harris, Piano, 1933, Benton Harbor, MI
As a youngster, Gene taught himself to play the piano in a boogie-woogie style inspired by his records of Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. During the mid '50s Gene was in military bands while serving in the army. In 1956 he formed a group that became very prominent, the Three Sounds, with Andy Simpkins and Bill Dowdy. The group performed around Washington and Michigan, in a blues, and around 1958 they moved to New York City. There the group's style became more refined, and they began playing more show tunes and standards. In 1959-60 the Gene and the group made several albums that enjoyed some success. By 1968 Dowdy and Simpkins decided to go on their own and departed the group, and Harris led larger ensembles which performed and recorded in the jazz-rock idiom. Later he made his home in Idaho and again played more conventional jazz. Around 1980 Gene played in Las Vegas with a quartet at the Hacienda, and with Ernestine Anderson, and at Parnell's in Seattle. In the mid '80s hemoved around, appearing with Benny Carter at the Concord Jazz Festival, and with Ray Brown's trio at the Half Note in New York. Harris is an eclectic and refreshing musician to listen to, with any type of music he performs.
Velma Middleton, Singer, 1917, St Louis, MO
