Jackie McLean RIP

[Allan Songer]

I am so broke up by his passing it's all I can do not to cry. Another great one who I will never see or hear again. I remember the last time I saw him--it was at the Blue Note in New Yoirk on his 70th birthday and he KICKED ***. Thanks for everything, Jackie Mac, you will be missed.

HARTFORD, Connecticut --Jazz alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, a performer and educator who played with legendary musicians including Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, died Friday. He was 73.

McLean, a contemporary of some of the 20th century's most famed jazz musicians, died at his Hartford home after a long illness, family members told The Hartford Courant.

McLean was founder and artistic director of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford's Hartt School. He and his wife, actress Dollie McLean, also founded the Artists Collective, a community center and fine arts school in Hartford's inner city primarily serving troubled youth.

University of Hartford President Walter Harrison said Dollie McLean called him Friday with news of her husband's death.

Harrison said that despite his many musical accomplishments, McLean was a modest man whose connections with his students lasted for decades after they left his classroom.

"He fully understood the way that jazz as an art should be passed down to students," Harrison said. "He saw his role as bringing jazz from the 1950s and '60s and handing it down to artists of today."

McLean, a native of Harlem in New York City, grew up in a musical family, his father playing guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's band. McLean took up the soprano saxophone as a teen and quickly switched to the alto saxophone, inspired by his godfather's performances in a church choir, he told WBGO-FM in Newark, New Jersey, in an interview in 2004.

McLean went on to play with his friend Rollins from 1948-49 in a Harlem neighborhood band under the tutelage of pianist Bud Powell. Through Powell, McLean met bebop pioneer Charlie "Bird" Parker, who became a major influence on the young alto saxophonist.

He made his first recording when he was 19 on Miles Davis' "Dig" album, also featuring Rollins, which heralded the beginning of the hard-bop style.

In the 1950s, McLean also played with Charles Mingus and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, experiences that he credited with helping him find his own style.

"I never really sounded like Bird, but that was my mission," McLean said in the WBGO radio interview. "I didn't care if people said that I copied him; I loved Bird's playing so much. But Mingus was the one that really pushed me away from the idea and forced me into thinking about having an individual sound and concept."

McLean made his first recording as a leader in 1955. He drew wide attention with his 1959 debut on Blue Note Records, "Jackie's Bag," one of dozens of albums he recorded in the hard-bop and free jazz styles for the label over the next eight years. His 1962 album "Let Freedom Ring" found him performing with avant-garde musicians.

In 1959-60, he acted in the off-Broadway play "The Connection," about jazz musicians and drug addiction. McLean, a heroin addict during his early career, later went on to lecture on drug addiction research.

In 1968, after Blue Note terminated his recording contract, McLean began teaching at the University of Hartford. He taught jazz, African-American music, and African-American history and culture, setting up the university's African American Music Department, which later was named in his honor.

He took a break from recording for much of the 1980s to focus on his work as a music educator, but made his recording comeback in 1988 with "Dynasty," and later re-signed with Blue Note. His last Blue Note recordings included "Fire and Love" (1998), featuring his youthful Macband with son Rene McLean on tenor saxophone, and the ballads album "Nature Boy" (2000).

He received an American Jazz Masters fellowship, the nation's highest jazz honor, from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001, and toured the world as an educator and performer

[Guy Landau]

This is so sad. Such a great loss. I'm devastated.

I was fortunate enough to see him performing in NYC last year at the Iridium (with his son and Grachan Moncur III). He played so beautifully. He surely be missed.

[garymd]

[]

Consider yourselves lucky guys. Most of us never had the chance to see him.

May he RIP.

[paul cbc]

Brutal.

"Destination Out!" will be hitting the table tonight.

Allan, in memorandum can you recount another McLean gig you saw?

Paul

[boomac]

I was having a great day till I heard that! "New Soil" will get a play later tonight.

[Allan Songer]

I probably heard Jackie Mac live about a dozen times, but here are some that really stand out:

New Year's Eve 1979. Jazz Messengers Reunion at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco (I'll bet Edmond was there too!).

Catalina's in the early 90's--must have been around '91 or '92--with the "Dynasty" band (Carl Allen on drums, Rene McLean on tenor and flute, Idris Galata on piano and Nat Reeves on bass). I went three nights in a row.

At the Jazz Bakery in 2000 with Cedar Walton,Wynard Haper and David WIlliams. I sat three feet from the bell of his horn. I went three nights out of six and stayed for both sets each night.

[garymd]

I already listened to Jackie's Bag and New Soil. I think I'll throw on Sonny Clark's Cool Strutin' next.

[Allan Songer]

I just listened to Dynasty for about the millionth time and it still blows me away. Probably my favorite jazz album of the 90's. Jackie hadn't recorded in over a decade when this one came out and I remember snapping it up at Tower Records as soon as I could after hearing a cut on KLON. Jackie Mac is so loose on this one--it's like he was FINALLY comfortable being Jackie McLean and just laid it ALL on the line. It's funky, groovy and soulful and tears your heart out when you least expect it. BS free music. Check out his version of "AHouse is not a Home." It's freaking PERFECT.

[jazman]

Jackie is gone, but his music will live on.

I have said it before and I'll say it again. I loved to hear this man play and always made it a point to see him when he appeared here in the SF Bay area. Yes Allan,I did see him with the Messengers at Keystone. The last time I saw him was at Koncepts, which was in the old train station building in downtown Oakland quite a few years ago. His son Rene was on the bandstand as a member of the group. I was there for two sets.

I will miss the spirit of Jackie McLean.

Klipsch out.