The jazz community lost one of its legendary tenormen on July 22^nd with the death of Illinois Jacquet. In addition to establishing “Flying Home” as a classic tenor sax solo, Jacquet was well known for his trademark “honking” and use of the “altissimo” range that extended the tenor 2-1/2 octaves higher than previously conceived.

Born in Boussard, Louisiana in 1922, Jean Baptiste Jacquet grew up in Houston where he first played drums before switching to alto sax. When Texans had difficulty pronouncing his French name, he adopted the nickname "Illinois" from  "Illiniwek," the Indian word for "superior man." Playing in local bands with his older brother Russell on trumpet, Jacquet was working with fellow Texans Eddie Cleanhead Vinson and Arnette Cobb when Lionel Hampton came along in 1941. Unable to persuade Cobb to move to LA with his band, Hampton instead hired Jacquet and urged him to switch to tenor. A year later at age 19, playing with Hampton’s band (including Dexter Gordon), he set the jazz world on fire with his landmark improvised solo on “Flying Home,” considered by some as the first R&B sax solo and setting a standard for future generations of jazz tenorists.

After his stint with Hampton, Jacquet worked with the Cab Calloway and Count Basie bands. In 1944, he participated in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concert, highlighted by a crowd-pleasing solo on "Blues" in which he bit on his reed to achieve high-register effects. He reprised this effort in the 1944 Gjon Mili short film, Jammin' the Blues, with Lester Young, Sweets Edison, and Barney Kessel. In the late 40s and 50s, Jacquet toured with JATP and led his own big band (including Fats Navarro, J.J. Johnson, Leo Parker, and Sir Charles Thompson), recording for Alladin and Apollo. Although primarily sticking with the tenor sax, he sometimes played bassoon on slow tunes such as "'Round Midnight".

Over five decades, Jacquet performed and recorded with big bands, and was featured on the Modern Jazz Quartet's album, A Celebration (1994). He recorded extensively for Savoy, RCA, Mercury, Epic, and Atlantic, including more than 300 original compositions such as “Black Velvet” and “Robbins’ Nest.” Featured in the 1992 documentary, Texas Tenor--The Story of Illinois Jacquet, he received a Jazz at Lincoln Center Award for Artistic Excellence in 2000.

In addition to “Flying Home,” Illinois Jacquet will be best remembered as a classic Texas Tenor whose playing was “supremely musical, swinging, and gutsy… There is not an R&B tenor saxophonist, a blues, rock, or jazz tenorman who does not owe something of his sound or his bag of sonic tricks to Illinois Jacquet” (Marshall Bowden, Jazzitude). As Jacquet explained in a 1988 Jazz Times interview, "With this kind of music you don't get old, because it takes 50 years to learn how to play it. I don't expect to retire."

Illinois Jacquet discography available at: http://www.albums-albums.com/albums-artists-Illinois-Jacquet.asp

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