Arthur Blythe


Arthur Murray Blythe was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. He was described by critic Chris Kelsey as displaying "one of the most easily recognizable alto sax sounds in jazz, big and round, with a fast, wide vibrato and an aggressive, precise manner of phrasing" and furthermore as straddling the avant garde and traditionalist jazz, often with bands featuring unusual instrumentation.

Biography

Born in Los Angeles, Blythe lived in San Diego, returning to Los Angeles when he was 19 years old. He took up the alto saxophone at the age of nine, playing R&B until his mid-teens when he discovered jazz. In the mid-1960s, Blythe was part of the Underground Musicians and Artists Association, founded by Horace Tapscott, on whose 1969 The Giant Is Awakened he made his recording debut.
After moving to New York in the mid-1970s, Blythe worked as a security guard before being offered a place as sideman for Chico Hamilton. He subsequently played with Gil Evans' Orchestra, Lester Bowie, Jack DeJohnette and McCoy Tyner. Blythe's group – John Hicks, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall – played Carnegie Hall and the Village Vanguard in 1979.
In 1977, Blythe appeared on the LP Rhythmatism, a recording led by drummer Steve Reid. Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, Robert Christgau highlighted Blythe's "forceful" alto-saxophone playing and said, "like so many of the new players Blythe isn't limited to modern methods by his modernism—he favors fluent, straight-ahead Coltrane modalities, but also demonstrates why he belongs on a tune for Cannonball."
Blythe began to record as a leader in 1977 for the India Navigation label and then for Columbia Records from 1978 to 1987. Bob Stewart's tuba was a regular feature of these albums, often taking the place of the more traditional string bass. Albums such as The Grip and Metamorphosis demonstrated Blythe's maturity as well as his ability to play in both free and traditional contexts with a fully-developed personal style. Blythe played on many pivotal albums of the 1980s, among them Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition on ECM. Blythe was a member of the all-star jazz group The Leaders and joined the World Saxophone Quartet after the departure of Julius Hemphill. Beginning in 2000 he made recordings on Savant Records which included Exhale with John Hicks, Bob Stewart, and Cecil Brooks III.
Blythe died in March, 2017 of complications from Parkinson's disease in Lancaster, California, at the age of 76.

Discography

As leader

Collaborations

With Synthesis
With The Leaders
  • Mudfoot
  • Out Here Like This
  • Unforeseen Blessings
  • Slipping and Sliding
With Roots
  • Salutes the Saxophone – Tributes to John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and Lester Young
  • Stablemates
  • Say Something
With Santi Debriano and Billy Hart
  • 3-Ology
With Jeff Palmer, John Abercrombie, Victor Lewis
  • Ease On
With David Eyges and Bruce Ditmas
  • Synergy
With John Abercrombie, Terri Lyne Carrington, Anthony Cox, Mark Feldman, Gust Tsilis
  • ''Echoes''

    As sideman

With Barry Altschul
  • Another Time/Another Place
With Joey Baron
With Lester Bowie
With Jack DeJohnette
  • Special Edition
With Gil Evans
With John Fischer
  • 6 × 1 = 10 Duos for a New Decade
With Chico Freeman
  • Luminous
  • Focus
With Chico Hamilton
  • Peregrinations
  • Chico Hamilton and the Players
With Craig Harris
With Julius Hemphill
  • Coon Bid'ness
With Azar Lawrence
With the Music Revelation Ensemble
  • In the Name of...
  • Knights of Power
With Woody Shaw
With Horace Tapscott
  • The Giant is Awakened
With Gust William Tsilis & Alithea
  • Pale Fire
With McCoy Tyner
  • Quartets 4 X 4
  • 44th Street Suite
With the World Saxophone Quartet
  • Metamorphosis
  • ''Breath of Life''