Lew Soloff


Lewis Michael Soloff was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. He was a founding member of the band Blood, Sweat & Tears.
FB Lew-Soloff-93195383970

Biography

From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He worked with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 until 1973. Prior to this he worked with Machito, Tony Scott, Maynard Ferguson, and Tito Puente.
In the 1980s, he was a member of Members Only, a jazz ensemble who recorded for Muse Records.
Soloff was a regular member and sub-leader of Gil Evans' Monday Night Orchestra beginning in 1983, gaining him experience as a band leader. His debut album recording was supported by Gil. His 2010 recording Sketches of Spain is a tribute to the classic 1959–60 Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaboration, and he has performed the reconstructed Evans arrangements of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Soloff was also a longtime member of the Manhattan Jazz Quintet and Mingus Big Band.
Soloff made frequent guest appearances with jazz orchestras all over the world such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
He was among a handful of trumpeters capable of playing demanding lead trumpet parts while also contributing improvisational solos and of playing baroque, classical, and later orchestral and chamber music styles, which made him an in-demand session player for commercials and soundtracks.
Soloff died in 2015, at the age of 71, after suffering a heart attack in New York City.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Franco AmbrosettiTentets
With Ray AndersonBig Band Record with the George Gruntz Concert Jazz BandDon't Mow Your Lawn
With George BensonTell It Like It Is Big Boss Band
With Carla BleyFleur Carnivore The Very Big Carla Bley Band Big Band Theory, 1993The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church 4 x 4 Looking for America
With Blood, Sweat & TearsBlood, Sweat & Tears, 1969 Grammy Award for Album of the YearBlood, Sweat & Tears 3, 1970Blood, Sweat & Tears 4, 1971New Blood, 1972No Sweat, 1973
With Hank CrawfordNight Beat Groove Master
With Gil EvansThe Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix There Comes a Time Parabola Gil Evans Live at the Royal Festival Hall London 1978 Live at the Public Theater (New York 1980) Live at Sweet Basil Live at Sweet Basil Vol. 2 Bud and Bird Farewell Live At Umbria Jazz Vol. 1 & 2, 2001
With Maynard FergusonRidin' High
With Ricky FordHot Brass
With Michael FranksTiger in the Rain Objects of Desire The Camera Never Lies
With Dizzy GillespieCornucopia
With Jimmy HeathLittle Man Big Band
With O'Donel LevySimba Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky Windows
With Herbie MannBrazil: Once Again
With Helen MerrillBrownie: Homage to Clifford Brown
With Tisziji MuñozThe Paradox of Completion
With Bobby PreviteThe 23 Constellations of Joan Miró
With Dakota StatonI Want a Country Man
With Jeremy SteigFirefly
With Sonny StittStomp Off Let's Go
With Stanley TurrentineThe Man with the Sad Face Nightwings
With others