Zoot Sims


John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big band, afterward enjoying a long solo career, often in partnership with fellow saxmen Gerry Mulligan and Al Cohn.
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Biography

Sims was born in 1925 in Inglewood, California, United States, to vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. His father was a vaudeville hoofer, and Sims prided himself on remembering many of the steps his father taught him. Growing up in a performing family, he learned to play drums and clarinet at an early age. His brother was the trombonist Ray Sims.
Sims began on tenor saxophone at the age of 13. He initially modelled his playing on the work of Lester Young, Ben Webster, and Don Byas. By his late teens, having dropped out of high school, he was playing in big bands, starting with those of Kenny Baker and Bobby Sherwood. He joined Benny Goodman's band for the first time in 1943. Sims replaced Ben Webster in Sid Catlett's Quartet of 1944. In May 1944, Sims made his recording debut for Commodore Records in a sextet led by pianist Joe Bushkin, who two months earlier had recorded for the same label as part of Lester Young's Kansas City Six.
Sims served as a corporal in the United States Army Air Force from 1944 to 1946, then returned to music in the bands of Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton, and Buddy Rich. He was one of Woody Herman's "Four Brothers". From 1954–1956 he toured with his friend Gerry Mulligan's sextet, and in the early 1960s, with Mulligan's Concert Jazz Band. Sims played on some of Jack Kerouac's recordings. From the late 1950s to the end of his life, Sims was primarily a freelancer, though he worked frequently in the 1960s and early 1970s with a group co–led with Al Cohn. In the 1970s and 1980s, he also played and recorded regularly with a handful of other musical partners including Bucky Pizzarelli, Joe Venuti, and Jimmy Rowles. In 1975, he began recording for Norman Granz's Pablo Records label. Sims appeared on more than 20 Pablo albums, mostly as a featured solo artist, but also as a backing musician for artists including Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, and Clark Terry. Between 1974 and 1983, Sims recorded six studio albums with pianist Jimmy Rowles in a quartet setting that critic Scott Yanow wrote feature Sims at his best.
Sims acquired the nickname "Zoot" early in his career while he was in the Kenny Baker band in California. "When he joined Kenny Baker's band as a fifteen-year-old tenor saxophonist, each of the music stands was embellished with a nonsense word. The one he sat behind said 'Zoot.' That became his name." English musician Zoot Money and the Muppets character Zoot were both named after Zoot Sims.
Sims played a 30-second solo on the song "Poetry Man", written by singer Phoebe Snow on her debut eponymous album in 1974. He also played on Laura Nyro's "Lonely Women", on her album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.
Sims' last studio recording was a November, 1984 trio session featuring bassist Red Mitchell, recorded in Sweden and released in 1985 by Sonet records. He died of lung cancer on March 23, 1985, in New York City, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Nyack, New York.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

CompilationsThe Best of Zoot Sims That Old Feeling – double–issue CD of two 1956 albums: Zoot and ''Zoot Sims Plays Alto, Tenor, and Baritone''

As sideman

With Pepper AdamsPepper Adams Plays the Compositions of Charlie Mingus – rec. 1963Encounter! – rec. 1968
With Chet BakerChet Baker & Strings – rec. 1953-54Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe
With Count BasieThe Bosses with Big Joe Turner Count Basie Jam – rec. 1977
With Al CohnThe Sax Section Son of Drum Suite Jazz Mission to Moscow
With Woody HermanThe Thundering Herds - rec. 1945-1947Keeper Of The Flame - rec. 1948-1949New Big Herd At The Monterey Jazz Festival – rec. 1959
With Quincy JonesThis Is How I Feel About Jazz – rec. 1956-1957The Birth of a Band! Quincy Jones Explores the Music of Henry Mancini Quincy Plays for Pussycats – rec. 1959-1965
With Stan KentonPortraits on Standards The Kenton Era – rec. 1940-1954
With Carmen McRaeSomething to Swing About – rec. 1959Ms. Jazz – rec. 1973
With Gerry MulliganCalifornia Concerts – rec. 1954Presenting the Gerry Mulligan Sextet Mainstream of Jazz A Profile of Gerry Mulligan – rec. 1955-1956The Arranger – rec. 1946-1957The Gerry Mulligan Songbook – rec. 1957The Concert Jazz Band Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band on Tour – rec. 1960Something Borrowed – Something Blue
With Oliver NelsonEncyclopedia of Jazz – rec. 1965-1966The Sound of Feeling – rec. 1966-1967
With Sarah VaughanVaughan and Violins – rec. 1958The Duke Ellington Songbook, Vol. 1 Linger Awhile: Live at Newport and More – rec. 1957-1982
With Joe WilliamsAt Newport '63 Having The Blues Under European Sky – live rec. 1970s
With Others