Don Lamphere RIP

[Gordokae]

I'm very sorry to report that saxophonist Don Lanphere, whose career

stretched from Woody Herman and Artie Shaw's bands to recent groups in

Seattle, passed away today at age 75. He will be missed by many, many

friends and fans.

You can read about Don here:

http://www.donlanphere.com/bio.html

[brownie]

Carl Fontana first, Don Lanphere now. The scene is getting empty1 Liked Lanphere's sound when as a 21-year old musician played with Fats Navarro back in 1949 and was happy to rediscover him as a polished jazz veteran when his Hep made their way here.

[brownie]

Nice and lengthy Don Lanphere's obit in today's The Seattle Times:

'Seattle Jazz Patriarch' was top bebop artist

By Stephen H. Dunphy

Seattle Times associate editor

Don Lanphere, the legendary Wenatchee-born bebop jazz saxophone player who overcame dependence on drugs and alcohol to become one of the deans of Seattle jazz musicians, died yesterday at Group Health Eastside Hospital in Redmond. He was 75.

Mr. Lanphere, of Kirkland, was a regular at jazz events in the region, playing a gig

at Tula's, in numerous festivals and as featured tenor sax with the Seattle

Repertory Jazz Orchestra. He was among the top bebop jazz musicians, improvising with the rapid-fire riffs that characterized that style of jazz.

But he was more than that. He could write a chart — a musical arrangement used as the base for improvisation — on the sound of water dripping in a tub. He could bring listeners to tears, playing a solo jazz version of the Lord's Prayer on the soprano sax at a Sunday brunch at the end of a weekend jazz festival.

"He was a candidate for sainthood around here," said Bud Young, of Bud's Jazz

Records, a longtime friend and colleague.

For the past several years, Young and Mr. Lanphere co-hosted the "Don and Bud

Show," a Monday morning jazz program on Bellevue Community College radio

station KBCS-FM (91.3), playing and talking about their favorite musician and

pieces.

They knew what they were talking about.

"Seven or eight years ago he came as a guest on my show and he never left,"

Young said.

During the past two months, because of Mr. Lanphere's illness, Young hosted

the show alone. But it will always be the "Don and Bud Show," Young said.

"(Don) is absolutely the nicest, kindest, most intelligent man you could ever

know," he said. "We just got along really well. ... He's the most admirable person

I have ever met."

Mr. Lanphere was a gentle spirit and an inspiration to many, Young said.

''He was well-respected by every musician who came in contact with him,"  he said. "He never had a bad word to say about anybody."

While best known in his later years to Seattle and Northwest audiences, Mr.

Lanphere could hold his own with the best, playing with top groups and      orchestras around the world.

He was ranked with some of the top jazz musicians of his time before he was 20,

recording with such bebop trumpet legends as Fats Navarro and Max Roach in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He played gigs with Woody Herman and Charlie Parker and with big-ticket big bands such as Artie Shaw's.

Yet Mr. Lanphere also succumbed to the fast life of the jazz world in New York, using drugs and alcohol to such an extent that by 1960 he was back in Wenatchee running his father's music store, his horn gathering dust, all but forgotten in the jazz world. "From the Big Apple to the little apple," Mr. Lanphere once said about that period.

Mr. Lanphere was frank about his problems. His official biography says "the rest

of the following decade and a half was punctuated by narcotic difficulties causing

him to return to his father's store in Wenatchee."

But in 1969, Mr. Lanphere, and Midge, his wife — they celebrated their 50th

anniversary earlier this year — changed. They became born-again Christians,

and Mr. Lanphere stopped his substance abuse and started playing music again.

"One of the major things would be my conversion to Christianity," Mr. Lanphere

once said, "which was thoroughly unexpected by me, and it was a life-changer

because I would be dead by now, otherwise."

Mr. Lanphere went on to rebuild his career. By the time of his death, he was the

dean of the jazz world in Seattle, a veteran whose 75 years of life reverberated

through every note.

"For all of his 75 years he's been a consummate musician and never stopped

improving his skills and showing the rest of us how modern jazz should continue

to evolve and grow," said Michael Brockman, a professor at the University of

Washington School of Music.

Brockman is a respected jazz saxophonist and is co-founder of the Seattle

Repertory Jazz Orchestra. Mr. Lanphere played lead tenor in the group until he

became ill.

Mr. Lanphere had a "constant ability to deliver an emotional performance that

served the audience and employed form and structure from beginning to end,"

Brockman said. "He was the best player on stage wherever he went."

But it is his students who remember him most.

"Don Lanphere is the Seattle Jazz Patriarch and Grandpop to all those who have

been his students, his colleagues, his friends, and of course, his fans," said

Aadip Desai, one student. "His enthusiasm, guidance and wisdom have been

integral to the development and success of many musicians. As a musician, he

is creative, humorous and a great presence on the bandstand. It is impossible to

not learn volumes from Don at a gig or during a lesson."

Mr. Lanphere was born on June 6, 1928, in Wenatchee, where his father ran the

biggest music store in town and where he first encountered jazz, learning to play

from listening to recordings. In his teens, he would travel to Seattle to play with

touring bands.

He briefly went to Northwestern University in Chicago to study music. But the

growing postwar jazz scene in New York, where big-band swing bands were

being replaced by a "cool" new sound, soon lured him. By 1948, at 20, Mr.

Lanphere had a growing reputation that secured him a recording date with the

trend-setting Max Roach/Fats Navarro band.

He played with Herman, Shaw and became part of Parker's circle, making a

series of recordings that came to be known as the Apartment Sessions.

In 1982, he was invited by Arkansas businessman William Craig to make a

quintet recording, released by Hep Records, which marked his return to the

scene. Mr. Lanphere, like his mentor Herman, had the gift of finding and inspiring

young players. In particular, he has eagerly promoted the talents of pianist Marc

Seales and trumpeter Jon Pugh.

For the past 20 or so years, he taught and encouraged young jazz talents in the

Seattle area. Mr. Lanphere also helped to create a renaissance in jazz in the

Northwest. Today, jazz is heard almost every night in restaurants and clubs

throughout the region.

His students were most important to him. They ranged from adults who might

barter for services such as dental, roofing and accounting work to high-school

players eager to learn from the master. Several times a year, he would use his

usual gig at Tula's to showcase the work of students.

Mr. Lanphere is survived by wife Midge, of Kirkland. Arrangements for services

are pending.

Like to presume that the reference to Max Roach as a 'trumpet legend' is an editor's typo!

[Brad]

I don't have a lot of his stuff, but check him out on one of those Prestige First Sessions. Not too many original beboppers left around. Very sorry to hear this.

[DrJ]

What a sad loss. Lanphere was playing beautifully right up until the end, based on his soloing in the fine SEATTLE JAZZ REPERTORY LIVE recording (Origin) from 2002. It will be relatively hard to locate, but get it if you can. Rep material but varied and well-chosen - Mingus, Thad Jones, Ellington, Basie, Miles, others - and then the big band, full of Seattle area giants, plays the hell out of it. Raucous and refined at the same time, and excellent live recording quality. Here's the AMG review:

"Outside of New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, there are few areas, if any, that have the depth and breadth of talent to support a major repertory orchestra. And perhaps even with these, the major markets might have a problem putting together a permanently standing aggregation which meets the definition of repertory in the manner that the rotating 17-member Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra has done since their inception in 1995. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, repertory refers to "a company that presents several different plays, opera, or [musical] pieces usually alternatively in the course of a season." This is precisely what is presented on this CD. There are pieces played and/or written by such jazz giants as Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, and Charles Mingus played by the orchestra live from 1997 though 2001. But the favorites are Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, who are represented by four items. Not only are these two favored, but the concept that the orchestra is the instrument developed by Ellington is clearly the preference of the orchestra's co-directors, Clarence Acox and Michael Brockman. But like Ellington's bands, there is plenty of room for solos. And what a crew to pick from. There's the veteran saxman Don Lanphere, top-ranked pianist Marc Seales, multi-virtuoso Jay Thomas, alto sax player Mark Taylor, David Marriott Jr. on trombone, and Floyd Standifer on trumpet. The band is driven by Acox on drums and they show no mercy on such cuts as "Jumpin' at the Woodside." Most of these players have CDs of their own on the market. The group not only can swing, but oozes sophistication and elegance on "Blue and Sentimental," which features a bluesy clarinet by Dan Wickham. All around good stuff; this CD is highly recommended. — Dave Nathan"

[Johnny E]

It's a very sad day in the Seattle jazz scene today. Everyone is sending me emails regarding Don's death. I knew him relatively well. The sax player in one of my groups studied with him for years. A great teacher from what I hear – and a great man. He had a radio show with Bud Young (of Bud's Jazz Records – Seattle best record shop) on the local college station. I used to do the drive time jazz show on Mondays and the 'Bud and Don show' came on right after mine. Don would always have a CD or record by somebody I'd never heard of before. And upon further investigation I'd find myself saying "How come I have never heard of this guy before?!?" He was soft spoken, had a great sense of humor, and always had stories to tell. One time he told me a story of when he was touring with Woody Herman. Apparently the door to Serge Chaloff's hotel room had gotten damaged from someone pegging it with a knife over and over, so the hotel charged him for the door when they checked out. The band was waiting on the bus, and Serge had not shown up. Finally, onto the bus steps Serge with the door over his head saying, "If I'm paying for the door, I'm keeping the door!” Don always had a story to tell like that, and much knowledge to impart. We will all miss him. Seattle's jazz scene won't be the same without him. Take care Don.

Edited October 11, 2003 by Johnny E

[relyles]

Pulled out my copy of the Hep LP, Out of Nowhere, which remarkably was never opened and I am listening to it right now. I only first discovered Lanphere a little over one year ago on Like A Bird, and was immediately impressed. RIP.

[Guest ariceffron]

yeah that sucks ive seen don lanphere before and he was really good. up here he was considered like the supreme shit of northwest jazz and might i add rightfully so- he was really good

[Free For All]

Chubby Jackson, Carl Fontana and Don Lanphere. Looks like Woody's getting some company. I hope this ends the "bad news in threes" for now.

[Brad]

If anybody has an idea where to get Seattle Jazz Repertory Live that Tony posted above, can you let us know. I'd love to hear a copy.

[Johnny E]

If anybody has an idea where to get Seattle Jazz Repertory Live that Tony posted above, can you let us know. I'd love to hear a copy.

http://www.origin-records.com/recordings/r...p?TitleID=82399

[Brad]

Johnny,

Thanks very much. About to put in an order.

[Brad]

I just received the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra Live cd today and it's everything described in the AMG review. Very fantastic arrangements and playing. This is one of the best big bands I've heard in a while. Highly recommended. They take paypal too.