Jackie McLean
*Jackie McLean was born on this date in 1931. He was a Black jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator.
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean was born in New York City. His father, John Sr., played guitar in Tiny Bradshaw's orchestra. After his father died in 1939, McLean's musical education was continued by his godfather, record-store-owning stepfather, and several noted teachers. He also received informal tutoring from neighbors Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Charlie Parker. During high school, McLean played in a band with Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, and Captain Kirk (the tenor saxophonist son of Andy Kirk).
Along with Rollins, McLean played on Miles Davis' Dig album when he was 20. As a young man, he also recorded with Gene Ammons, Charles Mingus, and George Wallington as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. McLean joined Blakey after reportedly being punched by Mingus. Fearing for his life, McLean pulled out a knife and contemplated using it against Mingus in self-defense, but later, he was grateful that he had not stabbed the bassist.
McLean's early recordings as a leader were in the hard bop school. He later became an exponent of modal jazz without abandoning his foundation in hard bop. McLean had a heroin addiction throughout his early career, and the resulting loss of his New York City cabaret card forced him to undertake many recording dates to earn income in the absence of nightclub performance opportunities. Consequently, he produced extensive recorded work in the 1950s and 1960s. He was under contract with Blue Note Records from 1959 to 1967, having previously recorded for Prestige. Blue Note offered better pay and more artistic control than other labels, and his work for this organization is highly regarded.
It includes leadership and sideman dates with many musicians, including Donald Byrd, Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan, Ornette Coleman, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Redd, Billy Higgins, Freddie Hubbard, and Bobby Hutcherson. In 1962, he recorded Let Freedom Ring for Blue Note. This album was the culmination of attempts he had made over the years to deal with harmonic problems in jazz, incorporating ideas from the free jazz developments of Ornette Coleman and the "new breed," which inspired his blending of hard bop with the "new thing": "the search is on, Let Freedom Ring." Let Freedom Ring began a period in which he performed with avant-garde jazz musicians rather than the veteran hard-bop performers he had been playing with. His adaptation of modal jazz and free jazz innovations to his vision of hard bop made his recordings from 1962 distinctive.
McLean recorded with dozens of musicians and had a gift for spotting talent. Saxophonist Tina Brooks, trumpeter Charles Tolliver, pianist Larry Willis, trumpeter Bill Hardman, and tubist Ray Draper were among those who benefited from McLean's support in the 1950s and 1960s. Drummers like Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Lenny White, Michael Carvin, and Carl Allen gained early experience with McLean. In 1967, his recording contract, like those of many other progressive musicians, was terminated by Blue Note's new management. His opportunities to record promised so little pay that he abandoned recording as a way to earn a living, concentrating instead on touring. 1968 he began teaching at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He later set up the university's African American Music Department (now the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz) and its Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies program.
In 1970, he and his wife, Dollie McLean, along with jazz bassist Paul (PB) Brown, founded the Artists Collective, Inc. of Hartford, an organization dedicated to preserving the art and culture of the African Diaspora. It provides educational programs and instruction in dance, theatre, music, and visual arts. The membership of McLean's later bands was drawn from his students in Hartford, including Steve Davis and his son René, a jazz saxophonist, flutist, and jazz educator. Also in McLean's Hartford group was Mark Berman, the jazz pianist, and Broadway conductor of Smokey Joe's Cafe and Rent. In 1979, he reached No. 53 on the UK Singles Chart with "Doctor Jekyll and Mister Funk." His Steeplechase recording, New York Calling made with his son René McLean, showed that by 1980, the assimilation of all influences was complete. He received an American Jazz Masters fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001 and numerous other national and international awards. McLean was the only American jazz musician to form a department of studies at a university and a community-based organization almost simultaneously. Each has existed for over three decades.
Jackie McLean, one of the few musicians to be elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in the year of their death, died on March 31, 2006, in Hartford, Connecticut. In 2006, he was elected to the Downbeat Hall of Fame via the International Critics Poll. He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City. Derek Ansell's full-length biography of McLean, Sugar-Free Saxophone (London: Northway Books, 2012), details the story of his career and provides a complete analysis of his music on record.
