No bass. No drums. No piano. Just four saxophones: the late Julius Hemphill playing alto, with Oliver Lake on alto and soprano, David Murray on tenor, and Hamiet Bluiett on clarinet and baritone sax.
Free jazz was flourishing in downtown lofts throughout Manhattan, but Bluiett says he argued for accessibility.
Professor Bop/Flickr
Hamiet Bluiett performs in New Haven, Conn., in 2009.
"I think melody is very important," he says. "We should play more music for women, play stuff that children like, old people, the whole works — what's wrong with all that? So I was one of the guys, when we went into the loft situation, I told the guys, 'Man, we need to play some ballads. You all playing outside, you running people away. I don't want to run people away.' "
Bluiett says that in the beginning, all of the musicians in the World Saxophone Quartet were improvising at the same time, with no one playing a unifying melody or rhythm.
"I said, 'Wait, this ain't making sense,' " Bluiett says. "I don't like this. Because we play a tune, let me stick to what's on the paper. I would say, see what's on the paper and make a bass line out of it. Or make what they call — I don't like the word 'ostinato' — but make up some kind of line using the tunes."
Bluiett At 70
Hamiet Bluiett recently celebrated his 70th birthday. For more than four decades, Bluiett has combined the avant-garde with traditional jazz. Along the way, he's redefined the role of the baritone saxopohone — rarely a leading role in jazz — and co-founded the WSQ, one of the most successful bands on the fringe of modern jazz.
Bluiett was born Sept. 16, 1940, in Lovejoy, Ill., across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. He studied piano, trumpet and clarinet as a child.
At the University of Southern Illinois, he picked up the baritone sax. His notion of what the instrument could do was changed forever when he heard Harry Carney of Duke Ellington's band.
"I was sitting not too far from Harry," Bluiett says. "He was on one side of the band. Duke Ellington was on the other side. And this man's sound was bigger than Duke's whole band — including the drums.
"The sound was big, beautiful, pretty — it was so awesome. That went deep down inside of me. I never forgot it and I never will."
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