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Don Lanphere
Don Lanphere came to New York when he was 19 and made some impressive recordings with Fats Navarro in 1949, keeping up with the fiery trumpeter. Lanphere played Carnegie Hall with Woody Herman's Second Herd, moved on to Artie Shaw's Gramercy Five, and gigged with the bands of Claude Thornhill, Charlie Barnet and Billy May. Lanphere also made friends with Charlie Parker and recorded the altoist at home with some friends. Those legendary tapes became known as "The Basement Sessions". Lanphere played a second stint with Woody Herman during 1959-1961.
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Don Lanphere, Northwest Sax Legend
by AAJ Staff
Submitted on behalf of Doug Miller.
The first time I met Don Lanphere was at Jazz Alley in Seattle. It was 1988, and I was playing a week-long gig there with James Moody. I went back to the band room to find Moody talking to a robust looking man. This person was wearing a beige sweater and a Greek fisherman’s cap, the latter being popular with saxophonists of the bebop era. Moody introduced me to the man, who of course ...
read moreDon Lanphere: Home At Last
by Joseph Blake
Veteran tenor saxophonist Don Lanphere is a modern Lazarus, a bebop-blowing master brought back to life by Jesus. The 73-year-old Yakima-bred musician was a teenaged fixture on the New York scene during 52nd Street heyday. He made his recording session debut with Max Roach and Fats Navarro in New York in 1948 and hung out with Charlie Parker at bebop’s birth. By the time Lanphere was 22, he had a heroin habit, an arrest record, and had lost his girlfriend, ...
read moreDon Lanphere, Seattle Sax great, dead at 75
Source:
All About Jazz
From 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 ...
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New Don Lanphere Recording featuring Mimi Fox, Banrey MacClure & Mel Brown
Source:
All About Jazz
Northwest saxophonist Don Lanphere has a new recording feature jazz guitar great Mimi Fox, Barney McClure on B3 and Mel Brown on drums. The recording is called Like A Bird and is on Origin Arts. Here is part of the liner notes.
I will admit that when Don initially called me and said I just did something new for me, a Hammond B-3 organ date, and I really want you to write the liner notes," I kinda froze. When I ...
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