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Paul Jeffrey

Paul Jeffrey was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and educator. Perhaps best known for performing with Thelonious Monk (1970–1975), Jeffrey also worked with musicians including Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Lionel Hampton and B.B. King, amongst many others. Born in New York City, Jeffrey attended Kingston High School. After graduating in 1951, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in music education at Ithaca College in 1955. He spent the late 1950s touring with bands led by Illinois Jacquet, Elmo Hope, Big Maybelle, and Wynonie Harris. From 1960 to 1961, Jeffrey toured the US with B.B. King, after which he worked as a freelance musician in the New York City area and toured with bands led by Howard McGhee, Clark Terry, and Dizzy Gillespie. 1968 marked Jeffrey’s first studio work as a leader, when he recorded the album Electrifying Sounds on Savoy Records. He toured with the Count Basie Orchestra before beginning his associations with Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. He first joined Monk’s quartet for a multi-day run at the Frog & Nightgown club in Raleigh, North Carolina, in May 1970. Jeffrey performed as a regular member of Monk’s band throughout the remainder of Monk’s public performance career, appearing with Monk throughout the US and Japan at the Village Vanguard, Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall, the Jazz Workshop, the Manne-Hole, the Cellar Door, and many other venues. He was hired by George Wein to organize a 15-piece band for a tribute concert to Monk at Carnegie Hall in 1974; a concert at which Monk made a surprise appearance, replacing Barry Harris on the piano just as the concert was starting. Jeffrey had a lasting association with Charles Mingus throughout the 1970s. He first performed as a member of Mingus’s big band at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972, and he continued performing, arranging, and recording with Mingus through 1979, the year Mingus died. In 1973 and 1974 Jeffrey made three additional studio recordings as leader on the Mainstream Records label. Jeffrey was a saxophone instructor at Columbia University in 1973. He held positions in arranging and jazz history at Jersey City State College (1974), as jazz ensemble director at the University of Hartford (1975–1983), and as an assistant professor of jazz at Livingston College of Rutgers University (1978–83). In 1983, he accepted a position as artist in residence and director of jazz studies at Duke University; a position he held until his retirement in 2003.

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