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Phil Urso

Subtlety and restraint defined the playing of Phil Urso, a member of the 1950s' cool school who owed a strong artistic debt to Lester "Pres" Young but never came across as a clone of him. Urso started out on clarinet, but the tenor sax became his primary instrument after he studied it in high school. Though not that well-known, Urso was a solid and expressive jazzman who played with Woody Herman, Jimmy Dorsey, Miles Davis, Terry Gibbs, Oscar Pettiford and others in the 1950s. In 1954, he co-led a quintet with trombonist Bob Brookmeyer that recorded for Savoy, but Urso's best-known association came in 1955 and 1956, when he was a sideman for Chet Baker.

Urso was prominently featured on some of the trumpeter's Pacific Jazz recordings of 1956, which make one wish he had become more visible instead of less so. But after the '50s, very little was heard about Urso on a national level, although he did remain active in the jazz scene of his adopted home of Denver well into the 1990s. Phil recorded an album with Carl Saunders "Salute Chet Baker" for Colorado's own Jazzed Media label a few years ago. Phil was part of the all-star big band that was part of the performoing artists that played for jazz89KUVO's 20th Anniversary Concert in 2005 that was headlined by Marian McPartland. Urso had been ill for the past year.

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155
Album Review

Phil Urso/Carl Saunders: Salute to Chet Baker

Read "Salute to Chet Baker" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Phil Urso won’t remember this, but many years ago—nearly half a century, in fact—I heard him playing in a small club in Washington, DC, and was so impressed that I approached him after the gig and said he sounded to me like Zoot Sims. I made his day then, and now I’d like to give it another try. Urso and trumpeter Carl Saunders have joined forces to sculpt this warmhearted tribute to the incomparable but self-impaled Chet Baker, and although ...

152
Album Review

Phil Urso and Carl Saunders: Phil Urso and Carl Saunders Salute Chet Baker

Read "Phil Urso and Carl Saunders Salute Chet Baker" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The East and West Coast varieties of jazz in the '50s and '60s were as unique and identifiable as the same hip-hop genres they predated. The great purveyors of the West Coast Sound'Art Pepper, Bill Perkins, Hampton Hawes, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Phil Urso'were all able shake over ice the hot bebop of the East Coast, producing a dry and complex brand of modern jazz. The latter two names of this group are forever linked ...

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Recording

Phil Urso & the Jomar Dagron 4

Phil Urso & the Jomar Dagron 4

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In 1959, tenor saxophonist Phil Urso recorded a terrific album for the Legacy label with the Jomar Dagron Quartet in Louisville, Colo. Jomar Dagron wasn't a transplanted Scandinavian jazz musician. In fact, there was no such person named Jomar Dagron. It was a first-name amalgam of drummer Jo Jo Williams, baritone saxophonist Marvin Halliday, organist Dag Walton and tenor saxophonist Ron Washington. All were from Colorado and played there. By the time of this recording session, however, Halliday had left ...

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Video / DVD

Phil Urso and Carl Saunders

Phil Urso and Carl Saunders

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

One of the finest albums of the early 2000s is Phil Urso and Carl Saunders Salute Chet Baker. Recorded in 2002 for the Jazzed Media label, the album featured tenor saxophonist Phil Urso and trumpeter Carl Saunders backed by a trio of Keith Waters (p), Colin Gieg (b) and Paul Romaine (d). The album revived the 1956 pairing of Urso and Baker and mid-1960s reunification of the pair, and featured several songs from what is perhaps their best album, Playboys, ...

145

Obituary

Saxophonist Phil Urso RIP

Saxophonist Phil Urso RIP

Source: All About Jazz


The Philosophy of Urso

No other jazz player in Denver has Phil Urso's pedigree.

Phil Urso holds a letter that trumpeter Chet Baker wrote to him in 1971.

"I have always felt you were and are the most underrated of America's jazz players and composers," Baker begins. His letter continues for a few pages, telling Urso about his experiences abroad, and then concludes, "Well, Phil, we'll say goodbye for now with one more reminder that we love you and wish you all good things, and when anyone asks me about my favorite tenor player, the answer is always Phil Urso."

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