Home » Jazz Musicians » Paul Gonsalves

Paul Gonsalves

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs.

Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement. He played tenor saxophone with the Sabby Lewis band for several years, a stretch split by military service during World War Two. In 1946, he left the Lewis band to join Count Basie for almost three years, was briefly with Dizzy Gillespie in 1949, and then joined Duke Ellington in 1950. He was to remain with Ellington for the rest of his life. In common with many other tenor players who aspired to play with Ellington, Gonsalves learned Ben Webster's famous 'Cottontail' solo note for note, but it was not long before his own distinctive style thrust aside imitation.

By the time of his sixth year with Ellington, Gonsalves had experienced the ups and downs of playing with a big band. Gonsalves was building a reputation as a consummate balladeer and also as a crowd pleaser thanks to Ellington's choice of him as the soloist to bridge the opening and closing sections of 'Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue'. He had already done this on some dance dates when Ellington called this number at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. It had been a mixed night; Ellington was irritated by his placing on the bill, the show was a long one and the audience was already drifting homewards, and some of the band had been more than usually tardy in returning to the stand after the interval. Whatever the truth behind the moment, the fact is that Ellington called this number, the band played the opening section, and then Gonsalves stepped forward and began to play. And he played and he played and he played. His storming, 27-chorus bridge dragged the audience back to its seats. The band had already been playing well and everyone was in marvelous form and enjoying the occasion. Now, stoked by Sam Woodyard's drumming and the leader's jabbing chords from the piano, they transcended all that had come before on that night and much of what had transpired in the quarter century of the band's existence. A legend was born.

The astonishing impact on the audience present that night was imparted to the world, thanks to suddenly focused media attention. This was the start of Ellington's renaissance and neither he nor Gonsalves ever looked back. The down side was, inevitably perhaps, that the saxophonist was obliged to play extended gallery-pleasing, up-tempo solos every night, a fact which overshadowed his great love for ballads.

Read more

Tags

20
Radio & Podcasts

Paul Gonsalves @ 100 And More July Birthdays

Read "Paul Gonsalves @ 100 And More July Birthdays" reviewed by Marc Cohn


Time to celebrate July birthdays! Among the living, David Sanborn @ 75, pianist Mark Soskin, trumpeter Theo Croker, Kenny Burrell and Ahmad Jamal @ 90! We celebrate the saxophonists: Paul Gonsalves @ 100 and Hank Mobley @ 90. Along the way, birthday salutes to Philly Joe Jones, Lee Morgan, Charlie Christian, pianist Billy Taylor and Johnny Hodges. Enjoy the show! Playlist Hank Mobley “Soul Station" from Soul Station (Blue Note) 00:00 Hank Mobley “Old ...

361
Book Excerpts

Diminuendo and Crescendo

Read "Diminuendo and Crescendo" reviewed by Mitch Myers


This excerpt appears in The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling (Harper Paperbacks, 2008).I tried calling my good pal Harlan the other day. I needed some help with my computer and if anyone knows about computers, it's Harlan. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my friend was nowhere to be found. Instead, Harlan's voicemail greeting confronted me.“Hi, I'm not home right now," his voice explained. “This is Paul Gonsalves' saxophone solo from 'Diminuendo ...

Read more articles

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement. He played tenor saxophone with the Sabby Lewis band ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement. He played tenor saxophone with the Sabby Lewis band ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement. He played tenor saxophone with the Sabby Lewis band ...

Video / DVD

Paul Gonsalves: Three Videos

Paul Gonsalves: Three Videos

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers


Video / DVD

Paul Gonsalves: '54 and '57

Paul Gonsalves: '54 and '57

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Yesterday, I posted on tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves and one of his late-career albums with piano wizard Earl Hines. Today, I want to give you a sense of how spectacular Gonsalves was on recordings in 1954 and '57. On the scale of playing styles, I'd put Gonsalves somewhere between Don Byas and Lucky Thompson, with Byas's puffy smoke-stack sound and Thompson's eely yearning. But to be fair, Gonsalves had his own thing, marinated by his years nestled in Duke Ellington's ...

Video / DVD

Paul Gonsalves Meets Earl Hines

Paul Gonsalves Meets Earl Hines

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves's centenary was over the weekend, on July 12. A romantic balladeer and gruff hard-charger, Gonsalves spent much of his career in the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1950 onward. On his small-group leadership and sideman sessions, Gonsalves often was paired with tiger musicians who could rise to the occasion and give as good as they got. Album mates included Clark Terry, Tubby Hayes, Sonny Stitt and Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis. One of the rare non-horn match-ups was Paul ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement. He played tenor saxophone with the Sabby Lewis band ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Jazz Musician of the Day: Paul Gonsalves

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Paul Gonsalves' birthday today!

Although his reputation is often hung upon the mighty gallery-rousing performance he gave at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival with Duke Ellington, tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves was at heart an introspective balladeer. His true legacy is his recorded collection of love songs. Paul Gonsalves was born on 12 July 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts, which is where he had his first professional engagement... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget ...

Chris Gale
saxophone, tenor

Photos

Music

Similar

Stan Getz
saxophone, tenor
Johnny Hodges
saxophone, alto
Joe Lovano
saxophone
Benny Golson
saxophone, tenor
Ben Webster
saxophone, tenor
Johnny Griffin
saxophone, tenor
Coleman Hawkins
saxophone, tenor
Hank Mobley
saxophone, tenor
Benny Carter
saxophone, alto
Stanley Turrentine
saxophone, tenor
Ike Quebec
saxophone, tenor
Gene Ammons
saxophone, tenor

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.