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Steve Heckman

Steve Heckman was born in New York City. He grew up at an opportune time, getting exposed to the best jazz in the world during one of jazz's most creative periods, the mid-1960's. He began clarinet at 12, then alto and tenor sax, ultimately choosing tenor as his favorite horn. Over the years he also added soprano and baritone sax, as well as flute and alto flute. He has written 75 original jazz tunes. He is self-taught in improvisation, but thanks teachers Allen Fields, Ray Musiker and Carmine Caruso for assistance in the theoretical and technical grounding necessary to blow decent jazz.

The most significant spark to set his spirit on fire with love and enthusiasm for jazz was when, at age 15, he first heard the music of John Coltrane: Worlds split open, and he was propelled into a realm of unparallelled richness and dimension which has profoundly influenced his approach to both playing, as well as composition.

Listening to 'Trane's "A Love Supreme" from start to finish every day after school through 11th and 12th grade became his daily ritual; he also absorbed as much as possible, listening to everything he could find by Trane. Other significant influences include: Bird, Wayne Shorter, Charles Lloyd, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, Lee Konitz, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, George Coleman, Jackie McLean, Sonny Stitt, Charlie Rouse, Jimmy Guiffre, Michael Brecker, Steve Grossman, Bob Berg, Jan Garbarek, Billy Harper, Jerry Bergonzi, and many others too numerous to mention. Steve has performed with a variety of jazz greats, ranging in styles from traditional to bebop to "avant-garde". At age 17 he was fortunate to meet and play with veteran bebop trumpeter Howard McGhee, as well as perform with pioneering trombonist Roswell Rudd's Blues for Planet Earth Orchestra (which included such greats as Charles Davis, Roland Alexander, Mike Mantler, Mike Lawrence, Lewis Worrell and Beaver Harris). At college in upstate New York Steve played with such notables as bassist Slam Stewart, trombonists Si Zentner and Urbie Green, and at the University of Illinois with the Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey bands (led by Lee Castle and Warren Covington, respectively). Over the years he has kept good company with the likes of guitarists Cal Collins, Bruce Foreman, Mimi Fox; pianists Jim McNeely, George Cables, Andrew Hill, Jessica Williams, Larry Vuckovich and Weber Drummond; drummers Eddie Moore, Donald Bailey, Pete Escovedo, and Helcio Melito; trumpeter Tom Harrell; vocalists Frankye Kelley, Madeline Eastman, Kellye Gray, Buddy Connor, and the Modernaires with Peter Duchin.

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6
Album Review

Zeena Quinn: Going My Way

Read "Going My Way" reviewed by Jack Bowers


With so many singers these days competing to tempt the ears of an ever-shrinking jazz audience, success often rests not only on the talents of the vocalist but on the songs he or she chooses to interpret. On Going My Way, San Francisco-based vocalist Zeena Quinn puts her best foot forward on the opening numbers, “Lover" and “So in Love" (it's hard to go astray with Rodgers and Hart or Cole Porter) but it takes her quite a while to ...

4
Album Review

Steve Heckman & Matt Clark: Some Other Time/Slow Café

Read "Some Other Time/Slow Café" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Back in the summer of 2004, saxophonist Steve Heckman and pianist Matt Clark took to the studio to lay down some duo tracks. Those recordings have now finally found their way into the world through Some Other Time/Slow Café, an album presenting a dozen pieces that speak with casual and reflective charm while highlighting the rapport that these two men have with one another. The straightforward sensibility of this pair is front and center across this entire ...

6
Album Review

Steve Heckman: Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute

Read "Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Saxophonist Steve Heckman has spent a good deal of his career walking in the footsteps of saxophone giant John Coltrane, on CD offerings such as Search For Peace (Jazzed Media, 2014) and With John In Mind (World City Music, 2003). With that in mind, nobody has ever--and almost certainly never will--match 'Trane in his ability to infuse his spiritual side into his music; or to play with half the Coltrane-ian freedom or fervor. To his credit, Heckman doesn't try. He, ...

2
Album Review

Steve Heckman: Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute

Read "Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Whenever words such as A Coltrane Tribute adorn the front cover of an album, one question that inevitably springs to mind is, which John Coltrane? Trane, after all, was never one to stand still, or, as the saying goes, to rest on his laurels (truth be told, he hardly ever rested at all, choosing instead to use almost every waking hour to pursue his spiritual muse). Saxophonist Steve Heckman, a long-time admirer of Coltrane, makes no apologies for loving “his ...

4
Album Review

Steve Heckman Quintet: Search for Peace

Read "Search for Peace" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Saxophonist Steve Heckman's Search For Peace serves as something of a companion piece to his previous album--Born To Be Blue (Jazzed Media, 2013). Both albums feature the same band, present (mostly) familiar material, and walk pleasingly straightforward paths. So what's different? Well, for starters, Matt Clark played piano on Heckman's last date, but he's taken to the Hammond B-3 here. Then there's Heckman's choice of horns. The man-in-charge played clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone and tenor saxophone on Born To ...

5
Album Review

Steve Heckman Quintet: Search for Peace

Read "Search for Peace" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Steve Heckman is a meat 'n potatoes saxophonist whose previous recording, Born to be Blue (Jazzed Media, 2013) was a trip through the heart of the jazz mainstream, circa 1960 (with better sonics). Heckman follows Born to be Blue with a right turn into hard bop atop of an organ-guitar quartet. For the present recording, Heckman employs his same band as Born to be Blue with Matt Clark switching to the Hammond B-3. The result is a ...

9
Album Review

Steve Heckman Quintet: Search for Peace

Read "Search for Peace" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Steve Heckman says he was inspired to play the tenor saxophone after hearing John Coltrane, especially Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Luckily, Heckman did not follow his mentor completely off the deep end but remained instead true to his bop-bred roots while developing a singular voice of his own on the tenor. On Search for Peace (a title Coltrane would no doubt have endorsed), San Francisco-based Heckman's fourth album as leader, Trane's impact is never far away but has been tempered ...

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"Virtuosic command of his horns” —Jazz Times

"Exciting and musically superb" —Cadence

"Some of the best music I've heard anywhere." —Jazz Now

"Steve pays great homage to Trane's legacy while maintaining his own individual voice throughout this richly satisfying recording endeavor" — Keith Hines: KCSM Radio

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Going My Way

Self Produced
2020

buy

Some Other Time/Slow...

World City Music
2017

buy

Legacy: A Coltrane...

Jazzed Media
2016

buy

Search for Peace

Jazzed Media
2014

buy

Born to be Blue

Jazzed Media
2013

buy

Live at Yoshi's

World City Music
2005

buy

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