The saxophonist Fathead Newman was the epitome of what is known in jazz as the “Texas tenor”, a gritty soloist steeped in the blues, but with the projection and tone to punch above his weight in any band. In the 1950s he was the main saxophonist with Ray Charles, and his combination of pugnacious solos, making the most of the few bars he was given in Charles’s vocal arrangements, together with sinuous countermelodies to the vocals themselves, made him an essential ingredient in the formative sound of soul jazz.
Both before and after his time with Charles, Newman was also a brilliant exponent of bebop, the fast-paced style of modern jazz pioneered by Charlie Parker, and in recent years he toured widely playing this kind of music in a quintet with the trombonist Curtis Fuller, and the pianist Cedar Walton, with whom Newman had attended high school in the late 1940s.
On its albums such as Diamondhead, this band also gave Newman the opportunity to display his talents as a jazz flautist, on which instrument he was also a player of the first rank.
He was born Davis Newman Jr in 1933 in Corsicana, Texas, but grew up in Dallas, where he adopted the forename David. His nickname “Fathead” followed in his early teens, when his school music teacher spotted him playing with the sheet music upside down on his stand. The teacher had failed to notice Newman’s photographic memory, which allowed him to master almost any tune at a single glance.
Texas was a relatively small musical pond in the late 1940s, and so Newman came into contact with most aspiring jazz musicians of his own age, notably including the innovative saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and the two men played together in Red Connors’ band. During his time in high school and at Jarvis Christian College, Newman was to play in several other local bands, initially the jazz orchestra of Buster Smith, but, as time went on, more often the popular blues groups led by such stars as Lloyd Glenn, T-Bone Walker and Lowell Fulson.
“I was brought up a bebop musician but it wasn’t so acceptable, especially in Dallas,” Newman said. “You couldn’t make a living doing that, so I had to play rhythm and blues. I adapted to it easily, being from an area where blues was prevalent.”
Fulson’s pianist was Ray Charles, and when Charles formed his own group in 1952 he invited Newman to join him. Charles said he loved Newman’s ability to mix a sweet and tender ballad tone with the earthy blues of his home state. As a result, Newman played alto, tenor or baritone saxophone on virtually all of Charles’s recordings for the next 12 years, including such massive hits as Hallelujah I Love Her So, Night Time is the Right Time and I Got a Woman.
In 1958 Charles helped Newman to make his debut as a leader for Atlantic Records with Fathead — Ray Charles Presents David Newman. The title track, Fathead, was an intriguing blend of Newman’s bebop-influenced tenor sax, with the more orthodox blues accompaniment of Charles’s piano.
This disc was the start of a long and prolific recording career under Newman’s own name, which he continued until his death. His final album, The Blessing, is due out this year.
His work encompassed a huge range of stylistic territory from the deliberate African call-and-response of Congo Chant on his 1961 album Straight Ahead to the trappings of electric funk on the disc Captain Buckles.
In addition to this steady output of impressive recordings, Newman became one of the most in-demand session players for blues and soul records, contributing cameos to albums by Aretha Franklin, B. B. King, Joe Cocker and Doctor John, among many others. More recently he played on albums by the singers Natalie Cole and Roseanna Vitro. He maintained impressive jazz credentials as well, bringing his athletic bebop style to discs by Art Blakey and Red Garland.
In the early 1960s Newman left Ray Charles’s orchestra to battle heroin addiction, but he overcame this, briefly returning to Charles’s band in the early 1970s and then enjoying a long working relationship for almost ten years with the flautist Herbie Mann.
In the 1980s Newman frequently appeared alongside his former Ray Charles colleague, the alto saxophonist Hank Crawford, easily conjuring up the musical atmosphere of their 1950s heyday live and on record.
Thereafter, as well as the partnership with Fuller, he also played alongside many other big names in jazz, and was an established favourite on the international festival circuit. A tall, distinctive figure, with a trim grey beard and sporting a beret, Newman was a softly spoken and charming man, whose easygoing personality belied the fiery punch of his playing.
He was one of the coterie of top- flight jazz musicians recruited by Robert Altman to appear and play in the movie Kansas City in 1995. Almost a decade later he had the interesting experience of watching Bokeem Woodbine playing the character of “Fathead” alongside Jamie Foxx as Charles in the 2004 film Ray. He was not impressed and thought the part was a crude caricature of their real-life relationship.
Newman is survived by his wife, Karen, and four sons.
David “Fathead” Newman, jazz saxophonist and bandleader, was born on February 24, 1933. He died from pancreatic cancer on January 20, 2009, aged 75
No comments:
Post a Comment