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The Beauty Part
Herbie Mann was born Herbert Jay Solomon in 1930. He was a music-obsessed kid who picked up a sax at 9. By l4, he was in a band that played resorts in the Catskills. In the Army, he carried an instrument instead of a gun.
In l953, a stroke of luck: A friend told him that a jazz band needed a flute player. Mann volunteered--although he'd never played a flute. At the audition, he played sax. His flute, he said, was being repaired. Only when he got the job did he take a crash course in jazz flute.
By the late '50s, he had his own band and was getting somewhere. Again, good fortune: A friend suggested that he add a conga player. His music changed; he was, suddenly, among the first to draw on international sounds and play what is now known as World Music.
And then, in 1962, his band rocked the Village Vanguard. "Comin' Home Baby" was the hit--as a single, it moved high up the charts. "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" show how far you can take Gershwin. Three songs, one of them indelible. Half a million copies sold in the first year or so.
Someone has said there are only three "cool" jazz records from the late '50s and early '60s that you absolutely must have: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis, "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck, and Herbie Mann At the Village Gate. Just so.
In l953, a stroke of luck: A friend told him that a jazz band needed a flute player. Mann volunteered--although he'd never played a flute. At the audition, he played sax. His flute, he said, was being repaired. Only when he got the job did he take a crash course in jazz flute.
By the late '50s, he had his own band and was getting somewhere. Again, good fortune: A friend suggested that he add a conga player. His music changed; he was, suddenly, among the first to draw on international sounds and play what is now known as World Music.
And then, in 1962, his band rocked the Village Vanguard. "Comin' Home Baby" was the hit--as a single, it moved high up the charts. "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" show how far you can take Gershwin. Three songs, one of them indelible. Half a million copies sold in the first year or so.
Someone has said there are only three "cool" jazz records from the late '50s and early '60s that you absolutely must have: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis, "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck, and Herbie Mann At the Village Gate. Just so.
