The mid-1950s saw not only the first significant strides in the career of the American saxophonist Phil Woods, who has died aged 83, but also the sudden departure of Charlie Parker, bowing unceremoniously out of his chaotically brilliant life in 1955 at only 34. The young Woods played Parker’s instrument, the alto saxophone; he had Parker’s dazzling fluency and speed; and he had the master’s penetrating, blues-steeped tone.
Woods made no secret of his debt to Parker and in studying him obsessively he was no different from thousands of genuflecting young saxists all over the world at the time. But because he was better at it than most, he attracted more attention, and more misrepresentation. Even jazz aficionados tended to consign Woods to the shadow of the artist treated as bebop’s messiah, and as a result his independence and creativity were overlooked for long periods of a very significant jazz career.
Continue reading...