The outstanding saxophonist Don Rendell, who has died aged 89, played with a who’s who of British jazz musicians from the late 1940s onwards. A committed Jehovah’s Witness, he sometimes found less than total enthusiasm from his playing colleagues for his offers of religious tracts, but there was no doubt in their minds about his place among the premier British jazz modernists.
Initially Rendell worked with some of the better dance bands in London, before breaking into the more rarefied world of 50s modern jazz with band leaders such as Johnny Dankworth and Tony Crombie. As a spin-off from these associations and a later period with the Ted Heath orchestra, he began to lead a series of influential combos of his own, featuring his free-flowing, cool tenor saxophone style, and to record frequently.
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