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THE CHARLOTTE POST
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; Thursday, January 2. l>8« - THE CHARLOTTE POST - Page IB_
Hail Arthur Blythe As “The Unknown Giant”
By Loretta Manago
Post Managing Editor
Los Angeles and New York
insiders once hailed him as
“Qie unknown giant.” But with
his recent association with
Columbia Records and with such
rave reviews as “the alto
saxophonist with one of the most
flexible and compelling voices in
contemporary music,” Arthur
Blythe no longer remains
obscure.
Blythe says that it was an
unexplainable urge to play an
instrument (any instrument)
that got him veered in the
direction of a musical career. He
was only nine at the time. With
his mother’s direction he soon
found himself playing the alto
iWCB|dione Aid within a matter
of four years he was performing
in a blues band.
inree years later, uiytne's
thoughts turned to jazz and the
music of Monk, Miles, Cannon
ball Adderly and Coltrane. He
recalls that period in his life. “I
saw him (Coltrane) perform a
few times and I was over
whelmed-over, under, around
and through. I was just
whelmed.”
To become the best, perform
ing in local bands was not quite
enough tor Blythe. He took time
out to study and in 1960 he moved
back to Los Angeles. In that
stage of Blythe’s career, finding
steady work was no easy job. ‘‘It
was a very cliquish scene and it
appeared that I didn’t fit in.”
Despite the difficulty that
Blythe was experiencing in find
•»g a break, he did get a break, a
major one at that. He began a
10-year association with legen
dary pianist-composer Horace
Tapscott. ‘‘The involvement led
him and other experimental mu
„ sicians into the Underground
Musicians Association, an Or
ganization formed to preserve
~ black music. According to
Blythe, “We did concerts,
-- . ii.
ARTHUR BLYTHE
-JVo longer remains obscure
seminars, whatever we could to
make the community more
aware of what the music was
about.”
By the time the 70s had
arrived, Blythe was leading his
own trio. With this new group
Blythe traveled the West Coast,
spent some time in Virginia and
played on a couple of movie
soundtracks and made a final
move to New York in 74.
Success somehow dodged
Blythe longer than some others
in the business. At one point in
Blythe's career he found him
‘ self working as a security guard
in a pom theater in order to
make ends meet. But the hard
times were soon to leave.
Having worked with Leon
Thomas, a vocalist, Blythe
landed his first major job as a
sideman when he joined Chico
Hamilton’s band. Associated
with this band of musicians,
Blythe was once praised by
critic Robert Palmer as “simply
outdistancing any other saxo
phonist working in the idiom.
Blythe’s affiliation with Hamil
ton reaped multi-benefits. Not
only did he get a chance to be on
wax through Hamilton’s record
ings, he also received more ex
posure, got more steady work
and had the freedom to explore
the “new music” being worked
out on the lofts, colleges, and
small clubs around the city.
During the two years with
Hamilton, Blythe also worked
with arranger-composer-band
leader Gil Evans. There was a
great deal of music satisfac
tion for Blythe, but Blythe had
other aspirations and it was
nothing that could be done while
he was a member of another
person’s band. So in 1977 he
became the leader of his own
group. His first two albums were
done for the small India Navi
gation label, “The Grip” and
“Metamorphosis” both recorded
live in New York with a sextet.
By 1980 virtually every critic
was hailing Blythe as the most
impressive player of his instru
ment to appear in the last 15
years. It is perhaps the review
by Fatisha that captures and
most accurately tells the essence
of Blythe. He says: “Therefore,
Blythe Spirit...Arthur Blythe the
altoist...is not super, he is
supernal; he is not revolution
ary, he is evolutionary. He is not
transcendent, he transmutes the
variety of possibilities that
there are for uniqueness in
sound into Blythe’s sound. If you
listen to him play a standard or
his musical composition, you’re
hearing the essence of a new
musical spirit. So...kindly I urge
you not let your life be devoid of
spirit and REALLY!!! don’t let
your life be devoid of Blythe
Spirit!”
CCS Auditkxw
The Charlotte Choral Society
will hold auditions for its spring
production January 21, 7-9 p.m.,
in the Shalom Hall of Myers
Park Baptist Church. The spring
production, “On The Town,” is a
light classics to pops program to
be presented May 16-17 at Spirit
Square.