Warne Marsh

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Warne Marion Marsh (26 October 1927 - 17 December 1987) was an American saxophonist born in Los Angeles.

Marsh came from an affluent background: his father was the cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh (1892-1941), and his mother Elizabeth was a violinist. Mae Marsh, the actress, was his aunt.

He was tutored by Lennie Tristano, and along with Lee Konitz became one of the pre-eminent saxophonists of the Tristano-inspired "Cool School". He was often recorded in the company of other Cool School musicians, and remained one of the most faithful to the Tristano philosophy of improvisation – the faith in the purity of the long line, the avoidance of licks and emotional chain-pulling, the concentration on endlessly mining the same small body of jazz standards. Nevertheless, his distinctively sombre, grainy tone (which set Marsh apart from other Lester Young-influenced saxophonists); uncannily fluent use of the high register; and rhythmically subtle lines are immediately recognizable. He has been called by Anthony Braxton "the greatest vertical improviser." In the 1970s he gained renewed exposure as a member of Supersax, a large ensemble which played orchestral arrangements of Charlie Parker solos; Marsh also recorded one of his most celebrated albums during this period, All Music, with the Supersax rhythm section. He died onstage at the Los Angeles club Donte's in 1987, in the middle of playing "Out of Nowhere". Though he remains something of a cult figure among jazz fans and musicians, his influence has grown since his death; younger players such as Mark Turner have increasingly been borrowing from his music as a way of counterbalancing the pervasive influence of John Coltrane. Marsh's discography remains somewhat scattered and elusive, as much of it was done for small labels, but more and more of his work has been issued on compact disc in recent years.

  • Chamberlain, Safford (2000). An Unsung Cat: The Life and Music of Warne Marsh. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-3718-8
  • Cook, Richard & Morton, Brian (2003). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (6th edn). Penguin. ISBN 0-14-051521-6
  • The Warne Marsh Web Site with comprehensive discography etc - http://www.warnemarsh.info
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