Herbie Mann
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Herbie Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York. Early in his career, he also played saxophones and clarinets, but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flautist during the 1960s.
In 1958 he added a conga player to his band and incorporated elements of African music. In 1961 Mann took a tour of Brazil and returned to the United States to record with Brazilian players. These albums helped popularize the bossa nova. Many of his albums throughout his career returned to Brazilian themes. In the mid-1960s Mann hired young Chick Corea to play in some of his bands.
Mann was an early pioneer in the fusing of jazz and world music. He recorded music in African (1959), reggae, Middle Eastern (1966 and 1967) (with oud and dumbek), and Eastern European styles.
A number of disco-style smooth jazz records in the 1970s brought some criticism from jazz purists but helped Mann remain active during a period of declining interest in jazz.
Mann also had a number of songs cross over to the pop charts — rather rare for a jazz musician. A 1998 interview reported that "At least 25 Herbie Mann albums have made the top 200 pop charts, success denied most of his jazz peers."
He founded his own record labels Embryo and later "Kokopelli Records" after difficulty with established labels. He later left this label, too. He recorded over 100 albums in his career.
Mann was quite prolific and performed often. His first gig was playing in the Catskills at age 15. His last, on May 3, 2003 was at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at age 73. Herbie Mann died at age 73 on July 1 2003 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
Partial discography
- 1957 - Flute Fraternity
- 1959 - Flautista: Herbie Mann plays Afro-Cuban jazz! Verve Records
- 1959 - African Suite
- 1961 - Herbie Mann At the Village Gate (live)
- 1961 - Nirvana
- 1962 - Brazil Bossa Nova & Blues
- 1963 - Do the Bossa Nova - with Castro Neves, Baden Powell and Antonio Carlos Jobim
- 1963 - Returns to the Village Gate - Mann plays a variety of oriental flutes, group includes bowed bass by Nabil Totah
- 1965 - Herbie Mann & João Gilberto with Antonio Carlos Jobim Mann plays on some tracks including a version of One Note Samba with Jobim on piano, and some duets with guitarist Baden Powell.
- 1965 - My Kinda Groove
- 1965 - Latin Mann with pianist Chick Corea
- 1966 - Impressions of the Middle East -
- 1965 - Standing Ovation at Newport with Corea
- 1965 - The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd - with Corea
- 1966 - "Monday Night at the Village Gate - bigger group including Corea and lots of brass. This album is now part of the Returns to the Village gate CD
- 1967 - The Wailing Dervishes
- 1967 - A Mann & A Woman (with Tamiko Jones)
- 1967 - Glory Of Love
- 1969 - Memphis Underground produced by Tom Dowd, musicians include Larry Coryell - Atlantic Records
- 1970 - Stone Flute
- 1970 - Muscle Shoals Nitty Gritty - jazz/r'n'b with Roy Ayers, Miroslav Vitousand the Muscle Shoals rhythm section
- 1971 - Memphis Two Step
- 1971 - Push Push - with Duane Allman
- 1973 - Turtle Bay
- 1974 - London Underground - recorded in London - Atlantic Records
- 1974 - Reggae recorded in London with Mick Taylor and Albert Lee
- 1975 - Discotheque - with vocals by Cissy Houston, contains the Top 20 hit "Hijack"
- 1975 - Waterbed - with Houston
- 1976 - Surprises - with Houston
- 1977 - Fire Island with vocalist Googie Coppola
- 1977 - The Atlantic Family Live in Montreaux
- 1978 - Brazil: Once Again
- 1979 - Sunbelt
- Deep Pocket
- 1987 - Jasil Brazz
- 1989 - Opalescence
- 1997 - Peace Pieces
- Celebration
- 1997 - America Brazil
- Sona Terra
- 2000 - Eastern European Roots
