Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet (
October 31, 1922–July 22, 2004) was a
jazz tenor
saxophonist most famous for his solo on "
Flying Home". He is better known simply as
Illinois Jacquet. Although he was a pioneer of the honking tenor sax that became a regular feature of jazz playing and a hallmark of
rock and roll, he was a skilled and melodic improviser, both on up-tempo tunes and ballads. He doubled on the
bassoon, one of only a few jazz musicians to use this instrument.
Jacquet was born to a
Sioux mother and a
Creole father in
Broussard, Louisiana and moved to
Houston, Texas, as an infant. His father, Gilbert Jacquet, was a part-time band leader. As a child he performed in his father's band, primarily on the alto saxophone. His older brother
Russell Jacquet played trumpet and his brother Linton played drums.
At 15, Jacquet began playing with the Milton Larkin Orchestra, a Houston-area dance band. In 1939, he moved to
Los Angeles, California, where met
Nat King Cole. Jacquet would sit in with the trio on occasion. In 1940, Cole introduced Jacquet to
Lionel Hampton who had returned to California and was putting together a big band. Hampton wanted to hire Jacquet, but asked the young Jacquet to switch to tenor sax.
In 1942, at age 19, Jacquet soloed on the Hampton Orchestra's recording of "
Flying Home", one of the very first times a honking tenor sax was heard on record. The record became a hit; a jazz classic as well as what can be considered one of the
first rock and roll records. The song immediately became the climax for the live shows and Jacquet became exhausted from having to "bring down the house" every night. The solo was built to weave in and out of the arrangement and continued to be played by every saxophone player who followed Jacquet in the band, notably
Arnett Cobb and
Dexter Gordon, who achieved almost as much fame as Jacquet in playing it. It is one of the very few jazz solos to have been memorized and played very much the same way by everyone who played the song.
He quit the Hampton band in 1943 and joined
Cab Calloway's Orchestra. Jacquet appeared with Cab Calloway's band in
Lena Horne's movie
Stormy Weather.
In 1944 he returned to California and started a small band with his brother Russell and a young
Charlie Mingus. It was at this time that he appeared in the
Academy Award-nominated short film
Jammin' the Blues with
Lester Young. He also appeared at the first
Jazz at the Philharmonic concert.
In 1946 he moved to New York City and joined the
Count Basie orchestra, replacing
Lester Young. Jacquet continued to perform (mostly in Europe) in small groups through the 1960s and 1970s. Jacquet led the Illinois Jacquet Big Band from 1981 until his death. Jacquet became the first jazz musician to be an artist-in-residence at
Harvard University in 1983. He played "C-Jam Blues" with President
Bill Clinton on the White House lawn during Clinton's inaugural ball in 1993.
His solos of the early and mid-1940s and his performances at the Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series, greatly influenced
rhythm and blues and
rock and roll saxophone style, but also continue to be heard in jazz. His honking and screeching emphasized the lower and higher registers of the tenor saxophone. Despite a superficial rawness, the style is still heard in skilled jazz players like
Arnett Cobb, who also became famous for playing "Flying Home" with Hampton, as well as
Sonny Rollins, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and
Jimmy Forrest.
He passed away in his home in
New York City in 2004.
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