Jazz Saxophonist James Moody Dies
Saxophonist achieved fame as an associate of Dizzy Gillespie and
co-composer of "Moody's Mood for Love"
By Lee Mergner
Saxophonist, flutist and composer James Moody died today at his home in
the San Diego area. He was 85 years old. Moody had been suffering from
pancreatic cancer and had recently chosen to decline treatment by
radiation or chemotherapy.
Funeral services are scheduled for December 18 at Greenwood Memorial
Park, 4300 Imperial Ave in San Diego with a morning viewing and
graveside service at 12:30 and a celebration of his life at Faith Chapel
on 9400 Campo Road in Spring Valley at 2 PM.
In February of this year, Moody was operated on have the tumor resected,
but according to his wife Linda, it proved to be impossible without
endangering his life. The doctors removed his gallbladder and did a
double bypass of his digestive system to remove the blockage. He was in
the ICU at UCSD Thornton Hospital for almost 8 weeks with life
threatening infections and was finally able to come home in May. Since
that time Moody rested at home under the care of his wife and a team of
hospice care workers, his time spent watching TV, listening to music and
playing occasionally.
Once the Moody's announced about a month ago via his website that he was
suffering from pancreatic cancer and awaiting his fate sans medical
intervention, the jazz community flooded his site and his e-mail with
their prayers and well-wishes. Above and beyond his impact as a jazz
musician, Moody was a man who seemed to make friends everywhere he went.
"There's an old philosophy, and it's been said many times, but people
don't heed it," Moody told JT's Bill Milkowski in 2004. "And that is
simply this: 'So a man thinketh, so it is.' I think I'm young. My wife
says I'm 78 going on 18, and that's very true in a way. That's how I feel."
Moody, who preferred to be called by his last name, was born in
Savannah, Georgia on March 26, 1925. It is little known that Moody was
born partially deaf. As a result when he was young and unable to hear
the teacher, he was labelled mentally deficient and ordered to attend a
school for the mentally disabled. Shortly thereafter, his family moved
to Newark, New Jersey, where he attended public school. Eventually, his
hearing problem was diagnosed and he was sent to the Bruce Street School
for the Deaf He later attended Arts High in Newark, N.J.
His uncle gave him an alto sax when he was 16. After hearing Buddy Tate
and Don Byas perform with the Count Basie Band at the Adams Theater in
Newark, New Jersey, Moody switched to the tenor saxophone. He was just
18 years old when he was drafted into the Air Force in 1943 during World
War II. Unable to play with the white Air Force band, Moody played in an
unofficial Negro Air Force band for three years. He was disturbed by the
segregation that was prevalent in the military service at that time.
Incredibly, he met Dizzy Gillespie while in the Air Force, as Gillespie
came through for a performance on the base. After he got out of the
service, in 1946, he joined the recently formed Dizzy Gillespie Big
Band, one of the most important jazz groups at that time.
In a piece in the March 2004 issue of JazzTimes, Moody told writer Bill
Milkowski that Dizzy Gillespie had an enormous impact on his life. "Diz
influenced me from every standpoint. He was a friend, a father, a
confidante, just everything to me. I'm 78 years old and I'm still
realizing how much he affected me. And man, a lot of times I'll see
something, and I'll remember what Diz told me and I'll go, 'Ah, that's
what he meant!' Diz, boy-he was just a nice guy, a good man. And he was
a child, too; he never grew up. But he was a child like a fox. I'm just
thankful to him every day for giving me a chance because he knew-he
must've seen something in me to let me be in the band for a minute." In
turn, Gillespie once said of his frontline partner, "Playing with James
Moody is like playing with a continuation of myself."
He stayed with Gillespie for two years and appeared on several key
recordings from that period, including "O.W.," "Oop-Pop-a-Da" and "Two
Bass Hit."
[Note: The rest of this article is excerpted from Bill Milkowski's
feature on Moody from 2004.]
In 1946, Moody was also a member of the Bebop Boys, an all-star group
led by Ray Brown and featuring Dizzy and Dave Burns on trumpets, John
Brown on alto sax, Moody on tenor, Hank Jones on piano, Milt Jackson on
vibes and Joe Harris on drums. (Moody's first-ever recordings in the
studio come from a September 25, 1946, session with the Bebop Boys,
which also produced the blazing tenor feature "Moody Speaks").
In 1948, Moody made his recording debut as a leader for the Blue Note
label-James Moody and His Modernists, featuring arranger Gil Fuller and
Art Blakey on drums along with such regular Gillespie sidemen as Ernie
Henry on alto sax, Cecil Payne on baritone sax, Dave Burns and Elmon
Wright on trumpets, Chano Pozo on bongos and vocals, Nelson Boyd on
bass, James Forman on piano and Teddy Stewart on drums.
In 1949 Moody moved to Europe, and in Sweden that year he recorded his
tour de force of improvisation on the Jimmy McHugh Tin Pan Alley tune
"I'm in the Mood for Love" (which can be heard on James Moody & His
Swedish Crowns on the Dragon label). Back in the States, pioneering
vocalese artist Eddie Jefferson penned lyrics to Moody's exact solo on
that tune and dubbed it "Moody's Mood for Love."
Meanwhile, an unknown singer named Clarence Beeks-aka King
Pleasure-heard Jefferson sing his vocalese version of Moody's
masterpiece at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati. Beeks promptly committed
the performance and song to memory-the lyrics, phrasing and all of the
nuances. In November 1951, Beeks sang Jefferson's signature vocalese
offering at the Apollo Theater Amateur Hour, winning first prize along
with a contract to record the tune for Prestige. The 1952 release of
King Pleasure's debut recording, "Moody's Mood for Love," became an
instant hit, to the utter surprise of Moody, who found himself an
"overnight sensation" when he returned to the States that same year.
"It was amazing!" he recalls, "because I had no idea what a hit it was.
So when I went to play a gig somewhere I'd be shocked at how packed the
place would be. Suddenly I was being treated like a star or something. I
never will forget the record company guy calling me up and asking, 'You
want a Cadillac? You want a Buick? Whatever you want, I'll buy it for
you.' And when I told my mother that, she said, 'Son, people do not give
you anything for nothing. Watch out!' And she was right. There were all
kinds of come-ons in those days but my mother-God bless her, man-she
hipped me to a lot of things."
Today, Moody still includes "Moody's Mood for Love" in every set he
plays. "Yeah, and if I don't, I might as well not come to the gig," he
laughs. "It's like Tony Bennett with 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco.'
He still sings it and loves singing it, and I'm still singing 'Moody's
Mood.'" (On a side note: After King Pleasure's version of "Moody's Mood
for Love" became a smash hit, Jimmy McHugh sued for copyright
infringement and won a partial victory in court, ultimately splitting
proceeds with Moody on sales of any versions of the tune.)
Upon returning to the States in 1952, Moody worked with vocalist-hipster
Babs Gonzales until they had a parting of the ways a year later. As
Moody explains, "Babs was talking about 'I want more bread,' and I
thought he was getting enough 'bread,' as he called it. So he said,
'Well, then I'm leaving.' And I said, 'Bye.' After Babs split we went to
Cleveland and the word was out that I was looking for a singer to sing
'Moody's Mood for Love' with the band. And Eddie Jefferson came back and
applied for the gig. I had no idea that he was the one who wrote the
lyrics to 'Moody's Mood,' so when I found out I said, 'You got the job,
man.' And it was cool from then on. Everywhere we would go we'd have to
do that tune two or three times a night. I'd have to play it, and Eddie
would have to sing it. And it was wonderful."
Jefferson remained a fixture in Moody's group through 1962. In 1963,
Moody rejoined Gillespie and performed in the trumpeter's quintet for
the remainder of the decade, but by the outset of the '70s he had lost
his enthusiasm for the road. As he recalls, "My daughter was born, and I
wanted to see her grow up. I didn't get to see my other children grow up
since I was always away. So I finally just said, 'Aw, the heck with
this.' That's when I went to Las Vegas, and I stayed there for seven and
a half years."
Moody's tenor-playing pal Harold Land is the one who hipped him to the
steady gig opportunities in Las Vegas. During that lucrative period,
from 1971 to 1978, Moody worked at the Flamingo Hilton, where he played
shows with Leslie Uggams and Sandler & Young, and also at the bigger Las
Vegas Hilton, where he played with a host of big-name entertainers
including Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Liberace, Milton Berle, Bill
Cosby, the Rockettes, Lou Rawls, Ike and Tina Turner, Glen Campbell,
Charlie Rich, Connie Stevens, the Everly Brothers, Steve and Eydie,
Eddie Fisher and Bobbie Gentry.
He was back in New York by the early '80s, and Moody's career received a
boost with a Grammy nomination in 1985 for Best Jazz Instrumental
Performance for his playing on Manhattan Transfer's Vocalese. He then
signed to RCA/Novus, and Moody's 1986 debut for the label was the
straightahead quartet date Something Special featuring pianist Kenny
Barron. His follow-up was Moving Forward, and in 1989 he was reunited
with his friend and mentor Dizzy Gillespie on "Con Alma" and "Get the
Booty" on Sweet and Lovely.
On March 26, 1995, a 70th birthday celebration for Moody, hosted by Bill
Cosby, was held at New York's Blue Note club. Telarc recorded the show
and released it as Moody's Party: Live at the Blue Note. He followed
that up with two tribute recordings for Warner Bros.: 1996's Sinatra
tribute Young at Heart and 1997's Moody Plays Mancini.
He made several recordings during the last decade of his life, including
Homage, Moody 4A and Moody 4B, the latter two for IPO. Moody 4B was
recently nominated for a Grammy award.
"I have a goal in life, and my goal is to play better tomorrow than I
did today," Moody says. "I'm not in competition with other musicians
because there's too much going on, you can't be into that. So I'm in
competition with myself. I just want to be able to play better tomorrow
than I did today. And I've got to hurry up and play better because it
seems like when I practice and I think I got something, I go outside and
everybody else has got it and gone. So I'm still working at it because I
haven't found it yet. It's a never-ending search. It's the old thing of
I'll never get it but it's worth trying."
Moody's 2004 album for Savoy, Homage, featured tunes specially composed
for the record by some of his friends. Here's what a few of the
composers had to say about Moody, for the piece written by Bill.Milkowski.
Kenny Barron: "He's just an amazing person for so many reasons. Number
one is just his boundless energy. Number two is his humility. He's just
a great musician and a really great guy. We spent four years together
with Dizzy and what used to amaze me is that he would eat these chord
changes up and then come back and say, 'Man, does that sound OK?' And
I'd say, 'Come on, Moody, are you kidding?' He's like the eternal
student of music, and he keeps on getting better. The other thing I can
say about Moody is I wanna be like him when I grow up. The piece I
contributed was just a blues because that's something that Moody excels
at, and he can put any kind of twist on it-it could be very modern, it
could be gutbucket, whatever it is, whatever it calls for. He's just a
real open-minded cat, and he brings so much to the music. He's open to
what the younger guys are doing, interested in finding out what it is
and how they're doing it. So I really take my hat off to him. And I
really would like to be like that when I'm 78-always ready to learn."
Marc Copland: "I found working with Moody to be a humbling and
humanizing experience. This is the kindest person I ever worked for, and
he became the godfather of my son. Here's a man who played with the
greats, yet he doesn't carry an attitude or rest on his laurels. All he
talks about sometimes is how much he needs to practice, how far he still
has to go in this music. As a human being, he's old enough to be my
father, and over the years we've had a deep exchange of musical and
personal ideas. He once said to me with a twinkle in his eye, 'Marc,
sometimes I'm the father, and sometimes you're the father. I know!' My
personal homage to Moody is this: Every time I play, every time I
travel, I hope to play with the same spirit that he does and hope to
treat other musicians with the same kindness and respect that he does."
Chick Corea: "James is a treasure of an artist and musician. He makes me
smile every time I meet him and every time I hear him play. His work
with Dizzy will remain unforgettable."
David Hazeltine: "What's amazing to me is that at his age, after all the
music that Moody has performed and recorded, he remains a serious
student of jazz, always looking for new ideas and interesting,
innovative ways to articulate the chord changes."
Saxophonist achieved fame as an associate of Dizzy Gillespie and
co-composer of "Moody's Mood for Love"
By Lee Mergner
Saxophonist, flutist and composer James Moody died today at his home in
the San Diego area. He was 85 years old. Moody had been suffering from
pancreatic cancer and had recently chosen to decline treatment by
radiation or chemotherapy.
Funeral services are scheduled for December 18 at Greenwood Memorial
Park, 4300 Imperial Ave in San Diego with a morning viewing and
graveside service at 12:30 and a celebration of his life at Faith Chapel
on 9400 Campo Road in Spring Valley at 2 PM.
In February of this year, Moody was operated on have the tumor resected,
but according to his wife Linda, it proved to be impossible without
endangering his life. The doctors removed his gallbladder and did a
double bypass of his digestive system to remove the blockage. He was in
the ICU at UCSD Thornton Hospital for almost 8 weeks with life
threatening infections and was finally able to come home in May. Since
that time Moody rested at home under the care of his wife and a team of
hospice care workers, his time spent watching TV, listening to music and
playing occasionally.
Once the Moody's announced about a month ago via his website that he was
suffering from pancreatic cancer and awaiting his fate sans medical
intervention, the jazz community flooded his site and his e-mail with
their prayers and well-wishes. Above and beyond his impact as a jazz
musician, Moody was a man who seemed to make friends everywhere he went.
"There's an old philosophy, and it's been said many times, but people
don't heed it," Moody told JT's Bill Milkowski in 2004. "And that is
simply this: 'So a man thinketh, so it is.' I think I'm young. My wife
says I'm 78 going on 18, and that's very true in a way. That's how I feel."
Moody, who preferred to be called by his last name, was born in
Savannah, Georgia on March 26, 1925. It is little known that Moody was
born partially deaf. As a result when he was young and unable to hear
the teacher, he was labelled mentally deficient and ordered to attend a
school for the mentally disabled. Shortly thereafter, his family moved
to Newark, New Jersey, where he attended public school. Eventually, his
hearing problem was diagnosed and he was sent to the Bruce Street School
for the Deaf He later attended Arts High in Newark, N.J.
His uncle gave him an alto sax when he was 16. After hearing Buddy Tate
and Don Byas perform with the Count Basie Band at the Adams Theater in
Newark, New Jersey, Moody switched to the tenor saxophone. He was just
18 years old when he was drafted into the Air Force in 1943 during World
War II. Unable to play with the white Air Force band, Moody played in an
unofficial Negro Air Force band for three years. He was disturbed by the
segregation that was prevalent in the military service at that time.
Incredibly, he met Dizzy Gillespie while in the Air Force, as Gillespie
came through for a performance on the base. After he got out of the
service, in 1946, he joined the recently formed Dizzy Gillespie Big
Band, one of the most important jazz groups at that time.
In a piece in the March 2004 issue of JazzTimes, Moody told writer Bill
Milkowski that Dizzy Gillespie had an enormous impact on his life. "Diz
influenced me from every standpoint. He was a friend, a father, a
confidante, just everything to me. I'm 78 years old and I'm still
realizing how much he affected me. And man, a lot of times I'll see
something, and I'll remember what Diz told me and I'll go, 'Ah, that's
what he meant!' Diz, boy-he was just a nice guy, a good man. And he was
a child, too; he never grew up. But he was a child like a fox. I'm just
thankful to him every day for giving me a chance because he knew-he
must've seen something in me to let me be in the band for a minute." In
turn, Gillespie once said of his frontline partner, "Playing with James
Moody is like playing with a continuation of myself."
He stayed with Gillespie for two years and appeared on several key
recordings from that period, including "O.W.," "Oop-Pop-a-Da" and "Two
Bass Hit."
[Note: The rest of this article is excerpted from Bill Milkowski's
feature on Moody from 2004.]
In 1946, Moody was also a member of the Bebop Boys, an all-star group
led by Ray Brown and featuring Dizzy and Dave Burns on trumpets, John
Brown on alto sax, Moody on tenor, Hank Jones on piano, Milt Jackson on
vibes and Joe Harris on drums. (Moody's first-ever recordings in the
studio come from a September 25, 1946, session with the Bebop Boys,
which also produced the blazing tenor feature "Moody Speaks").
In 1948, Moody made his recording debut as a leader for the Blue Note
label-James Moody and His Modernists, featuring arranger Gil Fuller and
Art Blakey on drums along with such regular Gillespie sidemen as Ernie
Henry on alto sax, Cecil Payne on baritone sax, Dave Burns and Elmon
Wright on trumpets, Chano Pozo on bongos and vocals, Nelson Boyd on
bass, James Forman on piano and Teddy Stewart on drums.
In 1949 Moody moved to Europe, and in Sweden that year he recorded his
tour de force of improvisation on the Jimmy McHugh Tin Pan Alley tune
"I'm in the Mood for Love" (which can be heard on James Moody & His
Swedish Crowns on the Dragon label). Back in the States, pioneering
vocalese artist Eddie Jefferson penned lyrics to Moody's exact solo on
that tune and dubbed it "Moody's Mood for Love."
Meanwhile, an unknown singer named Clarence Beeks-aka King
Pleasure-heard Jefferson sing his vocalese version of Moody's
masterpiece at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati. Beeks promptly committed
the performance and song to memory-the lyrics, phrasing and all of the
nuances. In November 1951, Beeks sang Jefferson's signature vocalese
offering at the Apollo Theater Amateur Hour, winning first prize along
with a contract to record the tune for Prestige. The 1952 release of
King Pleasure's debut recording, "Moody's Mood for Love," became an
instant hit, to the utter surprise of Moody, who found himself an
"overnight sensation" when he returned to the States that same year.
"It was amazing!" he recalls, "because I had no idea what a hit it was.
So when I went to play a gig somewhere I'd be shocked at how packed the
place would be. Suddenly I was being treated like a star or something. I
never will forget the record company guy calling me up and asking, 'You
want a Cadillac? You want a Buick? Whatever you want, I'll buy it for
you.' And when I told my mother that, she said, 'Son, people do not give
you anything for nothing. Watch out!' And she was right. There were all
kinds of come-ons in those days but my mother-God bless her, man-she
hipped me to a lot of things."
Today, Moody still includes "Moody's Mood for Love" in every set he
plays. "Yeah, and if I don't, I might as well not come to the gig," he
laughs. "It's like Tony Bennett with 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco.'
He still sings it and loves singing it, and I'm still singing 'Moody's
Mood.'" (On a side note: After King Pleasure's version of "Moody's Mood
for Love" became a smash hit, Jimmy McHugh sued for copyright
infringement and won a partial victory in court, ultimately splitting
proceeds with Moody on sales of any versions of the tune.)
Upon returning to the States in 1952, Moody worked with vocalist-hipster
Babs Gonzales until they had a parting of the ways a year later. As
Moody explains, "Babs was talking about 'I want more bread,' and I
thought he was getting enough 'bread,' as he called it. So he said,
'Well, then I'm leaving.' And I said, 'Bye.' After Babs split we went to
Cleveland and the word was out that I was looking for a singer to sing
'Moody's Mood for Love' with the band. And Eddie Jefferson came back and
applied for the gig. I had no idea that he was the one who wrote the
lyrics to 'Moody's Mood,' so when I found out I said, 'You got the job,
man.' And it was cool from then on. Everywhere we would go we'd have to
do that tune two or three times a night. I'd have to play it, and Eddie
would have to sing it. And it was wonderful."
Jefferson remained a fixture in Moody's group through 1962. In 1963,
Moody rejoined Gillespie and performed in the trumpeter's quintet for
the remainder of the decade, but by the outset of the '70s he had lost
his enthusiasm for the road. As he recalls, "My daughter was born, and I
wanted to see her grow up. I didn't get to see my other children grow up
since I was always away. So I finally just said, 'Aw, the heck with
this.' That's when I went to Las Vegas, and I stayed there for seven and
a half years."
Moody's tenor-playing pal Harold Land is the one who hipped him to the
steady gig opportunities in Las Vegas. During that lucrative period,
from 1971 to 1978, Moody worked at the Flamingo Hilton, where he played
shows with Leslie Uggams and Sandler & Young, and also at the bigger Las
Vegas Hilton, where he played with a host of big-name entertainers
including Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Liberace, Milton Berle, Bill
Cosby, the Rockettes, Lou Rawls, Ike and Tina Turner, Glen Campbell,
Charlie Rich, Connie Stevens, the Everly Brothers, Steve and Eydie,
Eddie Fisher and Bobbie Gentry.
He was back in New York by the early '80s, and Moody's career received a
boost with a Grammy nomination in 1985 for Best Jazz Instrumental
Performance for his playing on Manhattan Transfer's Vocalese. He then
signed to RCA/Novus, and Moody's 1986 debut for the label was the
straightahead quartet date Something Special featuring pianist Kenny
Barron. His follow-up was Moving Forward, and in 1989 he was reunited
with his friend and mentor Dizzy Gillespie on "Con Alma" and "Get the
Booty" on Sweet and Lovely.
On March 26, 1995, a 70th birthday celebration for Moody, hosted by Bill
Cosby, was held at New York's Blue Note club. Telarc recorded the show
and released it as Moody's Party: Live at the Blue Note. He followed
that up with two tribute recordings for Warner Bros.: 1996's Sinatra
tribute Young at Heart and 1997's Moody Plays Mancini.
He made several recordings during the last decade of his life, including
Homage, Moody 4A and Moody 4B, the latter two for IPO. Moody 4B was
recently nominated for a Grammy award.
"I have a goal in life, and my goal is to play better tomorrow than I
did today," Moody says. "I'm not in competition with other musicians
because there's too much going on, you can't be into that. So I'm in
competition with myself. I just want to be able to play better tomorrow
than I did today. And I've got to hurry up and play better because it
seems like when I practice and I think I got something, I go outside and
everybody else has got it and gone. So I'm still working at it because I
haven't found it yet. It's a never-ending search. It's the old thing of
I'll never get it but it's worth trying."
Moody's 2004 album for Savoy, Homage, featured tunes specially composed
for the record by some of his friends. Here's what a few of the
composers had to say about Moody, for the piece written by Bill.Milkowski.
Kenny Barron: "He's just an amazing person for so many reasons. Number
one is just his boundless energy. Number two is his humility. He's just
a great musician and a really great guy. We spent four years together
with Dizzy and what used to amaze me is that he would eat these chord
changes up and then come back and say, 'Man, does that sound OK?' And
I'd say, 'Come on, Moody, are you kidding?' He's like the eternal
student of music, and he keeps on getting better. The other thing I can
say about Moody is I wanna be like him when I grow up. The piece I
contributed was just a blues because that's something that Moody excels
at, and he can put any kind of twist on it-it could be very modern, it
could be gutbucket, whatever it is, whatever it calls for. He's just a
real open-minded cat, and he brings so much to the music. He's open to
what the younger guys are doing, interested in finding out what it is
and how they're doing it. So I really take my hat off to him. And I
really would like to be like that when I'm 78-always ready to learn."
Marc Copland: "I found working with Moody to be a humbling and
humanizing experience. This is the kindest person I ever worked for, and
he became the godfather of my son. Here's a man who played with the
greats, yet he doesn't carry an attitude or rest on his laurels. All he
talks about sometimes is how much he needs to practice, how far he still
has to go in this music. As a human being, he's old enough to be my
father, and over the years we've had a deep exchange of musical and
personal ideas. He once said to me with a twinkle in his eye, 'Marc,
sometimes I'm the father, and sometimes you're the father. I know!' My
personal homage to Moody is this: Every time I play, every time I
travel, I hope to play with the same spirit that he does and hope to
treat other musicians with the same kindness and respect that he does."
Chick Corea: "James is a treasure of an artist and musician. He makes me
smile every time I meet him and every time I hear him play. His work
with Dizzy will remain unforgettable."
David Hazeltine: "What's amazing to me is that at his age, after all the
music that Moody has performed and recorded, he remains a serious
student of jazz, always looking for new ideas and interesting,
innovative ways to articulate the chord changes."
Add a Reply