ABSTRACT
Saxophonist Gary Bartz, born September 26, 1940, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and was influenced early on by saxophonists Coleman Hawkins and Louis Jordan. Arriving in New York City in 1959 to study composition at Juilliard, Bartz found himself at the center of one of the most creative periods of growth for jazz music. Playing alongside Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, Pharoah Sanders, Donald Byrd and Woody Shaw, Bartz would eventually work with Max Roach, Art Blakey, McCoy Tyner, Charles Mingus and the fusion band of Miles Davis, recording on Davis's Live-Evil album. His interview offers firsthand accounts of working closely with those iconic performers as well as witnessing the start of the free jazz movement in New York that began with Ornette Coleman's extended stay at the Five Spot Jazz Cafe in 1959.
