Ira Sullivan (May 1, 1931 – September 21, 2020) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
flautist
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
, saxophonist, and composer born in Washington, D.C., United States. An active musician since the 1950s, he often worked with
Red Rodney
Robert Roland Chudnick (September 27, 1927 – May 27, 1994), known professionally as Red Rodney, was an American jazz trumpeter.
Biography
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he became a professional musician at 15, working in the mid-1940 ...
Sullivan was born May 1, 1931, in Washington, D.C. His father taught him to play the trumpet beginning at age 3, and his mother taught him saxophone. He played in 1950s
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
with such musicians as
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...
,
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most i ...
,
Wardell Gray
Wardell Gray (February 13, 1921 – May 25, 1955) was an American jazz tenor saxophone, tenor saxophonist.
Biography
Early years
The youngest of four children, Gray was born in Oklahoma City. He spent his early childhood years in Oklahoma b ...
and Roy Eldridge, gaining a reputation as a fearsome
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...
soloist. After playing briefly with Art Blakey in 1956, and mastering alto and baritone saxophone, Sullivan moved south to
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
and out of the spotlight in the early 1960s.
His reluctance to travel limited his opportunities to play with musicians of the first rank, but Sullivan continued to play in the
Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
area, often in schools and churches. Contact with local younger players such as
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, ...
and
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
He was the leader of the Pat Metheny Group (1977–2010) and continues to work in various small-combo, duet, and solo settings, as well as other side pr ...
led to teaching and to a broadening of his own musical roots to include the stylings of
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
's jazz.
With the addition of flute and soprano saxophone to his performing range, Sullivan moved to New York, and in 1980 formed a quintet with bop trumpeter
Red Rodney
Robert Roland Chudnick (September 27, 1927 – May 27, 1994), known professionally as Red Rodney, was an American jazz trumpeter.
Biography
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he became a professional musician at 15, working in the mid-1940 ...
. Sullivan and Rodney worked on new material and fostered young talent.
Sullivan and his longtime friend and collaborator Stu Katz, jazz
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...
and vibraphonist, co-led a multi-night performance with Katz at Joe Segal's The Jazz Showcase in Chicago. A live recording of some of those performances, ''A Family Affair: Live At Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase'', was released in 2011.
Sullivan taught at the Young Musicians Camp each summer at the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...
.
Ira Sullivan died September 21, 2020, of metastatic
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
in his Miami home at age 89.
Ira Sullivan's musical signature was " Amazing Grace", the tune with which he closed every performance for decades. In the week following Sullivan's death, the jazz community produced a ''Love Letter to Ira Sullivan'', a compilation of more than forty performances of "Amazing Grace". /ref>
Bird Lives!
''Bird Lives!'' is an album by trumpeter Red Rodney featuring performances of tunes by, or associated with, Charlie Parker which was recorded in 1973 and released on the Muse Records, Muse label.Vee-Jay, 1963)
* '' Horizons'' (
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
Horizon
The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...
'' (
Galaxy
A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
Multimedia
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...
Muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
Pausa
In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek παῦσις, ''pâusis'' 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic declination units. The concept is somewhat broad, as it is primarily used to refer to allophones that occur in ...
, 1983)
* '' The Breeze and I'' with Joe Diorio (Ram, 1994)
* ''After Hours'' (Go Jazz, 2000)
* ''A Family Affair'' with Stu Katz (Origin, 2011)
Red Garland
William McKinley "Red" Garland Jr. (May 13, 1923 – April 23, 1984) was an American modern jazz pianist. Known for his work as a bandleader and during the 1950s with Miles Davis, Garland helped popularize the block chord style of playing in jazz ...
Eddie Harris
Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-k ...
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American Jazz drumming, jazz drummer.
Biography Early career
As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio stat ...
Argo
In Greek mythology, the ''Argo'' ( ; ) was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. The ship was built with divine aid, and some ancient sources describe her as the first ship to sail the seas. The ''Argo'' carried the Argonauts on their quest fo ...
Red Rodney
Robert Roland Chudnick (September 27, 1927 – May 27, 1994), known professionally as Red Rodney, was an American jazz trumpeter.
Biography
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he became a professional musician at 15, working in the mid-1940 ...