Bloom, Jane Ira

innovative jazz soprano saxophonist, composer; b. Boston, Jan. 12, 1955. From 1968, she studied with Herb Pomeroy and Joseph Viola at Berklee, Donald Sinta at the Hartt Coll. of Music, and George Coleman in N.Y. From 1973-77, she studied at Yale (B.A., M.M.). Moving to N.Y., Bloom steadily built up a reputation and has worked primarily as a leader. Among her honors have been grants from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and three fellowships from the N.E.A. She has composed and performed scores for the Pilobolus Dance Company and for the NBC movie Shadow of a Doubt. She has been profiled on CBS’s Sunday Morning, appeared on CNBCs America After Hours (1996), NPR’s “Women in Jazz” film series, and the PBS series Behind the Scenes. Winner of the Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano saxophone (1983–94), Bloom was cited for her work by Time magazine in its 1990 “Women: The Road Ahead” issue and included in Life magazine’s 1996 Second Great Day group photo of jazz musicians. In 1989, she was the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program and in 1998 the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid in her honor. She is currently on the faculty of the jazz education program at the N.J. Performing Arts Center. Bloom plays major venues and festivals in the U.S. and Europe and toured Australia and Brazil in 1998. A highly original composer, she is one of the few to exclusively play soprano saxophone and uses electronics live.

Discography

We Are (1978); Second Wind (1980); Mighty Lights (1982); As One (1984); Modern Drama (1987); Slalom (1988); Art and Aviation (1992); The Nearness (1996). C. Laine: Jazz. J. Clayton: All Out

—Lewis Porter