Woods, Phil(ip Wells)

Woods, Phil(ip Wells), important jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, leader, composer; b. Springfield, Mass., Nov. 2, 1931. He grew up with Joe Morello and Sal Salvador. During his adolescence in Springfield, Mass., in the early 1940s, he went to hear the Duke Ellington Orch. Johnny Hodges played a solo on “Mood to Be Wooed/’ and shortly afterward, Woods bought his first Charlie Parker record, “Ko-Ko.” He studied saxophone at age 12 with Harvey La Rose. When he was 14 years old, Woods heard more of Charlie Parker’s music and fell in love with it. After finishing high school, he spent the summer at the Manhattan School of Music, and then proceeded to earn a B.A. in Music from Juilliard in 1953. Despite being a clarinet major, he put himself through Juilliard by giving saxophone lessons. He joined the small combo of Jimmy Raney in 1955. After Charlie Parker died, he and Chan, Parker’s widow, with whom he was close, got married, and Woods adopted her daughter Kim, who became a jazz singer. He then spent two years with George Walling-ton, dividing his time with stints in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band (including a tour of the Middle East for the U.S. State Department in 1956) and a two-alto unit with Gene Quill in 1957. He was in the Quincy Jones big band and was stranded with the Free and Easy show in Europe (early February 1960), along with Clark Terry, and Julius Watkins. He was a member of Buddy Rich’s big band, staying with him until 1961. He became a prolific studio and session musician in the 1960s, working on film soundtracks, cutting his own records, and working on dates by Benny Carter and others. In 1968, he moved to Europe and formed The European Rhythm Machine (1968-72, named for its European rhythm section). He returned to the U.S. in 1973, settling in eastern Pa. He formed an acoustic quintet there in 1974, featuring pianist Mike Melillo, bassist Steve Gilmore, guitarist Harry Leahy, and drummer Bill Goodwin; with only a few changes in personnel, the group has continued to work with Woods through the 1990s. Leahy left the group in 1978, which was then reduced to a quartet until trumpeter Tom Harrell joined in 1983; Harrell who remained with the group for six years. More recently, trumpeter Hal Crook (1989-92) and Bryan Lynch (1993-present) have worked with the group. While Gilmore and Goodwin have remained steady members, pianist Melillo has been replaced, first by Hal Galper (1980-90), then by Jim McNeely (1990-95), and most recently by Bill Char lap.

Woods was voted best alto saxophonist by Down Beat readers from 1975-95. He has served as an educator throughout his career, founded jazz and arts organizations in his home area of eastern Pa., and is IAJE’s Interest Co-Chair for Woodwinds. In May of 1994, Woods received an honorary doctorate from East Stroudsburg Univ. of Pa., only the second individual to receive such recognition. An outspoken “purist,” he never played fusion—though his Rhythm Machine did use aggresive rock rhythms—and has been among the fiercest critics of free music. Four of his albums have won Grammys.

Discography

Early Quintets (1954); Phil Woods New Jazz Quintet (1954); Pot Pie (1954); Phil Woods New Jazz Quartet (1955); Woodlore (1955); Altology (1956); Pairing Off (1956); Woods-Quill Sextet (1956); Bird’s Night (1957); Phil Talks with Quill (1957); Phil Woods Sextet (1957); Phil and Quill with Prestige (1957); Warm Woods (1957); Rights of Swing (1960); Directly from the Half Note (1966); Birth of the ERM (1968); At the Montreux Jazz Festival (1969); Freedom Jazz Dance (1969); Round Trip (1969); At the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (1970); Musique Du Bois (1974); Floresta Canto (1975); Images (1975); New Phil Woods Album (1975); Phil Woods/Michel Legrand (1975); Phil Woods Six: Live from the Showboat (1976); Song for Sisyphus (1977); Phil Woods Orch.: Í Remember (1978). MICHEL LEGRAND & CO.: Le Jazz Grand-Gryphon (1978); Crazy Horse (1979). PHIL WOODS QUARTET: More Live-Adelphi (1979); Phil Woods/Lew Tabackin (1980); Phil Woods Quartet: At the Village Vanguard (1982); Ole Dude and the Fundance Kid (1984); Live from the Village Vanguard (1985); Here’s to My Lady (1988); Little Big Band (1988). BENNY CARTER: My Man Benny, My Man Phil (1989); All Bird’s Children (1990); An Affair to Remember (1995). BENNY CARTER/PHIL WOODS: Another Time, Another Place (1996). PHIL WOODS QUINTET: Mile High Jazz (1996). PHIL WOODS & THE FESTIVAL ORCH.: Celebration (1997).

—Lewis Porter/Nancy Ann Lee