HAMIET BLUIETT
Genres: Avant-Garde Jazz, Post Bop • United States

Hamiet Bluiett (September 16, 1940 – October 4, 2018) Brooklyn, or Lovejoy, Illinois; surname pronounced BLUE-ett) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument was the baritone saxophone, and he was considered one of the finest players of this instrument. A member of the World Saxophone Quartet, he also played (and records with) the bass saxophone, E-flat alto clarinet, E-flat contra-alto clarinet, and wooden flute Bluiett was born just north of East St. Louis in Brooklyn, Illinois (also known as Lovejoy), a predominantly African-American village that had been founded as a free black refuge community in the 1830s, and which later became America's first majority-black town. As a child, he studied piano, trumpet, and clarinet, but was attracted most strongly to the baritone saxophone from the age of ten. He began his musical career by playing the clarinet for barrelhouse dances in Brooklyn, Illinois, before joining the Navy read more...