STAN KILLIAN
Genres: Hard Bop, Post Bop • United States

The New York–based tenor saxophonist and composer was born and raised in Texas and began performing professionally at age 16 with his father, Joe Killian, a jazz pianist and Hammond organist who worked in bands led by sax legends Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Ford, and Don Wilkerson. With a saxophone spirit reminiscent of Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, and James Clay, the twenty-first-century Texas Tenor seeks to modernize this rich lineage by developing a highly personalized compositional approach coupled with a consistent group sound steeped in simpatico and interplay. He graduated from Texas State University in 2001 where he studied improvisation with pianist James Polk, a Grammy nominated arranger and organist for The Ray Charles Orchestra and saxophone with John Mills.  Killian performed extensively as a sideman in Austin, Houston and San Antonio before forming his own band which featured his father on piano.  At the age of 21, he released read more...