BILL HARDMAN

While in high school he appeared with Tadd Dameron, and after graduating he joined Tiny Bradshaw's band. While not well known, he appeared and recorded with some of the foremost jazz musicians. His first recording was with Jackie McLean in 1955. He later played with Charles Mingus, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver, and Lou Donaldson, and led a group with Junior Cook. He also recorded as a leader. A most underrated musician — boasting three separate tours of duty in as many decades with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers — Hardman's bad luck was to not be with the Messengers at the time of their popular Blue Note recordings. Originally a crackling hard bop player with blazing technique, crisp articulations, and a no-frills sound, Hardman soon began to play with some of the fuller, more extroverted romantic passion of a Clifford Brown, a direction he would take increasingly read more...