VON FREEMAN

Saxophonist,2012 NEA Jazz Master, Chicago, Illinois Date of birth: Oct 03, 1923 Date of death: Aug 11, 2012 Although not as well-known outside the Windy City as he should have been, Earle Lavon "Von" Freeman, Sr. was considered a founder of the "Chicago School" of jazz tenorists, a distinction shared with Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin, and Clifford Jordan. With his individual sound, at once husky and melodic, he made every song his own. As the Chicago Tribune had written of him, "For technical brilliance, musical intellect, harmonic sophistication, and improvisatory freedom, Von Freeman has few bebop-era peers." Freeman was surrounded by music in his childhood: his mother sang in the church choir, his father played jazz albums on an early Victrola - on which Freeman first heard the tenor sax - and his maternal grandfather and uncle were guitarists. Initially self-taught, he played saxophone at DuSable High School, landing his first gig with read more...