Nick Brignola

All Music Guide:

Nick Brignola's 45-year career brought him into contact with many of the most accomplished mainstream improvisers of his generation. Primarily identified with the baritone saxophone, he also performed and recorded using alto and soprano as well as flute and clarinet. Never exactly famous in the U.S. yet greatly appreciated by jazz lovers at home and by the international jazz community at large (especially during his final decade of activity), Brignola cut more than 20 albums as a leader and worked steadily as a respected sideman and featured guest soloist until shortly before his death in 2002. Born in Troy, NY, on July 17, 1936, he took up the clarinet when he was 11, and also experimented with alto and tenor saxophones and flute. Legend has it the baritone entered his life when he took his alto to a music store for repair and was lent the only member of the saxophone family that they had on hand. Brignola's first major influence on the big horn was Duke Ellington's esteemed anchor man Harry Carney, a Boston native who personally tutored and encouraged the aspiring musician, who had grown up on big bands and bebop.

What appears to be the earliest example of Nick Brignola on record is New Designs in Jazz, an album by the Reese Markewich Quintet dating from 1957. This band grew out of Markevich's Mark V, a university group that Brignola joined while studying music at Ithaca College and performed with at the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village. Largely autodidactic, young Brignola earned a Benny Goodman scholarship at Boston's Berklee College of Music in 1958. During that year he recorded with trumpeter Herb Pomeroy in Boston and initiated a lifelong friendship with drummer Dick Berk while sitting in with vibraphonist Cal Tjader at the Blackhawk in San Francisco. Brignola blew his horns with Woody Herman & His Swingin' Herd in a performance that was taped for Canadian television in 1964 and released on DVD in 2005. His first album as a leader, This Is It!, recorded in 1967 and released on his own Priam label, has since become a collector's item. Brignola worked a lot with ex-Mingus trumpeter Ted Curson. They toured Europe in 1967 and appeared at the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals. In 1969, Brignola led an electric jazz fusion band that opened for Blood, Sweat & Tears and Cat Stevens. He is also known to have gigged with musicians as stylistically diverse as pianist Thelonious Monk; guitarist Wes Montgomery; drummers Elvin Jones and Buddy Rich; clarinetist Barney Bigard; saxophonist Dewey Redman; and trumpeters Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Doc Cheatham, and Chet Baker.

Brignola made his first substantial appearance in a recording studio in 1976 when he was heard as a member of Curson's seven-piece unit on the Inner City album Jubilant Power. Equally as impressive was Baritone Madness, recorded in December 1977 in tandem with his idol Pepper Adams along with Curson, pianist Derek Smith, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Roy Haynes. During the year 1978 Brignola collaborated with guitarist Sal Salvador and tenor saxophonist Sal Nistico; the following year he masterminded Burn Brigade, a three-baritone blowing session with Ronnie Cuber and Cecil Payne, and recorded with trombonist Bill Watrous. The early '80s saw Brignola working with the Doug Sertl Big Band and trumpeter Bobby Shew. In August 1987 he joined his longtime friend Dick Berk's Jazz Adoption Agency for a tribute album to Tin Pan Alley songwriters Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. This was followed by the first of several collaborations with alto saxophonist Phil Woods, an appearance with the Big Band Charlie Mingus live at the Theatre Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, and a pair of amazing quartet albums featuring pianist Kenny Barron with bassists Dave Holland and George Mraz and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart.

It wasn't until the 1990s that Brignola began to achieve recognition commensurate with his abilities and accomplishments. Two thrilling quartet sets were recorded live at Sweet Basil in New York City, several projects involved trumpeters Claudio Roditi and Randy Brecker, and tribute albums were dedicated to Gerry Mulligan and Lee Morgan. In 1993 he revisited the plugged-in textures of his erstwhile fusion band by forming a group called Endangered Species (no relation to the similarly named Chicago-based rappers). After sitting in with Frank Mantooth's big band, a visit to Europe in March 1994 enabled Brignola to record live in Munich with Chris Barber's Jazz & Blues Band (a Continental edition largely comprised of Dutchmen), and to be featured with Ronnie Cuber in a group led by Netherlandish pianist Rein de Graaff on the album Baritone Explosion!

Brignola recorded with singing guitarist Michael Jerling, cabaret-style jazz vocalist Spider Saloff, vibraphonist Dave Pike, and guitarist Randy Johnston. He was heard on guitarist Tony Purrone's salute to saxophonist Jimmy Heath and another Gerry Mulligan tribute album, this time by the Three Baritone Saxophone Band featuring Brignola, Cuber, and Gary Smulyan. Nick Brignola's final accomplishments included writing supportive liner notes for Latina by Proxy, an album by Seattle-based soprano and baritone saxophonist Wenda Zonnefeld, and cutting an album with Toronto jazz trio D.E.W. East (Alex Dean, Barry Elmes, and Steve Wallace). On the album Tour de Force, destined to be his last recording, Brignola was backed by guitarist Chuck D'Aloia, bassist Eddie Gomez, drummer Bill Stewart, and a percussionist identified only as Café. Nick Brignola taught music theory and jazz history at colleges within commuting distance of his home in Eagle Mills, not far from his birthplace in Troy, NY. He lost his battle with cancer on February 8, 2002, in Albany. The College of Saint Rose, where he helped to establish jazz studies in the curriculum, now has a scholarship named after him.

Wikipedia:

Nick Brignola (July 17, 1936 – February 8, 2002) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.

Biography

He was born on July 17, 1936 in Troy, New York. Nick was born into a musical family in which his father played the tuba and his uncle played the banjo. As a mostly self-taught musician, he developed his facility on all of his instruments using unconventional techniques, which gave his playing an unmatched fluidity. At the age of 11 he began playing the clarinet and in years to come he picked up the alto and tenor saxophones as well as the flute. At the age of 20 he dropped his alto saxophone off to get repaired and the only horn the shop had to loan him was the baritone sax. After that instance, the baritone sax became his main instrument.

While studying education at Ithaca College in New York, Brignola and some of his fellow students made a recording, which won a Down Beat Magazine award for the best college group of the year. The award afforded the group of young musicians many opportunities including the recording of an album as well as performance at various festivals, and a performance at the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village. In the Down Beat critics poll he was labeled a “new star.” The newfound fame landed Nick Brignola with the Benny Goodman Scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. During his time at Berklee he did a recording with legendary professor and musician Herb Pomeroy and forged relationships with life long musical friends including Dick Berk. Nick did not have a long stay at Berklee though. His popularity launched him into the music scene and lead him to gig with many well established musicians.

Nick was a musician that could play any style and was comfortable while doing it. Though the albums he released as a leader were mostly hard bop played by quartets, he played as a sideman in many big bands including Woody Herman and Buddy Rich. During his rise to popularity he connected with Duke Ellington’s bari player Harry Carney who took him under his wing as his protégé and urged Nick to take the baritone sax to the next level.

Though Nick was mostly known as a bandleader he performed and released albums with many of the worlds most famous and well-established musicians. He was able to record the album Baritone Madness with one of his idols, bebop heavyweight Pepper Adams. He released a several tribute albums with an equally stunning cast of musicians paying respect to Gerry Mulligan and Lee Morgan. He also played an integral in the three-baritone sax band, which also played tribute to Gerry Mulligan. He recorded two incredible sets at the Sweet-Basil Lounge in New York city with Randy Brecker and Claudio Roditi and played along side fellow baritone sax player Ronnie Cuber on the album Baritone Explosion with Rein DeGraff.

Nick Brignola died of cancer on February 8, 2002.