Phil Woods, who has died aged 83, was one of the most admired jazz saxophonists of his generation; his style, clearly derived from that of Charlie Parker, was distinguished by a flawless technique and the kind of fluency which almost gave the impression that the instrument was playing itself.
Over a long career his tone grew somewhat darker and his phrases more cryptic, but he was impervious to passing jazz fashions and remained a dedicated exponent of the complex bebop style.
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods was born on November 2 1931 in Springfield, Massachusetts. At the age of 12, he unexpectedly inherited an ancient alto saxophone from an uncle and, after some nagging by his mother, reluctantly went for a trial lesson. “And that was the moment my life changed,” he later claimed. While at high school, he took lessons in jazz improvisation with the pianist Lennie Tristano in New York and visited the jazz clubs on 52nd Street, where he experienced the playing of Parker at first hand. He later enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music, but because it did not teach the saxophone, studied the clarinet as his main instrument.
After graduating in 1952, Woods became part of the busy New York jazz scene. The first album under his name, Woodlore, was released in 1955 to great critical acclaim. This was the year of Parker’s death and strong hints were dropped that here might be a potential successor. That idea was reinforced the following year, when Woods joined the band led by Dizzy Gillespie, Parker’s former colleague; the association reached an almost bizarre level shortly afterwards, when Woods married Parker’s former partner, Chan Richardson.
Woods later described his short period with Gillespie’s band as the equivalent to gaining his Master’s degree, and it was followed by a decade of furious activity at the highest level. Between touring with the bands of Buddy Rich, Benny Goodman, Quincy Jones and Clark Terry, he led his own quintet, played on innumerable recording sessions of all kinds, and spent summers teaching music courses across America.
Among his notable recordings from this period are Rights of Swing (1960), in which he leads an octet, and the live recording Monk at Town Hall (1959) where Woods creates a long and ever-expanding melody out of a theme by Thelonious Monk, a mere four bars long, called Friday The Thirteenth. Even Charlie Parker himself never attempted that.
To everyone’s surprise, he and Chan moved to Paris in 1968. The reason was partly unhappiness with the political upheavals in America at the time, but mainly because, as Woods said, “I was getting sucked into the studio thing and wasn’t playing any music.”
In Europe Woods formed a band he called the Rhythm Machine, with which he moved as far as he ever would from the shadow of Parker. European jazz at the time had reached a particularly adventurous stage, and it inspired him.
The band met with great success and took up most of his time, although he did write some music for radio and television. The Rhythm Machine lasted for four years, the final two with a British pianist, Gordon Beck. A 1970 recording from the Frankfurt Jazz Festival catches the music of this band at its peak.
Woods returned to America in 1972 and settled in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania. This was when he launched the quartet, later quintet, which was to be his preferred medium for the rest of his career. There were remarkably few changes over the years, and the degree of mutual understanding that developed among its members was quite exceptional. Among its many excellent albums were: Birds Of A Feather (1981), Bouquet (1987), Evolution (1988) and Mile High Jazz (1996). Some of the quintet recordings, especially those with the trumpeter Tom Harrell, feature examples of Woods’s rarely heard clarinet playing.
Altogether, Phil Woods has more than 100 albums under his own name, many more as a member of other people’s bands and yet others to which his contribution is fleeting, and often uncredited. One of these was the single version of Billy Joel’s song Just The Way You Are, which reached No 2 in the charts, with Woods’s brief alto saxophone solo as an essential ingredient. He also played on tracks by Paul Simon, Steely Dan and others.
In later years Woods suffered increasingly from emphysema, until he was obliged to carry an oxygen tank with him. His last concert took place at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, on September 4. He announced the final item as “my last number – ever”. When it finished, he walked off, leaving the instrument on stage.
He and Chan divorced in 1977. He then married Jill Goodwin, sister of his drummer, Bill Goodwin. She survives him with their son and three stepdaughters.
Phil Woods, born November 2 1931, died September 29 2015
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