Tommy Flanagan 1930-2001

The jazz world lost one of its most elegant and elequent voices this week. Tommy Flanagan was a vital part of the jazz world since the mid fifties, he played on a number of definitive albums such as Sonny Rollin's "Saxophone Colossus", Coltrane's "Giant Steps", and dozens of others as a player. He spent a decade delighting audiences around the world as Ella's musical director and chief accompaniest in the sixties and into the mid seventies. From about 1977 on he concentrated on the piano trio format. There certainly have been other wonderful players in this context, but when his trio locked in as one, based on his melodic phrasing, and his endlessly lyrical playing, it was a magical and moving thing to see and hear. Not only the jazz world, but the nights of New York are now less rich. He added a dose of class to so many New York nights it is a pity he is gone.

If you don't know his work, you can hardly go wrong with any number of albums, but my personal favorites would have to be the appropriately titled "Jazz Poet" on Timeless CD, "Nights At the Vanguard" on Uptown CD, or his recent live CD, also taken from a show at the most storied basement in Jazz, "Sunset and the Mockingbird", which was recorded on his 67th birthday just a few years ago.

I missed the memorial service tonight in New York, but I did want to note, in my own small way, this wonderful elder statesman that lent dignity, a timeless love of music, and a uniquely beautiful art to any of the occassions I was lucky enough to see him. He will be missed.