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Biography
Tenor saxophonist John Stubblefield ranks among the most powerful and innovative soloists of the post-Coltrane generation, collaborating with a who's who of modern jazz and avant-garde giants including Charles Mingus, whose big band Stubblefield later spearheaded. Born February 4, 1945, in Little Rock, AK, Stubblefield first studied the piano, but moved to saxophone as a teen. The product of a strictly segregated African-American neighborhood, he absorbed the music of the itinerant blues and gospel performers moving in and out of his environment, and their influence on the deeply emotional soloing that defines his best work proved profound. (Another huge inspiration was saxophonist Don Byas, the Basie alum who also called Little Rock home.)
At 17 Stubblefield joined local R&B combo York Wilburn & the Thrillers, with whom he made his recording debut. He then spent a year on the road with soul legend Solomon Burke before studying music at A&ME College in Pine Bluff, AK, concurrently leading his own modern jazz quintet. After graduation, Stubblefield settled in Chicago in 1967, soon signing on with the pioneering avant-garde jazz collective the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM); he studied under Muhal Richard Abrams and appeared on Joseph Jarman's landmark 1968 set As If It Were the Seasons.
