Hal Stein
Encyclopedia
Hal Stein was an American jazz
musician and Bebop saxophone player. He died of lung cancer on April 27, 2008 in his home in Oakland, CA, at the age of 79.
Stein began performing on the tenor saxophone
in the early 1940s in New York City
. As a teen he frequently sat in with Don Byas
, who he considered a mentor, and Erroll Garner
at The Three Deuces on 52nd Street. In 1945 he was featured in concert with pianist Teddy Wilson
at Town Hall (while still a high school student) on the same bill with Byas, Stuff Smith
, and Charlie Parker
. During the same year, Stein recorded with Doc Pomus
, Tab Smith
and Leonard Feather
.
Having studied at Juilliard
during 1950–51, Stein went on to work with Gene Krupa
, Buddy Morrow
, Les Elgart
, Artie Shaw
, Charles Mingus
, Rudy Williams
, Roy Haynes
, Georgie Auld
, Claude Thornhill
, J. C. Heard
and others. During a stint in the Army jazz band in Japan during the Korean War (1951–1953), he was a regular member of Toshiko Akiyoshi
's quartet. After his return, he also played the alto saxophone
, recording on it with Al Cohn
(1954), in his own session with Warren Fitzgerald (1955), on "Word From Bird" with the Teddy Charles Tentet (1956) and as one of the "Four Altos" with Phil Woods
, Sahib Shihab
and Gene Quill
(1957). The record made with Fitzgerald was reissued decades later after becoming something of a cult classic in Japan.
After realizing the GI bill would not cover the cost of completing his degree at Juilliard, he got his Masters degree at Manhattan School of Music
in 1960. Stein embarked on a career as an educator, while continuing to perform regularly. During the '60's he taught in public schools in New York and California. Starting in the 70's, he taught at Stanford University
, Mills College
, University of California at San Francisco and San Francisco State University
, as well as privately. During the late 70's and early '80's he taught in Jamey Aebersold
workshops around the world.
Some of the musicians he worked with from the 60's on include Benny Carter
, Chick Corea
, Sammy Davis Jr., Kenny Dorham
, James Brown
, Kenny Drew
, Elvin Jones
, Louis Hayes
, Bill Evans
, Joe Henderson
, Joe Farrell
, Nancy Wilson, Jessica Williams
, and Rob Schneiderman.
In 1968 he moved to the West Coast, and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971, where he spent his remaining years. He led his own quartet during the 70's and 80's, "Plank 'n Stein" featuring Al Plank on piano; later incarnations of his quartet were eponymous. In the late 80's and early '90's he made several solo tours of Europe, playing in France, Germany, and Italy.
"Spirit!" (his first recording as a leader since 1955) was released in 2006 and featured his working ensemble of pianist Lee Bloom, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Danny Spencer
.
His father, Ralph Stein, was born in Dwinsk, Russia in 1898. His original surname was Eisenstein, which was shortened after emigrating to the U.S. His mother, Jeanette Weiss, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, was born in New York City in 1900. He had one sister, Marilyn Zatz. He married singer Shae Bevan in 1957; they divorced in 1977, and he did not remarry. They had three children: Greg (b. 1957), a mathematician; Jennie (b. 1959) a singer and composer; and Naomi (b. 1968), an actor. All three children have followed in his footsteps as educators in their respective fields. His first grandchild, Rebecca, the daughter of Jennie, was born in 1989; his second, Madelyn, was born in 2008, a few months after his death, his third, Benjamin, was born in 2010, both children of Naomi.
He was still active teaching and performing until just a few months before his death.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician and Bebop saxophone player. He died of lung cancer on April 27, 2008 in his home in Oakland, CA, at the age of 79.
Stein began performing on the tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
in the early 1940s in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. As a teen he frequently sat in with Don Byas
Don Byas
Carlos Wesley "Don" Byas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, long-resident in Europe.- Oklahoma and Los Angeles :...
, who he considered a mentor, and Erroll Garner
Erroll Garner
Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...
at The Three Deuces on 52nd Street. In 1945 he was featured in concert with pianist Teddy Wilson
Teddy Wilson
Theodore Shaw "Teddy" Wilson was an American jazz pianist whose sophisticated and elegant style was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.-Biography:Wilson was born in Austin, Texas in...
at Town Hall (while still a high school student) on the same bill with Byas, Stuff Smith
Stuff Smith
Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith , better known as Stuff Smith, was a jazz violinist. He is known well for the song "If You're a Viper".-Biography:...
, and Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
. During the same year, Stein recorded with Doc Pomus
Doc Pomus
Jerome Solon Felder, better known as Doc Pomus , was a twentieth-century American blues singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lyricist of many rock and roll hits. Pomus was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of non-performer in 1992. He was also inducted into...
, Tab Smith
Tab Smith
Talmadge "Tab" Smith , was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist. He is best known for the tracks, "Because Of You" and "Pretend". He variously worked with Count Basie, the Mills Rhythm Boys and Lucky Millinder.-Biography:Smith was born in Kinston, North Carolina, United States...
and Leonard Feather
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...
.
Having studied at Juilliard
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
during 1950–51, Stein went on to work with Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa
Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
, Buddy Morrow
Buddy Morrow
Buddy Morrow was an American trombonist and bandleader. He is known for his mastery of the upper range which is evident on records such as "The Golden Trombone," as well as his ballad playing.- His life :Morrow was once a member of The Tonight Show Band...
, Les Elgart
Les Elgart
Les Elgart was an American swing jazz bandleader and trumpeter.Lester E. Elgart began playing trumpet as a teenager, and by age 20 had landed professional gigs. In the 1940s he played in bands led by Raymond Scott, Charlie Spivak, and Harry James, and occasionally found himself in bands alongside...
, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
, Rudy Williams
Rudy Williams
Rudy Williams was an American jazz alto saxophonist, son of the well-known bandleader Fess Williams and cousin of the jazz great Charles Mingus....
, Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...
, Georgie Auld
Georgie Auld
Georgie Auld was a jazz tenor saxophonist, clarinetist and bandleader.Auld was born John Altwerger in Toronto...
, Claude Thornhill
Claude Thornhill
Claude Thornhill was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader...
, J. C. Heard
J. C. Heard
J. C. Heard a.k.a. James Charles Heard was a United States swing, bop, and blues drummer....
and others. During a stint in the Army jazz band in Japan during the Korean War (1951–1953), he was a regular member of Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi
is a Japanese American jazz pianist, composer/arranger and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best...
's quartet. After his return, he also played the alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
, recording on it with Al Cohn
Al Cohn
Al Cohn was an American jazz saxophonist and arranger and composer.-Biography:Alvin Gilbert Cohn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was initially known in the 1940s for playing in Woody Herman's Second Herd as one of the Four Brothers, along with Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Serge Chaloff...
(1954), in his own session with Warren Fitzgerald (1955), on "Word From Bird" with the Teddy Charles Tentet (1956) and as one of the "Four Altos" with Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, Sahib Shihab
Sahib Shihab
Sahib Shihab was an American jazz saxophonist and flautist.-Biography:...
and Gene Quill
Gene Quill
Daniel Eugene Quill was an American alto saxophonist known for his bebop jazz records with Phil Woods. He and Woods recorded as Phil and Quill...
(1957). The record made with Fitzgerald was reissued decades later after becoming something of a cult classic in Japan.
After realizing the GI bill would not cover the cost of completing his degree at Juilliard, he got his Masters degree at Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
in 1960. Stein embarked on a career as an educator, while continuing to perform regularly. During the '60's he taught in public schools in New York and California. Starting in the 70's, he taught at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
, University of California at San Francisco and San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
, as well as privately. During the late 70's and early '80's he taught in Jamey Aebersold
Jamey Aebersold
Jamey Aebersold is an American jazz saxophonist and music educator. His "Play-A-Long" series of instructional book and CD collections, using the chord-scale system, the first of which was released in 1967, are an internationally renowned resource for jazz education...
workshops around the world.
Some of the musicians he worked with from the 60's on include Benny Carter
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Sammy Davis Jr., Kenny Dorham
Kenny Dorham
McKinley Howard Dorham was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer born in Fairfield, Texas. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did...
, James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Kenny Drew
Kenny Drew
Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York, he first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Dinah Washington...
, Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
, Louis Hayes
Louis Hayes
Louis Hayes is an American jazz drummer.-Biography:His father played drums and piano and his mother the piano and he refers to the early influence of hearing jazz, especially that of big bands, on the radio...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
, Joe Farrell
Joe Farrell
Joseph Carl Firrantello , known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:Farrell was born in Chicago...
, Nancy Wilson, Jessica Williams
Jessica Williams
Jessica Jennifer Williams is an American pianist and composer who has deep roots in jazz. She has been called "one of the top jazz pianists of today."-History:...
, and Rob Schneiderman.
In 1968 he moved to the West Coast, and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971, where he spent his remaining years. He led his own quartet during the 70's and 80's, "Plank 'n Stein" featuring Al Plank on piano; later incarnations of his quartet were eponymous. In the late 80's and early '90's he made several solo tours of Europe, playing in France, Germany, and Italy.
"Spirit!" (his first recording as a leader since 1955) was released in 2006 and featured his working ensemble of pianist Lee Bloom, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Danny Spencer
Danny Spencer
Danny Spencer is the former guitarist for Rogue Traders, taking over from previous guitarist Tim Henwood, who left due to wanting to concentrate on his band The Androids in 2007...
.
His father, Ralph Stein, was born in Dwinsk, Russia in 1898. His original surname was Eisenstein, which was shortened after emigrating to the U.S. His mother, Jeanette Weiss, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, was born in New York City in 1900. He had one sister, Marilyn Zatz. He married singer Shae Bevan in 1957; they divorced in 1977, and he did not remarry. They had three children: Greg (b. 1957), a mathematician; Jennie (b. 1959) a singer and composer; and Naomi (b. 1968), an actor. All three children have followed in his footsteps as educators in their respective fields. His first grandchild, Rebecca, the daughter of Jennie, was born in 1989; his second, Madelyn, was born in 2008, a few months after his death, his third, Benjamin, was born in 2010, both children of Naomi.
He was still active teaching and performing until just a few months before his death.