Herbie Mann
Encyclopedia
Herbert Jay Solomon better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz
flutist and important early practitioner of world music
. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone
and clarinet
s (including bass clarinet
), but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flutist during the 1960s
. His most popular single was "Hijack,"
which was a Billboard Number-one dance hits of 1975 (USA)
for 3 weeks.
Mann emphasized the groove approach in his music. Mann felt that from his repertoire, the "epitome of a groove record" was Memphis Underground
or Push Push, because the "rhythm section locked all in one perception."
n and Russia
n parents. He attended Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, failing a music class there. His first professional performance was playing the Catskills
resorts at age 15. In the 1950s, Mann was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods
, with occasional forays into bass clarinet
, tenor sax and solo flute.
Mann was an early pioneer in the fusing of jazz and world music
. He incorporated elements of African music in 1959 following a State Department sponsored tour of the continent, adding a conga
player to his band, and the same year recorded Flutista, an album of Afro-Cuban jazz. In 1961 Mann took a tour of Brazil
and returned to the United States to record with Brazilian players including Antonio Carlos Jobim
and guitarist Baden Powell
. These albums helped popularize the bossa nova
. Many of his albums throughout his career returned to Brazilian themes. He went on to record reggae
in London (in 1974), Middle Eastern (1966 and 1967) (with oud
and dumbek), and Eastern European styles. In the mid-1960s Mann hired a young Chick Corea
to play in some of his bands. In the late 1970s, early 1980s Mann played duets at New York City's Bottom Line
and the Village Gate to sold out crowds with the late Sarod
virtuso Vasant Rai
.
Following the 1969 hit album Memphis Underground a number of disco
-style smooth jazz
records in the 1970s
, mainly on Atlantic records
, brought some criticism from jazz purists but helped Mann remain active during a period of declining interest in jazz. The musicians on these recordings are some of the best-known session players in soul and jazz, including singer Cissy Houston
(mother of Whitney Houston
), guitarists Duane Allman
and Larry Coryell
, bassists Donald "Duck" Dunn and Chuck Rainey
and drummers Al Jackson
and Bernard Purdie
, these last from the Muscle Shoals
studio in Alabama
. In this period Mann had a number of songs cross over to the pop
charts — rather rare for a jazz musician. A 1998 interview reported that "At least 25 Herbie Mann albums have made the top 200
pop charts, success denied most of his jazz peers."
Mann provided the music for the 1978 National Film Board of Canada
animated short Afterlife
, by Ishu Patel
.
In the early 1970s he founded his own label, Embryo Records
, distributed by Cotillion Records
, a division of Atlantic Records
. Embryo produced jazz albums, such as Ron Carter
's Uptown Conversation (1970); Miroslav Vitous
' first solo album, Infinite Search (1969); Phil Woods
and his European Rhythm Machine at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (1971); and Dick Morrissey
and Jim Mullen
's Up
(1976), which featured the Average White Band as a rhythm section; and the 730 Series, with a more rock-oriented style, including Zero Time (1971) by TONTO's Expanding Head Band
. He later set up Kokopelli Records
after difficulty with established labels. In 1996, Mann collaborated with Stereolab
on the song "One Note Samba/Surfboard" for the AIDS-Benefit album Red Hot + Rio
produced by the Red Hot Organization
. His last appearance was on May 3, 2003 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at age 73. He died at age 73 on July 1, 2003 after a long battle with prostate cancer
.
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...
flutist and important early practitioner of world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. Early in his career, he also played 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...
and clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
s (including bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
), but Mann was among the first jazz musicians to specialize on the flute and was perhaps jazz music's preeminent flutist during the 1960s
1960 in music
-Events:*January 14 – Elvis Presley is promoted to Sergeant in the U.S. Army*February 6 – Songwriter Jesse Belvin dies in an automobile accident in Los Angeles...
. His most popular single was "Hijack,"
Hijack (song)
"Hijack" is a 1975 single by jazz flautist, Herbie Mann. The song was written by Spanish musician Fernando Arbex and was originally recorded by the group Barrabás for their 1974 album ¡Soltad a Barrabás!....
which was a Billboard Number-one dance hits of 1975 (USA)
Number-one dance hits of 1975 (USA)
These are the Billboard magazine Hot Dance Club Play number one hits of 1975.Note: Billboard magazine's dance/disco chart, which began in 1974 and ranked the popularity of tracks in New York City discothèques, expanded to feature multiple charts each week which highlighted playlists in various...
for 3 weeks.
Mann emphasized the groove approach in his music. Mann felt that from his repertoire, the "epitome of a groove record" was Memphis Underground
Memphis Underground
Memphis Underground is a 1969 album by jazz flautist Herbie Mann, that attempts to fuse the genres of Jazz and Rhythm & Blues . While Mann and the other principal soloists were leading jazz musicians, the album was recorded in Chips Moman's American Studios in Memphis, a studio used by many...
or Push Push, because the "rhythm section locked all in one perception."
Biography
Herbie Mann was born in Brooklyn, New York to RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n parents. He attended Lincoln High School in Brighton Beach, failing a music class there. His first professional performance was playing the Catskills
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau...
resorts at age 15. In the 1950s, Mann was primarily a bop flutist, playing in combos with artists such as Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
, with occasional forays into bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
, tenor sax and solo flute.
Mann was an early pioneer in the fusing of jazz and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. He incorporated elements of African music in 1959 following a State Department sponsored tour of the continent, adding a conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
player to his band, and the same year recorded Flutista, an album of Afro-Cuban jazz. In 1961 Mann took a tour of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and returned to the United States to record with Brazilian players including Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
and guitarist Baden Powell
Baden Powell de Aquino
Baden Powell de Aquino usually known simply as Baden Powell, was one of the greatest Brazilian guitarists. He explored the instrument to its utmost limits, playing it in a distinctive, unique manner, incorporating virtuoso classical techniques together with popular harmony and swing...
. These albums helped popularize the bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
. Many of his albums throughout his career returned to Brazilian themes. He went on to record reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
in London (in 1974), Middle Eastern (1966 and 1967) (with oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
and dumbek), and Eastern European styles. In the mid-1960s Mann hired a young 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...
to play in some of his bands. In the late 1970s, early 1980s Mann played duets at New York City's Bottom Line
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
and the Village Gate to sold out crowds with the late Sarod
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
virtuso Vasant Rai
Vasant Rai
Vasant Rai was one of world's most acclaimed performers of Indian music and virtuoso of the Indo/Persian/Afghan instrument Sarod.-Personal life and education:Rai was born in Unjha, Kutch, Gujarat and studied music in India...
.
Following the 1969 hit album Memphis Underground a number of disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
-style smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
records in the 1970s
1970 in music
- Events :*January 3**Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees**Former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett releases his first solo album The Madcap Laughs....
, mainly on Atlantic records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, brought some criticism from jazz purists but helped Mann remain active during a period of declining interest in jazz. The musicians on these recordings are some of the best-known session players in soul and jazz, including singer Cissy Houston
Cissy Houston
Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
(mother of Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
), guitarists Duane Allman
Duane Allman
Howard Duane Allman was an American guitarist, session musician and the primary co-founder of the southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band...
and Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...
, bassists Donald "Duck" Dunn and Chuck Rainey
Chuck Rainey
Chuck Rainey, is an American bass guitar session musician, known for playing with many well-known American musicians and acts, including Donald Byrd, Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, and Aretha Franklin.-Biography:Rainey's youthful pursuits included violin, piano and trumpet...
and drummers Al Jackson
Al Jackson
Al Jackson, Jr. was a drummer, producer, and songwriter. He is best known as a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.s, a group of session musicians who worked for Stax Records and produced their own instrumentals...
and Bernard Purdie
Bernard Purdie
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American session drummer, and is considered an influential and innovative exponent of funk...
, these last from the Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was formed in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,in 1969 when musicians Barry Beckett , Roger Hawkins , Jimmy Johnson and David Hood left FAME Studios to create their own studio...
studio in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. In this period Mann had a number of songs cross over to the pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
charts — rather rare for a jazz musician. A 1998 interview reported that "At least 25 Herbie Mann albums have made the top 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
pop charts, success denied most of his jazz peers."
Mann provided the music for the 1978 National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
animated short Afterlife
Afterlife (animated short)
Afterlife is a 1978 animated short by Ishu Patel that takes an impressionistic look at life after death. Based on recent studies, case histories and myths, the afterlife state is portrayed as a working-out of all the individual's past experiences...
, by Ishu Patel
Ishu Patel
Ishu Patel is an animation film director/producer and educator. Over a period of twenty-five years at the National Film Board of Canada he developed animation techniques and styles to support his themes and vision.-Background:...
.
In the early 1970s he founded his own label, Embryo Records
Embryo Records
Embryo Records was a jazz and rock record label founded by Herbie Mann as a division of Atlantic Records, itself distributed by the Atlantic subsidiary Cotillion Records. The label released albums in the years 1969 through 1977.-Discography:...
, distributed by Cotillion Records
Cotillion Records
Cotillion Records was a subsidiary of Atlantic Records and was active from 1968 through 1985. The label was originally formed as an outlet for blues and deep Southern soul; its first single, Otis Clay's version of "She's About A Mover", reached the R&B charts. Cotillion's catalog quickly expanded...
, a division of Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
. Embryo produced jazz albums, such as Ron Carter
Ron Carter
Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
's Uptown Conversation (1970); Miroslav Vitous
Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...
' first solo album, Infinite Search (1969); Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...
and his European Rhythm Machine at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival (1971); and Dick Morrissey
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
and Jim Mullen
Jim Mullen
Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum.-Biography:...
's Up
Up (Morrissey Mullen album)
Up was the debut album by British jazz-fusion duo Morrissey-Mullen. Produced by Herbie Mann, it was recorded in New York in 1976, and featured the Average White Band as the rhythm section, together with other leading New York-based session musicians....
(1976), which featured the Average White Band as a rhythm section; and the 730 Series, with a more rock-oriented style, including Zero Time (1971) by TONTO's Expanding Head Band
Tonto's Expanding Head Band
Tonto's Expanding Head Band was a British electronic music duo consisting of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. Despite releasing only two albums in the early 1970s, the duo were influential because of their session work for other musicians , extensive commercial advertising work and the unique...
. He later set up Kokopelli Records
Kokopelli Records
Kokopelli Records was a record label established by jazz flautist Herbie Mann during the 1990s. Mann had previously established Embryo Records during his tenure at Atlantic Records.-Discography:*1994: Deep Pocket - Herbie Mann...
after difficulty with established labels. In 1996, Mann collaborated with Stereolab
Stereolab
Stereolab are an alternative music band formed in 1990 in London, England. The band originally comprised songwriting team Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier , both of whom remained at the helm across many lineup changes...
on the song "One Note Samba/Surfboard" for the AIDS-Benefit album Red Hot + Rio
Red Hot + Rio
Red Hot + Rio is a compilation album produced by Paul Heck as part of the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series intended to promote AIDS awareness. This installment is a contemporary tribute to the Bossa nova sound, especially the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim...
produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
. His last appearance was on May 3, 2003 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at age 73. He died at age 73 on July 1, 2003 after a long battle with prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
.