Lew Tabackin trio (US, SI)

Lewis Barry Tabackin is an American jazz tenor saxophonist and flutist. He began his musical career in his native Philadelphia, where he first learned to play the flute in high school, and then the tenor saxophone. He is one of the few jazz musicians who has managed to develop completely different musical personalities on two instruments, with his forceful style of hard bop on the saxophone forming a contrast to his sophisticated flute playing. His flute playing is at once virtuosic, primal, cross-cultural and passionate. His distinctive tenor saxophone style includes the use of wide intervals, abrupt changes of mood and tempo, and purposeful forcefulness – all in the service of showcasing the full range of his instrument's capabilities, both melodically and rhythmically as well as dynamically. Without imitating or attempting to imitate the jazz giants of the past (Al Cohn and Coleman Hawkins), Tabackin incorporated certain elements into his style to create his own sound and artistic image. Tabackin met his wife, Toshika Akiyoshi, in 1967 when he was playing in Clark Terry's orchestra, and she was invited to replace Don Friedman as a guest. In the late sixties, they formed a quartet and in 1973 co-founded the Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra – Lew Tabackin Big Band in Los Angeles. In the eighties, he began to gain long-awaited recognition as a flutist and won numerous selections from critics and readers of DownBeat magazine. In 1982, Tabackin and Akiyoshi moved to New York, bringing him back to the jazz scene there. Since then, he has consolidated his position as a top musician on tenor saxophone and flute, both in live concerts and on studio recordings. He continues to tour the world as a soloist; he performs in clubs and jazz festivals with his own groups, and as a guest soloist with various orchestras.