Paul Gonsalves

This includes superb versions of “Chelsea Bridge”, “Happy Reunion”, and “Mount Harrissa” (from the Far East Suite) and even “Heaven”, a number from the Second Sacred Concert first played by Johnny Hodges, which Ellington took to assigning Gonsalves in their final months on the road. Both were likely aware that time was running out and for Gonsalves, as noted by his daughter Colette, life outside of the special world of the Ellington Orchestra was unthinkable.Paul Gonsalves is buried at the Long Island National Cemetry, New York, Plot 2N 3731.When the first iteration of this website was uploaded, there was next to nothing about Paul Gonsalves online. He managed to secure a chair in Dizzy Gillespie's big band, a group with a style and book far less compatible with Gonsalves' musical strengths. When the deteriorating economics of big band jazz led Basie to reduce his personnel, Gonsalves was let go.

Gonsalves also inherited “Mutton Leg”, one of Jacquet's famous gut bucket numbers which he made into an equally successful and crowd pleasing vehicle. Edmund, in particular, took considerable pride in his affiliation with Paul, and years later he gathered his alumni together to record an album of Cape Verdean music. Ellington was aware of his playing and asked him to come to his office the next day. That week Paul made $350 (equivalent to roughly $2400 in todays dollars!). The internet has grown exponentially since that time and more and more snippets of information can be found on the web. About Paul Gonsalves The greatest moment of Paul Gonsalves' musical career occurred at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival when, to bridge the gap between "Diminuendo in Blue" and "Crescendo in Blue," Duke Ellington urged him to take a long solo, egging him … And in the lead up to Newport the band gained momentum with the return of Hodges as well as several successful concerts in which Gonsalves experimented with the tenor solo bridge inserted into “Diminuendo and Crescendo”.By the time it reached Rhode Island in early July of 1956 this new version of the Orchestra was coming into its own and Ellington had every reason to hope for a break out performance. Paul Gonsalves Master Musician 1920 - 1974 A website dedicated to the music and life of one of the finest jazz saxophonists of all time. His father responded by buying his son a used melody C tenor saxophone for fifty nine dollars and insisted he repay him a dollar a week until the debt was paid off.A few years later Gonsalves auditioned for and became a student of Joseph Piagetelli at the Boston Conservatory who, in recognition of his talent, made him pay only a nominal fee for lessons.

And Gonsalves, urged on by dozens of friends and family including fellow Cape Verdean musicians, delivered an inspired performance which still retains its surpassing energy and power after decades of replay and examination.Newport ushered in a new and successful period for Ellington and his Orchestra, but the trajectory of Gonsalves' life and career was more problematic. Nevertheless, the band retained its enthusiasm into the late night set and Ellington, who was well aware that Gonsalves was less than an hour from his home and on the friendliest possible turf, called for “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” between sets and told his soloist that it was his night. These groups were dance bands based in New Bedford, which were dominated by musicians of Cape Verdean descent. Cape Verdeans had well established musical traditions which were brought to the United States and Gonsalves' father taught he and his brothers to play the guitar. He was quickly hired and, with that, a twenty four year musical and personal relationship was initiated which was broken only by Paul's odd three week stint with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1954.The typical narrative of the years leading up to the Orchestra's triumph at Newport in 1956 is that the band was in a state of financial and creative decline and was “saved” at Newport. Nevertheless, he soon established a role in the band and, after a time, was given the bulk of the reed solo work. However, Gonsalves is also well remembered by fellow musicians and followers of the Ellington Orchestra for creative and highly personal renditions of Ellington/Strayhorn ballads such as “Chelsea Bridge”, “Happy Reunion”, and “In a Sentimental Mood”, as well as standards like “Star Dust”, “Body and Soul”, “Don't Blame Me”, and “Days of Wine and Roses”. Paul Gonsalves was a premier sideman for the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1950 until his death in 1974, ten days prior to Ellington's passing. This left Gonsalves stranded in New York with rapidly diminishing finances.Gonsalves recalled to Stanley Dance that by the fall of 1950 he was down to his last seven dollars when he journeyed from his apartment in midtown Manhattan to Birdland where, either by luck or design, he ran into Duke Ellington.

His broad tone and swing – influenced in equal measure by Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster -- drew the notice of the Count Basie who recruited Gonsalves as a replacement for Illinois Jacquet.