SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Herbie Mann, the versatile jazz flutist who combined a variety of musical styles and deeply influenced genres such as world music and fusion, has died. He was 73. Mann, who had battled prostate cancer since 1997, died late Tuesday, according to a friend, Sy Johnson. A funeral home in Santa Fe said it was making arrangements with Mann’s family. Mann had moved to Santa Fe in the late 1980s after spending most of his life in his native New York City.
Mann always performed different styles, then combined them. He did bebop and cool jazz, and toured Africa, Brazil and Japan listening for new music. When he left Atlantic Records in 1979 he started producing his own records, and later he launched his own label, Kokopelli. In all, he made more than 100 albums as leader. Touring, he said, was “a killer, the hours and food. I always thought if you made good records your records could do the traveling for you.” Album titles reflect Mann’s versatility: “At the Village Gate” (1962); “African Suite” (1959); “Brasil, Bossa Nova & Blues” (1962); “Latin Mann” 1965; “Memphis Two Step” (1971); and “Eastern European Roots” (2000). “As much as I love music, I never really thought it was my life. I thought it was the vehicle I used to express my life,” he said.
Eve, I had the same thought but feel that Harbie’s fame is too limited to qualify as #3. Time will tell, as they say, but I’m still waiting for the third BIG shoe to drop.
I’ve only listened to one of his albums, The Best of Herbie Mann, but I truely enjoyed it. Philly Dog is a wonderful piece of music, especially when driving up Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and San Francisco.
I was a child of R&R and it was my blues friends in the late 60’s that turned me on to him. Saw him at the Lighthouse in S. Cal. in '70 (?) w/ Mose Allison.
If you have a copy of “Village Gate” you have a rare album. Like Wilbur Harris’ “Lets Work Together” and Van Ronk’s “Keep off the Grass.” These classics are hard to find, but should be required listening for anyone interested in the influences of pop music.
Oh, it’s a very old folk legend; the earliest citing I can find of it is 1934, but I’m sure it goes back a lot further than that, as it was already well-known by then.
