With all your LOVE, ENCOURAGEMENT and SUPPORT, Frank Wess is
enjoying his eighty-sixth year still playing saxophone and flute as
always. After battling through some health crises, Frank now seems
to be doing extremely well, both mentally and physically, evident by
his latest musical antics.

Last January, Frank received the prestigious NEA Jazz Master
Award. These days Frank seems to be very much himself and is again
concentrating on His MUSIC PLAYING. One of the nicer things that has
been happening for Frank this past year or so is his association with
Ilya Lushtuk, the guitar player who brings his friends to Frank’s
place almost every week to jam.

Frank has also scheduled two of his own groups to play at the
Village Vanguard from April 29th to May 4th, and at Dizzy’s Club from
June 3rd to June 8th.
He will play in a quintet with Ilya Lushtuk, Rufus Reid, Winard
Harper and Terell Stafford at The Village Vanguard and with Frank
Greene, Terell Stafford, Steve Turre, Ted Nash, Scott Robinson, Cyrus
Chestnut, Ray Drummond and Winard Harper as octet at Dizzy’s Club.

He is also scheduled to tour with the Mr. Louis Nash Band in
Japan in the fall of this year. This truly is an exciting
time… Not to mention with the tremendous generosity of all Frank’s
closest friends, Susan Winthrop and Rosanne Percivalle, we celebrated
a wonderful 86th Birthday Jam this past January 4th. It was truly a
great time had by all!!!

To conclude, I sincerely hope to share all of Frank’s People
fortune and Musical fortune with all of You!

I Thank You from bottom of my heart!

Love, Peace and Health To The greatest People,

Sara with Frank Wess

“Every time I look around I see a new jazz flute player,” says Frank Wess, who was in at the start of the jazz flute revival.
We were in the artists’ bar at Belle Vue, Manchester. Frank was relaxing between the two Basie sessions of Wednesday, April 3.
A soft-spoken man of medium build, he has a neat little moustache and penetrating, widely-spaced eyes that make him look younger than his 35 years. He was tired from the Basie tour’s gruelling travelling, but he was ready to talk flute.
And I was wager to listen to an expert on an instrument which, I am sure, will soon establish itself as firmly in British as in American jazz.

Started 1950

“I first studied flute at the Modern School of Music in Washington in 1950,” Frank told me. “My teacher was Wallace Mann, principal flute with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington. When I first told him I wanted to learn flute purely for jazz he just laughed.”
On other Jazz flautists Frank said:
“Sam Most plays very prettily, and when I made the longplayer ‘Flutes and Reeds’ I had great fun working with Jermone Richardson.”
“I’ve heard a lot about Bobby Jasper, but up to now I’ve never actually heard him play. The late Esy Morales, though not strictly a jazzman, was a player whose work I greatly admire.

Teaching, now

“Wayman Carver is still around, incidentally. I met him a few month ago at Atlanta, Georgia, where he’s now teaching.”
“Kincaid of the Philadelphia Symphony, is the greatest,” Wess went on. “Nicolai and my old teacher, Wallace Mann, also rate pretty high.”
When I asked him whether he played anything besides flute and tenor, Frank told me: “I was solo clarinet with the 5th U.S. Army Band from ‘41 to ‘45. But nowadays I only play clarinet only when I have to. It’s an instrument I don’t care for - doesn’t give you any satisfaction even when you’ve really studied it.”

More power

Well plays a Powell closed G sharp Boehm with open holes. He put the instrument through its paces for me. It has an extension to low B natural, and when I tried it myself I found it had very much more resistance than my own Selmer. Though made of metal it had more power and a bigger range of volume than many wooden flutes I have tried.
Frank Wess does not use the conventional “smile” type of embouchure but blows with lips thrust well forward. “You loose a little refinement that way,” he explained. “But you get better intonation in the top register and it’s easier for quick changes from tenor.”
Frank also hooks his thimb well under the body of the instrument instead of using the more orthodox hold in which the right-hand thumb pushes outwards underneath the trillkey connection rods.
By all the rules this ought to slow him down, but it doesn’t - not a bit. His playing for me in private, even more than his solos at the Basie concert, showed me that he is an exceptionally agile player.
The Wess tone was a pleasant surprise. When heard at close quarters it is beautfully firm and rich. I do not think his recordings do him justice.
Our interview ended when Count Basie himself came into Frank’s dressing room just before the second house concert started. If he hadn’t Frank and I might have gone on talking flute all night.
Which would have suited me fine, for Wess, with his quiet and truly modest personality, is a man of great charm.
More than that, he is an enthusiast and a pioneer of an instrument that more and more reed man will have to take seriously if they wish to keep abreast of the lastest and best developments in mainstream jazz.

Saxophonist Frank Wess joins the line-up at Juilliard Jazz’s Tribute to Jazz Legends, a special evening on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 8 PM in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Juilliard. The evening also pays tribute to jazz artists James Moody, Dr. Billy Taylor, Clark Terry, and Joe Wilder, all of whom will be in attendance. Each will perform with the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra or with Juilliard Jazz student musicians in ensemble. Mr. Wess replaces Marian McPartland, who was to be honored, but is unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict. Benny Golson hosts the evening and will be joined in performance by singer and Juilliard alumna Audra McDonald. The evening features original arrangements by Juilliard Jazz faculty, students and alumni in tribute to each of the honorees.

Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi will present the five Jazz Legends with the Juilliard President’s Medal in recognition of their contributions to jazz. The President’s Medal was created during Juilliard’s centennial season and was designed by longtime friend of the School, artist Milton Glaser.

Tickets are available at $50 and $25 through CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 and will be available on January 23, 2006. Sponsorship tickets, which include a private reception with the artists following the concert, may be obtained by calling Juilliard’s Patrons’ Desk at (212) 769-7409. Proceeds from the Sponsorship tickets benefit Juilliard Jazz.

The 2006-07 season marks the 6th anniversary of Juilliard Jazz, the newest program of performance education inaugurated by Juilliard. A collaboration of The Juilliard School and Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies was the first jazz program to be initiated at the conservatory world-renowned for the quality of its performance education and its many celebrated alumni musicians, dancers, and actors. In fall 2003, Juilliard created an undergraduate jazz program, awarding a bachelor of music degree to those completing its four-year curriculum. In fall 2007, Juilliard enrolls its first master of music degree jazz musicians. The two-year program is designed for advanced performers who want to maximize their professional opportunities, onstage, and in the academic world.

NEA’s press release:

Seven Living Legends Of American Music Are Named As New National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters

October 6, 2006 at 9:00 PM EDT

Standing before an audience of jazz fans at Washington’s Lincoln Theater, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia tonight revealed the names of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters, Class of 2007.

Chairman Gioia made the announcement at a concert of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival featuring two previously named NEA Jazz Masters, Paquito D’Rivera (Class of 2005) and Roy Haynes (Class of 1995). This announcement of the Class of 2007, delivered as part of the first concert of the Washington Performing Arts Society’s season, marked the 25th anniversary of the NEA Jazz Masters program.

Each year since 1982, the Arts Endowment has conferred the NEA Jazz Masters Award on a handful of living legends who have made major contributions to this distinctively American art form. Recognized as the nation’s highest honor in the art of jazz, the award to date has been given to 87 great figures in American music. With Chairman Gioia’s announcement, another seven may now call themselves NEA Jazz Masters.

The seven new NEA Jazz Masters are Toshiko Akiyoshi (bandleader), Curtis Fuller (solo instrumentalist, trombone), Ramsey Lewis (pianist), Jimmy Scott (vocalist), Frank Wess (solo instrumentalist, flute), and Phil Woods (composer-arranger). In addition, the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy is being given to Dan Morgenstern.

“The jazz world has come to regard the NEA Jazz Masters Award as its equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize,” Chairman Gioia stated. “We are immensely proud that the Arts Endowment can not only honor these American artists but also help them to forge new connections with the public, thanks to the outreach and education programs of the NEA Jazz Masters program.”

Each member of the NEA Jazz Masters Class of 2007 has made a distinctive, lifelong contribution to jazz. Bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi helped re-make the big-band tradition for contemporary audiences, with a vibrant new sound and new international influences. Trombonist Curtis Fuller, an omnipresent mainstay of the hard-bop era, continues to flourish today in varied settings as a performer and teacher. Pianist Ramsey Lewis spans the influences of gospel music, classical music, and mainstream jazz; while Jimmy Scott has brought his deeply affecting voice and style to everything from ballads to rhythm ‘n’ blues.

Multi-instrumentalist Frank Wess is being honored as one of the most influential and innovative flutists in jazz history. Master alto saxophonist Phil Woods has been named an NEA Jazz Master in the composer-arranger category, in recognition of his contributions to the modern jazz repertoire. As for Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, he has devoted himself to jazz advocacy as an historian, archivist, author, editor, and educator.

Profiles of the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters are available on the web site.

The seven new NEA Jazz Masters will officially receive their awards at a ceremony and concert held in New York City on January 12, 2007, as a highlight of the annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education.

and:

“I was excited, honored, and grateful to be considered for this award.” – Frank Wess

A multi-instrumentalist whose inspired solos have kept big-band jazz fresh and vital into the present, Frank Wess is revered as a smoothly swinging tenor saxophone player in the Lester Young tradition, as an expert alto saxophonist, and as one of the most influential, instantly recognizable flutists in jazz history.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Wess first studied classical music and played with the Kansas All-State High School Orchestra. After moving to Washington, DC, as a teenager, in 1935, he began to play jazz in lunchtime jam sessions with fellow students, including Billy Taylor™. An early touring career was interrupted by military service—he played in a 17-piece band during World War II—and then was resumed when Wess came out of the Army and joined an outstanding lineup in the Billy Eckstine Orchestra.

It was at this time that he took up the flute, studying at the Modern School of Music in Washington. All this time, Count Basie™ had been calling. Wess finally joined his big band in 1953, helping it to evolve during its so-called “New Testament” phase and remaining with it until 1964. Wess’s flute playing, set off by Neal Hefti’s arrangements, contributed strongly to the Basie Orchestra’s new sound, while his tenor saxophone playing served as a counterpoint to the more fiery sound of Frank Foster™.

Wess has played in countless settings since the 1960s: with Clark Terry’s™ big band, the New York Quartet with Roland Hanna, Dameronia (1981-85), and Toshiko Akiyoshi™’s Jazz Orchestra. During this period, he also bridged the worlds of jazz and popular show business. Wess performed as a staff musician for ABC Television, both for the Dick Cavett Show and for the David Frost Show (with the Billy Taylor™ Orchestra). In Broadway pit bands, he played for shows such as Sammy Davis’s Golden Boy (starring Sammy Davis), Irene (with Debbie Reynolds), and Sugar Babies (with Mickey Rooney). For ten years, he played first-chair tenor saxophonist in the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.

He has also led his own big bands on world tours, and has played recently in the Dizzy Gillespie™ Alumni Big Band. Widely recorded on many labels, both as a leader and a sideman, Wess is a perennial favorite in Down Beat polls and a now-legendary presence on the jazz scene.