1. Jimmy Lyons was an American alto saxophone player.
10 Facts About Jimmy Lyons
1. 2.
Jimmy Lyons is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit.
3.
Jimmy Lyons' playing, influenced by Charlie Parker, kept Taylor's avant-garde music tethered to the jazz tradition.
4.
Jimmy Lyons was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, and raised there until the age of nine, when his mother moved the family to Harlem and then the Bronx.
5.
Jimmy Lyons obtained his first saxophone in the mid-1940s and took lessons from Buster Bailey.
6.
Jimmy Lyons then spent a year playing in army bands.
7.
In 1960, Jimmy Lyons followed Archie Shepp into the saxophone role in the Cecil Taylor Unit.
8.
In 1976, Jimmy Lyons performed in a production of Adrienne Kennedy's A Rat's Mass directed by Cecil Taylor at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan.
9.
Jimmy Lyons died from lung cancer in 1986 at the age of 54.
10.
Jimmy Lyons did not publish many recordings with his own ensemble, though Ayler Records did release a five-CD box set of recordings from 1972 to 1985.