41 Facts About Serge Chaloff

Serge Chaloff was an American jazz baritone saxophonist.

One of bebop's earliest baritone saxophonists, Chaloff has been described as 'the most expressive and openly emotive baritone saxophonist jazz has ever witnessed' with a tone varying 'between a light but almost inaudible whisper to a great sonorous shout with the widest but most incredibly moving of vibratos.

Serge Chaloff was the son of the pianist and composer Julius Chaloff and the leading Boston piano teacher, Margaret Chaloff.

Serge Chaloff learned the piano from the age of six and had clarinet lessons with Manuel Valerio of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Serge Chaloff had finger dexterity, I used to watch him, you couldn't believe the speed he played.

Serge Chaloff would be up in his bedroom as a teenager.

Serge Chaloff would be up by the hour to one, two, three in the morning and I'm trying to sleep and he'd go over a phrase or a piece until it was perfect.

Richard Serge Chaloff remembered: 'He didn't have a permit to work but he was pretty tall and he went down to see Izzy Ort.

In 1939, aged just sixteen, Serge Chaloff joined the Tommy Reynolds band, playing tenor sax.

Stuart Nicholson argues that, rather than imitating Parker, Serge Chaloff was inspired by his example 'grasping more the emotional basis for Parker's playing and using it as a starting point for his own style.

Serge Chaloff became a household name in 1947, when he joined Woody Herman's Second Herd.

Serge Chaloff would hang a blanket in front of the back seats of the bus and behind it would dispense the stuff to colleagues.

Serge Chaloff kept saying, 'Hey, Woody, baby, I'm straight, man, I'm clean.

Serge Chaloff put a telephone book against the door and was zonked out of his bird.

Serge Chaloff said 'Well listen, if I'm gonna pay for the door I want the door.

Al Cohn described Serge Chaloff's driving: 'I don't know how we kept from being killed.

Zoot Sims talked about Chaloff with Gitler: 'When Serge was cleaned up, you know, straight, he could be a delight, really to be around, a lot of fun.

Serge Chaloff could get pretty raunchy when he was strung out, but he could be charming.

For part of 1950, Serge Chaloff played in the All Star Octet of Count Basie who, like Herman, had broken up his big band.

In 1950, Serge Chaloff returned to Boston, where he played in small groups in clubs like the High Hat, Petty Lounge and Red Fox Cafe.

Serge Chaloff's come-back began in late 1953, when the Boston DJ Bob 'The Robin' Martin offered to become his manager.

Jay Migliori, who played with Chaloff at Storyville, recalled, 'Serge was a wild character.

Just a month after his second Storyville recording, Serge Chaloff went through a personal crisis.

Serge Chaloff was accompanied by Boots Mussulli, Herb Pomeroy, Ray Santisi, Everett Evans and Jimmy Zitano.

Richard Vacca wrote that 'Serge Chaloff still had his bad boy reputation, and the presence of the steady and reliable Mussulli, who had recorded his own 'Kenton Presents' LP in 1954, was a great relief to Capitol.

Serge Chaloff described the sessions: 'When I came back on the music scene, just recently, I wanted a book of fresh sounding things.

Serge Chaloff offers the best display of his talents ever to be put on wax.

Vladimir Somosko, Serge Chaloff's biographer, described the results: 'The rapport of the group was as moving as the music, and the net effect was of every note being in place, flawlessly executed, as if even the slightest nuance was carefully chosen for maximum aesthetic impact.

Stuart Nicholson analysed Serge Chaloff's playing on "A Handful of Stars": 'Paraphrase becomes central to his performance of 'A Handful of Stars' where he scrupulously avoids stating the melody as written.

Serge Chaloff continued to work on the West Coast, performing at the Starlite Club in Hollywood in May 1956.

Serge Chaloff flew back to Boston, where an exploratory operation revealed that he was suffering from cancer of the spine.

Serge Chaloff must have had twenty or twenty-five in a row.

In New York, on 18 June 1956, a wheelchair-using Serge Chaloff took part in a recording of Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce", for the Metronome All Stars album.

Serge Chaloff played alongside Zoot Sims, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus and Billy Taylor.

Serge Chaloff's final recording, on 11 February 1957, was for The Four Brothers.

The Four Brothers lineup was Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Herbie Steward and Serge Chaloff, accompanied by Elliot Lawrence, Buddy Jones and Don Lamond.

Richard Serge Chaloff: 'He took a wheelchair down to make that recording, you know.

Serge Chaloff was in bad shape but could still really play, standing leaning on a pillar.

Serge Chaloff was still using these steadily, even in the hospital at the end.

On 15 July 1957, the dying Serge Chaloff was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Serge Chaloff is buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.