Brew Moore

Throughout his professional life, Brew Moore remained committed to a credo he once expressed: "Anyone who doesn't play like Lester Young is wrong." Early in the 1950s he joined fellow tenor saxophonists Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, and Allan Eager for a recording date at which their sounds were indistinguishable, yet Moore alone retained his original timbre across the ensuing decades. Between 1942 and 1948 he performed with regional groups in New Orleans and Memphis, then moved to New York and spent 1948-1949 in Claude Thornhill's Orchestra. In the years that followed he worked as a freelancer with Machito, Kai Winding, Gerry Mulligan, and others. He relocated to San Francisco in 1954, leading his own ensembles and appearing with Cal Tjader. As his cool sound fell out of favor, Moore settled in Copenhagen in 1961 and, aside from a three-year return to New York from 1967 to 1970, remained abroad until his death. His leader dates were issued on Savoy (1948-1949), Fantasy (1955-1957), Jazz Mark, Debut, SteepleChase, Sonet, and Storyville.