Eric Kloss

From the mid-1960s through the late 1970s, the skilled and dynamic alto saxophonist Eric Kloss, open to funk and select pop influences, issued a substantial run of strong recordings on Prestige and Muse. Blind from birth, he launched his professional work in Pittsburgh during the early 1960s. The year 1965 found him both collaborating with Pat Martino and cutting his first sides for Prestige at the age of sixteen. Across subsequent sessions he enlisted musicians including Martino, organist Don Patterson, Jaki Byard, Richard Davis, Alan Dawson, Cedar Walton, Jimmy Owens, Kenny Barron, Jack DeJohnette, Booker Ervin, Chick Corea, and Barry Miles, along with joint efforts alongside Richie Cole and duo performances with Gil Goldstein. Following the 1981 Omnisound release, however, Eric Kloss withdrew from view, and the jazz community has received no further word from him since.