Biography
Tenor saxophonist and composer Jack Montrose stood among the leading figures of the West Coast jazz scene. His concise phrasing and fluid tone captured the essence of California cool. He entered the world on December 30, 1928, in Detroit and passed the opening years of the Depression in Chicago before economic hardship prompted his family to move to Chattanooga, TN. After mastering the saxophone on his own, he entered a local dance band at age 14, and following multiple Southern tours he settled in Southern California. There, in 1947, he became a member of the John Kirby Sextet and launched an extended partnership with the band’s baritone saxophonist, Bob Gordon. While enrolled at Los Angeles State College he maintained his connection with Kirby, and after the leader’s death in 1952 he performed alongside Shorty Rogers and Art Pepper. Upon receiving his degree in 1953 Montrose gained recognition as a freelance musician and arranger, appearing on recordings led by Chet Baker, Clifford Brown, and Dave Pell. Returning in mid-1954 from a six-month engagement with Stan Kenton, he rejoined Gordon to record the Pacific Jazz album Meet Mr. Gordon. The following year the pair convened again for the well-received Atlantic session Arranged/Played/Composed by Jack Montrose and for a subsequent Pacific Jazz date under Montrose’s name. Gordon, however, did not live to see either album reach stores; he perished in an automobile crash on August 28, 1955, at the age of 27.
Montrose reemerged in 1957 with the RCA LPs Blues and Vanilla and The Horn’s Full. He also accompanied Mel Tormé on several recordings arranged by Marty Paich and worked briefly with trumpeter Jack Millman. Throughout the middle of the decade he struggled with heroin addiction, acquiring a reputation for unreliability at both studio dates and performances. Once he overcame the dependency in 1961 the West Coast style had faded, leaving him to perform in local strip clubs before he moved to Las Vegas and spent most of the decade in casino orchestras. After an extended absence from recording he reentered the studio in 1977 to appear on drummer Frank Butler’s Xanadu album Stepper. A full return arrived only in 1986 when he joined pianist Pete Jolly for the Slingshot release Better Late Than Never. Four years later the Holt label issued Let’s Do It, after which Montrose became a regular presence on the West Coast jazz revival circuit. He returned to Los Angeles to participate in the American Jazz Institute’s 2003 Clifford Brown Project, drawing on many of the same charts he had prepared for Brown fifty years earlier. The reissue wave also restored several of his earlier albums to circulation, finally bringing Montrose the attention he had long deserved before he died in Las Vegas on February 7, 2006.
Montrose reemerged in 1957 with the RCA LPs Blues and Vanilla and The Horn’s Full. He also accompanied Mel Tormé on several recordings arranged by Marty Paich and worked briefly with trumpeter Jack Millman. Throughout the middle of the decade he struggled with heroin addiction, acquiring a reputation for unreliability at both studio dates and performances. Once he overcame the dependency in 1961 the West Coast style had faded, leaving him to perform in local strip clubs before he moved to Las Vegas and spent most of the decade in casino orchestras. After an extended absence from recording he reentered the studio in 1977 to appear on drummer Frank Butler’s Xanadu album Stepper. A full return arrived only in 1986 when he joined pianist Pete Jolly for the Slingshot release Better Late Than Never. Four years later the Holt label issued Let’s Do It, after which Montrose became a regular presence on the West Coast jazz revival circuit. He returned to Los Angeles to participate in the American Jazz Institute’s 2003 Clifford Brown Project, drawing on many of the same charts he had prepared for Brown fifty years earlier. The reissue wave also restored several of his earlier albums to circulation, finally bringing Montrose the attention he had long deserved before he died in Las Vegas on February 7, 2006.
Albums
