John Klemmer functions as a prolific composer while pioneering the use of electrified saxophone techniques, notably through skillful deployment of echo effects. He simultaneously commands respect as a robust acoustic tenor saxophonist steeped in the Coltrane tradition. His unaccompanied saxophone sessions anticipated smooth jazz and new age styles, and his broad range of endeavors secured notable crossover traction, including frequent sampling of his recordings by hip-hop artists during the 1990s. Across his professional span he partnered with assorted jazz and pop figures and appeared on albums by Steely Dan, John Lee Hooker, Lauren Wood, Roy Haynes, and Nancy Wilson, among additional artists.
He first engaged with music during childhood, beginning on guitar before shifting to tenor saxophone by the high-school years. Private instruction persisted through his college period, supplemented by attendance at Interlochen’s music camp. While enrolled in academic settings he pursued studies across multiple disciplines, encompassing graphics, visual arts, writing, and puppeteering, at institutions that included Chicago’s Institute of Art. In the initial phase of his performing life he fronted his own ensembles at venues throughout the East Coast and Midwest and maintained an active schedule as a sideman with large ensembles. Among the musicians he joined in those years were Chicago pianist Jodie Christian, tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris, rock guitarist Harvey Mandel—with whom he reportedly shared leadership of a group during the 1960s—and producer James Guercio, long associated with the band Chicago. Klemmer issued his first leader date in 1967 and relocated to Los Angeles the next year. There he served as a featured soloist in Don Ellis’s forward-thinking big band for the subsequent two years while also collaborating with Tim Buckley and Oliver Nelson, the latter partnership leading to a State Dept. tour of West Africa.
From that period through the early 1970s he directed fusion ensembles and cut numerous albums, chiefly for Cadet Records. After completing film-composition studies with Albert Harris, he moved to further labels beginning with Impulse, followed by ABC, MCA, and Elektra. He simultaneously produced sessions for pop, jazz, and R&B performers. His own output attracted wider audiences when managers Bill Siddons, previously linked with the Doors, and Gary Borman, later associated with Faith Hill, expanded its reach among pop listeners. Employing an echoplex on his amplified horn, Klemmer created widely heard albums for MCA and Elektra in an easy-listening, pop-oriented idiom from the mid-1970s into the late 1980s. He scored a hit with Touch and subsequently released solo saxophone recordings such as Cry, regarded by some listeners as immediate forerunners of smooth jazz.
He balanced those accessible undertakings with more intense jazz statements; his strongest jazz recording remains the two-LP collection Nexus, largely reissued on CD, comprising duets and trios featuring drums and occasional bass. In 1989 Music appeared on MCA, after which Klemmer withdrew from public activity to concentrate on composition, halting both touring and recording. Reports attributing the hiatus to health concerns proved unfounded; the decision simply reflected his wish to step away from the spotlight.
Klemmer has co-authored pop material for other artists, notably with David Batteau—the pair created the successful song “Walk in Love,” later popularized by Manhattan Transfer—and with Danny O’Keefe, whereas the compositions on his own jazz albums are written independently. The late 1990s brought him back to live performance, frequently on the West Coast circuit, and to the studio as a guest on albums by new-age artists including 3rd Force, David Arkenstone, and Craig Chaquico. During the same span he established his own imprint, Touch Records, which issued Simpatico and Making Love, Vol. 1 (1998). By 2000 the majority of his earlier catalog had yet to appear on CD.
