Nelson Rangell

Nelson Rangell has focused chiefly on pop-jazz across his professional path, though he delivered convincing alto saxophone work in a soulful vein during his tenure with the straight-ahead GRP All-Star Big Band. The early-1990s GRP releases established him as a leading contemporary jazz figure in the vein of David Sanborn.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Rangell took up the flute at age fifteen and entered studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy just six months later. He soon added the saxophone to his instruments and captured Down Beat’s Best High School Jazz Soloist honor in 1979. After high school he enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he repeated his victory in the same Down Beat contest, now at the collegiate level. In 1984 he relocated to New York City, spending the next three years performing in clubs and serving as a sideman on jazz dates as well as jingles and pop sessions.

Rangell launched his solo recording career in 1987 with To Begin Again on the Gaia label. Two years afterward he joined GRP for Playing for Keeps; that sophomore effort registered as a substantial contemporary jazz success, and audience interest continued to climb with each new project. The following four albums—Nelson Rangell in 1990, In Every Moment in 1992, Truest Heart in 1993, and Yes Then Yes in 1994—all fared strongly on the contemporary jazz charts. Beyond his own discs, Rangell contributed to the GRP All-Star Big Band both in the studio and on tour.

Destiny, issued in 1994, introduced hip-hop rhythms into his palette. Turning Night into Day followed in 1997, and Far Away Day appeared three years later. His twelfth album, the characteristically polished and wide-ranging Look Again, arrived in 2003, succeeded by the holiday collection All I Hope for Christmas and the instrumental-pop tribute My American Songbook, Vol. 1. Soul to Souls came out in 2006.