PARIS — Jazz saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who played with America’s greats but chose to live in France, died hours before a concert, his agent said Saturday. He was 80.
Griffin, whose career spanned more than a half-century, was found dead Friday morning in the music room of his home in Mauprevoir, western France, by his wife, Miriam, said Helene Manfredi, his agent for 28 years. The cause of death was not clear.
A Chicago native, Griffin took up the sax early on, eventually preferring the tenor saxophone and taking on the nickname “the Little Giant” for the big sounds he blew out of the instrument at breakneck speed.
Born April 24, 1928, Griffin got an early start at Chicago’s Du Sable High School where Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington and other greats grew into their music.
He graduated, then toured with Lionel Hampton’s big band. After two years in the army, he played in Chicago and New York, gaining a national reputation with his hard-bop improvisations. In the late 1950s, he played with Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk.
In the early 1960s, the sax master moved to France, where a group of jazz artists was gathering. He then hopscotched to the Netherlands and back to France. He toured Europe, keeping up the pace even in his final years with recent concerts in Spain, Portugal and Tunisia, his agent said.
Griffin’s 1958 album “A Blowing Session,” a hard bop jam session with John Coltrane, drummer Art Blakey and others, remains among his signature works.
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