Tina Brooks

Harold Floyd (Tina) Brooks (June 7, 1932 – August 13, 1974), was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and composer.

Early Years

Harold Floyd "Tina" Brooks and his twin brother Harry were born to David and Cornelia Brooks in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on June 7, 1932. They were the youngest of eight children.

This close-knit family migrated en masse to the Bronx in New York City in 1944, when Harold was 12 years old. He was already being called Tina (pronounced Teena), a grade school nickname that came from his tiny, or teeny, size. Around this time, he started playing the C Melody saxophone. In addition to school instruction, he took private lessons with his older brother, David "Bubba" Brooks Jr. Tina moved from C Melody to alto to tenor, finally settling on the latter as his main instrument.

Meanwhile, his brother Bubba was becoming established as an R&B tenor saxophonist, joining pianist Sonny Thompson's band in 1950. When Bubba took a leave of absence in late 1950, the younger Brooks took his chair for a few months. During January '51, Tina made his recording debut in Cleveland on one of Thompson's numerous King sessions.

Throughout the early fifties, Brooks worked with local New York Latin bands and various R&B outfits, including those of singer-pianist Charles Brown and trumpeter Joe Morris. In either '53 or '54, he went on the road with pianist Amos Milburn. He then joined Lionel Hampton's orchestra for the spring and summer of 1955. But, with scant opportunity to stretch out, he found this promising appointment to be little more rewarding than his previous gigs.

In 1956, Brooks met trumpeter-composer Little Benny Harris at the Blue Morocco, a Bronx jazz club. Harris took the young tenor under his wing and taught him the vocabulary and intricacies of modern jazz. Brooks also developed a close friendship with the brilliant pianist-composer Elmo Hope. He started combining early influences (Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray) with current models (Sonny Rollins, Hank Mobley) into a style of his own, which rapidly evolved.

The Blue Note Years

In late 1957, Benny Harris called Blue Note president Alfred Lion up to a Harlem club to hear the tenorist. Impressed, Lion began recording Brooks on his label at a regular pace, starting with a marathon Jimmy Smith session on February 25, 1958, during which the saxophonist played on three lengthy sextet tunes. The Sermon and House Party, two of Smith's most important and popular albums, each carried one of those tunes. When Blue Note recorded the organist at Small's Paradise that April with special guests (a session that was not issued until 1980), Tina was present.

On March 16, Lion gave Brooks his first recording date as a leader. For unknown reasons, that session sat in the vaults until 1980 when it was issued briefly in Japan as Minor Move. In May of '58, Tina and Junior Cook both played tenor on Kenny Burrell's all-star Blue Lights session. Fifteen months passed before Brooks recorded again, on a Blue Note live recording led by Burrell at the Five Spot.

Another Blue Note tenor man, Ike Quebec, introduced him to one of the label's future stars, Freddie Hubbard. "Ike Quebec introduced me to Tina at the 845 Club.... I loved Tina. He had a nice feeling. I got into him before I got into Hank (Mobley). He would write shit out on the spot and it would be beautiful. He wrote "Gypsy Blue" for me on the first record and I loved it. I just loved it. Tina made my first record date wonderful. He wrote and played beautifully. What a soulful, inspiring cat. I loved him."

Hubbard's session took place on June 19, 1960. For the date, Brooks wrote the title tune, "Open Sesame," and "Gypsy Blue" and arranged "But Beautiful." Exactly one week later, Tina made his second album, True Blue, on which Hubbard was the trumpeter. Both albums were released that fall.

During 1959 and '60, Tina was the understudy for Jackie McLean in Jack Gelber's play The Connection, which was presented by The Living Theater. The pianist, composer, and musical director was Freddie Redd. This association led to three more Blue Note dates. Both McLean and Brooks were on two Redd sessions. A sextet date, under McLean's leadership, yielded three Brooks tunes: "Medina," "Isle of Java," and "Street Singer." For McLean's next album, Jackie's Bag, Blue Note decided to pick the best of this and an earlier recording date, so only half of the sextet pieces were issued. The complete session was finally issued in Japan in 1979.

Seven weeks later, Tina went into the studio with the same sidemen from the McLean sextet date to make his third Blue Note album. Since one tune, "David the King," never achieved releasable quality, an album was assembled using the viable material from Brook's session along with Street Singer from McLean's date. The album was titled Back to the Tracks and given the catalog number 4052. Its cover appeared along with others on Blue Note inner sleeves, and was listed in the label's catalog for a time, yet the album was never issued. A fourth Tina Brooks album was recorded in 1961. Although edited and sequenced for release, it too was not issued.

The Last Years

Tina Brooks never recorded after the middle of 1961. Throughout that decade he picked up occasional Latin and R&B gigs, but mainly worked around the Bronx at such clubs as Freddie's Bar, the 845 Club, and the Blue Morocco with Oliver Beener, Elmo Hope, Don Pullen, and many others. Although his work inspired younger Bronx musicians like trumpeter Charles Tolliver and drummer Barry Altschul, Brooks never really "made it." Perhaps part of the reason was his shy, reserved personality. Brooks was also one of many jazz artists of his day who had a chronic drug habit. The inevitable short hospital and prison stays would keep him off the music scene intermittently. After several years of illness, which rendered him incapable of playing his instrument, Tina Brooks died on August 13, 1974, of kidney failure or, as Beener put it, 'general dissipation.'

Discography

All on Blue Note

As a leader:

• Minor Move (1958)
• True Blue (1960)
• Back to the Tracks (1960)
• The Waiting Game (1961)

As a sideman:

• The Sermon! by Jimmy Smith (1958)
• House Party by Jimmy Smith (1958)
• Cool Blues by Jimmy Smith (1958)
• Blue Lights Vols 1 & 2 by Kenny Burrell (1958)
• On View at the Five Spot Cafe by Kenny Burrell (1959)
• Open Sesame by Freddie Hubbard (1960)
• Jackie's Bag by Jackie McLean (1960)
• Shades of Redd by Freddie Redd (1960)
• Redd's Blues by Freddie Redd (1961)

External links

• Tina Brooks at the Hard Bop Home Page