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Lew Soloff

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Lew Soloff
L to R: Steve Ramos, Ray Reach and Lew Soloff backstage at the Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival, sponsored by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in Birmingham, Alabama, September 27, 2008 (Photo by Claudia Reach)
L to R: Steve Ramos, Ray Reach and Lew Soloff backstage at the Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival, sponsored by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in Birmingham, Alabama, September 27, 2008 (Photo by Claudia Reach)
Background information
Born(1944-02-20)February 20, 1944
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
DiedMarch 8, 2015(2015-03-08) (aged 71)
New York City, New York
Instrument(s)Trumpet, flugelhorn
Years active1960–2015
Websitewww.lewsoloff.com

Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944 – March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer and actor. From New York City, he studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He worked with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 until 1973. Prior to this, he worked with Machito, Tony Scott, Maynard Ferguson and Tito Puente.[1]

In the 1980s he was a member of Members Only, a jazz ensemble who recorded for Muse Records.[2]

Soloff made frequent guest appearances with jazz orchestras all over the world such as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra (directed by Wynton Marsalis) and the Magic City Jazz Orchestra (directed by Ray Reach).

Soloff was a longtime member of the Manhattan Jazz Quintet and Mingus Big Band. He recorded and performed with Gil Evans and was a regular member of Evans' Monday Night ensembles until Evans' death. His 2010 recording Sketches of Spain is a tribute to the classic 1959-60 Miles Davis-Gil Evans collaboration, and he has performed the equally legendary and prodigiously difficult (reconstructed) Evans arrangements of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

He was among a handful of trumpeters capable of playing demanding lead trumpet parts while also contributing improvisational solos, and of playing (as musicians refer to it) "legitimate" music (baroque, classical, and later orchestral and chamber music styles) making him an in-demand session player for commercials and soundtracks.

Soloff died in 2015 after apparently suffering a heart attack in New York City.[3][4]

Discography

As soloist

As leader

As sideman

With Maynard Ferguson

  • Ridin' High (1966)

With George Benson

With Blood, Sweat & Tears

With Carla Bley

With Gil Evans

With Dizzy Gillespie

With Jimmy Heath

With Herbie Mann

With Tisziji Munoz

  • The Paradox of Completion (Anami Music, 2015)

With Bobby Previte

With Jeremy Steig

With Sonny Stitt

With Stanley Turrentine

With Others

References

  1. ^ Down Beat Artist's profile
  2. ^ Allmusic
  3. ^ "Passings: Lew Soloff, Jazz & Blood, Sweat & Tears Trumpeter (1944 - 2015) ~ VVN Music". vintagevinylnews.com. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  4. ^ http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lew-soloff-20150309-story.html
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