Illinois Jacquet, jazz great, dies in New York

Jet, August 9, 2004

Legendary saxophonist and bandleader Illinois Jacquet, who played with nearly every jazz and blues luminary of his time and whose standout solo on Lionel Hampton's Flying Home became a national hit, recently died. He was 81.

Jacquet died of a heart attack at his home in Queens, NY, said Carol Scherick, his companion and manager of more than 20 years.

During a career that spanned eight decades, Jacquet played with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis.

Jacquet, who defined the jazz style called screeching, recorded Flying Home with Hampton on the first take in 1942. His 80-second solo on the tune "was carefully structured, building its energy precipitously and cresting on a single note, repeated 12 times in a row," the New York Times recently raved. The tune established him as a major jazz favorite.

Jacquet once likened his performance of the tune to a religious experience. "Something was with me at that moment," he said. "It all came together for some reason."

He went on to play tenor sax in the Count Basie and Cab Calloway bands and since 1981 performed with his own band, the world-famous Illinois Jacquet Big Band. He appeared with Calloway's band in Stormy Weather, which starred Lena Horne, and in the Academy Award-nominated short film Jammin' the Blues, with Billie Holiday and Lester Young.

Jacquet won rave reviews when he played C-Jam Blues with President Bill Clinton, an amateur saxophonist, on the White House lawn during Clinton's inaugural ball in January 1993. He also performed for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

During his heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, Jacquet recorded more than 300 original compositions, including three of his biggest hits, Black Velvet, Robbins" Nest and Port of Rico. During the 1960s and '70s, he toured extensively in Europe. In 1983, he became the first jazz musician to become an artist-in-residence at Harvard University.

He once described the lasting appeal of jazz music. "Jazz is as American as bacon and eggs," he tom JET. "That will never change. People will always eat bacon and eggs, and they will always want to hear some good jazz played," he quipped. He added on a more serious note, "Jazz music is God's glib, and the score will never end."

Born Jean-Baptiste in Broussard, LA, his mother was a Sioux Indian and his father, Gilbert Jacquet, was a French-Creole railroad worker and part-time musician. The nickname Illinois came from the Indian word "Illiniwek," which means superior men. He later dropped the name Jean-Baptiste.

He began performing at age 3, tap dancing to the sounds of his father's band. A music teacher later introduced him to the saxophone.

His first exposure was a command performance by Nat King Cole, who lined up bass player Jimmy Blanton, Sid Carlett on drums and guitarist Charlie Christian from the Benny Goodman Orchestra and told Jacquet he wanted to hear what he could do. Jacquet later said the experience "was like playing with God, St. Peter and Moses," yet he wasn't nervous because "when you play with the greatest you play even better."

He received an honorary doctorate from Juilliard School of music in May. He played his last performance with his big band at Lincoln Center less than a week before he died.

In addition to Ms. Scherick, he is survived by a daughter, Pamela Jacquet Davis of Scottsdale, AZ, and a granddaughter.