Gary Bartz -

Gary Bartz (born Sept. 26, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist who first recorded behind Art Blakey during the mid-1960s. As a bandleader, he debuted with the 1968/69 Milestone releases Libra and Another Earth.

Between 1970 and 1974, Bartz fronted the avant-jazz NTU Troop for seven albums, including the 1973 Prestige double-album I’ve Known Rivers and Other Bodies. As a sideman, he’s recorded with McCoy Tyner, Roy Ayers, Woody Shaw, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, and Norman Connors.

Gary Lee Bartz was born Sept. 26, 1940, in Baltimore. He took up alto saxophone at age 11 and played in his father’s nightclub as a teenager. After studying at the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard Conservatory of Music, he joined the Charles Mingus‘ Jazz Workshop and played beside saxophonist Eric Dolphy. In 1964, he backed drummer Max Roach and vocalist Abbey Lincoln.

Bartz notched one of his earliest recorded credits, alongside trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan, on the 1965 Limelight release Soul Finger by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. The following year, Bartz played on Blakey’s Hold On, I’m Coming alongside trumpeter Chuck Mangione and guitarist Grant Green.

Discography:

Libra (1967 • Gary Bartz Quintet)
Another Earth (1968)
Home! (1969 • Gary Bartz NTU Troop)
Harlem Bush Music: Taifa (1971 • Gary Bartz NTU Troop)
Harlem Bush Music: Uhuru (1971 • Gary Bartz NTU Troop
Juju Street Songs (1972 • Gary Bartz NTU Troop)
I’ve Known Rivers and Other Bodies (1973 • Gary Bartz NTU Troop)
Altissimo (1973 • Gary Bartz, Lee Konitz, Charlie Mariano & Jackie McLean)
Follow the Medicine Man (1973 • Gary Bartz NTU Troop)
Ode to Super (1973 • Jackie McLean Featuring Gary Bartz)
Singerella: A Ghetto Fairytale (1974)
Dance of Magic (Live at Nemu Jazz Inn -1) (1975 • Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson & Norman Connors)
The Shadow Do (1975)
Ju Ju Man (1976)
Love Song (1977)
Music Is My Sanctuary (1977)
Love Affair (1978)
Bartz (1980)
Monsoon (1988 • Gary Bartz Quartet)
Reflections of Monk: The Final Frontier (1989)