Tributes to Phil Woods pour in

Following the death of NEA Jazz Master Phil Woods, who has died at the age of 83, tributes to the saxophonist have been pouring in.

John Fordham in his Guardian obituary writes: “Woods made no secret of his debt to Parker and in studying him obsessively he was no different from thousands of genuflecting young saxists all over the world at the time. But because he was better at it than most, he attracted more attention, and more misrepresentation. Even jazz aficionados tended to consign Woods to the shadow of the artist treated as bebop’s messiah, and as a result his independence and creativity were overlooked for long periods of a very significant jazz career.”

Nate Chinen in the New York Times recalls Woods’ later association with singer Billy Joel and the support, much earlier in his career, given to him by Quincy Jones. “One of Mr. Woods’ early supporters was Quincy Jones, who in 1956 brought him on a State Department-sponsored tour with the trumpeter and bebop pioneer Dizzy Gillespie. Mr. Woods quickly became a Gillespie protégé, and in some respects a surrogate for Parker, Gillespie’s former front-line partner, who had died in 1955. Parker’s nickname was Bird, and for a while Mr. Woods was known to some, admiringly if a little back-handedly, as “the new Bird.” The association was solidified when he married Parker’s widow, Chan, in 1957. (That marriage ended in divorce.) On the recommendation of the producer Phil Ramone, an old classmate at the Juilliard School, Mr. Woods was featured on Mr. Simon’s 1975 album, “Still Crazy After All These Years,” playing a quicksilver bebop cadenza on the song “Have a Good Time.” That same year he played a solo on the Steely Dan tune “Doctor Wu.” And in 1977 Mr. Woods was prominently featured on Mr. Joel’s ballad “Just the Way You Are,” which became a Top 10 hit and won two Grammy Awards.

Other tributes were expressions of simple gratitude and respect like this one from saxophonist Grace Kelly.