Peter King (saxophonist)

: "This article is about Peter King, the alto saxophonist. For the tenor saxophonist and manager of Ronnie Scott's, Pete King, see Pete King. For others with the same name, see the disambiguation page for Peter King."Peter King (born 11 August 1940) is an English jazz saxophonist, composer, and clarinettist.

Early life

King was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, and taught himself to play the clarinet at the age of fifteen, quickly switching to alto saxophone.

Career

In 1959, at the age of nineteen, he was booked by Ronnie Scott to perform at the opening of Scott's club in Gerrard Street, London. In the same year he received the "Melody Maker" "New Star" award. He worked with Johnny Dankworth's orchestra from 1960 to 1961, and went on to work with the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Tubby Hayes, Harry South, and Stan Tracey, the Brussels Big Band, and the Ray Charles band on a European tour. He has also played in small groups with musicians such as Philly Joe Jones, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Red Rodney, Hampton Hawes, Nat Adderley, Al Haig, John Burch, Bill Watrous, and Dick Morrissey, Bill Le Sage and singers such as Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, and Anita O'Day. He is a member of Charlie Watts' Tentet.

King's composing has moved beyond individual numbers for performance and recording, and includes an opera, "Zyklon", in collaboration with Julian Barry. He has also made appearances on a number of pop duo Everything But The Girl's albums, as well as on the solo album "North Marine Drive" of Everything But The Girl member Ben Watt.

Peter still performs regularly in jazz venues around London with his quartet, usually featuring pianist Steve Melling, and as a guest performer in other jazz bands [" [http://www.jazzinlondon.net/JIL/JILfrontpage.htm Jazz in London listings] "] After playing a Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone [http://www.howarth.uk.com/pic.aspx?pic=./wo/sxyanA9932withletter.jpg&pid=43122] for many years, around 2001 he changed to a limited edition Yanagisawa A9932Z solid silver and phosphor bronze alto [http://www.sax.co.uk/A9932Z.htm] , fitted with the same vintage metal Otto Link mouthpiece as before. His limited edition A9932Z is no longer produced by Yanagisawa, although the newer A9932J alto saxophone [http://www.saxophones.co.uk/a9932J.gif] is almost identical to it, except that the inside of the solid silver bell is not gold-plated and there are some minor differences in the engraving. In 2008, Peter was still playing the custom Yanagisawa alto, but with a metal mouthpiece hand-made by Freddie Gregory [http://www.freddiegregory.com] .

Discography

*1981: "In Hoagland" – Hoagy Carmichael/Georgie Fame/Annie Ross
*1982: "Bebop Live" (with Al Haig, Art Themen, Kenny Baldock, and Allan Ganley) (Spotlite)
*1982: "New Beginning" (Spotlite)
*1983: "East 34th Street" (Spotlite)
*1984: "Hi Fly" (Spotlite)
*1988: "Brother Bernard" (Miles Music)
*1989: "Tippin' the Scales" (live - with Dick Morrissey) (Spotlite)
*1994: "Tamburello" (Miles Music)
*1996: "Speed Trap" (Ronnie Scott's Jazz)
*1997: "Big Blues" (with Jimmy Witherspoon)
*1998: "Lush Life" (Miles Music)
* : "" (Spotlite)
*2003: "Footprints" (Miles Music)

ources and external links

*Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley. "Jazz: The Rough Guide". ISBN 1-85828-528-3
*Richard Cook & Brian Morton. "The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD" 6th edition. ISBN 0-14-051521-6
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:lg59kext7q7v~T2 Peter King] — discography from AllMusic
* [http://www.milesmusic.co.uk/pking0703.html Peter King] — biography and discography from Miles Music
* [http://www.rosebudus.com/watts/tentet.html Charlie Watts' tentet]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tRtPr1cDEg Peter King playing 'Lush Life' (unaccompanied) on his A9932Z alto sax]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjY1NPUUp9U King plays Charlie Parker's Grafton saxophone at Christie's auction house]