Collection: Chico Freeman
Born Earl Lavon Freeman Jr. on 17 July 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, Chico Freeman is a modern jazz tenor saxophonist, soprano saxophonist, and bass clarinetist whose sound bridges advanced hard bop and nearly free avant-garde jazz, son of legendary NEA Jazz Master tenor saxophonist Von Freeman. Part of Chicago's "First Family of Jazz" with his father Von, uncle George Freeman on guitar, and uncle Bruz Freeman on drums, Freeman took piano lessons as a child before finding a trumpet in the family basement and teaching himself to play, inspired by Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Earning a mathematics scholarship to Northwestern University in 1967, he played trumpet in the school jazz band whilst sitting in on his father's jam sessions at Betty Lou's on weekends, but did not discover the tenor saxophone until his junior year when he took a woodwind class and spotted a tenor in the closet after returning his loaned alto.
Practising eight to ten hours daily, Freeman quickly changed his major to music and graduated in 1972 with proficiencies in saxophone, trumpet, and piano before earning a master's degree in composition and theory from Governor's State University. He taught at the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians School of Music in Chicago, won Best Soloist and Best Saxophonist awards at the Intercollegiate Jazz Festival in South Bend, Indiana, and toured Brazil with the winning jazz band in 1976. His debut album Morning Prayer appeared in 1976, followed by a move to New York City in 1977 that launched the most productive period of his career with albums including No Time Left, Tradition in Transition, and The Outside Within, which won Stereo Review's Record of the Year in 1981. Freeman won the New York Jazz Award in 1979 and participated in the legendary Young Lions concert at Lincoln Center in June 1982 alongside Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D'Rivera, and Kevin Eubanks, contributing his 14-minute composition "Whatever Happened to the Dream Deferred?". In the mid-1980s he founded the all-star supergroup The Leaders with Cecil McBee, Kirk Lightsey, Lester Bowie, Arthur Blythe, and Famadou Don Moye, and in 1991 formed Roots with Nathan Davis, Benny Golson, Arthur Blythe, Buster Williams, and Winard Harper to celebrate the saxophone's 150th anniversary. His versatile career includes work with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette, Sam Rivers, Sun Ra, and Dizzy Gillespie.
