Born Harold Floyd Brooks on 7 June 1932 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the tenor saxophonist and composer remains one of Blue Note Records' most brilliant yet tragically unrecognised talents.
Brooks' first professional work came in 1951 with R&B pianist Sonny Thompson, followed by stints with Charles Brown, Joe Morris, Amos Milburn (1953-1954), and Lionel Hampton's orchestra in spring and summer 1955, though he found it offered little room to stretch out beyond R&B. In 1956, he met trumpeter and composer Little Benny Harris at the Blue Morocco, a Bronx jazz club, who took the young tenor player under his wing and taught him the vocabulary and intricacies of modern jazz. Brooks also developed a close friendship with brilliant pianist and composer Elmo Hope. In late 1957, Harris recommended Brooks to Blue Note producer Alfred Lion, who heard him at a Harlem club and immediately began recording him. His first Blue Note session came on 25 February 1958 with organist Jimmy Smith, playing on three lengthy sextet tunes including "The Sermon", one of Smith's most important and popular albums. On 16 March 1958, Lion gave Brooks his first recording date as leader featuring Lee Morgan, Sonny Clark, Doug Watkins, and Art Blakey, though for unknown reasons the excellent Minor Move session sat in the vaults until 1980, several years after Brooks' death.
During 1959 and 1960, Brooks was understudy for Jackie McLean in Jack Gelber's play The Connection at the Living Theater in New York City, with pianist and composer Freddie Redd as musical director, leading to three more Blue Note dates including two Redd sessions and a wonderful McLean sextet date where Brooks wrote three of six tunes including "Street Singer", "Medina", and "Isle of Java". Through Blue Note, Brooks met another underrated tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec, who introduced him to Freddie Hubbard, and on 19 June 1960 Brooks recorded on Hubbard's debut album Open Sesame, contributing two originals including the title composition and "Gypsy Blue". Less than a week later on 25 June 1960, Hubbard recorded on Brooks' True Blue session with Duke Jordan, Sam Jones, and Art Taylor, the only album Brooks released during his lifetime. Brooks recorded five sessions as leader for Blue Note between 1958 and 1961, but only True Blue was issued contemporaneously, with Minor Move, Back to the Tracks, and The Waiting Game remaining unreleased during his lifetime. After 1961, Brooks never recorded again, having become addicted to heroin and spiralling steadily downward over the next dozen years until his death from liver failure on 13 August 1974, aged 42.
True Blue is now regarded as a hard bop masterpiece and one of Blue Note's greatest albums, ensuring that despite his tragically short time in the spotlight, Tina Brooks will never be forgotten.
