Tenor Saxophone | b. 1946

John Klemmer began at Cadet/Chess Records in 1967, still a teenager, signed by producer Esmond Edwards after studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and Interlochen's National Music Camp. His Chicago upbringing ran through Muddy Waters, Chess Records and the city's R&B and blues scenes, and those influences combined with a Coltrane-shaped acoustic tenor practice and an early interest in electronics to produce a sound that moved restlessly across genres throughout his career. "Blowin Gold" (Cadet, 1969) is cited by multiple sources as among the earliest jazz-rock fusion records. He moved to Impulse! for five albums in the early 1970s, where Eddie Harris's use of the Varitone electric saxophone influenced Klemmer's own development of echoplex delay effects on the tenor, producing a distinctive sustained-tone style that set his playing apart from any straightforward Coltrane imitation. His Impulse! work, particularly "Waterfalls" (1972) and "Constant Throb" (1972), documents this period at its most fully developed. Moving to MCA Records, he recorded "Touch" (1975), which reached a large pop and adult contemporary audience and is now widely credited as a precursor to smooth jazz. He worked sessions with Steely Dan, Roy Haynes and Nancy Wilson, went through extended sabbaticals between label moves, and founded his own Touch Records for later digital-era projects. Klemmer, born July 3, 1946, remains active.