Tenor Saxophone and Flute | b. 1940

Lew Tabackin plays like two different musicians depending on which instrument is in his hands. Born in Philadelphia in 1940, he studied flute from age 12 and earned a performance degree in it from the Philadelphia Conservatory, then took up tenor saxophone at 15 after a chance need for a horn player in a friend's band. His tenor playing, rooted in Coleman Hawkins and Al Cohn, is bold and hard-driving; his flute playing draws instead from classical players like Jean-Pierre Rampal, producing something far more delicate and exploratory. He spent the 1960s as an in-demand New York sideman across big bands led by Cab Calloway, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, and Clark Terry, and as a member of Doc Severinsen's Tonight Show band, before meeting pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1967. The two married in 1969 and, after relocating to Los Angeles, co-founded the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band in 1973, with Tabackin serving as the ensemble's principal soloist for three decades. Alongside that work he built his own discography as a leader, beginning with his self-titled RCA debut in 1974, distinguishing himself as one of the few jazz musicians to develop genuinely separate musical identities on two different instruments.