
Noted jazz trombonist, ROSWELL RUDD, who once jokingly described himself as a “White Anglo-Saxon Pythagorean,” has died at the age of 82 after a long battle with cancer. He was a leading light of the avant-garde jazz scene of the 1960s and 70s and among those he worked with during his 60-year career were Archie Shepp (pictured below), Cecil Taylor, Carla Bley, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Gato Barbieri, and Steve Lacy.
Born in Sharon, Connecticut, in 1935, Rudd attended Yale University where, as a devotee of Louis Armstrong’s trombonist, Kid Ory, he began playing Dixieland jazz before later gravitating to free jazz and making his mark in the genre in the 1960s. In the 1980s, Rudd dropped off the jazz radar for over a decade and seemingly forgotten, eked a living playing in hotel show bands in the Catskills area of New York. His jazz comeback began in earnest in the late ’90s and he won a Grammy in 1999 for the album ‘Monk’s Dream.’ His most recent album was ‘Embrace,’ released in November by the Rare Noise label.
ROSWELL RUDD R.I.P. 1935-2017