Don Rendell born 4 March 1926

Donald Percy "Don" Rendell (4 March 1926 – 20 October 2015) was an English jazz musician and arranger. Mainly active as a tenor saxophonist, he also played soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet.

Born as the son of two musicians in Plymouth, England, Rendell's jazz career began when he was fifteen, with the alto sax, switching to tenor after a few years. Don took part in a jam session with Stephane Grapelli in 1942 while still at school and playing alto sax.

He had formed a band called the Rhythm Racketeers with friends Denny Termer on piano, Stan Watson, guitar and drummer Laurie Morgan later to take part in the formation of Club Eleven. They gigged locally until Termer's uncle took them into his show band 
playing variety theatres all over the country. Later they worked in 
night clubs and US army bases and by 1945 Don had switched to tenor sax.

Dance hall work with Duncan Whytes band at the Astoria Ballroom in central London followed but this did give the opportunity for musicians to visit the Soho night clubs to play swing when the ballroom closed. This was around 1945 and Rendell remembers visiting The Bag O'Nails, The Kit Kat, The Florida, The Nuthouse and The Blue Lagoon. He also visited the Downbeat Club held at Mac's rehearsal rooms where he played with visiting American musicians.

                             

Around 1947 he was with George Evans ten saxophone band at the Hammersmith Palais. By 1948 he was playing with the Oscar Rabin band, and played his first long recorded solo on Cherokee. In the band at the time was trumpeter Leon Calvert, who became a regular at Club Eleven when it opened later in the year.

Johnny Dankworth Seven

Towards the end of the life of Club Eleven in 1949 Ronnie Scott left for a trip to the US and Rendell replaced him for a short time. Here he worked with Johnny Dankworth and was a founder member of Dankworth's ground breaking seven piece group formed in 1950. After three years of the Seven Dankworth formed his big band and Rendell went his own way.

From 1953 to 1955 he played around the clubs before forming a sextet with Ronnie Ross and when that folded he took the remnants of his group into Tony Crombie's band. This was followed by a six month spell with Ted Heath, but left because there was little opportunity to play his kind of jazz.

In 1956 Stan Kenton came to the UK to tour Europe and needed a couple of replacement saxophone players. Harry Klein and Don Rendell were hired. Rendell worked with the band for two or three months and rates it as one of the highlights of his career. After Kenton he played with Tony Kinsey for a few months before forming another sextet known as the Jazz Six. He toured with Woody Herman's Anglo-American Herd in 1959 and led a group accompanying Billie Holiday when she toured in the UK. From 

1960 he led his own groups.

                           

In 1961 he formed a quintet with Graham Bond and it was about this time that he heard John Coltrane whose style of playing led to a dramatic change in Rendell's own style. From 1963 to 1969 he led a quintet with trumpeter Ian Carr. The quintet with Carr is regarded as a high spot in Rendell's career. During the time they were 
together the personnel of the band changed hardly at all, and recorded a number of well received records.

The quintet used a lot of material written by group members and over the years built a remarkable sense of unity. By now Rendell was playing soprano sax and flute as well as tenor and had developed a harder edge to his sound as he was influenced by Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin and John Coltrane. The group ended when Rendell became reluctant to continue travelling around the world and his perceived lack of ambition led to a parting of the ways.

From the 1970s he played concerts, festivals and jazz clubs as a featured soloist and also got into teaching in schools and colleges. Through the 1990s he taught saxophone on the jazz courses at the Guildhall School of Music in London as well as writing books for grade exams, all while continuing to compose. He has established a reputation as a jazz educator and was involved with the annual Jazz Summer School in Barry, South Wales for many years and shared the teaching at the Royal Academy of Music with John Dankworth. He died on 20th October, 2015 in London after a short illness at the age of 89.     (Edited mainly from henrybebop.co.uk)