Arthur Blythe born 5 July 1940

Arthur Murray Blythe (May 7, 1940 – March 27, 2017) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. He was described by critic Chris Kelsey as displaying "one of the most easily recognizable alto sax sounds in jazz, big and round, with a fast, wide vibrato and an aggressive, precise manner of phrasing" and furthermore as straddling the avant garde and traditionalist jazz, often with bands featuring unusual instrumentation.

Born in Los Angeles, Blythe lived in San Diego, returning to Los Angeles when he was 19 years old. He took up the alto saxophone at the age of nine, playing R&B until his mid-teens when he discovered jazz. In the mid-1960s, Blythe was part of the Underground Musicians and Artists Association (UGMAA), founded by Horace Tapscott, on whose 1969 The Giant Is Awakened he made his recording debut.

After moving to New York in the mid-1970s, Blythe worked as a security guard before being offered a place as sideman for Chico Hamilton (1975–77). He subsequently played with Gil Evans' Orchestra (1976–78), Lester Bowie (1978), Jack DeJohnette (1979) and McCoy Tyner (also 1979). Blythe's group – John Hicks, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall – played Carnegie Hall and the Village Vanguard in 1979.

In 1977, Blythe appeared on the LP Rhythmatism, a recording led by drummer Steve Reid. Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau highlighted Blythe's "forceful" alto-saxophone playing and said, "like so many of the new players Blythe isn't limited to modern methods by his modernism—he favors fluent, straight-ahead Coltrane modalities, but also demonstrates why he belongs on a tune for Cannonball."

Blythe began to record as a leader in 1977 for the India Navigation label and then for Columbia Records from 1978 to 1987. Bob Stewart's tuba was a regular feature of these albums, often taking the place of the more traditional string bass. Albums such as The Grip and Metamorphosis (both on the label) offered capable, highly refined jazz fare with a free angle which seemed "out there".

                             

Blythe played on many pivotal albums of the 1980s, among them Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition on ECM. Blythe was a member of the all-star jazz group The Leaders and joined the World Saxophone Quartet after the departure of Julius Hemphill. Blythe returned back to San Diego in 1998 with his three children, Odessa, Chalee and Arthur Jr. He lived with them and his mother, Nancy, in Valencia Park for several years, then moved back to the Los Angeles area. Beginning in 2000 he made recordings on Savant Records which included Exhale (2003) with John Hicks (piano), Bob Stewart (tuba), and Cecil Brooks III (drums).

The saxophonist and composer’s final San Diego headlining performance was Dec 1, 2001, at the Athenaeum Art Studio in University Heights.“I am not just avant-garde,” Blythe told All About Jazz in 2003, two years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. “I like to play all types of music. ... I like music with form, not atonal or aform. ... Sometimes they put me into a weird bag and want me to be weird, inaccessible. I think I am accessible.”

In 2013, he was in an induced coma for one week at USC Keck Center, after having a large benign tumour removed from his right kidney. In 2015, he was honoured with a tribute concert as part of the annual Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, which he attended in a wheelchair.

Throughout his career, Blythe tirelessly sought to chart new creative territory. It was a quest he continued until his Parkinson’s disease worsened and he was no longer able to perform. Blythe died from complications of the disease in Lancaster, California, March 27, 2017, at the age of 76.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The San Diego Union-Tribune)