Roswell Rudd was an influential American jazz trombonist who turned from traditional Dixieland in the 1950s to the avant-garde jazz of the '60s with a series of albums and collaborations with other major artists of the day. He did various menial jobs to get by and played at resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains with recording work sparse for almost 20 years until he returned with a series of albums in the 1990s. His appetite for a variety of musical forms led to international acclaim.

Born in New England, he grew up listening to his drummer father's record collection and studied the trombone in school. At college, he played in the Yale University Dixieland Band, which released an album titled 'Eli's Chosen 6' in 1958. The band appeared in a popular 1958 documentary titled 'Jazz On a Summer's Day' playing 'When the Saints Go Marching In'. He moved to New York where he became a part of the free-jazz movement. He performed and recorded with avant-garde artists such as pianists Cecil Taylor and Gil Evans, saxophonists Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp, Charles Davis and John Tchicai, bassists Buell Neidlinger and Lewis Worrell, drummers Denis Charles, Billy Higgins and Milford Graves and trumpeter Clark Terry.

He released a self-titled album in 1965 with five more recordings as band leader until 'The Definitive Roswell Rudd' in 1978. After his hiatus, he joined Tchicai in a group called the New York Art Qunitet for the 1999 album '35 Reunion', played with Lacy on 'Monk's Dream' (2000) and teamed with Shepp for 'Live in New York' (2001). He made many other albums that reflected his wide-ranging interest in genres including blues, funk and world music. He released his final album 'Embrace' in 2017. In a review on the Huffington Post, jazz writer Ralph A. Miriello noted the sense of humour in Rudd's playing and said "he always possessed a warm earthy tone, an innate sense of swing and a dedication to harmony". Rudd suffered from cancer later in life and he died at his New York home aged 82 in 2017.

Roswell Rudd

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