Gary Bartz

Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz at the 2007 North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam
Background information
Born	(1940-09-26) September 26, 1940 (age 84) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, funk
Occupation	Musician
Instrument	Saxophone
Years active	1960s–present
Labels	Milestone, Prestige, P-Vine, SteepleChase, Candid, Atlantic, Blue Note, Mapleshade

Gary Bartz (born September 26, 1940, in Baltimore) is an American jazz saxophonist.^[1] He has won two Grammy Awards.^[2]

Bartz was first exposed to jazz as the son of the owners of a jazz nightclub in Baltimore. In 1958 he left Baltimore to study at the Juilliard School.^[1] In the early 1960s, he performed with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop. He worked as a sideman with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.^[1] In 1968, he was a member of McCoy Tyner's band, Expansions.^[1]

In mid-1970, he joined Miles Davis' band,^[1] performing live at the Isle Of Wight festival in August; and at a series of December dates at The Cellar Door club in Washington, D.C. Portions of these shows were initially released on the 1971 Live-Evil album,^[1] with the entire six performance/four night run eventually released in full on the 2005 Cellar Door Sessions box set.^[3] He later formed the band Ntu Troop, which combined jazz, funk, and soul.^[4]

Bartz was awarded a Grammy for "Best Latin Jazz Performance" for his work on Roy Hargrove's "Habana" at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, and for "Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group" for For McCoy Tyner's Illuminations at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.^[2]

Bartz was awarded the BNY Mellon Jazz 2015 Living Legacy Award, which was presented at a special ceremony at The Kennedy Center.^[5]

In 2019, Revive Music and Bartz celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his Another Earth album at Winter Jazzfest in New York City, alongside original member Pharoah Sanders.^[6]

He is Professor of Jazz Saxophone at Oberlin College.^[7]

With Joe Chambers

• Urban Groove^[12] (441 Records 2003 )

  

With the Rance Allen Group

• Say My Friend (1977)^[13]

With Gene Ammons

• Goodbye (Prestige, 1974)

With Roy Ayers

• Stoned Soul Picnic (Atlantic, 1968)

With Cindy Blackman

• The Oracle (Muse, 1995)

With Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

• Soul Finger (Limelight, 1965) Bartz recording debut
• Hold On, I'm Coming (Limelight, 1966) on one track left over from Soul Finger sessions

With Donald Brown

• Sources of Inspiration (Muse, 1989)

With Kenny Burrell

• Ellington Is Forever Volume Two (Fantasy, 1975)

With Donald Byrd

• Stepping into Tomorrow (1974)
• Caricatures (1976)

With George Cables

• Shared Secrets (MuseFX, 2001)
• Looking for the Light (MuseFX, 2003)

With Norman Connors

• Invitation
• Slewfoot
• This is Your Life
• Love from the Sun
• Dance of Magic: Live at the Nemu Jazz Inn
• Romantic Journey
• Saturday Night Special

With Miles Davis

• On the Crest of the Airwaves (Discs 1 & 2: Live in August & October 1970)
• The Cellar Door Sessions (1970)
• Live-Evil
• Bitches Brew Live (2011)
• Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4 (2015)
• Live in Europe: Volume One - recorded October 21/22 1971 - released September 2023

With Ray Drummond

• Vignettes (Arabesque, 1996)

With Antonio Hart

• Don't You Know That I Care (1992)

With Louis Hayes

• The Crawl (Candid, 1989)

With Heads of State^[14]

• Search for Peace (Smoke Sessions, 2015)
• Four in One (Smoke Sessions, 2017)

With Phyllis Hyman

• You Know How to Love Me
• Phyllis Hyman
• Can't We Fall in Love Again?

With Barney McAll

• Release the Day (2001)
• Precious Energy (2022)
• Precious Energy Re-UP (2023)

With Jackie McLean

• Ode to Super (SteepleChase, 1973)

With Grachan Moncur III

• Exploration (2004)

With Alphonse Mouzon

• Virtue (1976)

With Rare Silk

• New Weave

With Max Roach

• Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic, 1968)

With Wallace Roney

• A Place in Time (HighNote, 2016)

With Pharoah Sanders

• Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) (Impulse!, 1970)

With Woody Shaw

• Blackstone Legacy (Contemporary, 1970)
• For Sure! (Columbia, 1979)
• United (Columbia, 1981)

With Sphere

• Sphere (Verve, 1998)

With Charles Tolliver

• Paper Man (Freedom, 1968 [1975])

With Bob Thiele Collective

• Lion Hearted (1993)

With Leon Thomas

• Precious Energy (Mapleshade Records, 1987)

With Malachi Thompson

• Rising Daystar (Delmark, 1999)
• Blue Jazz (Delmark, 2003)

With McCoy Tyner

• Expansions (Blue Note, 1968)
• Cosmos (Blue Note, 1970)
• Extensions (Blue Note, 1970)
• Asante (Blue Note, 1970)
• Sama Layuca (Milestone, 1974)
• Focal Point (Milestone, 1976)
• Looking Out (Milestone, 1982)
• Dimensions (Elektra/Musician, 1984)
• McCoy Tyner and the Latin All-Stars (Telarc, 1999)
• Illuminations (Telarc, 2004)

With Robert Walter

• Spirit of '70 (1996)

With Chip White

• Harlem Sunset with Steve Nelson, Robin Eubanks, Claudio Roditi (Postcards)

With John Lee & Gerry Brown

• Infinite Jones with Chris Hinze (Keytone, 1974)

With The Midnight Hour (with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammed)

• Jazz Is Dead 001, Distant Mode (2020)

With Roy Hargrove

• Of Kindred Souls: The Roy Hargrove Quintet Live (Novus, 1993)
• Roy Hargrove's Crisol, Habana (Verve, 1997) – Latin Jazz Grammy Winner

• MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of Popular Music