"Profile: John Stubblefield"
From: Smith, Arnold Jay.
Down Beat: The Contemporary Music Magazine. January 29, 1976.
John Stubblefield calls no style of jazz his own. "I would like to contribute in any kind of musical situation. There are so many colors in music, I won't choose one." John has recorded with Dollar Brand (African Space Program, Enja 2032), McCoy Tyner (Sama Layuca, Milestone M-9056), and Anthony Braxton (Town Hall, Trio PA-3008/9) among many others. His credits include the bands of Miles Davis, Stanley Cowell, Gil Evans, Frank Foster, Charles Mingus and Tito Puente. He has done stints with the Collective Black Artists, the New York Jazz Repertory Company and the Jones-Lewis Jazz Orchestra.
He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and played his first professional gigs there. "I was close to a family into which Don Byas married, so he became an early influence on my playing. I started on piano for three or four years, and quit because I wanted to go out and play football like all the other kids. I went back from there to those that influenced Byas, Hawkins, Chu Berry. As I got older, I listened more. You must go back to go forward. Don told me that from the start.
My first dates were backing Al Hibbler. I didn't even know who he was, with his Ellington background and all. We just played those hits like After The Lights Go Down Low and Unchained Melody. I knew his phrasing was too good to be just doing that. Again, as I looked back into my own history, I found out who he was."
After high school, it was college study in Arkansas, and eventually on to Chicago where Stubblefield became involved in the music of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. It was here that he recorded with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and Joseph Jarman.
"Chicago was essential to me because of the AACM. There was and is no other organization of its kind. They are now celebrating their tenth anniversary. That's a long time for a group of this kind. We were able to do sessions with all types of combos, even organ groups. It was an important professional step which included composition study with Muhal Richard Abrams.
In New York, things were a little tougher. I worked with the CBA big band until Mary Lou Williams gave me my first important job. I played on her Mars at the City Center in 1971. Her bass player, Milton Suggs, recommended me, and we've been close ever since. She's interested in my writing. I've done some harp and string things and she'd like to record them. Two of my pieces (Baby Man and Free Spirits) will be released soon on an LP of hers from Steeplechase."
Working with Miles Davis (documented on Get Up With It), was, of course, quite an experience for John.
"We always talked about music. That's his main conversation and he's so sincere about it that you get swallowed up with him. But one time, we got to talking about cars and that's when I really got to like him. Being around him is like living twenty-four hours in every hour. There's so much musical energy."
Interpret Productions is the name of a company John formed to produce acts that will perform original music. Other co-founders include Mtume and Reggie Lucas, who will become a permanent part of a group. "I expect those two to become prolific writers in the near future. My writing will involve some sound I like: large ensembles. My direction is composer/player. That's why I was drawn to Wayne Shorter and Oliver Nelson. I feel that they can say what they mean because they can play it so they know first hand."
John's first experience with soprano saxophone came as a result of a robbery. John's apartment was ripped off in 1969 and all his instruments were stolen. Someone had a soprano. "It was instant love. It was so natural, no problem. It's been growing ever since. Most players tend to get an oboe sound out of it. When I listened to Trane, I never thought about how he had 'made the switch.' I just thought he was playing another sound. Then I went back to Sidney Bechet and his sound was so different. They had different metal then and I was playing one of those real old metal ones. The sound you get is how you think about playing it. The tendency is to tighten up your cheeks with a smaller mouthpiece in your mouth, like an oboe. In Chicago, I would overblow the instrument because of breathing techniques I was still learning about. I had played clarinet for awhile, so I started using a tighter embouchure, but a loosetight embouchure - loose on the outside, tight on the inside. It gave me more control. Budd Johnson has got to be the link from Bechet, along with Steve Lacy. Bob Wilber has to be considered also. There's a lot to be done with soprano. I hear it used in all contexts - rhythm and blues, big bands."
Asked if the soprano saxophone is the reed instrument of the electronic age, John paused and reflected. "I can use that. There's something about the intensity of the sound that can blend in with electronicsounding instruments. I never thought about it in that regard. "I feel that no matter what a musician is doing, he should not be put down. The listeners should put on their '75 ears and get down. Some musicians put down others for expanding themselves to larger audiences, the crossovers, the commercial aspects. I don't think any musician is insincere about what he's doing, no matter what it is. If it's corny to state that music is for the people, then corny I am. Here we are in the machine age and some are saying that the musician will become extinct and the electronic gadgetry will take his place. Disco is in, if a person is trying to break that market, why down it? Machines will take over soon enough anyhow, so let him do it his way. If you liked the way a person played in 1945 or 1957, then just listen to that. Close your ears to the rest. But don't tell a man he's got to play that way forever."

John Stubblefield c.v.
Tenor saxophonist and composer born in Little Rock (Arkansas) on February 4, 1945.
John Stubblefield joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) after moving to Chicago from Little Rock. He is an in-demand teacher, having lectured , led seminars, and organized workshops at many universities, colleges, and festivals, and worked with "the Jazzmobile."
After moving to New York in 1971, he played with the Collective Black Artists big band and Mary Lou Williams. He was also in groups led by Charles Mingus, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and Tito Puente. In 1972 he played a free jazz concert at Town Hall with Anthony Braxton and was featured with him on an album of the same name. In 1973 John recorded with Abdullah Ibrahim and worked with Miles Davis - and later recorded with him in 75.
His credits also include such major artists as Gil Evans, McCoy Tyner, World Saxophone Quartet, Kenny Barron, Freddie Hubbard, Nat Adderly, and George Russell. Concert reviews attest that Stubblefield is a "powerful" and "irresistible" soloist who has stood out with such ensembles as the McCoy Tyner Big Band and the Mingus Dynasty Big Band.
While still young in Little Rock, he discovered Don Byas, the great tenor saxophonist with the Basie Band. Byas had married into a Little Rock family. Some years later after leaving Arkansas for Chicago, Stubblefield connected with the man he says is responsible for inspiring him to take up tenor. Another musical force in his life was another Arkansas resident William Grant Still. Although Still was a symphonist and chamber music composer, his themes are rooted in spirituals and blues; he was a master of clear melodic expression and deep feeling.
Stubblefield has had his own quartet since 1980, and his first album as a leader was "Midnight Sun" in 1976. In addition to dozens of albums and CDs as a sideman, he has ten releases as a leader with his most recent "Morning Song" in 1993. ....