Peter King (saxophonist)

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Peter King (born 11 August 1940) is an English jazz saxophonist, composer, and clarinettist.

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[edit] Early life

King was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, and taught himself to play the clarinet at the age of fifteen, quickly switching to alto saxophone.

[edit] Career

In 1959, at the age of nineteen, he was booked by Ronnie Scott to perform at the opening of Scott's club in Gerrard Street, London. In the same year he received the Melody Maker "New Star" award. He worked with Johnny Dankworth's orchestra from 1960 to 1961, and went on to work with the big bands of Maynard Ferguson, Tubby Hayes, Harry South, and Stan Tracey, the Brussels Big Band, and the Ray Charles band on a European tour. He has also played in small groups with musicians such as Philly Joe Jones, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Red Rodney, Hampton Hawes, Nat Adderley, Al Haig, John Burch, Bill Watrous, and Dick Morrissey, Bill Le Sage and singers such as Jimmy Witherspoon, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, and Anita O'Day. He is a member of Charlie Watts' Tentet.

King's composing has moved beyond individual numbers for performance and recording, and includes an opera, Zyklon, in collaboration with Julian Barry. He has also made appearances on a number of pop duo Everything But The Girl's albums, as well as on the solo album North Marine Drive of Everything But The Girl member Ben Watt.

Peter still performs regularly in jazz venues around London with his quartet, usually featuring pianist Steve Melling, and as a guest performer in other jazz bands[1] After playing a Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone [1] for many years, around 2001 he changed to a limited edition Yanagisawa A9932Z solid silver and phosphor bronze alto [2], fitted with the same vintage metal Otto Link mouthpiece as before. His limited edition A9932Z is no longer produced by Yanagisawa, although the newer A9932J alto saxophone [3] is almost identical to it, except that the inside of the solid silver bell is not gold-plated and there are some minor differences in the engraving.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Sources and external links

  1. ^ Jazz in London listings
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